Hasta La Gadget!

Novatel? Yes. Sierra Wireless? Sure. Pantech? Definitely — but one company we didn’t really expect to be launching a pocketable mobile hotspot on an American carrier was Samsung. Sure enough, Sammy is hooking up with Verizon to rock the carrier’s very first mobile hotspot product to be announced with LTE compatibility, a crucial feature that should give the Sprint Overdrives and 3G / 4G MiFis of the world a run for their collective money. Though it lacks a creative name, the so-called 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is precisely as described with a dash of CDMA / EV-DO compatibility thrown in for those rare occasions when you stray outside your local LTE footprint. We don’t have a price or date yet, but there’s not a lot of rocket science here compared to… say, the Inspiration, so hopefully it won’t be long.

Though we didn’t have a chance to put it through a live test, we’ve had our hands on this little device already and we can say it’s basically a dead ringer for the CDMA version of the first-generation Novatel MiFi as sold on Verizon, Sprint, and others. The only change, really, is that it feels a bit thicker, a bit more “solid,” and a bit heavier, but not nearly enough to make a practical difference — you’ll still gladly throw this thing in your pocket when you need a cloud of steamy hot WiFi in your vicinity. Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Samsung bringing 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot to Verizon

Samsung bringing 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot to Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve here at Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE presser at CES, and we’re told our worlds will be changed forever in five minutes. Or something to that effect.

Continue reading Live from Verizon’s CES 2011 4G LTE press conference

Live from Verizon’s CES 2011 4G LTE press conference originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ivan Seidenberg is passing the torch to current Verizon Wireless boss Lowell McAdam later this year after a long career with Verizon, so today’s keynote session starting at 8:30AM PT (11:30AM ET) should be a bit of a swan song for him. We don’t know what he’ll announce, if anything — Big Red’s official press conference is later today, where presenters are expected to offer more details on the carrier’s range of LTE handsets — but we’ll naturally be looking out for teasers and tidbits here this morning. Read on!

Continue reading Live from CES 2011’s opening keynote with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg

Live from CES 2011’s opening keynote with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If this is the direction high-power smartphones are going, we like what we’re seeing. Though the software’s still a bit raw (there’s no Android Market, for example), the Droid Bionics on display here at Motorola’s CES event this evening look and feel pretty blazingly fast. A spokesman we chatted with said that Motorola is actually doing some manner of software optimization (and yes, it’ll launch with 2.2) to take advantage of the two cores out of the box, so it’s a promising start — as Jha says, it’s “2GHz of processing power.” We hope that’s true in practice!

Physically, the phone feels smooth in the same way a Droid 2 does, though a bit lighter — good news considering the LTE hardware and big display, but not entirely surprising when you take into account the lack of a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The patterned battery cover looks textured, but it’s actually quite smooth with a slight soft touch treatment. The screen looks great — in particular, the viewing angle looked superb, though all phone displays have a tendency to look a little better in this sexy lighting since they can’t wash out as easily. Follow the break for video!

Continue reading Motorola Droid Bionic hands-on

Motorola Droid Bionic hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola has just outed its delicious Honeycomb tablet alongside another device, the LTE-equipped Bionic, on its official site. The company’s CES press conference is ongoing right now, where the Xoom will presumably get its proper announcement. All we know so far is that this slate is headed to Verizon, the press release is still somewhere in the hidden parts of the internet. More soon!

Update: The PR and full spec sheet are now embedded after the break. A 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 will power this 10.1-incher, while 4G connectivity will be made available as an update in Q2 following a Q1 launch. Other specs include a 1280 x 800 resolution, 5 megapixel camera, 720p video recording and 1080p video playback, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and finally, a healthy 32GB of onboard storage. The battery is rated to be capable of supporting 10 hours of video. Be still, our beating hearts!

[Thanks, Pratik]

Continue reading Motorola Xoom becomes official, headed to Verizon in Q1, upgradeable to 4G in Q2

Motorola Xoom becomes official, headed to Verizon in Q1, upgradeable to 4G in Q2 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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