Hasta La Gadget!

It didn’t take long for Visa to react to the three-headed beast of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon entering the mobile payments arena. The world’s foremost payment processing company has just announced that it’s about to start a trial of its contactless payment system in partnership with Bank of America. Kicking off in the New York area this September and lasting through the end of the year, the scheme will most likely involve the MicroSD NFC communicator and In2Pay iPhone case that DeviceFidelity has been developing for Visa. No disclosures are being made on the size of this pilot scheme, though we’re told that only a “select” group of employees and customers will be getting the mobile payment chips. Don’t worry if you miss out on this one, though, as a similar trial is scheduled to begin in October with US Bancorp. That should give you enough time to turn yourself into a high-rolling select customer, right?

Visa gets Bank of America on board for mobile payments trial, starting in New York next month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you take the subway to and from work or school, you know that your commute can be pretty boring sometimes if you have nothing to do, and while there’s nothing wrong with a nice, quiet, phone-free ride to work, sometimes you want to check your e-mail or do a little Web surfing on the way in. Thankfully, if you live in New York City, you too will be able to use your 3G or Wi-Fi device while you’re underground, thanks to the city’s new initiative to add both 3G and Wi-Fi coverage to its vast network of underground subway tunnels, not just the stations between them.

The New York Daily News reports that a four-company joint venture is working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City to install Wi-Fi and 3G cellular network gear in all 277 underground stations, a project that has been in the works for years, and now that the MTA has signed off on the plans, construction can begin. The wireless companies involved in the construction have all committed to building as much signal strength as possible into the installed equipment so passengers will be able to access their preferred wireless network when they’re standing on platforms as well as riding the trains deep underground. 

We’d figured that Sprint and partner Clearwire were going to have a devil of a time rolling out WiMAX this year in New York City; urban canyons are always tricky, of course, but their oddball 2500MHz spectrum allocation isn’t the best at penetrating buildings and other structures, either. On that note, we’d been tipped earlier this week that a reader was seeing some weak WiMAX reception for the first time on his EVO 4G near Coney Island (see a shot after the break), and now, we’ve been able to independently confirm it on one of our own units — in saturated Midtown, no less — though we weren’t able to do much with it beyond get a notification that a “4G network is available.” Clearly this isn’t ready for primetime use, but it’s a good sign that these guys have officially started lighting up a few cells here and there. 1080p streaming, anyone?

[Thanks, r0ckstar_23]

Update: We’re getting tipped that folks are seeing some occasional 4G action in LA and San Francisco, so keep a close eye on those EVOs!

Continue reading Sprint’s WiMAX service teases EVO 4G-toting New Yorkers (update: LA and SF, too)

Sprint’s WiMAX service teases EVO 4G-toting New Yorkers (update: LA and SF, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s latest idea is actually kind of brilliant on multiple levels: totally free Wi-Fi in Times Square. And it could be how they save their network. More »

Imagine our luck: we just happened to stroll into Nokia’s New York flagship store today on 57th between 5th and Madison Avenue, only to discover that it was practically torn down and set to close permanently today, a move that Nokia announced late last year. A representative approached us as soon as we entered and said, “the only phones we have are from this point forward; there’s nothing else in the store.” Interestingly, a call over to Nokia’s other North American flagship in Chicago confirmed that it isn’t closing today and no date has been set (at least, not a date that anyone is talking about) — so there’s one more outpost in the States if you want to get your Nokia on one last time. Needless to say, the overwhelming majority of Americans won’t be shedding any tears over the closure, but it’s always disappointing to see a neat and beautifully-designed place to geek out go belly-up. And where are we going to play with an N8 before we buy now, anyway?

Nokia’s New York flagship store closes today originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 May 2010 18:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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