Hasta La Gadget!

Is your fancy new phone lacking that certain extra G that makes it special? Worry not, it’s not just your device, Verizon’s entire LTE network seems to be having problems as outages have been reported from across the US. We tested our own Thunderbolt in San Francisco this morning and it was indeed making do with only 3G connectivity. It’s important to note that Verizon’s 3G network seems to be ticking along quite alright, it’s just 4G service that’s down at the moment. Some folks have reported losing both 3G and 4G connectivity, but that’s owing to a documented issue with 3G provisioning on the Thunderbolt — we’ve noted the way to overcome that problem in a previous post. For now, just enjoy your regular-speed mobile internet until the super-fast stuff is fixed and back up.

Update: The Verizon Wireless Twitter account has confirmed the issue, and that the company’s network engineers are “working to resolve quickly.”

Update 2: As of 4:13pm ET Verizon has determined the cause and is “working with major vendors to restore connections.” Still no ETA for a fix.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Verizon’s LTE network takes the night off, leaves a bunch of Thunderbolt users bewildered originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was pretty clear that a launch was imminent, and Verizon has now finally officialy announced that the HTC Droid Incredible 2 will be available on Thursday, April 28th. It will run you the usual $200 on a two-year contract, which will buy you a 4-inch super LCD screen, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, an 8 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, a brand new 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and WiFi mobile hotspot support. As expected, it’s also a world phone, but it’ll be left in the dust by the Thunderbolt when it comes to sheer speeds due to its lack of LTE support. Full press release is after the break.

[Thanks, Shane]

Continue reading Verizon officially announces HTC Droid Incredible 2: available April 28th for $200

Verizon officially announces HTC Droid Incredible 2: available April 28th for $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM’s PlayBook is currently available in a Wi-Fi only version. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Research in Motion previously said its PlayBook tablet would be available on Verizon, but Verizon isn’t ready to hop on board just yet.

Verizon Wireless has yet to decide whether it will offer the BlackBerry PlayBook to its customers, according to a company spokesperson.

“We are still evaluating the Blackberry Playbook and have not made a determination as to whether or not we’re going to distribute it,” Verizon Wireless spokesperson Brenda Raney told CNET in a statement.

Verizon’s indecision conflicts with previous statements made by RIM. In an interview two weeks before the PlayBook’s debut, RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis confirmed to Wired.com that a Verizon 4G LTE version of the PlayBook would be released over the summer, along with AT&T and Sprint versions of the tablet. The BlackBerry PlayBook launched on Tuesday in its Wi-Fi only models.

In separate statements issued to Wired.com, both AT&T and Sprint confirmed that 4G versions of the PlayBook would be released on each carrier’s respective network this summer.

RIM did not immediately return a request for comment.

The PlayBook has had its share of stumbles in the weeks leading up to its debut. Early reviews from tech journalists were lukewarm at best (including our own), citing a lack of crucial features like native e-mail, calendar and contact apps and stability issues with Adobe Flash-based content.

Problems also arose between RIM and AT&T earlier this week as the BlackBerry Bridge app — which lets users connect their PlayBook to an existing BlackBerry smartphone, in order to check email and access the phone’s data connection — was unavailable for download through BlackBerry App World for users who have AT&T-carried BlackBerry phones. AT&T stated it had just received the app, and had to test it before approving it for AT&T customers on App World.

Day one PlayBook sales estimates, however, suggest the tablet’s outlook may not as grim as analysts expected. As many as 50,000 PlayBooks were sold on Tuesday, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky. The number includes pre-ordered devices, which accounted for about half of the first day sales. Abramsky forecasts 500,000 PlayBooks shipped by the end of May.

We’re guessing it wasn’t on the company’s agenda for its earnings call earlier today, but Verizon CFO Fran Shammo let slip one other interesting iPhone tidbit in addition to its news of 2.2 million iPhone 4 activations. Here’s what he said:

The fluctuation, I believe, will come when a new device from Apple is launched, whenever that may be, and that we will be, on the first time, on equal footing with our competitors on a new phone hitting the market, which will also be a global device.

That pretty clearly suggests that the next iPhone — supposedly coming in September — will be a world phone, which just so happens to coincide with rumors to same effect we’ve heard as recently as this week. Of course, there’s been talk of a dual-mode GSM / CDMA iPhone even before that, considering that the Qualcomm baseband chip used in the Verizon iPhone is technically capable of supporting both CDMA and GSM networks — Apple simply chose not to or wasn’t able to take advantage of that particular functionality at the time.

Verizon CFO suggests next iPhone will be a ‘global device’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday was AT&T’s turn, and today it’s Verizon revealing its earnings for the first quarter of 2011. The company has reported $27 billion in consolidated revenue from its wireless and wireline businesses, which is up 5.3 percent year over year (on a non-GAAP basis), while profits rose to $1.4 billion. Fueling that growth was 1.8 million net additions to its wireless customer base, which now totals 88.4 million customers (and 104 million connections). It also saw 207,000 net additions to its FiOS internet business and 192,000 net additions to FiOS TV, which bring those total customer bases to 4.3 million and 3.7 million, respectively. As for that little iPhone 4 launch, Verizon says it’s resulted in 2.2 million activations — that’s quite a bit less that AT&T’s 3.6 million iPhone activations for the same quarter, as you’ve no doubt noticed, although it does also have the benefit of a much cheaper iPhone 3GS in addition to the iPhone 4. Verizon also said that demand was “strong” for its new LTE devices (including 260,000 HTC Thunderbolt activations), and that deployment of its LTE network remains on track, with it expected to be available in more than 175 markets by the end of the year — in fact, that’s actually up a bit from the 147 figure we last heard. Head on past the break for the company’s full earnings report.

Continue reading Verizon reports ‘strong’ Q1 earnings: $27 billion revenue, 2.2 million iPhone activations

Verizon reports ‘strong’ Q1 earnings: $27 billion revenue, 2.2 million iPhone activations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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