Hasta La Gadget!

It’s time to start penning the epilogue to the story of how Verizon and the iPhone came to be happily betrothed yesterday. We’ve already heard a good deal about how the last suitor failed to live up to expectations, but this report keeps the focus predominantly on the newlyweds and their courtship. The agreement came last year and was brokered by Verizon President Lowell McAdam and Apple COO Tim Cook, with input from CEOs Ivan Seidenberg and Steve Jobs (naturally), and though the commercial aspect only took about a day, the preceding technical hurdle was a six-to-nine months ordeal. That entailed putting Verizon cell towers at Apple HQ to check signal and avoid reliability troubles, as well as having Verizon’s Executive Director of Technology David McCarley work in Cupertino for more than a year. As for the rest of the deal, both parties agreed to share inside knowledge (Verizon’s network plans for Apple’s device plans — wouldn’t you like to know) and Verizon had to agree to a logo-free device. Which, given the sure-to-be mindblowing sales, probably isn’t a hard pill to swallow.

A brief and anecdotal history of the Verizon iPhone 4 deal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Being locked in a car with General Motors representatives for the better part of a day gave us plenty of time to talk about… well, just about everything. On the list of topics was discussions about what’s next for the company in the Volt space. Back then they said there’d be more of the things coming, and now they’re giving a little more information, confirming that a hatchback and crossover SUV will be similarly electrified sometime within the next three years. A little further down the road GM will roll out its next-generation battery technology, currently under development at Argonne National Laboratories. These mixed-metal oxide batteries add nickel and cobalt to the battery cathode mix, while the cells themselves remain lithium-ion. This is said to double capacity of any given battery, meaning the Volt could go just as far with half the weight. Or, you know, twice as far with the same weight. Isn’t math fun?

Update: Well, Autoweek is saying it’s going to be a minivan, not a crossover — though honestly there’s not much difference there.

GM sheds a little more light on next-gen Volts and next-gen battery packs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you just so happen to have an old motorcycle lying around, it turns out there’s a lot you can do with it with just a bit of elbow grease and a lot of creativity. A number of designers have created a wide range of useful objects using nothing more than old bike parts.

The designs include a turntable made from a cylinder head and brake parts, bowls made from wheel spokes, a brake lever corkscrew, and an iPod dock made from tail lights. The recycled creations were made as part of an exhibition put on by Triumph Motorcycles and the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. Hit the jump for more images.

Via Design Boom

Hi, AT&T? Loyal customer here. Really been digging the iPhone the last few years, and was excited to find out I can use it as a hotspot in March. That is, if you let us. And here’s why you should. More »

Let’s just end the speculation right here: a Sprint-locked CDMA iPhone on the heels of Verizon’s wouldn’t be much of an “industry first,” so we’re thinking that whatever the company has to unveil on the evening of February 7th in New York will be of a very different flavor. The event invite goes on to say that they’ll show “that the impossible is possible,” which could very well mean the Epic 4G is getting Froyo. Burn! Also look for guest David Blaine to hold his breath in a tank of things that bite for 45 minutes or so, which will make for an awesome liveblog (yes, we’ll be there).

Sprint promises ‘industry first’ at February 7th event originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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