Hasta La Gadget!

The exact duration and wording of Sprint’s exclusivity agreement with Palm for the Pre has everyone wondering — perhaps no one more than the carrier’s competitors, who are blatantly champing at the bit to steal Sprint’s thunder and launch new Palm hardware of their own. Sprint had already officially refuted Verizon’s claim that it’d get its own Pre in “about six months” by saying that the deal lasted through 2009, but now, none other than Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is taking a swing at his archrival, saying Verizon needs to “check its facts” over the deal. The dude was clearly choosing his words carefully and refused to comment on exactly how long the company would have a lock on the Pre, but he “can tell [us] it’s not six months.” That could mean it’s three, seven, nine, or 48 — we really don’t know — but either way, Sprint’s real challenge here is that it probably doesn’t have webOS exclusivity, which means its competitors should be free to launch other Palm designs whenever they like.

[Image via I Can Has Cheezburger?]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Sprint’s Dan Hesse: Verizon needs to “check its facts” on Pre exclusivity originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been bumping into the new BlackBerry Storm 2 for quite a while now on the so-called “information superhighway,” but we’ve finally had a chance to escalate those encounters and spend a few sweet moments with a live unit in the flesh. First off, let’s confirm the huge news: RIM’s abandoned the original Storm’s SurePress click-screen and gone with a traditional fixed capacitive display for the sequel. It’s over, guys. Unfortunately, the Verizon-branded dual-mode GSM / CDMA unit that we played with has a bug preventing us from getting past the license screen so we couldn’t dive deep into the OS (and yeah, we tried scrolling to the bottom of the agreement — no dice), but we can tell you what we do know: the Storm 2’s sleeker style and more heft combined with the newly-stable screen collaborate to make everything feel a wee bit higher end than the original. Follow the break for more impressions!

Gallery: BlackBerry Storm 2: the official unofficial hands-on

Continue reading BlackBerry Storm 2: the official unofficial hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

BlackBerry Storm 2: the official unofficial hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been following Novatel’s MiFi with bated breath since its December announcement, and the totally pocketable 3G / WiFi router has finally graced a US carrier. Though it’ll ultimately come in a variety of physical designs, bands, and radio technologies for different carriers and parts of the world, the MiFi 2200 for Verizon naturally packs CDMA with EV-DO Rev. A, which means uplink speeds should be reasonably speedy to go along with your 1Mbps-plus downloads. Obviously, the concept of a credit card-shaped object connecting up to five WiFi-enabled devices to high-speed internet from wherever the road takes you is an incredibly intoxicating one — but does the MiFi 2200 deliver? Get the whole story over on Engadget Mobile!

Filed under: Wireless

Verizon MiFi 2200 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re hearing that the Alias 2 is on track for a release in less than two weeks from now — May 11, to be exact — which would mean that we’re just a few short days away from seeing the very first E Ink handset launch in the States. Yes, that’s right, we said it — after all the heated debate over the technology powering the Alias 2’s configurable keypad, our tipster tells us that new information floating down from corporate confirms that the device is using E Ink, which would explain why it’s able to maintain state even with the power off. We still think it’s one awfully ugly phone, but this might be one of those all-too-frequent cases where cool tech ends up winning our hearts anyway. As for pricing, the tipster thinks it may come in at $79, which seems improbable even with deep contract discounting and a big mail-in rebate — but if by some miracle it does end up being accurate, they’re going to be selling tons of these to text-heavy geeks like ourselves.

[Image via PhoneArena, thanks ehjun]

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Alias 2 launching on May 11, E Ink confirmed? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 May 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been down this path countless times, but rumors are once again heating up that Apple and Verizon are actively discussing the possibility of creating an iPhone to work on Big Red’s airwaves, according to USA Today’s infamous “people familiar with the situation.” The juicy gossip claims that discussions kicked off a few months ago when Steve was still running the day-to-day show out in Cupertino, but that the conversation has continued in his absence — and they’d like to get a product on the shelves next year, likely much to AT&T’s chagrin. The article claims that this would be a CDMA product, but given that Verizon boss Ivan Seidenberg himself ruled out a CDMA iPhone and opened the door for an LTE one, we’re inclined to believe that the carrier would like to see this product help inaugurate the first slivers of its commercial 4G network in 2010. Since AT&T (along with the rest of the world) is moving toward LTE, an LTE-powered iPhone is a forgone conclusion — it’s really just a question of when Apple will make it happen and whether Verizon will be able to seal the deal.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Apple, Verizon mulling iPhone deal for next year? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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