Hasta La Gadget!

It looks like T-Mobile’s version of the iPhone 5 will lack a feature that many T-Mobile subscribers love to take advantage of. At T-Mobile’s Uncarrier event today, it announced that its version of the iPhone 5 will not be supporting the carrier’s exclusive WiFi calling technology. While it may not be a deal breaker for many, especially since T-Mobile’s 4G LTE Network has just gone live, many others will be disappointed.

T-Mobile’s WiFi Calling is a lifesaver for many people, especially considering how T-Mobile doesn’t have the best network coverage around. If you have poor-to-no reception in your office, or at your friend’s home, or at a Starbucks, you can switch on your WiFi and use a nearby WiFi network as a coverage extender (for compatible phones). The service makes sure that you can get coverage indoors at all times.

While T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 won’t have support for WiFi calling, it will be the only iPhone 5 from any major carrier to offer HD Voice calling. The feature delivers crystal clear phone calls between two HD Voice compatible phones. Background noise will be reduced drastically and you’ll be experiencing calls as if the person you’re talking to is right next to you. With the iPhone 5′s LTE capabilities, as well as its 4G HSPA+ capabilities, you can be assured that you will be HD Voice-capable at all times.

T-Mobile now has LTE coverage in Phoenix, San Jose, Baltimore, Kansa City, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and Houston. You will be able to experience an average download speed of 25Mbps and an average upload speed of 8Mbps on T-Mobile’s LTE network. Some screenshots have shown, however, that T-Mobile’s LTE speeds can reach up to 60Mbps download speeds. To take advantage of T-Mobile’s new LTE network, you should check out the carrier’s new Simple Choice plans.

Have a peek at our full iPhone 5 review now and get ready for the full T-Mobile release soon!

T-Mobile iPhone 5 won’t support WiFi calling is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We more or less take Wi-Fi connectivity for granted these days, especially with the easy accessibility in public areas, including your local Starbucks. Well, the thing is, there might just be a new method of spreading the goodness of Wi-Fi connectivity in public areas and spaces without missing a beat, and this new innovation is known as the Wi-Fi poster, where it is being shown off in South Korea at this point in time, which could very well point to a new and growing trend that intends to draw Wi-Fi users closer to Hollywood.

The Wi-Fi Poster will work just like it is named, where mobile users will be able to enjoy wireless access whenever they remain in close proximity to a particular movie poster. Creative agency Cheil is the one behind this idea for South Korea film studio CJ Entertainment, where Wi-Fi Posters will make use of the name of the film that is currently being promoted for the Wi-Fi network, and once users are connected, they can check out the associated trailers as well as more details on the movie directly on their respective mobile devices.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Hulu Could Have Possible Buyers, Summly Sold To Yahoo For $30 Million,

It looks like Apple may be jumping back into the Maps business, and in order to do so, it has acquired the indoor-GPS startup, WifiSLAM. The company was a startup that came to fruition about two years ago with the help of one of its co-founders, ex-Google software engineer intern, Joseph Huang. Before it was acquired by Apple, the company helped app developers add indoor mapping features to their retail and social networking apps.

Sources stated that Apple purchased the small startup for $20 million. The news was later confirmed by an Apple spokesman who said that Apple “buys smaller technology companies from time to time.” Google has already jumped into the indoor-mapping game and it currently offers indoor mapping services for several locations, including certain airports, retail venues, and sports venues.

WifiSLAM works by allowing mobile apps to detect the user’s locations using the WiFi signals in the building. The service says that by only using ambient WiFi signals, your smartphone can pinpoint you to 2.5m accuracy. Not only is the startup used to help with indoor navigation, but it is also used to help create proximity-based social networking apps, and improve retail customer engagement.

Apple will most likely use the startup to add an indoor-mapping feature to its Maps app, but there are also many other possibilities that the startup can offer. Apple may also have a difficult time convincing customers to use its Maps app again. The app was notorious for giving bad directions, something that several people in Australia can account for. But of course, it’s Apple, so I’m sure the company will find some way to convince consumers to give Maps a second chance.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Apple acquires indoor-GPS startup WifiSLAM is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

During an analyst event today, JetBlue shared some more details about its upcoming in-flight WiFi product. The service, which will be powered by ViaSat’s Exede, has been coined “Fly-Fi,” and the airline plans to begin rolling it out to its aircraft “soon.” JetBlue hasn’t presented a firm timeline, but says “Barring any setbacks during certification, we expect our first Wi-Fi-enabled flight with customers to take to the skies later this year.” That’s perhaps not as soon as you may have liked, but based on a speed demo (comparing Exede, Gogo, Row 44 and Panasonic’s offering), this new and improved solution will be worth the wait. Take a sneak peek in the comparison video after the break.

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless, Networking

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Source: JetBlue

Although six designs were awarded in New York City’s Reinvent Payphones competition, it remained to be seen which of the six would be the people’s favorite. After about a week’s worth of voting on NYC’s Facebook page, the people have made their choice: NYFi will serve is their favorite concept for street-side payphone overhauls. It’s not hard to see why, as the proposal would theoretically solve several urban hassles at once. Each NYFi hub would dish out free WiFi, taking the load off of the cellular network. It would also use open, smartphone-like software and easily adaptable touchscreen hardware to consolidate many of the boxes that clutter the sidewalks, such as ticket machines and bike sharing stations. We’ll admit that most of the concepts sound a little optimistic to us — we wouldn’t be surprised if any finished city project fell short of the ideas. Even if we don’t get a WiFi hotspot on every corner, though, the reinvented payphone will likely be a welcome replacement for landline phones that have mostly collected dust in recent years.

Update: We’ve adjusted the post to clarify that NYfi is not, per se, the overall winner. During the initial demo event five awards were up for grabs from the city, and a sixth award, Popular Choice, was to be chosen by the public. Whether NYC ends up using one of these designs as a direct inspiration will remain to be seen. The awards are more or less a way for the city to see what the public would propose and potentially use those ideas when it comes time to request for designs within a mandated set of specifications. Check out our post about the event for more details.

Filed under: Misc, Networking

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Via: The Next Web

Source: NYC (Tumblr)