The diversification of Verizon Wireless‘ smartphone line continues. The carrier added to the Android and BlackBerry smartphones it already offered when it finally launched the Apple iPhone in February. Later that month, we reported that Verizon would soon get Windows Phone 7 in the form of the HTC Trophy. The Trophy was originally expected to […]
As rumored, T-Mobile overhauled its individual and family plans today and simplified your options to just three tiers of voice service. Individuals can choose between 500, 1,000 or unlimited minutes, with unlimited text messaging adding $10 and data add-ons ranging from $10 for 200MB to $60 for 10GB. Family plans come in 1,000, 2,000 and unlimited minute varieties while the sharable data and text services cost twice as much as their individual counterparts. There are some odd restrictions, such as the inability to add texting or data to the mid-tier plans and no choice for unlimited voice service without SMS tacked on. We do, however, like the overage-free data options that simply drop to 2G speeds when you reach your plan’s threshold instead of shocking you with huge fees at the end of the month. We can also confirm that restocking fees have been bumped from $10 regardless of device to $50 for smartphones, $75 for tablets, and $25 for USB modems and “basic phone devices.” Check out the sources for all the details and fine print.
Update: Just a few hours after debuting its new individual and family plans T-Mo unleash a pair of new no annual contract choices. $50 gets you unlimited voice, text, and 100MB of 4G or 3G data while $70 pushes the high-speed data cap to 5GB. And, just like the on-contract options, these are overage-free. PR is after the break.
[Thanks, Neal]
Continue reading T-Mobile lauches new individual and family plans right on schedule
T-Mobile lauches new individual and family plans right on schedule originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 09:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Gartner has finished collecting data on mobile phone sales and market share for the first quarter of 2011, and while no one expected Android to slow down, few people expected the platform to pick up as much steam as it has. Android devices now make up over 36 percent of the mobile phone market worldwide, […]
Verizon Wireless customers will be able to jet on to the LTE network in nine new cities, taking advantage of lightening-fast speeds on their HTC Thunderbolts and 4G mobile hotspots. The expansion includes Mobile and Montgomery (AL); Greater Fairfield and New Haven (CT); Gainesville, Pensacola, and Tallahassee (FL); Fayetteville-Lumberton (NC); and Bryan-College Station and Temple-Killeen (TX). We also have access in Albany, though VZW has yet to confirm launching LTE in New York’s capital city. The carrier has also expanded coverage in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, and Philadelphia, so if you haven’t been able to connect in the past, dust off that enable-4G button and give it another shot. This week’s additions bring the list of LTE cities to 55, so we’re just over the 35 percent mark towards the carrier’s goal of 147 cities by year’s end.
Continue reading Verizon adds 4G LTE to nine more cities, expands coverage in Chicago, Philadelphia
Verizon adds 4G LTE to nine more cities, expands coverage in Chicago, Philadelphia originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 11:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
At the recent Retail Tech Expo held in Tokyo Panasonic showcased a prototype solar powered inductive charging table which is able to juice up devices simply by placing them on the table.
Although inductive coupling products have been on the market for some time, what was different about this product was how the charging panel on the table connected directly with the battery itself. A Panasonic employee demonstrated how it was possible to simply place the battery on the table and it would begin charging without any coupling or 3rd party accessories, as the circuits are integrated with the batteries themselves.
With the array of mobile devices in use today users are always looking for a quick top up of battery power on the go. Incorporating this kind of product into city restaurants and coffee shops would provide a very quick and easy way to keep the mobile offices powered, customers simply place their devices on the table as they have their coffee and automatically charging without any further cables or docking.
Sanyo’s portable Eneloop chargers, some solar powered, are already popular products on that market in Japan, so it makes an obvious next step to introduce this kind of technology into the market as well. We wrote recently about the rise in demand for alternatively powered appliances given the recent power shortages in Japan, coupled with the rise in the “eco-conscious” consumer around the world means that this kind of innovative product would potentially be hugely popular and useful.
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We’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about the upcoming iPhone. Many questions have been thrown around like will it be called the iPhone 5 or the 4S, will it have near-field communication technology, will it be 4G, and will it be available on other carriers? Two research firms have come out with their take […]
By this point, just about everyone knows how risky connecting to an unsecured wireless access point can be. Unfortunately, many public Wi-Fi hotspots forego security in exchange for convenience, and that ultimately leaves users exposed to attacks. Based on new research from the University of Ulm in Germany, Android users appear to be in even […]
Men’s cosmetic brand AXE have launched a new twitter and Mixi (popular Japanese social networking site) based marketing campaign. Launched on May 9th, apparently “Confession Day”, men can enter the “AXE Tower” and confess their secrets of affection.
Users choose a particular follower and write a heart felt confession or admission of love. The subject of the confession then receives a tweet with a URL to click on. Once on the page an animated figure with the users avatar then grabs a can of AXE, sprays himself for confidence (and presumably to make himself irresistible!) and runs the gauntlet to AXE Tower, cheered on by avatars of other followers (we were amused to see the ever-present Serkan Toto pop up). The animated avatar then climbs up AXE Tower amid scenes of blossoming love, to the top where in true Japanese style shouts out the message to the object of his desires.
Unfortunately there is no voice which actually shouts the words out, the text appears above the character, but it is fun nonetheless. Other followers can also join in by tweeting messages of encouragement or in some cases possibly messages of consolation.
Attempting to extend the reach of a brand through social marketing campaigns are growing in popularity, and with Twitter becoming very widely used in Japan, done correctly this kind of campaign can be very affective. The problem with this particular campaign though, is that no one knew that May 9th was “Confession Day”. This means that it didn’t really capitalise on any existing event like it was designed to do, and so didn’t pick up as much chatter. If released around valentines day, for example, it could have been a lot more effective, although with the approach of sweaty summers AXE are obviously stepping up their marketing now. They were clever however, in sending out the automatic tweet containing the URL with the period infront of the @ symbol. This means that rather than being able to be read only by the those who follow both parties, it could be read by all of the followers.
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Google I/O is still ongoing and at the session for teaching developers how to build Android apps for Google TV the team has just shown off a quick peek of the new Honeycomb-based UI that will be released later this year. Shown above you can quickly compare it to the original UI to see how different, and hopefully improved it is. The new icon layout should make getting back to live TV a simpler process, while there’s also that large space above for widgets and support for notifications. Developers will be able to run their ADBs on devices later this summer, but prior to that it will have a “Fishtank” program for some devs to take home their internal test units to run apps on now — no hardware modification necessary.
The team also just announced that the source code to the existing Google TV remote app for Android is being open sourced, so anyone who thinks they can do better (it wouldn’t be difficult) can have a crack at building their own. Also available is code for the Anymote Protocol it runs on so developers can make tablet or phone apps that integrate with and control the Google TV — both are linked below. Other features mentioned included support for 3D, and game controllers using Android 3.1’s expanded USB compatibility. There were no product announcements before the session ended, and no word on the rumored and expected ARM base for new products, but the project manager confirmed new product announcements “later this year.” Google TV will need new product announcements if it’s going to receive a boost over other smart TV technology, but the potential of the market and availability of open source code is still providing a tantalizing vision of the promise it’s failed to capitalize on so far.
Update: The entire presentation is now available on YouTube, check it out after the break as well as an earlier Bootcamp presentation on the same subject.
Google TV shows off new Honeycomb UI, plans for Market, SDK; opens up remote app source code (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of the bigger reveals so far at IO 2011 was Google Music, the cloud locker and streaming service Google has been not-so-secretly working on. Also unveiled was an updated Music App for Android, which replaces the stock player on Android 2.2+ with one that offers seamless integration with your Google Music Beta account. Music […]
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