Hasta La Gadget!

We’re already fatigued of reporting launch dates for devices announced at this year’s CES — it seems like each one has had at least four different potential release points — but when you get one of Best Buy’s official Facebook pages blabbing about when the Moto Xoom and HTC Thunderbolt will be arriving… well, you sum up the strength to do it one more time. Contrary to earlier insider leaks pinning the Xoom to a February 17th launch, Best Buy is now promising to have the vanguard of the Honeycomb tablet revolution on February 24th. That’s exactly a week later than our earlier info, so perhaps somebody somewhere decided to push things back a bit. We have no doubt, however, that Motorola is nearly ready with its slate — there have been plenty of them spotted around the Super Bowl this week. In the meantime, HTC’s LTE-equipped 4.3-incher seems to have finally settled down on Valentine’s Day as its time of reckoning, a day after the similarly sized Inspire 4G hits AT&T.

Motorola Xoom coming to Best Buy on February 24th, HTC Thunderbolt on the 14th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As they say, “Ye who snoozes, something something something, set your alarm for launch morning.” Take solace in a new dramatic commercial for Verizon iPhone featuring you-know-who — it’s after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Verizon halts iPhone pre-orders, brings back everyone’s favorite technician for new ad (video)

Verizon halts iPhone pre-orders, brings back everyone’s favorite technician for new ad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nice timing, Verizon. Just as thousands — possibly zillions — of smartphone users are pondering the switch to Big Red for Apple’s iPhone 4, the carrier has slipped in two critical policy changes that are apparently effective immediately. Tucked within loads of fine print in a new PDF that surfaced on the company’s site, there’s this:

“Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5 percent of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95 percent of data customers aren’t negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users.”

To our knowledge, this is the first time that VZW has taken a notable position on throttling, and the link to its stance on net neutrality (as it applies to wireless, anyway) is fairly obvious. What’s most interesting to us is the five percent of data users figure; the top one or two percent isn’t a huge amount, and there’s a good chance that bandwidth abusers are up in that echelon. But we’re guessing that quite a few business travelers will fall within this particular range, and given that VZW now holds the right to throttle data for your existing billing cycle and the next one… well, good luck gritting your teeth and lasting through that two-year contract.

In related news, the company is also implementing optimization and transcoding technologies in its network, which is a politically correct way of explaining that it can downres any multimedia you try to send through Verizon’s pipes. Head on past the break for the full quote.

Continue reading Verizon can now throttle top five percent of bandwidth hogs, downres multimedia transfers

Verizon can now throttle top five percent of bandwidth hogs, downres multimedia transfers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has just announced that tomorrow morning’s early Verizon iPhone pre-orders will be available through its online Store as well — starting at 3AM, available to current VZW subscribers only, and sold on a first-come, first-served basis. More pertinent news, however, can be found deeper in the company’s press release, which states that pre-orders will be opened up to the general public on February 9th, when you’ll be able to reserve or have one delivered on launch day, February 10th. Shops will open their doors early, 7AM — matching AT&T’s early opening for the iPhone 4’s original launch way back in June — and availability will be broad, encompassing Apple’s brick and mortar Stores, Verizon’s 2,000+ retail locations, select partners, and even a zany 1-800-2 JOIN IN phone number you can call. So, really, the only people left without a Verizon iPhone on February 11th should be those that don’t actually want one.

Continue reading Verizon iPhone will go on general sale at 7AM on February 10th, you can reserve one on February 9th

Verizon iPhone will go on general sale at 7AM on February 10th, you can reserve one on February 9th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though it was predated by a usable hack, the Pantech UML290 USB modem — one of just two devices launched so far for Verizon’s LTE network — has finally been blessed with an official Mac OS driver. What does this mean? Well, technically, it means that this is the very first time Mac users are getting any LTE love in the US whatsoever — though with that Samsung-sourced mobile hotspot on the horizon, USB modems might be a tough sale at this point. On a bright note, the availability of the driver today means that Verizon beat its own estimate of February; the UML290’s counterpart from LG, the VL600, is still Windows-only, though we imagine that’ll be hitting soon as well.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Pantech’s UML290 LTE modem for Verizon gets official Mac support originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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