Verizon hosts its own iPad 2 notification portal, no last-minute mention of LTE to be found

We knew good and well that both Verizon Wireless and AT&T would be getting their own 3G iPad 2, and while the latter is still trumpeting the original iPad on its site, VZW has gone ahead and put up a placeholder for what’s next. A scant four months after the first iPad hit Verizon airwaves (by way of a MiFi), the “thinner, lighter, faster and FaceTime-equipped” model is just around the bend — complete with an embedded CDMA 3G module. Hit the source link if you’d like to be notified of updates, or just make sure to wake up on March 11th. Whatever’s easier for you.

[Thanks, Aaron]

Verizon hosts its own iPad 2 notification portal, no last-minute mention of LTE to be found originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Merge rolls into FCC with mentions of Verizon

It’s not much of a secret that the Merge is destined for Verizon — but for some reason we can’t put our finger on, HTC has been very careful not to mention the carrier by name since the phone’s reveal last week. Maybe Verizon’s not yet 100 percent certain it wants to launch this one yet? At any rate, just in case there was any lingering doubt, the FCC filing for the Merge includes a user manual plastered from start to finish with Verizon logos and mentions of Verizon services. That’s kind of funny considering that they went to all the trouble of carefully taping over the logo in the handset’s external photos… but don’t worry, FCC lab engineer — we’ve had those kinds of days before, too. Keep your chin up!

HTC Merge rolls into FCC with mentions of Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gadget Lab Notes: Desktop Lighting Goes 2-D

The Looksoflat Lamp has an almost two-dimensional appearance

Gadget Lab Notes is an eclectic roundup of gadget news briefs and intriguing products that catch our eye.

Looksoflat Lamp is Like A Flattened Version of Pixar’s Luxo Lamp
The Looksoflat Lamp looks like it’s been flattened by a steamroller. It sheds a thin, rectangular area of light using LEDs (the only light source slim enough to fit inside its frame). Not too much else known about the lamp, except that it’s “coming soon.”

Looksoflat [Looksoflat via Oh Gizmo!]

Lenovo and Tobii Team Up To Create The World’s First Eye-Controlled Laptop
The forward-looking thinkers at Tobii and Lenovo envision a future where hand-swiping based motion controls are just too much work. Solution: Notebooks with built in eye control sensors. Twenty Windows 7 running prototypes were developed, and although the technology won’t be appearing in homes for at least a few more years, the eye control-based experience is already extremely accurate and well developed.

World’s First Eye-Controlled Laptop [Tobii via Engadget]

Panasonic Debuts Blu-Ray 3-D Home Theater Systems and Slim Bar Speakers
Today, Panasonic introduced three new Blu-ray 3-D home theater kits, the SC-BTT770, SC-BTT370 and SC-BTT270, which feature iDevice docks and use Cinema Surround Plus technology for optimal movie theater-style surround sound. And to make sure you’re comfortable with your 3-D viewing experience, a 3-D Effect Controller lets you adjust image depth. The SC-HTB520 home speaker system is encased in reflective, stainless black mesh that’s dust and fingerprint resistant. It supports Stream Out for 3-D image signals, is Audio Return Channel (ARC) compatible, and comes with a wireless Down Firing Subwoofer.

Panasonic 3D Speaker Bar and Blu-ray 3D Home Theater Kit [Slashgear]

Verizon CFO Says It’ll Switch To Tiered Data Plans As Early As This Summer
Fran Shammo, Verizon’s CFO, said that Verizon will be implementing a tiered data plan in the not-too-distant future—as early as this summer. The plans will be based on speed, consumption, or a combination of both. The company waited to initiate this plan because it didn’t want to scare off potential iPhone 4 buyers.

Verizon Will Move to Tiered Data Plans This Summer [BGR]

Teeny Tiny Brando Wireless Router Fits Into Your Pocket
Measuring 6 cm long and 1 cm high, Brando’s EagleTec Nano Size Wireless N-Router makes even your iPhone look fat. It can provide a 150 Mbps data transfer rate for multiple users. It also supports auto IP address assignment for devices and 64/128-bit WEP, WPA and WPA2 wireless data encryption.

EaglTec Nano Size Wirless N-Router [Brando via Crunchgear]

Folding Mobile Phone Concept Awkwardly Combines Smartphone and Tablet
The 360 Compact Folding Mobile Phone Concept reminds me of one of those foam play mats from preschool, except with touchscreens on each face. Theoretically versatile, this dual jointed flip phone could lay flat with all 3 screens displaying information, or be propped up to provide an angled viewing and typing surface.

360 Compact Folding Mobile Phone Concept [Yanko Design]


Verizon targeting mid-summer for tiered data plans, doesn’t yet know what kinds of tiers they’ll be

Verizon’s made no secret of the fact that $30 unlimited smartphone data wouldn’t last forever, but CFO Fran Shammo just made things a little more interesting today at the same Morgan Stanley conference Sanjay Jha rocked yesterday: turns out they’re targeting “mid-summer” to rearrange the carrier’s data pricing. Interestingly, Shammo says they’re still working through the details and that they don’t yet know whether the tiers will be based on speed, bit buckets, or some combination of the two. Of course, Verizon’s already dipped its toes in the tiered game with a $15 / 150MB option that evaporated around the time that the CDMA iPhone launched. Speaking of the iPhone, Shammo notes that the unlimited data plan was kept around to draw users into the iPhone fold — iPhone users tend to consume a lot of data, after all — so it’d seem that they might comfortable with that one-time conquest before parting ways with unlimited for good.

Verizon targeting mid-summer for tiered data plans, doesn’t yet know what kinds of tiers they’ll be originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 4 Was Verizon’s Strongest Launch – CEO

iphone 4 flat.jpg

Don’t pay any attention to rumors and the lack of lines at Verizon and Apple stores at launch. Verizon’s CEO Daniel S. Mead is going on the record to tell you that the Verizon iPhone sold well. Real well. How well? He’s not really saying. The carrier is refusing to release any numbers (a rare thing for a briskly selling Apple product), but Mead went on record over at The Wall Street Journal to state that the handset had the biggest launch in carrier history.

According to Mead, the aforementioned lack of lines were due to robust online sales ahead of the device’s launch–more than 60 percent of iPhone 4 sales happened online, says Mead. It was all part of “an intentional strategy aimed at spreading out the purchasing activity,” adds the Journal. Hm. Sounds like Windows Phone 7 speak, doesn’t it?
Also interesting is Mead’s insistence that Apple will be launching different devices using 4G. He didn’t offer any specifics, of course, stating only, “You’ll see more coming from Apple on LTE. They understand the value proposition of LTE and I feel very confident that they are going to be a part of it.”

T-Mobile continues campaign against iPhone 4 with new ‘State of the Smartphone’ infographic

T-Mobile cares about you. It cares so much that it’s spending all its advertising dollars lately making sure you know full well that the iPhone 4 can’t do “4G” the way its own phones can. The latest salvo in this crusade of enlightenment includes the above graphs showing just how much faster and further your money can go if you ride along on the Magenta network. It conveniently ignores the fact that AT&T and Verizon offer other phones besides Apple’s iPhone, some of which can handle speeds above the 3G threshold, but such is the price you pay when you want to have a really pretty and eye-catching chart. Hit the source link to soak up more of T-Mobile’s priceless wisdom.

[Thanks, Ramon]

T-Mobile continues campaign against iPhone 4 with new ‘State of the Smartphone’ infographic originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Trophy spotted in the wild, sporting Verizon logo

If you had any remaining doubts whether the HTC Trophy would be playing for Team Red, you can leave them at the door — a tipster just sent us a high-res version of the above image, and says it’s running the latest version of Windows Phone 7, complete with copy/paste support. Our anonymous source says it seems exactly the same physically as the European version we reviewed in October, save for a last telling tweak — instead of the orangish-yellow innards, it’s got red highlights around back.

[Thanks, Anonymouse]

HTC Trophy spotted in the wild, sporting Verizon logo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Droid Incredible 2 shows up in Verizon’s system

Well, look what we’ve got here! Seeing that HTC just introduced the Incredible S — a world phone only available in the UK — it was only a matter of time before the phone hit the stateside. A trusted tipster just hit us with screen shots of Verizon’s internals containing a device dubbed HTC ADR6350. The other screenshot below has a listing for the HTC63503 with a description of “INCRD2.” Putting two and two together, we’d say with great confidence that the Incredible 2 is coming to Verizon in the near future — and we certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with that “buttonless” shot we saw a while back. Stay tuned as we try and dig up more details… and in the meantime, peep the second screenshot after the break!

Continue reading HTC Droid Incredible 2 shows up in Verizon’s system

HTC Droid Incredible 2 shows up in Verizon’s system originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Feb 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Thunderbolt said to have terrible battery life, might explain delay?

We’re hearing from… well, let’s call them “people familiar with the matter” that HTC’s Thunderbolt — a phone that’s supposed to be Verizon’s first with LTE — is experiencing positively miserable battery life that’s making it difficult for testers to avoid carrying a second phone around as a backup. How bad? Two to three hours from full to empty in some cases. Of course, we wouldn’t be surprised if battery life was really bad with the LTE radio left on — the EVO 4G wasn’t much different at launch with WiMAX lit up — but the word on the street is that the power situation is largely responsible for the delays we’ve been seeing. In fact, our source tells us the phone is currently working on its sixth retail delay at the moment. More on this situation as we get it.

Update: We’ve just heard from another trusted tipster that there’s definitely a new firmware in the works to address battery life and signal issues (which — you guessed it — are interrelated). Thanks, HTC Kid!

HTC Thunderbolt said to have terrible battery life, might explain delay? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon CEO claims Apple LTE products are coming, doesn’t specify when

Dan Mead, Lowell McAdam‘s successor at the helm of Verizon Wireless, has told the Wall Street Journal that we’ll “see more coming from Apple on LTE. They understand the value proposition of LTE and I feel very confident that they are going to be a part of it.” No further details were forthcoming from the chief exec, such as timing and the particular shape of Apple’s participation in Verizon’s LTE plans, but at least we now have an indication that Cupertino is actively working toward 4G connectivity. Mead’s comments came as part of an interview discussing the iPhone 4’s launch on his network, which has already seen the device bust through Verizon’s opening sales record. Notably, at the actual launch of that phone, Tim Cook said an LTE version of the iPhone would have required too many compromises, so we suspect those compromises are exactly what Apple’s working on right now.

Verizon CEO claims Apple LTE products are coming, doesn’t specify when originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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