Hasta La Gadget!

Ah, the Verizon iPhone. In our bizarre careers as tech journalists, if there’s one question we’ve heard more than “When is Verizon getting the iPhone?” we can’t think of it. Also, outside the original rumors for the iPhone and iPad, we can’t think of another product so heavily teased by those in the know and those not in the know — though mostly by those not in the know.

But then we heard Verizon is having a little get together on Tuesday, which is particularly odd timing because Verizon has a huge presence and a large amount of announcements at this year’s CES. Rumors of the event being a Verizon iPhone announce immediately flared up, but there were still reservations: Apple usually announces its own products at its own corporate campus — why would Verizon be doing the honors in NY?

That’s when the Wall Street Journal swooped in with a confirmation: the Verizon iPhone will be announced on Tuesday, and WSJ’s All Things D even thinks Steve Jobs will be there. So, who is this fly-by-night “Wall Street Journal” publication we speak of? They have one of the best track track records on Apple rumors in the business, and they’ve been leading the Verizon iPhone predictions from day one. Follow after the break as we talk it out.

Continue reading Verizon iPhone: everything you need to know

Verizon iPhone: everything you need to know originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LTE is hardly available everywhere, but that’s not stopping Verizon from looking for novel ways to exploit all that lovely bandwidth, recently partnering with OnStar to do everything from streaming in-car security cameras to Skype video chatting from the highway. Now it’s Panasonic getting down with 4G, the two companies partnering to the Mobile High Definition Visual Communications System, basically a collection of remotely controlled cameras, microphones, and a display on each end that enables two distant sites to communicate wirelessly. The initial implementations here are primarily medical, like an ambulance calling ahead and giving doctors an idea of what’s inbound, or a patient being able to visit with a doctor remotely. However, we can see plenty of other potential applications going forward. Remote access to the CES show floor so that everyone can experience the insanity? Oh yeah.

Continue reading Panasonic and Verizon team up to Mobile HD Visual Communications System using LTE

Panasonic and Verizon team up to Mobile HD Visual Communications System using LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, here we are: the Wall Street Journal says Verizon will indeed announce the iPhone at its mysterious Tuesday event, according to “a source familiar with the matter.” That’s all the info the Journal has, but we’d say that all but seals it at this point — and you know we’ll be there live when it happens.

P.S. And just like that, Apple’s managed to once again be one of the biggest stories at CES with zero presence here. That’s what, five years in a row now?

Update: All Things D has it on good authority that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be making an appearance at this here event. Of course, even they can’t confirm it 100 percent, but where there’s smoke…

Wall Street Journal: Verizon to announce iPhone on Tuesday (Steve Jobs to appear?) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, lookie here: we just came across an extraordinarily trapezoidal device that we’re told is the new Slingbox to be offered by Verizon on a monthly subscription basis to LTE customers. Not much to see, really, but they’ve definitely dialed down the industrial design here in favor of a tiny, matte black shell that’s got some creative angling to it. It’s standard definition only, as far as we can tell — the only connections on back are for composite video. If you’ve already got something like a Solo or a Pro-HD, we’re not sure there’s any compelling reason at all to consider it — but it might be a good way for Sling newbies to get into the game. Check out more shots below.

Exclusive: Verizon Slingbox in the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We love us some home automation but sometimes we get the feeling that we’re the only ones. Perhaps it isn’t that no one wants home automation as much as it’s that no one can get home automation; and if that’s the case, Verizon’s new Home Control might bring us all together. The idea is that Verizon would sell and support a small Z-Wave enabled home automation controller (manufactured by ActionTec at least initially) that would be controllable and programmable via Verizon’s website, mobile phones and FiOS TV set-top boxes. The demo was right on par with what we expect a good HA controller to do, but at this point there is only a trial in New Jersey, which means the rest of us will have to wait to see how it fairs in the Garden State before we’ll get a chance to try it for ourselves. The only issue we did have with the demo was that while you can control your home form your FiOS DVR, you can’t control you FiOS DVR from the other devices. This means that wake-up scenes like ones that would turn your every TV in your house to CNN at 7am in the morning, are out. Obviously this could and hopefully will change if this progress as Verizon hopes it will.

Verizon’s Home Control, hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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