Hasta La Gadget!

What secret could this Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 hold? Check out the little LTE logo hiding out on the back of the device. Yep, T-Mobile’s aggressively magenta-ed out IFA booth was showcasing this beauty, as a way of showing off the European carrier’s blazing LTE speeds. Hardware, it seems, was incidental to the company’s demos — but boy howdy do we care.

The T-Mobile reps didn’t offer up much in the way of information on that front (in fact, they mostly tried to move us along to the next LTE-capable device for more speed demos), but the company’s paperwork highlights the device’s 32GB capacity, 1.5GHz dual-core processor and Android 3.2 operating system. The hardware itself should prove quite familiar to anyone who’s ever spent time with a Galaxy Tab — same brilliant glossy screen, same smooth plastic back.

Not much is available, so far as pricing and availability, though the T-Mobile representative that we spoke with believes the thing will be hitting the network in Q4.

Update: AndroidOS.in is reporting that the Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE will hit German airwaves in December.

[Thanks, TMO_lover]

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 8.9 goes LTE for T-Mobile at IFA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T willing to make concessions to save T-Mobile merger, sources say originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 02:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“I’m so happy that I don’t have to be an AT&T customer.”

Posted to a T-Mobile message board this morning, one user’s feelings nail the sentiment among consumers following Wednesday’s announcement that the Justice Department is suing to block AT&T’s proposed acquisition of the Deutsche-Telekom–owned wireless network.

T-Mobile users generally responded positively to the news that they wouldn’t be seeing the AT&T death star on their cellphone bills anytime soon. Riffing on the oft-bemoaned shortcomings of both networks, one Wired.com reader proposed an unfortunate merger scenario: ”AT&T’s zero-bars reception merged with T-Mobile’s customer service. I think the result might just collapse into a black hole of suck.”

AT&T has long championed its proposed merger of T-Mobile as being beneficial to the wireless customers of both networks. The company claims it will improve wireless service for AT&T and T-Mobile customers, expand 4G coverage to more of the country and, most recently, add a significant number of jobs to the U.S. workforce.

But in the Justice Department’s eyes — and anecdotally those of T-Mobile’s customer base as well — the costs of the merger may outweigh the benefits. “The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services,” said deputy attorney general James M. Cole in the Justice filing.

Not to mention some of the concessions existing T-Mobile customers would have to make if the merger were to go through. AT&T has repeatedly stated it planned to use T-Mobile’s 1700-MHz spectrum for its eventual 4G LTE deployment. That would ultimately make T-Mobile customers buy new phones that could function on AT&T’s network — unless, that is, you’re okay with EDGE network service.

Those least happy about the Justice Department’s actions are, of course, AT&T and T-Mobile. In the past year, T-Mobile has seen a steady decline in profits as T-Mobile customer contracts have been reduced by nearly a million subscribers. If Deutsche Telekom were able to sell off T-Mobile to AT&T for $39 billion, the German firm could then use that money to invest in its European business.

Not to mention a successful blocking of the merger would prevent AT&T’s dreams of becoming the largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, surpassing Verizon as the reigning champ and leaving Sprint in the dust.

Of course, if the lawsuit fails to block the merger, today’s customer rejoicing could lend itself to tomorrow’s mass customer departures: “If AT&Terrible is able to acquire them,” wrote one T-Mobile subscriber, “then I am outta here so fast they won’t even know I existed.”

Uncle Sam says no to AT&T eating up T-Mobile: The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust suit against AT&T, Bloomberg reports. Things just got real. More »

If you’ve been wondering just when you’ll be able to get Europe’s hottest smartphone from last year, wonder no more: tonight the Samsung Galaxy S II was formally (and finally) announced for US release. Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T all will be receiving variants, with the first two getting a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, the AT&T unit being stuck with the same 4.3-inch display as the earlier GS II. In fact, the AT&T model looks indistinguishable from the European version that we compared it against, while the other two look a bit different.

Sprint’s model, aka the Epic 4G Touch, has that larger 4.5-inch screen, plus a slightly more rounded profile than the AT&T model. The T-Mobile version, meanwhile, is the most rounded of the three, but otherwise we were hard-pressed to find any differences between ’em, as you can see in the video below. All are powered by 1.2GHz dual-core processors, 16GB of storage, eight megapixel webcams on the back, batteries that are said to be at least 10 percent larger than the previous version, and “4G” wireless — either in the form of HSPA+ or WiMAX.

Only Sprint has announced formal pricing and availability, September 16th for $199, while the others will be available in the always ambiguous “soon.”

Update: We got curious about those battery sizes and popped the backs off the two phones that we could get our hands on. The AT&T model has the exact same battery size as the European Galaxy S II (6.11Wh), while the Sprint version is indeed about 10 percent larger (6.66Wh). We presume the T-Mob one is bigger too, but that’s locked up. In a box.

Continue reading Galaxy S II for Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile hands-on (video)

Galaxy S II for Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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