Hasta La Gadget!

It hit Verizon’s system a few weeks ago and now it’s hitting a white corner for some pictures, showing VZW branding no less. It’s the US-spec version of the Incredible S, said to be running Android 2.2 but word is that Gingerbread will be on-tap before it ships. The rest of the specs on this four-inch slab line up with what we’ve learned before, meaning the only question now is the all-important when.

HTC Droid Incredible 2 smiles pretty for the camera, shows off its fresh VZW tat originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No blockbusters here — nothing that’s going to give you much insight into an exact launch day for the Thunderbolt — but Verizon CTO Tony Melone made a few comments about its LTE handset launches at a financial conference yesterday that border on the interesting. Asked whether the company was facing any challenges in getting the phones solid and ready for commercial consumption, Melone responded by saying that they’re “facing is what you would expect, and that is a new technology, you are working through issues. And [they] anticipated that, and [they] are pleased at how [they] are working through issues.” In the same breath, he reminded the audience that Verizon had said the phones would be coming in the first half of ’11 all along and that hasn’t changed — so they’re not late by a long shot. Pressed on whether battery life specifically was a concern for the Thunderbolt, Melone said that he thinks the juice “will be acceptable to consumers.” Considering what we’ve been hearing about recent firmware revisions on the test units, we’re hopeful he’s right — Verizon has a reputation for testing the crap out of devices prior to release, after all.

Verizon CTO: ‘working through issues’ with LTE phones, still on track for first half launch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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J.D. Power, that well known arbiter of human opinion in the United States, has just released its latest study on customer satisfaction with wireless carriers. It addresses such things as (the lack of) dropped calls, failures to connect, voice distortion, echoes, static, and late-arriving text messages, and ultimately churns out a rating out of five stars relative to the regional average and other carriers. In testing done between July and December last year, Verizon had the best or tied for the best satisfaction ratings in five of the six studied areas, while AT&T and Sprint traded blows for second and T-Mobile had to admit defeat as the laggard of the top four. US Cellular managed to score highest in the North Central region, but J.D. Power’s overall assessment isn’t very rosy for any of the carriers — the stats collector says growing smartphone usage, heavy texting and more indoor calls are collectively causing call quality to stagnate, and even warns that “increased adoption of smartphones and wireless tablets may continue to compromise the quality of network service.”

Continue reading J.D. Power: Verizon has best call quality nationwide, T-Mobile consistently below average

J.D. Power: Verizon has best call quality nationwide, T-Mobile consistently below average originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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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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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