Hasta La Gadget!

Following a good half year of courtship while the regulatory miscellany ran its course, Verizon’s finally ready to take the plunge and call this $5.9 billion deal done. The combined juggernaut will amass a staggering 78 million subscribers, putting it roughly 3 million ahead of its closest rival, AT&T, though it’ll do so at the cost of assuming some $22.9 billion in Alltel debt. Ultimately, the merger means some positions at Alltel headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas will get axed — but hey, AT&T Mobility HQ’s just a stone’s throw away in Atlanta, so Verizon’s headcount loss could ultimately be AT&T’s gain.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon and Alltel to join in holy matrimony January 9th originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, it didn’t quite land before midnight as some had hoped, but we’re sure you were partying too hard to notice. The Dev-Team just launched its long-awaited iPhone 3G unlock, dubbed “yellowsn0w,” and while they’re still working out a few kinks (terming this release a 0.9 beta release), reports are already pouring in of successful unlocks. It’s also been confirmed that this release will work with the iPhone’s latest v2.2 firmware, and in fact requires that the phone be updated to v2.2 to run at all — much to the chagrin of folks who’ve held off on that update at the Dev-Team’s behest, we’re sure, but hopefully all will soon be forgotten in the new year… already freer than the last! Hit up the read link for download instructions and caveats.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Unfortunately, it seems yellowsn0w might be living up to its beta status, with plenty of commenters and others across the interwebs reporting problems getting “unlocked” iPhone 3Gs to pick up their preferred carrier. As always, proceed with caution, and prepare some loose papers that need weighting just in case.

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone 3G unlock arrives at last, time to eat some yellowsn0w originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you have a Zune 30? If so, does the thing look something like the above? That is to say, stuck at a loading bar and completely non-functional? If so, you are not alone. We’ve been flooded with tips about users whose 30GB players started locking up at midnight last night, essentially bricking themselves without any help from their owners. The failures are coming 24-hours ahead of the big ’09 changeover, but that hasn’t stopped Zune aficionados from dubbing this unfortunate flaw “Z2K.” No official word yet from Microsoft, but we’re guessing a made-for-TV doomsday movie staring Louis Gossett Jr. can’t be too far off. Trailer after the break.

Update: Jim wrote in to let us know that someone at Microsoft has apparently finally woken up and checked their e-mail (yikes, imagine that inbox). The official Zune site now has a message stating that Redmond’s best are aware of the problem and “are working to correct it.” We’ll keep you posted.

Update 2: Major Nelson just tweeted that anyone with an issue “should be good to go.” Exactly what that means, however, remains to be seen, as there’s still no word of an official fix on the Zune site.

Update 3: Oops, sorry for getting your hopes up. Seems the Major was wrong and is now indicating the team of Zune developers is working like mad to figure it out. Somebody had better order in lunch for those guys — it’s going to be a long day.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading 30GB Zunes mysteriously begin to fail at 12AM, December 31st — day of reckoning to follow

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

30GB Zunes mysteriously begin to fail at 12AM, December 31st — day of reckoning to follow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Never satisfied with offering only a Blu-ray disc player (see 2007’s BH100 Blu-ray + HD DVD combo and 2008’s Netflix-streaming BD300), LG is upping the ante for ’09, promising support for YouTube and CinemaNow videos on its next gen decks. Along with the now-standard Netflix, owners can browse CinemaNow pay-per-view offerings (or other stores powered by the service) abd thumb through YouTube’s catalog directly from the device. Unmentioned in the PR fluff is additional info like price and more detailed specs, but expect all to become (hopefully) clear January 7 in Las Vegas.

Filed under: CES, HDTV, Home Entertainment

LG plugs YouTube, CinemaNow into next year’s Blu-ray players originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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