Aug 04

LightSquared’s Phil Falcone talks to CNBC, airs his feud with Verizon and AT&T (video)

Posted in: 4G, att, gps, interview, lte, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, video, vzw

Time to call in the wireless waahmbulance. LightSquared’s billionaire backer Phil Falcone made his television debut on CNBC’s Power Lunch to cry foul at the behind-the-scenes lobbying drama that could put the brakes on his 4G dreams. The hedge fund manager pointed his finger at AT&T and Verizon, claiming both are trying to “stomp out innovation” and competition by working in cahoots with the Save Our GPS Coalition. The soon-to-launch LTE network continues to encounter significant opposition from the group, as its tests have shown LightSquared’s planned 40,000 stations will transmit signals “up to 800 billion times” more powerful than low-powered GPS, effectively blocking it out. Falcone insists that all parties involved knew of the potential interference issues back in 2003, when the FCC first mandated the network’s build-out, and promises a switch to the company’s lower block of spectrum will remedy 99 percent of the problem. Whichever side of this he said / they said brouhaha you believe, one thing’s for sure — the 4G race is getting pretty ugly.

Continue reading LightSquared’s Phil Falcone talks to CNBC, airs his feud with Verizon and AT&T (video)

LightSquared’s Phil Falcone talks to CNBC, airs his feud with Verizon and AT&T (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceCNBC  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: , ,
Aug 04

Verizon Wireless year-end roadmap leaks, Android and LTE spotted on the horizon?

Posted in: 4G, BlackBerry, carrier, HTC, leak, LG, lte, motorola, motorola xoom, MotorolaXoom, network, Phones, playbook, research in motion, ResearchInMotion, RIM, roadmap, samsung, Smartphones, thunderbolt, Today's Chili, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw

Nope. There’s no mention of a Nexus Prime in this glimpse of VZW future, but don’t let that stop you from drooling over the purported goods. The leaked shot over on IGN lays out a back-to-school road filled with Android phones a plenty, and one lone RIM entry. September 8th is gearing up to be a busy Thursday for Big Red, with launches slated for the Droid Bionic, Motorola Xoom 4G, BlackBerry Curve 9370 (the LTE cousin of ‘Apollo’?) and Samsung Stratosphere — the operator’s rumored Galaxy S II variant. The end of the month gets a 2.3 combo of Gingerbread phones as the Samsung Illusion (codenamed Viper), and HTC Bliss touch down on the 29th. Refreshes for a couple of the carrier’s early LTE phones debut in October, when the Thunderbolt gets pushed aside by the virile HTC Vigor and LG gets a redo with the Revolution 2. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab P8 (most likely the Galaxy Tab 8.9) gets an unconfirmed November mention, while BlackBerry’s PlayBook languishes in a release date grey zone. Ready for that end-of-year upgrade? From the looks of things, there’ll be no dearth of options.

Verizon Wireless year-end roadmap leaks, Android and LTE spotted on the horizon? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BGR  |  sourceIGN  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: , , ,
Aug 03

Verizon announces Android 3.2 update for Motorola Xoom 3G, available today?

Posted in: Android, honeycomb, motorola, motorola xoom, MotorolaXoom, software update, SoftwareUpdate, tablet, Today's Chili, update, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, xoom
It looks like Motorola Xoom 3G owners will soon be able to reap the same benefits as their WiFi-only brethren, now that Verizon has published more details on a forthcoming Android 3.2 update. According to the company’s support page, software update HTJ85 will bring essentially the same features we saw in last month’s, exclusively Wi-Fi refresh — microSD card support, movie rental improvements and, of course, that “zoom to fill screen” option for non-tablet optimized apps. Verizon hasn’t announced an official release date for the 15.4MB Honeycomb update, though rumor has it that it could drop as early as today. For more details and installation instructions, check out the pair of PDFs below.

Verizon announces Android 3.2 update for Motorola Xoom 3G, available today? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Droid Life  |  sourceVerizon Wireless  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: ,
Aug 02

Motorola Droid Bionic specs revealed: TI OMAP 4430 dual-core CPU, Android 2.3.4 on board (update: wrong model number)

Posted in: 1080p, 4G, dual-core, lte, motorola, texas instruments, ti, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw

Can’t wait to get those mitts on a Droid Bionic, but still wondering what lies beneath? Seems as though the Motorola mobile of mystery can’t hold its secrets forever, since the specs of the Bionic are now up for perusal on Motorola’s developer site. Here’s the skinny: it’s got a TI OMAP 4430 1GHz dual-core CPU bundled with 1GB RAM (twice the amount in the Droid 3), a 4.3-inch qHD display with 960 x 540 resolution, HDMI 1.4, 8 megapixel rear camera accompanied by a VGA front-facing shooter and 1080p HD video capture, webtop capabilities, and the obvious LTE radio. Unfortunately, the specs confirm the Bionic’s lack of GSM / EDGE — essentially turning it into a fancy PMP when traveling abroad — and doesn’t bother mentioning battery size (or life, for that matter), the most confounding question still lingering aside from the release date. C’mon, Motorola, can we at least get a hint?

Update: A keen-eyed tipster alerted us to one minor snafu in the above image: it shows the Motorola XT865 — the original Droid Bionic unveiled at CES 2011 last January — instead of the XT875, which belongs to the new and redesigned model. We can’t be sure if this is an typo on the site or if it really is the old version. Either way, we’ll keep a close eye on the story and update if we hear anything else.

Motorola Droid Bionic specs revealed: TI OMAP 4430 dual-core CPU, Android 2.3.4 on board (update: wrong model number) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Droid-Life, MyDroidWorld  |  sourceMotodev  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: , ,
Aug 02

MetroPCS will begin transition to VoLTE early next year

Posted in: 4G, att, cdma, lte, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw
US carriers were quick to acknowledge their allegiance to Voice over LTE (VoLTE), a 4G VoIP-related technology first demonstrated in February. Ever since that time, however, talk of deployment plans have been replaced by crickets. MetroPCS was the first to break the silence, as CEO Roger Linquist announced at this morning’s quarterly earnings call that his company’s “planning to begin introducing VoLTE-capable handsets early next year to move voice as well as data traffic to [its] LTE network.” The outfit’s wasting no time making the full transition to 4G, as it’s already begun migrating its SMS and MMS services to this service. An increasing sense of urgency is likely hitting the company hard, as implementing VoLTE will ease some of the burden of its limited spectrum by devoting more bandwidth to 4G. What’s better, the anticipated timeframe may even allow MetroPCS to beat Verizon to market — which has also targeted 2012 as a launch date for its equivalent service — as well as AT&T, currently aiming for a 2013 takeoff. No matter what, we’re ecstatic to soon be flooded with more HD-clarity calls than we care to take.

MetroPCS will begin transition to VoLTE early next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhoneScoop  |  sourceConnected Planet  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: , , ,
Aug 02

Verizon LTE-packing HP Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr hitting the retail cloud on August 4th

Posted in: 4G, HP, lte, netbook, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, Wireless
It’s the not the first laptop to sport Verizon Wireless’s LTE — the HP Pavilion dm1-3010nr grabbed that title about a week ago — but the Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr is being touted by VZW as its first netbook to pack the technology. The 10-inch system, which was first announced back in January, packs 250GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, and a multicard reader into a three-pound frame. Oh, and you also get access to HP’s Cloud Drive — you don’t want that 4G technology to go to waste, do you? The netbook will go on sale via Verizon’s site on August 4th for $450.

Continue reading Verizon LTE-packing HP Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr hitting the retail cloud on August 4th

Verizon LTE-packing HP Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr hitting the retail cloud on August 4th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags:
Aug 01

Verizon Wireless to tie American Express’ Serve into mobile numbers, keep your credit card holstered

Posted in: nfc, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw

Good news online shopaholics, your tchotchke-buying ways are getting a couple of enablers in the form of American Express and Verizon Wireless. The two titans of industry have teamed up to integrate AMEX’s PayPal-like Serve platform into the operator’s phones and tablets in the next few months. The service will work by linking your existing mobile number to a Serve account, speeding up the checkout process and ensuring you never second-guess that impulse buy. Sure, this isn’t the NFC-chipped, Isis future Big Red promised, but it’s a good stopgap for virtual spendthrifts.

Continue reading Verizon Wireless to tie American Express’ Serve into mobile numbers, keep your credit card holstered

Verizon Wireless to tie American Express’ Serve into mobile numbers, keep your credit card holstered originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

No Comments
Jul 28

Galaxy Tab 10.1 for Verizon, hands-on with the new 4G speed king

Posted in: 4G, GalaxyTab, hands-on, HandsOn, lte, samsung, samsung galaxy tab, SamsungGalaxyTab, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, video, vzw
Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE

By now, you should be familiar with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. We’ve done countless hands-ons with the super-svelte Honeycomb slate, and even reviewed it… twice! Now it’s back, again, and this time its packing an LTE radio tuned to the frequencies of a little company known as Verizon. Outside of a few tiny cosmetic changes — the brushed, gray plastic back and the rumored Micro SIM slot up top, nothing else has changed. We won’t waste too much time rehashing what you already know, but we figured it was worth firing up the latest version, which officially went on sale today, and putting that 4G antenna to the test. You know the routine, keep on keepin’ on after the break.

Gallery: Galaxy Tab 10.1 for Verizon hands-on

Continue reading Galaxy Tab 10.1 for Verizon, hands-on with the new 4G speed king

Galaxy Tab 10.1 for Verizon, hands-on with the new 4G speed king originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: , , ,
Jul 27

Verizon just keeps the LTE train chugging, new and expanded markets coming on August 18th

Posted in: 4G, lte, Today's Chili, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw
Verizon LTE

We can’t remember a single new WiMAX market being lit up in 2011, meanwhile Verizon just keeps lighting LTE fires all across the country. We’ve actually given up trying to keep a tally of how many new markets Big Red has launched this year — there are only so many fingers and toes between the Engadget staff. The carrier just flipped the switch on 28 new markets last week, and now it’s announced plans to add at least 15 more on August 18th. In addition to finally blessing the folks in Albany, NY and Tuscon, AZ with a little 4G love, it will also be expanding coverage in in areas including Boston and Salt Lake City. It’s the perfect mid-summer gift to go along with a brand new Galaxy S II or Droid Bionic. Check out the full list of upcoming LTE meccas just after the break.

Continue reading Verizon just keeps the LTE train chugging, new and expanded markets coming on August 18th

Verizon just keeps the LTE train chugging, new and expanded markets coming on August 18th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhoneDog  |  sourceVerizon  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags:
Jul 27

Verizon’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S II will support LTE (update: still unconfirmed)

Posted in: 4G, galaxy s ii, GalaxySIi, lte, samsung, Today's Chili, twitter, verizon, Verizon Wireless, VerizonWireless, vzw
The jury’s still out on when Verizon will get around to releasing the Samsung Function — its own version of the highly covetable Galaxy S II — but that hasn’t stopped Big Red from whetting our appetite. The country’s largest carrier has taken to the Twitterverse to confirm that its upcoming pride and joy will include an LTE radio, answering quite possibly the most perplexing mystery concerning Verizon’s take on the device. We’re still yearning for pricing, availability, and even images of the device to show up, but this little nugget alone may be enough to keep our impatience at ease for a while longer.

Update: VZWSupport just tweeted some disappointing news: “Clarification — I am speaking of the new Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 that is 4G.” Tomato, tomahto, tablets, smartphones, are we right?

Verizon’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S II will support LTE (update: still unconfirmed) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Droid-Life  |  sourceTwitter  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: