Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam says that his company is working closely with Google on a tablet computer. The tablet will be based on the Android operating system.

While neither Verizon or Google would confirm the hardware partner, McAdam mentioned Google in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “We’re working on tablets together, for example,” he said. “We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.”

By “archives”, we guess that McAdam means Google’s rather long list of products and services. Between Google’s books, map, email, chat, latitude and other products, it would be pretty easy to stock a tablet with all that it needs initially.

McAdam hinted that the Verizon tablet would come about in a similar way to the Droid phone, with Google’s OS, third-party hardware and Verizon’s data network. Don’t expect it too soon, either. Admitting that Verizon has been “handicapped” by its CDMA network, McAdam said new devices would be available to run on the company’s new LTE 4G network early next year.

Another tidbit from the interview: It looks like Verizon will be shutting down unlimited, per-device data plans in favor of a “bucket of megabytes.” These data-capped plans would be shared between devices — a tablet, a cellphone and an e-reader, for example.

This is exciting stuff. It looks like Apple will be facing stiffer competition in the tablet market than it ever did in the iPod market. With Android tablets now confirmed, and an HP/Palm tablet all but certain, hopefully consumers will see the benefit of all-out tablet war.

Verizon, Google Developing iPad Rival [Wall Street Journal]

Picture: nDevilTV/Flickr

See Also:

• NYT: Google Android Tablet Imminent
• Mock-ups Show a Google Chrome OS Tablet
• How to Make an iPad-Beating Tablet
• Adobe Demonstrates Flash on Android Tablet

Alright, stop us if you’ve heard this one before — but seriously, we’ve noticed an uptick on the tip lines here at Engadget in the last couple weeks that’s becoming difficult to ignore. It’s one thing to say “hey, the iPhone is launching on Verizon,” but we’re noticing a particular confluence of facts that has us intrigued: it’ll drop sometime in Summer, possibly in concert with the announcement that Verizon’s first commercial LTE networks have gone live, and — tread carefully here, because this is pretty difficult to believe and we don’t want to get your hopes up only to have them smashed into a million pieces — it’ll supposedly even be a 4G launch device. We’ve gotten surprisingly specific details both from Verizon employees and tipsters whose companies are supposedly under NDA with Verizon to test enterprise deployments of the handset later this year, and they’re all sending basically this same message. Read on!

Continue reading Verizon iPhone chatter is getting harder (than usual) to ignore

Verizon iPhone chatter is getting harder (than usual) to ignore originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Without going into much detail, Clearwire mentioned on its first quarter earnings call today that WiMAX-capable phones bearing the Clear name from both Samsung and HTC are “expected” to be available before 2010’s out, which is a pretty optimistic affirmation of comments the company made earlier this year. It describes the Sammy as “an Android-based 3G/4G/WiFi device optimized for heavy video and video communications use,” while the HTC’s language leaves out the platform — it’s just called “a 3G/4G/WiFi enabled phone,” leading us to believe that this puppy could very well be running Windows Phone 7. If that’s the case, we can understand why HTC wouldn’t want Clearwire spilling the beans since they’ve yet to officially announce any plans for jumping into the WinPho 7 game. In fact, Clearwire went so far as to say on the call that the HTC device would not be the EVO 4G, so yeah, we can totally buy that there’s some Microsoft action going on behind the scenes here.

As for Clearwire’s health, it has seen a 94 percent year-over-year boost in total WiMAX subscribers for a total just shy of a million — and interestingly, the overwhelming majority of those are retail, not wholesale, meaning that folks are running Clear-branded equipment. We expect that to change dramatically once Sprint’s Overdrive gets a little more penetration and the EVO comes into play, but for now, some 814,000 customers are familiar with the Clear logo. They lost a hair over $94 million in the quarter, but hey, in the scheme of things, that’s peanuts — building out networks isn’t a cheap endeavor, after all.

Clearwire promises Clear-branded HTC and Samsung WiMAX phones this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 18:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not the biggest of pictures — the PPCGeeks forum poster says he shot this with his Touch Pro 2 — but what we’re looking at is allegedly the HTC EVO 4G. Wish we could have a better look, but who knows, maybe some lucky contest winner in the next few weeks will have a decent DSLR handy.

[Thanks, Rigo]

HTC EVO 4G found loitering in Sprint store originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 01 May 2010 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plucky Sprint has figured out a way to get in on the iPad action. The carrier is offering a free iPad case with a pocket for its 4G cellular Wi-Fi router, allowing you to use a basic Wi-Fi iPad and still enjoy an always-on internet connection.

Sprint’s Overdrive modem is like a 4G MiFi, taking a fast cellular data connection and sharing it via its battery-powered Wi-Fi hotspot. Many people, including our own New York Bureau Chief John C Abell, are considering this kind of setup (either MiFi or Overdrive) instead of opting for the 3G iPad. The thinking goes that you can use the connection with any of your devices, not just the iPad.

The downside is that you need a contract, the lack of which is one of the 3G iPad’s best features. Still, this case is neat and, despite the “steal-me” Wi-Fi logo on the outside, is a very smart marketing move from Sprint.

It comes in two flavors: folio and sleeve. Both have a pouch on the side to carry the Overdrive, and the folio has an extra flap that closes over the top.

To get one, you’ll need to buy an Overdrive from a participating BestBuy store. These are sensibly limited to areas where there is Sprint 4G coverage. As you’ll see from the drop down list on the site, there still aren’t many of those.

iPad Case [Sprint via Electronista]