Hasta La Gadget!

Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you’re like us and really want to know what’s going on, then you’ve come to the right place. This past week, the HTC One V marked its debut at US Cellular and Verizon announced a dumb phone with a surprisingly handy feature. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of July 2nd, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of July 2nd, 2012

Mobile Miscellany: week of July 2nd, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Watch out for exploding prices! Verizon Wireless just stopped subsidizing tablets, which naturally results in a lot higher advertised prices. Want a 16GB Motorola XYZBoard? That will be $629. A Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7? Hand over $549.

Verizon Wireless quietly made the switch late last month when launching the “Share Everything” family plans. With this new service contract, subscribers have the option of allowing a tablet access to the bucket of data shared among devices. In the past tablets required a separate data plan, and therefore a separate contract, which locked owners into a tablet that will likely be quickly outdated.

This new pricing scheme puts Verizon’s Android tabs on the same level as the iPad which was never offered by any US carrier with subsidized pricing. Previously, Verizon sold Android tablets like phones and offered deep discounts in exchange for a two-year commitment on a data plan. But that strategy doesn’t work as well for tablets as phones. The churn cycle of tablets is much faster than phones. New tablet models almost always leapfrog the capabilities of previous models. Plus, U.S. carriers have never offered stellar subsidized deals on tablets. Aside from initial sticker shock, selling tablets at the full retail cost with month-to-month data plans is the best thing for consumers.

Hopefully other carriers will follow suit. While AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile give the customer the option to buy at full retail or with a discount, they still rely on subsidized pricing to lure in unsuspecting customers. Tablets should be sold like computers, rather than phones. Well done, VZW.

We reached out to Verizon Wireless for comment but they have yet to respond.

So, you are in the market for a spanking new smartphone (preferably from the Android side of things), but have yet to made up your mind whether the Samsung Galaxy S3 is going to be your next big purchase? Well, I guess since you have yet to arrive at a particular decision, you might be interested to know that Verizon Wireless will be offering the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE from July 5th onwards. Yes sir, this means you can take the entire July 4th off to think over the decision before making a new 2-year commitment with Big Red.

First announced earlier this year at the CTIA Wireless show, the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE will be available in a couple of days’ time, be it via online channels or at a brick-and-mortar setup. Just what does the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE pack? Without much further ado, let us dive into its system specifications right after the jump.

The HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE will run on the latest version of HTC Sense 4, which for newcomers would mean HTC’s branded user experience, which has been cleverly integrated with Google’s mobile operating system, running on top of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich so that you can have a truly enhanced mobile experience while enjoying the latest Android features.

As the name suggests, this particular smartphone will allow you to roll along with the power of 4G LTE speeds, and the amazing 8-megapixel camera ought to leave you with nothing but smiles thanks to a quick activation process from the home screen, ensuring that no more randomly cute shots will miss your radar when you come across it. Not only that, HTC Video Pic lets you capture HD quality video and shoot pictures simultaneously without having to choose between the two.

All of the images and videos capture can be uploaded to social networking sites in a jiffy, thanks to 4G LTE speeds. Make sure your area has such network coverage before you make a commitment!

Your ears will also be treated to Authentic Sound, thanks to Beats Audio which is an enhanced auto tuning technology that enables you to hear music the way the artist intended his or her listeners to. Beats Audio will work well regardless of whether you are enjoying audio or video playback.

A 4-inch super LCD qHD display, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus, a front-facing camera, a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, Wi-Fi connectivity, and a microSD memory card slot rounds off the list of features. You can pick up the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new 2-year contract.

Press Release

[ HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE to arrive this July 5th on Verizon Wireless copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of June 25th, 2012

Refresh Roundup: week of June 25th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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