If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, Microsoft detailed its forthcoming Windows Phone 8 update, Masayoshi Son laid out grand visions for Sprint and Verizon announced a new reason for children to resent their parents. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that’s happening in the mobile world for this week of July 8th, 2013.
AT&T dropped an interesting bit of news this afternoon: it’s going to purchase Leap Wireless in its entirety for $15 per share, which translates to roughly $1.19 billion in cash. For many, Leap is best known by its consumer-facing brand, Cricket, a prepaid wireless provider that holds nearly 5 million subscribers. In exchange, AT&T will acquire Leap’s customers, retail stores and network licenses, which span 35 states across the PCS and AWS bands. Leap’s stock closed at $7.98 today, but shot past $16 in after hours trading. The transaction must still be approved by Leap shareholders, and then both the FCC and Department of Justice. As it stands, 29.8% of Leap’s outstanding shares are in favor of the transaction, and ever optimistic AT&T expects to wind up the deal within six to nine months. Better luck this time?
During the winter, Sun Valley is known for its skiing. This time of the year, however, it’s quickly becoming a tech hotspot as some of the industry’s top execs gather together at the annual Allen and Co media conference. Among the attendees is Google’s Eric Schmidt, who brought along a mystery Motorola phone and couldn’t resist showing it off. While Schmidt couldn’t “comment on the nature of this phone,” according to Variety’s Rachel Abrams, it certainly didn’t stop him from giving everyone a sneak peek. Multiple images of the device, which appears to feature a carbon fiber-like back and sleek curves, popped up on Twitter from the likes of Gary He and Taylor Wimberly. As it doesn’t match the leaked pictures of the upcoming Droid Ultra or Maxx — but carries an uncanny resemblance to the leaks and FCC diagrams we’ve seen of the X already — we’re guessing this is the legendary smartphone in the flesh; and judging by Schmidt’s willingness to flaunt it, it’s quite likely that we won’t have to wait much longer before we see even more of it. There’s one more shot of the device from the top past the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Woop, woop, that’s the sound of the… European Commission? EU officials (figuratively) kicked in the doors of Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Orange’s European headquarters this week. The trio are being investigated after ISP Cogent Communications alleged that they are deliberately blocking data-hungry services — much like Cogent’s earlier complaint about Comcast. The trio are pleading their innocence while the case continues, and hoping that investigators don’t mess with the office furniture too much.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Source: Bloomberg
An ice bar isn’t how we’d choose to showcase a water-resistant smartphone, but that’s just what Kyocera did at CTIA this year for the Hydro Edge. At the time, Sprint and Boost Mobile had set a loose summer launch for the modest device and now we have a hard date: July 19th and July 23rd, respectively. The IPX 5/7 certified device can be had on a two-year plan at the Now Network for $20 or for $150 outright at Boost, which gets you a 4-inch WVGA display, dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon processor running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a 5-megapixel rear shooter. It’s not as sleek and stylish as Sony’s own hydrophobic smartphone, but if you’re on a budget and need to brave the watery element, the Edge’ll have to do.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google, Sprint
Sprint’s latest take on unlimited mobile service is now official, and like rumors had suggested, the new plan arrives tomorrow. Known as Unlimited, My Way, the service combines unlimited talk, text and data for $80 per month for a single-line subscription. The new pricing tiers also include multiple line discounts, and the ability to combine feature phones and smartphones under the same umbrella. The My All-in plan is also on deck for arrival tomorrow, which runs $110 and adds 5GB of mobile hotspot usage on top of the Unlimited, My Way plan. Perhaps just as importantly, Sprint’s latest offering also includes a promise from the carrier known as the Sprint Unlimited Guarantee… which according to Dan Hesse, “Allows our customers to lock-in unlimited talk, text and data not for just the next two years, but for life.” Naturally, the caveat here is that prices may increase over the years, but it’s certainly a more dependable approach than you’ll find from the larger carriers.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Google dropped its touchscreen keyboard software onto the Play store for all Android comers just a little over a month ago and now it appears the Mountain View giant wants to own the tech behind it. A recently surfaced patent application, submitted in January of this year, outlines a method for determining finger placement in conjunction with touchscreen soft key input. And that’s about as deep as the USPTO doc gets. It’s not unfamiliar territory for Google which also filed for a separate patent back earlier this winter that detailed a full-finger, gesture-based touch keyboard — likely for future implementation in tablets or Chromebooks.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software, Mobile, Google
Source: USPTO
After months of anticipation, Path is finally bringing its social network to the Windows Phone, and it’s starting with the Nokia Lumia 1020. The app, which is still in the works and hasn’t been assigned a launch date, will take advantage of the company’s new imaging SDK and its plethora of photo filters. Although the main focus of Path’s announcement was centered on the new Lumia, it also mentioned that the app will indeed come to “all Windows Phones.” No word on if the launch will occur across the board at the same time (nor if this includes Windows Phone 7.5 or only affects WP8 users) or if it will be featured only on the 1020 at first, but we’ll update you as soon as we know. In the meantime, there’s a press release for you to digest below the break.
Check out all the news from today’s Nokia event at our hub!
Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
Source: Path
Nokia’s sure taken its time, but its 41-megapixel Windows Phone beast is now finally out of the bag. Naturally, we have to compare this Lumia 1020 with its recent siblings: externally it’s closer to the 920 than the slimmer 925 or 928, except for its earpiece and, well, the camera. That said, the 1020 is somehow a lot lighter and a little thinner than the bulky 920, while packing the same 2,000mAh battery. Clearly, the lack of built-in Qi wireless charging and perhaps that Gorilla Glass 3 screen are responsible for this weight loss.
And needless to say, the Symbian-powered 808 PureView didn’t come with as many goodies compared to its Windows Phone cousin — even the newer lens is faster with six elements instead of five. Feel free to check out our detailed comparison table after the break.
Check out all the news from today’s Nokia event at our hub!
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Nokia
Nokia’s Lumia 1020 has finally gone official today and, no surprise here, it’s all about imaging. To complement the handset’s 41-megapixel BSI sensor and accompanying ProCamera software, Nokia’s released an imaging SDK to devs that want to impose their own camera customizations. As of now, the Finnish company’s seeded the SDK out to the likes of CNN, Vyclone, Panagraph, Snapcam, Foursquare, Hipstamatic’s Oggl Pro, Yelp, Flipboard and Path — all of which have already been working on custom applications for the 1020. So what does that mean for the end user? Most likely, these third-party tweaks will entail high-res photo sharing and custom filters, as in the case of Path’s Lumia app. Nokia’s posted the SDK on its site for all developers today, so if you’re interested in seeing what the Lumia 1020’s beastly sensor can do for your app or what its SDK can do for WP8 apps in general, you know where to look.
Check out all the news from today’s Nokia event at our hub!
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
Source: Nokia Developer
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