Hasta La Gadget!

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom — better known in the States as T-Mobile USA’s disciplinarian parent — was out in New York today chatting up its American division’s prospects for the future, and execs from both sides of the pond had quite a bit to say. The biggest outstanding concerns for the carrier revolve around revenue and customer churn — which, let’s be honest, are the core benchmarks that any carrier in the world is looking to improve — and the division’s CEO Philipp Humm just announced a series of initiatives to help get those numbers in line. On the churn side, they’re “going big with Android” to combat the iPhone, continuing to roll out WiFi calling to alleviate network coverage issues, and tightening up “risk management” issues that have let some bill deadbeats slip through the cracks. Funny to think that non-payment is a big enough issue to be a revenue risk for these guys, but it’s true.

Continue reading T-Mobile USA talks future, Deutsche Telekom weaning it off lifeline; Clearwire spectrum purchase still in play?

T-Mobile USA talks future, Deutsche Telekom weaning it off lifeline; Clearwire spectrum purchase still in play? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That Samsung intends to bring a Galaxy S successor to MWC 2011 was already a known known, but now the company’s turning up the hype machine with an update to its Samsung Unpacked website. There, for the pleasure of your eyes and the tickling of your imagination, Sammy has positioned its familiar super-selling Android smartphone alongside a not-too-cryptic message promising that “evolution is fate.” We’re smelling a cute play on words here, similar to what LG did with its Revolution handset, potentially implying that the next Galaxy flagship will have LTE (Long Term Evolution) connectivity built in. That, along with the promised dual-core chip within, should easily outshine the Infuse 4G (which has HSPA+ and a single-core Hummingbird inside) recently announced for AT&T in the States. We’ll get the next dose of our teasing on February 1st, the site promises, before the full unveil in Barcelona on February 13th. Our hearts are all aflutter already.

[Thanks, Patrick]

Continue reading Samsung’s Galaxy S is set for an ‘evolution’ at MWC in February

Samsung’s Galaxy S is set for an ‘evolution’ at MWC in February originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last summer it looked like Philip Falcone’s LightSquared was on the path to a democratic LTE solution: a coast-to-coast network, incorporating satellite connectivity to cover the entire country. It’s an ambitious goal to be sure — perhaps too ambitious. In a letter to the FCC, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) warned that the wholesaler’s wireless network, which would operate on the MSS spectrum, could interfere with systems like Department of Defense communications. Here’s the snag: last year the FCC approved the company’s initial proposal to create a network that would incorporate both terrestrial and satellite services. Now LightSquared wants to offer the option of terrestrial-only phones to their clients. According to the NTIA, such a system would require far more land-based stations, causing potential MSS overcrowding and increasing the risk of interference with everything from aeronautical emergency communications to Federal agency systems. The FCC has yet to make a decision on the revised proposal, and LightSquared hasn’t made a peep, leaving us to wonder whether it was all too good to be true.

NTIA says LightSquared proposal could pose national security threat originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung has outed three new netbooks, all refreshes to previous models. On offer is the 10.1-inch NC210, which boasts a dual-core, Intel Atom N550 CPU with up to 3GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, LAN, and Bluetooth 3.0. It’s also got a VGA port, three USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, and a 6-cell battery. The company has also trotted out the NC110, which boasts a 1.5GHz, dual-core Atom N570 but seems to be identical to the NC210 other than that.

In other, rather less exciting Samsung netbook news, the company also rolled out the NF310, and the NS310, the former one being an LTE-packing 10.1-incher, while the NS310 is yet another netbook of the same size with a metallic chassis. There aren’t full specs, pricing or availability yet for any of these models, but you can hit up the source links for more photos.

Samsung refreshes netbooks with dual-core NC210, among others originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LTE’s great… but only if it’s got phones and modems that can take advantage of it. Though MetroPCS beat Verizon to become the first American carrier to launch the technology, it’s been scraping by so far with nothing other than the Samsung Craft, a middling dumbphone without the chops to attract the powerusers that would normally want to be involved with a 4G network anyway. Looks like that’s finally about to change, though, because BGR‘s scored a shot of a so-called SCH-R910 — also from Samsung — that’s running Android 2.2. It’ll allegedly have backward compatibility with MetroPCS’ CDMA network (naturally) along with a 1GHz Hummingbird core and 5 megapixel camera — not a blockbuster by any stretch, but still on a whole new plane than the Craft. Rumor has it we’ll see this before the end of March for somewhere between $330 and $400 contract-free; question is, will it beat Big Red’s first LTE phones to market?

MetroPCS finally prepping Android smartphone with LTE from Samsung? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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