Hasta La Gadget!

It’s hardly a natural disaster, but the landscape of Manhattan is about to change once again with the arrival of cellular signal to a handful of the borough’s subway platforms. Both AT&T and T-Mobile are taking part in the pilot program, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority expects the service to begin rolling on Tuesday at several stations along the 14th Street corridor, including A, C, E, F, L and M, along with stops 1, 2 and 3. The 23rd Street line will also see part of the action, as coverage is expected for the C and E stations. Of course, straphangers are unlikely to receive signal once on-board the trains, as the tunnels themselves aren’t included in this rollout. Currently, the MTA expects all 277 underground platforms to be equipped for mobile chatter by 2016. Transit Wireless, the company responsible for the expansion, is said to be in talks with Sprint and Verizon for a similar introduction, although its customers must be content to listen in on the conversations other commuters for the time being.

[Image from SeanPavonePhoto/Shutterstock]

New York City braces for Tuesday’s arrival of mobile service on subway platforms originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Attention power users and devotees of physical portrait QWERTYs, RIM’s outing yet another member of its Curve family this month. Running the Waterloo-based company’s latest BB 7 OS, Magenta’s BlackBerry Curve 9360 actually goes up for pre-sale today, but you’ll have to count yourself amongst the enterprise set for the early access perks. For the rest of us, the carrier’s set a September 28th launch for the standard black version of this 2.4-inch, touchscreen-less handset. But that’s not all — perhaps following up on the latest fashion-centric trend, the company’s also releasing this mid-range entry in a wine-soaked hue of merlot on October 12th. Regardless of your style preferences, the phone’ll be available for a wallet-pleasing $79.99 on a two-year contract (after a $50 rebate). So, were not sure if this was worthy of the ‘Apollo’ moniker, but at least our in-house Ms. Cleo was right on the money.

Continue reading T-Mobile’s BlackBerry Curve 9360 available for $79 on September 28th, swanks it up with merlot variant

T-Mobile’s BlackBerry Curve 9360 available for $79 on September 28th, swanks it up with merlot variant originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Will the iPhone be coming to T-Mobile? Not this year, it seems.

Update: This story was updated with comment from T-Mobile September 20, 2011 at 4:15 p.m. PST.

Sorry, T-Mobile customers: The outlook on Apple products coming to the wireless network soon is not so good.

“We are not going to get the iPhone 5 this year,” T-Mobile’s chief marketing officer Cole Brodman said in a town hall meeting on Monday.

Brodman’s statement could still be interpreted a number of ways. T-Mobile could get the iPhone early next year, or it might be an attempt to divert attention from possible signs that they may be getting the iPhone (something Sprint appears to be doing a terrible job of hiding). TmoNews speculates that it would also make sense for Apple to potentially hold off on porting a phone to T-Mobile’s network when it could possibly get swallowed up by AT&T in its proposed merger.

T-Mobile said in an official statement: “We don’t comment on rumors. We remain focused on expanding our portfolio of 4G smartphones. We look forward to sharing on Monday, news about our latest and greatest product lineup.”

For several years, AT&T was the exclusive carrier for the iPhone, until Verizon began selling the iPhone 4 for its CDMA network in February 2011. Rumors and analyst speculation have widely suggested that Sprint will be getting the iPhone 5 when it debuts (likely in October), which would leave T-Mobile as the lone major U.S. wireless carrier to be without an Apple phone.

Sprint has blocked out vacation days for its employees from September 30 to October 15 in order to prep for a “major phone launch.” Sprint staff have reportedly been briefed on the iPhone 4. And other reports suggest that Sprint will even offer an unlimited data plan for the iPhone.

Recent speculation also suggests that we may be getting an incrementally updated or cheaper iPhone this year, but we won’t see an iPhone 5 until 2012.

Of course, all of this is still speculation, so keep your grains of salt at the ready.

[Via T-Mo News]

Continue reading Cellular South files antitrust lawsuit against AT&T over proposed T-Mobile takeover

Cellular South files antitrust lawsuit against AT&T over proposed T-Mobile takeover originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile’s myTouch smartphones have — until now — been an exclusively HTC affair, but both of the phones captured here appear to be LG-made. Phandroid is reporting that a video posted briefly on T-Mo’s official YouTube channel labelled this duo as the myTouch and myTouch Q by LG. We got wind of two new LG handsets headed to T-Mobile back in May, called the Maxx and Maxx Q, but there’s no clear indication just yet that these are one and the same. The videos soon vanished from view, but the screen grab — with a heavy sprinkling of render magic — shows two phones that share a few similarities with the Optimus Sol, like a substantial chunk of bezel between the screen and the threesome of Android buttons. We’re hoping both will share that eye-blistering AMOLED screen found on the Sol, but we’re still waiting on more details to clarify exactly what LG’s got cooking.

LG myTouch phones make brief YouTube appearance? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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