Following up, Verizon Wireless is offering customers a special slate of plans until midnight tonight that include unlimited messaging, data and calls to other Verizon customers, with the bonus of being compatible with the forthcoming iPhone 4. The plans start at $69.99 for single lines and $139.99 for FamilyShare plans, with each additional line being an additional $19.99.
The plans are only available by calling 877-873-3278 and only through this number.
Not only did we have a new phone maker enter into the top 5, but also, based on this report by Canalys, it seems that we had a changing of the guards of sorts as far as the leading smartphone OS goes back in Q4 of 2010 as well.
Nokia’s Symbian has been dethroned as the no. 1 OS with Google’s Android taking over the reigns. Android had 32.9% market share in Q4, which is a significant improvement over their performance back in the same period in 2009 wherein they only had 8.7% market share. Symbian, on the other hand, lost some ground from a high of 44.4% in Q4 2009 to just 30.6% in Q4 2010 even though they actually sold more units in 2010. Apple also had a pretty good Q4 2010 as they overtook RIM who fell to number 4. Microsoft rounds up the top 5, though it’s evident they’re not much of a threat as they’ve still got a long way to go before they can catch up with the rest of the pack.
Unless Nokia manages to make headway this 2011, which we’re doubting since we haven’t seen anything really worth looking forward to from Espoo so far, Android looks poised to remain as the top OS this 2011 with their strong line-up of offerings already showcased at CES with more to follow at the MWC. If this isn’t enough of a wake-up call for Nokia, I don’t know what is.
Following up on December’s initial announcement, Sprint has confirmed that international WiMax roaming is now available through Taiwan’s Global Mobile and Jamaica’s Digicel via day passes available for $14.99/day plus taxes/fees. Connections are handled via the Sprint SmartView connection manager, with select modems such as the 250U by Sierra Wireless and the Franklin U600 USB Modem supported by the new roaming agreements.
A major caveat of the service is that WiMax smartphones such as the EVO, Epic 4G, and Shift 4G are not supported by the new agreements, with alternate methods for wireless connectivity suggested for those devices such as Wi-Fi.
Just last week, Dutch retailer ThePhoneHouse jumped the gun and put up a listing for the thus-far unannounced LG Optimus 3D. The bad news? Outside of the name (specifically, the “3D” bit in the name), there wasn’t much to be learned — they didn’t put up specs, and they didn’t put up any pictures.
Of course, a leaked name is often enough to get the leak-train rollin’ — and a-rollin’ it is. See that Droid X-lookin’ thing over there? That is, according to the good ol’ rumor mill, none other than the Optimus 3D.
The spy shot, as obtained by Phandroid, came from an anonymous source. Like any good source, they also came bearing a few details:
Dual-core CPU
While they weren’t sure of the exact dimensions, the screen size seemed bigger than 4″. With industry standards and best guesses in mind, we can assume that it’s probably 4.3″.
There’s a front facing camera, though the resolution of it goes unknown
Of course, a 2D spy shot can’t quite convey whether or not a display is 3D — so there’s still decent odds that this isn’t the Optimus 3D, but a different unannounced LG handset. We’ll find out all the details during Mobile World Congress next week (that is, of course, unless leak-train does all the detailing before then. Know something? Shoot me an e-mail at greg at crunchgear dot com.)
For any Verizon customer thinking of picking up the Samsung Fascinate or Motorola Droid R2-D2 smartphone on the Big ed network, it would appear that now is the right time to do so if you wish to pay less.
According to an article over on the Boy Genius Report by Zach Epstein, Verizon Wireless has lowered the price on several Android smartphones including the Samsung Fascinate and HTC Droid Incredible and the Motorola Droid R2D2.
Apparently this latest price drop from Verizon, places the tree above devices at the same price point of $99.99 based on obtaining a new tow year contract of course,
Although if you want the Samsung Fascinate you’ll have to move quick as its lower price is only for a short temporary time as part of the Big Red’s “10 days of sweet deals” promo, which apparently will deliver a new offer right up to the Verizon iPhone launch day of the 10th of Feb.
There’s a new iOS app been released to the App Store that delivers to the user TV program information and has also been designed as an easy way to connect with friends and chat about the shows they enjoy.
According to an article over on Mashable, the new IntoNow app for the iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple iPad is capable of identifying some 2.6 million broadcasts, which apparently equates to 266 years of video.
Apparently the IntoNow app when selected on your iOS device listens to what the user is watching and within 4 to 12 seconds will let you know the identity of the show, and whether it’s a rebroadcast or live airing and if its on a syndicate or original network.
The IntoNow app for iOS devices delivers information on cast and full episodes and future airings, will give you a notification on when your friends are viewing the same show or episode, the ability to comment on what your friends are viewing in the app via Twitter or Facebook, and also delivers 1-click access to iTunes, IMDb and Netflix.
According to the article, IntoNow uses their own patented SoundPrint audio recognition tech, which identifies adverts from content.
The IntoNow iOS app can be downloaded to the iPhone and iPod Touch running iOS 4 and above while the Apple iPad has to run iOS 3.2 or above, and is a free app available from iTunes.
O2′s Approved programme for distributors and ‘indirect’ dealers to relaunch with w focus on customer satisfaction and enhanced bonuses for supplementary data connections
O2 UK is to restructure its Approved dealer programme to ramp up sales and improve customer satisfaction.
Its Approved scheme is for dealers working via airtime distributors Avenir Telecom, Daisy Distribution, HSC and MoCo.
It launched 19 months ago with 20 dealers, selected at the time by Avenir Telecom and Fone Logistics (now Daisy Distribution).
Dealer numbers have now risen to around 70.
O2 is to add a 40 bonus to commissions for ‘converged’ connections, covering Joined Up and other data supplements.
Dealers said O2 wants customers taking more services as new acquisitions in the SME market slow.
O2 will also launch a customer satisfaction index (CSI) in the channel, as it has in its retail estate, which will see SME customers called after deals are closed to ask for and measure feedback.
It is understood dealers will be set 85 per cent on key scores as part of other Approved targets.
Poor performers will be removed from the programme.
A central plank of the new programme will be exclusivity of airtime and hardware offers for Approved partners, which have traditionally played second fiddle to Centre of Excellence partners
connecting with O2 directly.
O2 will discuss the relaunch with distributors at events this month, hosted by O2 head of partners Maggie Kennedy (pictured).
An O2 spokesperson said: “We are discussing potential changes to O2 Approved with partners.
These are positive changes.”
20:20 Ireland managing director Fergus deBurca and former Vodafone Ireland board member Don Maher have bought 20:20 Ireland from shareholders 20:20 Mobile Group and Vodafone Ireland
20:20 Mobile Ireland has changed hands in a management buyout, with 20:20 Mobile selling its 51 per cent stake and Vodafone Ireland selling its 49 per cent stake.
20:20 Mobile Ireland managing director Fergus deBurca and former Vodafone Ireland board member Don Maher have taken the business on, and rebranded it Fnua. 20:20 Mobile and Vodafone Ireland confirmed the sales of their stakes, but refused to comment further.
It is understood Vodafone Ireland first offered its share to 20:20 Mobile as it looked to extricate itself from the joint venture.
It is unclear if deBurca and Maher have taken any commitment from Vodafone Ireland for ongoing supply to its stores as part of the deal.
See comment in Cutting Room: Making sense of 20:20 Ireland
If you are one that enjoys producing songs on your iOS device but find using the iPhone or Apple iPad microphone a tad annoying and would prefer a full sized microphone so you can really get into the groove and act like the professional singers out there when you maybe do some karaoke, well there is one available.
According to an article over on Gizmodo, for those that require a full sized microphone for their iOS device for whatever reason the iRig Mic from IK Multimedia may just suit your needs.
Apparently the iRig Mic is the first handheld condenser mic for the iPhone, iPod touch and Apple iPad and is the ideal accessory for the vocalist, songwriter or singer whilst on the go and comes with 3 apps, AmpiTude for songwriters and guitarists, VocaLive which is a real time effects suite, and iRig Recorder that enables quick recording and processing.
The iRig Mic for iOS devices features a dual mini jack connector for headphones, mixers and speakers, durable metal housing, handheld on place on a mic stand, can be used with other apps.
The iRig Mic is available for pre-order as of right now and commands a price tag of $59.99. We have a promo trailer along with a demo video of iRig Mic in action, and singing with iRig for your viewing pleasure below, so hit them up and check them out…enjoy.
Yesterday afternoon, an LG Optimus 2X finished the last leg of its rigorous journey from a South Korean factory to my front porch in California. As the first Android smartphone (and the first smartphone of any platform, really) to make it into the wild with a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, it is — for the time being at least — the most powerful Android phone in the world.
We’ll have our full review up in just a few days, but in the mean time I figured you guys might enjoy this footage I shot earlier this morning comparing the 1080p video recording of the LG Optimus 2X to that of the iPhone 4. Check it out after the jump.
My conclusion? The iPhone 4 wins hands down. The Optimus 2X’s footage is quite acceptable — but contrasted against identical footage shot on an iPhone, it falls short in both color and clarity.
(Note: Be sure to watch it in the highest res your computer can handle for maximum effect. )
The UN's International Telecommunication Union predicted last fall that the number of internet users worldwide would hit two billion by the end of 2010, and it's now issued its full report that confirms just that -- 2.08 billion, to be specific. As the ITU's Hamadoun Toure notes, that number represents a huge leap from the mere 250 million internet users that existed a decade ago, and it means that roughly one third of the world's population now has internet access of some sort -- of those, 555 million have a fixed broadband subscription, and 950 million have mobile broadband. Just as impressive as that (if not moreso), are the number of cellphone subscriptions worldwide, which has now crossed the five billion mark. That's up from 500 million at the beginning of the year 2000, although the agency notes that it's only accounted for "subscriptions," and not individual users. Any way you slice it, however, that's quite a record of growth for the first decade of the 21st century.
It's been a few months since Leo Apotheker took the top spot at HP following the Mark Hurd debacle, and it sounds like he's got some big plans for the company -- speaking to the BBC, he says he hopes "one day people will say 'this is as cool as HP,' not 'this is as cool as Apple.'" How does he plan on doing that? By speeding up ship times, for starters -- unlike the year-long wait for the HP Slate, Apotheker says that "when HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship," and that the new webOS products announced on February 9 will ship just a "few weeks" later. Speaking of the February 9 event, Apotheker said the new product line of tablets and mobile phones will have a new name that falls under the HP brand, which sounds like the Palm name is done for. (If we had to guess, it'll be HP webOS, but that's just a guess.)
On top of all that, the BBC calls February 9 just the "starting gun," because Apotheker's "secret answer" and "vision of what HP is capable of in the future" will come on March 14, where he'll try to pull together HP's vast product portfolio into a cohesive narrative. According to Apotheker, HP's size is its "basis of strength," and no other company sells everything from servers to phones the way HP does. Sounds extremely exciting -- and if Apotheker can pull it off, there's a chance we'll remember Mark Hurd's dalliance as the best thing that ever happened to HP.
[Thanks, soydeedo]
Well now it appears that Research In Motion is bringing a little touch screen lover to their BlackBerry Curve range and a new BlackBerry smartphone has been spotted which has the codename of Malibu and is a CDMA device.
According to an article over on Engadget by Nilay Patel, the guys over at Crackberry say that the Malibu should come out to play as the BlackBerry Curve Touch and is scheduled for release either late this year or early next year.
As for specifications of the BlackBerry Curve Touch the device sports a 3.25 HVGA touch screen, CDMA, EV-DO Rev A, 800MHz processor, virtually QWERTY, no physical keyboard with this BlackBerry, 5 megapixel camera with HD video, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, NFC, 1GBG Flash memory, 512MB RAM, hot swap microSD slot, microUSB , accelerometer and ambient light sensor.
Having said that apparently the Crackberry guys say they are the “proposed specs,” so if or when the BlackBerry Curve Touch launches it will be the first BlackBerry Curve to forgo a physical keyboard.
So what do our BlackBerry readers think of the New BlackBerry Curve Touch, does it catch your eye and make you want to own it?
HTC Evo 4G is one of the biggest and newest phones out at Sprint, which looks like an impressive package. You all will be pleasantly surprised by what you’ll get out of this monster.
HTC Evo Shift 4G is a slider-style smart phone, which offers a speakerphone, voice recorder, runs Android 2.2, your choice of connectivity options including Wi-Fi, WiMax/4G, Quick office software, a Bluetooth, Flashlight, text to speech systems, a world clock, and a well equipped support for the major instant messaging systems (Yahoo IM, AOLIM, MSN / Windows Live Messenger and recent upstart Google Talk).
There is also an internet browser, mobile email, galore support for a host of programs like YouTube, Gmail, Android market and variety of Sprint-specific programs like NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile SM, a 5MP camera consisting of LED flash, face detection, self timer, MP3 player, GPS system, 3.5 mm headphone jack and a battery that yields fully six hours of talk time on a single charge.Best part about the HTC Evo Shift 4G is that it offers a plethora of features, and does so in a pretty decent control scheme.
It’s not tough to get around with this phone, and it’s a pretty nice design, so you won’t have to worry about having some heavy, thick thing to try and lug around in your pocket. And if you don’t have the features you need, well, that’s what Android Market is for. Sure about the fact, the battery isn’t quite nice as we might like it to be, but that’s not a huge issue.
Basically, the HTC Evo Shift 4G is a fantastic phone that will do just about anything you’ll want it to, and probably a whole lot that you didn’t think was possible. Its problems are minor, its advantages many, and chances are, you’re going to love this one if you go with it.
Source: Mobile Whack
It’s no secret that there’s a PlayStation Phone – now referred to as the XPERIA Play – in the pipeline. What remained a mystery though, up until yesterday, was how would one play PlayStation games on it. Well, here’s the answer: the PlayStation Suite.
The PlayStation Suite is Sony’s latest innovation, which aims to bring the whole PlayStation experience to the Android world. It comes with a PSOne game emulator and a PlayStation Store for your game downloading pleasure. PSOne games? Boo. We share the same sentiment, but on a good note though, this new game store will also be open to new developers so you can expect new games to be offered up here as well.
When this will officially roll out to the public and how much the apps wil cost is still a mystery. What we do know, however, is that there will be a QA process for all aspiring apps called PlayStation Certified. Think of this as the Sony counterpart to Apple’s App Store approval process.
Will this be limited to the XPERIA Play only? We doubt it. In fact, they’ve made necessary provisions here to accommodate those Android handsets without dedicated hardware game control buttons such as the ones found on the still-unofficial PlayStation Phone.
So what other Android phones will this work on? We still don’t know, but they’ve already stated that Android 2.3 is a must here. The XPERIA arc will most likely be supported, and more will probably be announced at the upcoming Mobile World Congress next month.
[source]
Heads up, guys. Rogers/Fido will be hiking their prices once again. Last time around, it was for SMS. Now, it’s for 411 Directory Assistance calls.
Beginning March 16th, all 411 calls made from a Rogers/Fido mobile phone will be charged $2.50 per call plus airtime and taxes. That’s an increase of $0.50 from the current rate. This is certainly not goods news, but this probably won’t affect a whole lot of you folks out there unless, of course, you’re a frequent caller of this number.
For more info on this, you can head on over here to check out Rogers’ announcement, or here for Fido’s.
[source]
Apparently Verizon Wireless customer shave been experiencing data problems with their BlackBerry devices and have been cut back to voice calls only for as long as a week due to a glitch, however apparently Verizon played down the problem.
According to an article over on Apple Insider by way of Reuters, Jeffrey Nelson a Verizon spokesperson said… “There is no outage, and there hasn’t been one. Our engineers discovered that a small number of customers in a limited geographic area had technical glitches that resulted in their email being delayed up to an hour.”
Although declining to offer any details, Nelson stated the problem had been resolved, but news of this BlackBerry data problem has been closely watch by analysts in anticipation of the launch of the Verizon iPhone, with analysts as well as customers waiting to see if the Big Red suffers the same network problems that were experience by AT&T when the iPhone was first launched.
Apparently sue to intermitted downtime of the Verizon website on the day of the Verizon iPhone announcement some are concerned that their network isn’t quite ready to cope with the expected millions of CDMA iPhone customers.
Verizon execs told investors during an earnings call “We are not going to have any flaws on the execution of the iPhone launch.”
Thus it would seem that Verizon if pretty confident that everything will run smoothly on the launch of the Verizon iPhone, but do you agree? Do you think the Big Red can cope with the iPhone?
Samsung astounded everyone today by announcing four new phones from its international Galaxy line. Samsung has taken a long stride towards its goal and that is to thrive on the Galaxy lineage success. These new entrants will be shown at MWC next month, which is to be held in Barcelona. The phones announced by Samsung today are not currently slated for a U.S. release The phones are:
Galaxy Ace: The Ace sports with a high screen of 3.5- inch HVGA screen (320×480), an 800MHz processor, running Android 2.2, and 5MP camera with flash. Interestingly, this phone is already available in Russia, while in Europe, India and China will get lucky soon.
Galaxy Fit: The fit has a 3.31-inch QVGA (240×320) screen, a 3MP camera, with Android 2.2, and an 800MHz processor. Upon release the Fit will be available in Russia, Europe, India and China.
Galaxy Gio: The Gio boasts of a 3.2-inch HVGA (320×480) screen, with Android2.2,a 3MPcamera and an 800 MHz processor. Coming to Russia, Europe,India and China.
Galaxy Mini: The Mini is thin and quiet attractive, with 3.4-inch QVGA (320×240) touchscreen,3MP camera,with a 600MHz processor and Android 2.2.Available in Russia, and coming to Europe, India and China later.
So you have some mid-level phones here, and that’s actually a market Samsung’s largely ignored over the past year with the rollout of the Galaxy S line. So it’s time to pull up your socks as much more will be revealed at MWC. Stay tuned for the latest update about these new phones when the event gets underway.
Source: Androidcentral
According to a report filed by the Associated Press, AT&T is quietly allowing iPhone customers that switched to the DataPlus/Pro plans last year the option to switch back to the former unlimited iPhone data plan as a retention offer.
The offer is ostensibly to prevent AT&T customers from defecting to the Verizon iPhone, which is expected to sell up to 12 million units this year and possibly more with the limited-time unlimited data offering, which the carrier is using as a trump card against AT&T.
The option to switch back to the former unlimited iPhone data plan has been available to select customers since last June when the DataPlus/Pro plans were first rolled out along with tethering, but was never publicly disclosed until now.
According to AT&T, in order for customers to be able to switch to the former unlimited iPhone data plan, they must have had the plan on the account before switching back from the DataPlus/Pro plans as new customers that signed up for the iPhone since June 7th are not able to move to the old unlimited iPhone data plan because the plan code was never placed on the account.
AT&T’s statement on the issue is as follows from Mark Siegel:
“We handle customers and their situations individually, and we’re not going to discuss specifics,”
The above also does not take into account that a loophole was discovered last October, where new iPhone customers with DataPlus/Data Pro plans that wanted the old unlimited iPhone data plan could take a feature phone, swap devices on the account, add the $30 unlimited feature phone data option, then swap back to the iPhone with successful results.
This is because the old unlimited iPhone data plan has to remain in the system for accounts that decided to keep unlimited iPhone data instead of switching to DataPlus/Pro plans and due to the fact that AT&T featurephones still have the option to add unlimited data access.
If you are one of the Android faithful and a lover of LG made smartphones perhaps you have been considering the LG Vortex for your next device, so what you really need is an in-depth review of that handset so you can make an informed judgement.
So the guys over at Brighthand have come up with an extensive in-depth review of the LG Vortex smartphone so you know just what you are getting. The LG Vortex is on the Verizon Wireless network and commands a price tag of $280 without contract.
They say the dominant feature of the LG Vortex its 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen which is surprisingly easy to use. The device sports a basic design with a plastic casing with a rubbery coating and runs Android 2.2 Froyo OS despite being a low-end device.
The LG Vortex uses a 600MHz processor and only features 200MB of memory but does come with a 2GB memory card. Performance wise when it comes to connectivity, the LG Vortex performed well in the areas it was tested.
Other features of the LG Vortex are, WiFi, Bluetooth, standard Android entertainment apps, 3.2 megapixel camera, whilst battery performance is fairly good.
In finalising the review says that the pros of the LG Vortex are an excellent price and performance ratio along with a decent design, whilst the only con is that the deice doesn’t feature a physical keyboard; the full three page review can be viewed by heading over to their website, and you can check out a couple of review videos by hitting up (here)
So there it is, the review of the LG Vortex, of course if you already own an LG Vortex we’d lover to read your personal review of the device, so feel fre to post them to our comments area below.
For all you owners of the Apple iPad out there who are of a mind to snap up the new iOS app that will enable you to read Rupert Murdock’s The Daily iPad newspaper, which obviously is an app exclusively for Apple’s darling tablet, perhaps you’d like to know what it’s going to cost you.
Well apparently the pricing for The Daily iPad has now been outed and according to an article over on Ubergizmo, and by way of Technology.am and Yahoo! the word is using The Daily iPad app will hit your wallet for a buck a week.
Apparently the price for the Apple iPad exclusive newspaper was announced by James Murdock, Rupert’s son, who runs the News Corp’s European and Asia operations so it looks like that price is the real deal.
The digital newspaper will only be available in the United States at launch and after some delay the iOS app should launch in a couple of weeks time.
So once The Daily iPad app becomes available through iTunes how many of our Apple iPad owning readers will be downloading and signing up for a subscription to the newspaper? Fell free to let us know by posting us a comment.
Early this morning during Sony’s media event in Tokyo, Sony took the wraps off of both the Next Generation Playstation (NGP) handheld and Sony’s attack towards Apple in the surging mobile gaming space in the Playstation Suite.
PlayStation Suite is the result of a new cooperative partnership between Sony and Google along with Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Ericsson to deliver Sony’s Playstation gaming platform to Android via custom emulator.
The Playstation Suite will also herald the debut of the Playstation Certified certification – a set of standards mutually agreed upon by both Sony and Google as the minimum required in order to run Playstation Suite on an Android smartphone or tablet across devices and manufacturers running Android Gingerbread.
The emulator will emulate some of the most popular games from the first Playstation console, with virtual controls supported also in the familiar Playstation control scheme for those devices without hardware controls. The Playstation Suite will make its debut in Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play Android smartphone later this year, which will feature dedicated gaming controls as well as the forthcoming Sony NGP handheld.
The NGP handheld, while colloquially called the PSP2 across the internet resembles a scaled-down PS3 in terms of power, with a 5 inch 960×544 resolution widescreen OLED capacitive display with 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi N and Bluetooth radios on top of front/rear cameras and dedicated memory card slot for Sony’s new NGP memory cards for NGP games along with the long desired dual analog sticks.
The gaming device is underpinned by a quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor tied to a PowerVR SGX GPU capable of rendering near PS3 level detail. The NGP handheld is slated to be released this holiday season, with pricing and carrier partners for 3G access to be determined.
So when it comes to the smartphone camera wars the Nokia N8 holds the title for best camcorder, however apparently the LG Optimus 2X can give the Nokia N8 a close run for its money; so which device comes out tops in a HD video confrontation?
Well you are about to find out as we have a couple of videos for your viewing appraisal today courtesy of the guys over at Dial To Save and by way of the guys at GSM Areana and Techblog, which pits the Nokia N8 against the LG Optimus 2X handset in a HD video confrontation.
As you are probably aware the Nokia N8 packs a 12 megapixel shooter with 720p video and had built up quite a reputation of being a superb camera for shooting movies such as The Commuter.
However apparently the LG Optimus 2X is a serious challenger to the Nokia N8 as the LG Optimus 2X sports an 8 megapixel camera but with 1080p video, and thus both smartphone have been put to the test to see which can come out tops.
Apparently the guys reckon it was a close call and that the LG Optimus 2X is “one of the stongest contestants of the year,” so head on down and check out the videos to make your own judgment one which device wins…enjoy.
Yes, we are deep in Q4 2010 financial reporting season, and Motorola's freshly independent Mobility arm is latest to step up and deliver its figures. Total revenue over the past three months reached $3.4 billion, marking a 21 percent increase year-on-year, net revenue from mobile devices was $2.4 billion, up by 33 percent year-on-year, and handset shipments were a seemingly healthy 4.9 million. That figure's disappointed Wall Street estimates, however -- the collective expectation, according to MarketWatch, was 5.2 million -- and the net profit of $80 million is barely (for a company of this size) in the black. More doom and gloom is cast by Motorola itself, which is predicting a difficult first quarter of 2011 that will end with the company losing between 9 and 21 cents per share in net terms. Ah well, let's try to enjoy the sunshine of Moto making money today and forget the rainclouds of tomorrow.
Show full PR text
Motorola Mobility Announces Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2010 Financial Results
Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights
Jan. 26, 2011
* Revenues of $3.4 billion, up 21 percent from fourth quarter 2009
* GAAP earnings of .27 per share; non-GAAP earnings of .37 per share
* Mobile Devices net revenues of $2.4 billion, up 33 percent from fourth quarter 2009; shipped 4.9 million smartphones; GAAP operating earnings of $72 million; non-GAAP operating earnings of $56 million
* Home net revenues of $1.0 billion; GAAP operating earnings of $54 million; non-GAAP operating earnings of $90 million
* Operating cash flow generation of $225 million
Click here for printable press release and financial tables.
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Jan. 26, 2011 – Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today reported net revenues of $3.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, up 21 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009. The GAAP earnings in the fourth quarter of 2010 were $80 million, or .27 per share, compared to a loss of $204 million, or .69 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2009. On a non-GAAP basis, earnings in the fourth quarter of 2010 were $108 million, or .37 per share, compared to a loss of $70 million, or .24 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2009.
For the full year, 2010 net revenues were $11.5 billion, up 4 percent compared to 2009. For the full year, the GAAP loss was reduced to .29 per share from a loss of $4.56 per share in 2009. On a non-GAAP basis, the loss was reduced to .28 per share from a loss of $2.95 per share in 2009.
Details on non-GAAP adjustments and the use of non-GAAP measures are included later in this press release and in the financial tables.
The Company generated positive operating cash flow of $225 million and $606 million in the quarter and full year, respectively. As planned, subsequent to the end of the quarter, the Company received $3.2 billion in cash related to its separation from Motorola, Inc.
"The improvement in our financial results last year, including profitability in the fourth quarter, is indicative of the progress we have made in delivering innovative smartphones and improving the Mobile Devices business," said Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility. "Our Home business performed well and remains a premier provider of digital set-tops and end-to-end video solutions. With the global opportunities ahead, along with our diversified portfolio, our brand, and our people, we are well positioned to grow, and further improve our financial results in 2011."
Operating Results
Mobile Devices segment net revenues in the fourth quarter were $2.4 billion, up 33 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. GAAP operating earnings were $72 million compared to an operating loss of $166 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings were $56 million compared to an operating loss of $117 million in the year-ago quarter. For the full year 2010, net revenues were $7.8 billion, an increase of 9 percent compared to 2009. The 2010 GAAP operating loss was reduced to $76 million from an operating loss of $1.2 billion in 2009. The 2010 non-GAAP operating loss was reduced to $198 million from an operating loss of $923 million in 2009.
The Company shipped 4.9 million and 13.7 million smartphones in the quarter and full year, respectively, compared to 2.0 million in the fourth quarter and full year 2009. The Company shipped total handsets (including smartphones) of 11.3 million and 37.3 million in the quarter and full year 2010, respectively.
Mobile Devices highlights:
* Launched seven new smartphones in the fourth quarter, including the DROID PRO, DROID 2 Global, Motorola DEFY™, and Motorola BRAVO™, bringing our total smartphone launches for the year to 23.
* In the first quarter 2011, announced three new smartphones and the Company's first tablet which are garnering numerous accolades. Products include:
o Motorola ATRIX™ 4G, winner of CNET's Best Smartphone at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) award, featuring a dual-core processor, qHD pentile display and Motorola Mobility's proprietary webtop application that powers an ecosystem of accessories, enabling users to have an enhanced and more interactive computer-like experience with their device.
o Named "Best of Show" at CES 2011, Motorola XOOM™ is the first device to incorporate Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Google's powerful new operating system developed specifically for tablets; XOOM features a dual-core processor and high-definition 10.1 inch widescreen display.
o DROID™ BIONIC features a sleek design, and delivers the fastest mobile Internet experience with 4G LTE speeds that are up to 10 times faster than current 3G speeds.
o Motorola CLIQ 2™ with MOTOBLUR™, the follow-up to Motorola Mobility's first smartphone, features a 3.7-inch touch-screen display, a 1GHz processor and a new slide-out QWERTY keypad.
* Acquired Zecter, Inc., a leading start-up with synchronization and streaming technologies for on-demand digital media consumption.
Home segment net revenues in the fourth quarter were $1.0 billion, up 1 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. GAAP operating earnings were $54 million, compared to an operating loss of $30 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings increased to $90 million from $71 million in the year-ago quarter. For the full year 2010, net revenues were $3.6 billion, compared to $3.9 billion in 2009. GAAP operating earnings increased to $152 million from $11 million in 2009. The 2010 non-GAAP operating earnings increased to $272 million from $197 million in 2009.
Home highlights:
* Increased shipments of DVR set-tops reflecting consumer desire for personalized viewing experiences.
* Acquired 4Home, a leading provider of managed home solutions, to expand our cloud-based Motorola Medios service management software portfolio.
* Launched RX48 CMTS module, the industry's highest-density upstream DOCSIS solution.
* Launched a next-generation IP set-top for the EMEA market, extending our leadership position in IPTV.
First-Quarter 2011 Outlook
The Company's outlook for the first quarter of 2011 is the following:
* Consolidated operating earnings in a range around breakeven
* Non-operating costs of approximately $10 million
* Income tax provision of approximately $25 million
* Net loss of $26 million to $62 million
* Net loss per share of .09 to .21
* Basic shares outstanding of approximately 294 million shares
* Excludes charges associated with items of the variety typically highlighted by the Company in its quarterly earnings results, stock-based compensation expense and intangible assets amortization expense
Oh, how fast time flies. It seems like only yesterday that Motorola was introducing the Droid X; now, we’re already gossiping about its successor.
According to HotNewsHardware, the creatively-dubbed Droid X2 will look preeeeetty much identical to the ol’ X — but it’s what inside that counts, right? That’d be be a Dual-Core 1 GHZ Tegra 2 chip. Oh, and the 4.3″ screen’s resolution would be bumped up by about 21%, from 854 x 480 to 960 x 540.
Oddly, the original tipster says this thing is running Android 2.2, rather than the newer and much more desirable 2.3 — hopefully Moto gets around to fixing that before the devices leave the factory.
You may or may not be aware that the HTC HD2 smartphone can now dual boot the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems so the user can at least have a choice, but how do you get your HTC HD2 to dual boot?
Well what we have for your viewing pleasure today is a couple of tutorial videos on how to partition an SD card to run Android and Windows Phone 7, which comes our way courtesy of the guys over at PC World and by way of XDA-developers posted by YouTube user Vgeorom.
As you probably know the HTC HD2 runs Windows Mobile 6.5, so we’re talking old and out of date OS here which needs to have some alternative such as Windows Phone 7 or Android to keep up with today’s latest devices at least.
And as the process of getting Android and Windows Phone 7 to dual boot on the HTC HD2 isn’t a single step process the XDA guys made this helpful tutorial.
So if you own an HTC HD2 and really don’t want Windows Mobile 6.5 any longer, head on down, mash that play button, check out the video and get dual boot onto your device…enjoy, and feel free to let us know how you get on if you try it.
The FCC has approved the waiver of a current regulation that prohibits cell phones from using satellite airwaves and associated spectrum if not used to directly communicate with them.
The repeal approves of the business model by start up LightSquared, which seeks to build a nationwide LTE data network using satellites in tandem with conventional cellsites, while offering devices with hardware capable of using the satelite network for mobile broadband access across the country.
The company is currently conducting LTE trials in Baltimore, Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix, with commercial launches planned by the third quarter of this year. LightSquared currently has access to 59 MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band and has stated that its network will consist of around 40,000 cellsites, covering 92 percent of the U.S. population by 2015.
GPS unit manufacturers and other companies reliant on GPS hardware had expressed concern with LightSquared’s business proposal and model, fearing that the networlk’s operation would cause interference between its satellites and those used to deliver GPS data, with the most recent concerns expressed by National Telecomminications Administration director Lawrence Strickling on January 12th in a letter to the FCC.
Lightsquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja had promised in a letter to the FCC this past Monday to work with the regulator to ensure that the LTE network would not interfere with the aforementioned GPS network as well as defense, maritime and aeronautical emergency communications.
The FCC issued the approval of the circumvention of the The Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) earlier today despite the aforementioned concerns
LightSquared is majority owned and by the hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, which has invested billions in order to launch its own wireless broadband network to lease access to potential. LightSquared has yet to name any wholesale partners and has contracts with Nokia Siemens Networks for the terrestrial network hardware, while signing Nokia and Qualcomm as mobile hardware partners.
Android’s answer to the iPad — a software release called Honeycomb — is coming soon. Multiple tablet devices like the Motorola Xoom are on the way, and we’re probably going to see dozens of them by the end of the year. But while the OS is nearly done and Google’s apps are looking great, third party developers still have to optimize their applications for these much bigger screens. Today, Google is allowing developers to do just that: it’s released the preview version of the Android 3.0 SDK.
This is going to give us our closest look at Android 3.0, which has been demoed before, but never very throughly. Many of the new features are spelled out on the Platform Highlights page, which we’re still combing through. Here are some of the main highlights:
Persistent Action Bar
The platform provides each application with its own instance of the Action Bar at the top of the screen, which the application can use to give the user quick access to contextual options, widgets, status, navigation, and more. The application can also customize the display theme of its Action Bar instance.
The Action Bar lets developers expose more features of their applications to users in a familiar location, while also unifying the experience of using an application that spans multiple Activities or states.
Activity fragments, for greater control of content and design flexibility
Starting with Android 3.0, developers can break the Activities of their applications into subcomponents called Fragments, then combine them in a variety of ways to create a richer, more interactive experience. For example, an application can use a set of Fragments to create a true multipane UI, with the user being able to interact with each pane independently. Fragments can be added, removed, replaced, and animated inside an Activity dynamically, and they are modular and reusable across multiple Activities. Because they are modular, Fragments also offer an efficient way for developers to write applications that can run properly on both larger screen as well as smaller screen devices.
Cutting through the back and forth surrounding Windows Phone 7 tethering are two new hacks, with one being markedly easier than the other to implement. After discovering the option in Samsung's Focus and Omnia 7 late last year, engineering minds over at xda-developers have now uncovered a method to allow USB internet tethering on HTC's smattering of Windows Phone 7 handsets. Unfortunately, you'll need to unlock your device before any of this will work, but the case is definitely different for Dell's Venue Pro. For that one, you'll simply need to modify the .INF file -- no unlock required. Hit the links below for the devilish details, and try not to set up a P2P farm using your phone's 3G connection. We hear carriers are none too fond of that foolhardiness.
[Thanks, Lake]
So we've just installed Google's first public-access preview of its tablet-focused Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system, an early build of the platform's SDK that features "non-final" code and APIs; it's intended primarily for developers who want to get a head start on making their tablet app dreams come true, but naturally, we needed to install it and take it for a test drive ourselves. Here are our quick observations:
Like Android SDK emulators before it, Honeycomb's is extremely slow -- nearly to the point of uselessness in this case. We'll give them a mulligan since this is a preview build, but seriously, we wouldn't recommend installing this unless you enjoy pulling your hair out.
There appears to be some sort of orientation bug that prevents us from going landscape, which is what we really wanted. Sorry about that! We've shot the video sideways and rotated all of our images; if we're able to figure it out or a newer build is released with orientation properly working, we'll update.
The browser looks great -- specifically the UI, which is going to make desktop browser users feel right at home perhaps more than any other tablet browsing experience to date. As with the rest of the emulator, it was too slow to really use -- and it kept crashing on us -- but we're digging the look.
The system for adding and managing widgets is a joy to use -- it makes your entire desktop accessible from a single screen, and we like the amount of detail you can preview for each widget before deciding whether to use it and where to place it.
In general, the window animations and screen transitions seem cool, but none were smooth or fast enough in the emulator to know for sure. Jury's still out until this gets faster or we're using Honeycomb on actual tablets.
We're not in love with the dim, squashed segmented display that Google is using for the time in the lower right; we're hoping there are plenty of alternative fonts available.
Since the emulator doesn't provide a "Google experience" build with access to the Android Market, Gmail, or other "branded" Google apps, we weren't able to deep-dive on how real-world applications are going to look on the platform -- but with any luck, Motorola's Xoom should be shipping within a few weeks. In the meantime, check out a video after the break!
Update: We've figured out the orientation trick -- you need to uncheck automatic orientation in Settings, then flip the emulator from landscape to portrait (counterintuitive, we know). We'll be updating the media as soon as we can!
Android 3.0 Honeycomb preview emulator hands-on
RIM's been hyping AIR apps and web apps for the PlayBook for a while now, but there's a chance much bigger things are in the works: BGR says the company wants to add in Java compatibility for legacy BlackBerry apps, and that among other options it's considering using the Dalvik virtual machine found in Android to get there. That makes a lot of sense -- Dalvik is one of the most advanced Java(ish) virtual machines out there, and it's open-source, so RIM could conceivably take it and tweak it to work with existing BlackBerry apps, which are built in Java. Clever, clever.
But that's not all: BGR goes on to speculate that using Dalvik will also allow the PlayBook and future QNX devices to straight-up run regular Android apps, which is obviously a much bigger deal than simply using the same virtual machine. Exactly how or why BGR's making that leap is unclear, since running Android apps on the PlayBook would require porting much more than just Dalvik, but it's out there. In fact, it's been out there since December 7, when Fortune picked up a note from Gleacher & Company analyst Mark McKechnie suggesting that RIM was planning to offer Android compatibility, so we're curious if this rumor's just taking another trip through the internet meat grinder. Honestly, our bet is that RIM is far too proud to offer Android compatibility and that it's just investigating Dalvik as a Java environment, but we'd love to be proven wrong -- we'll see what happens.
For all you prospective Verizon iPhone owners out there you might like to get a jump on others and get your pre-order in for the CDMA iPhone from Apple as apparently Apple has now gone live with their Verizon iPhone pre-order pages.
According to an article over on Slash Gear, the Apple Verizon iPhone pre-order pages went active earlier today showing $199 for the 16GB Verizon iPhone and $299 for the 32GB Verizon iPhone with links taking the user through either adding the product to your existing account setting up a new Verizon account.
Apparently the Verizon iPhone has 3 individual voice plans starting off at $39.99 per month for which you’ll get 450 minutes, $59.99 per month gets you 900 minutes along with unlimited calls to 5 people on any network, or for $69.99 per month the user gains unlimited nationwide calls.
On the data plan front the Verizon iPhone offers unlimited data for $29.99 per month and for the addition of 2GB mobile hotspot data it costs $49.99 per month with $20 per additional GB of mobile hotspot data.
On the messaging side of things you can have 250 messages for $5 per month, 500 messages for $10 per month along with unlimited to other Verizon users, completely unlimited for $20 per month, and pay-per-use is 20 cents per text and 25 cents for video or image messaging.
Now although the pr-order pages were up, I tried to access them a few minutes ago and couldn’t the pages come up with a message saying “You’re request couldn’t be processed,” but maybe that’s because I’m in the UK, or maybe Apple has taken them down already, or maybe it’s due to people rushing to pre-order. So if any of our reader’s happen to give it a go feel free to let us know how you get on.
For quite some time now the Apple iPhone has been referred to as the iconic iPhone by numerous tech blogs, and it seem that Apple themselves have now grated the same iconic status to their Apple iPad in their latest advert.
Naturally we have that advert for your viewing pleasure below courtesy of the guys over at Slash Gear and by way of Apple Insider and is called “iPad is Iconic,” and lasts the usual 30 seconds for a commercial spot.
Basically Apple have granted iconic status to their Apple iPad due to there being over 60,000 iPad specific apps available in the App Store, several of which are touted in the advert. The blurb accompanying the video on YouTube states…” From Hollywood to the classroom, the iPad now has over 60,000 apps for just about everyone and everything.”
So head on down, punch that play button and check out the Apple iPad commercial, after which we’d love to know if you agree with Apple that the iPad is now iconic…enjoy
No doubt everyone who owns a mobile phone knows that if your handset is GSM it can’t run on a CDMA network and visa versa, and now that Apple is in cahoots with both AT&T and Verizon there are rumours that Apple will need to make the iPhone 5 and Apple iPad 2 compatible with both networks.
For quite some time now we’ve been hearing that the iPhone 5 and Apple iPad 2 may sport both GSM and CDMA radios so both devices can play nice on both networks, and according to an article over on Cult of Mac, the evidence of GSM/CDMA radios for Apple’s new devices is mounting.
According to the article it’s looking likely that Apple will opt for Qualcomm’s radio component for future products replacing the current Infineon hardware.
The evidence so far comes via Engadget whose sources say that Qualcomm will be supplying the radio for the Apple iPad 2 and iPhone 5 and now there more evidence has surfaced, this time from jailbreak hacker Zibri, who states that the current build of iTunes shows support for a Qualcomm baseband.
Of course Zibri’s discovery may not be anything to do with the iPhone 5 and Apple iPad 2 gaining GSM and CDMA radios, because as Apple has pushed out the Verizon iPhone naturally the device uses a Qualcomm CDMA radio, so this could be the reason iTunes shows support for the Qualcomm baseband.
Having said that, it does make perfect sense to me for Apple to switch supplier to Qualcomm and feature both GSM and CDMA radios in future products, don’t you agree?
Just a couple of days away before bidding January goodbye and a couple of weeks away from the MWC, Samsung decided to unveil a quartet of Android phones including the leaked Galaxy Ace and Suit now called the Fit.
All of the reported specs we talked about in a previous post regarding the Galaxy Ace proved to be true. In addition, it’s now confirmed to come with ThinkFree document viewer, and apart from Russia, is also headed for Europe, China, and India. The Fit, meanwhile, runs on a 600MHz processor, and sports a 3.3-inch QVGA touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, and WiFi connectivity. This one’s coming to Europe and India too as well as South America. Next up is the Galaxy Glo (S5660). This features a 3.2-inch HVGA touchsccreen, social networking integratio, and WiFi connectivity. Last, we have the Galaxy Mini (S5570). This baby comes with an even smaller display, 3.14-inch tobe exact, and runs on a 600MHz processor with WiFi connectivity and Quick Office document viewer pre-installed. Just like the Ace, the Glo and the Galaxy Mini will both be available in Europe, China, and India soon.
Not much to get excited about especially none of these phones is headed for the North American market. On a good note, though, it is confirmed that Samsung will be debuting the Galaxy S2, their next-generation Galaxy S smartphone, at the MWC next month, which is something definitely worth looking forward to.
[source]
Samsung's decided that 10 million Galaxy S devices just aren't enough for us, so it's trickling down the brand name, Android OS and TouchWiz UI into some more affordable form factors. In order from left to right, the Galaxy Ace is a 3.5-incher that most closely resembles the S patriarch, though it makes do with an 800MHz processor and HVGA screen resolution. It's said to be available immediately in Russia, to be followed by Europe, India and China soon. The Fit takes us into lower spec territory, with a 3.3-inch QVGA screen and 600MHz speed, while the Gio packs an even smaller display but raises resolution back up to HVGA. The Galaxy mini has to go down as a blatant LG Optimus T KIRF, which might be its sole notable feature, given the 3.1-inch QVGA display and 600MHz capabilities. All three are targeting the same territories as the Ace, meaning the US will likely be spared from this affordable Android whimsy.
Show full PR text
Share the Joy of Your Life with the new Samsung GALAXY Smartphones
(SEOUL=Korea Newswire) January 26, 2011 -- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today announced the Samsung GALAXY family: the Samsung GALAXY Ace, the Samsung GALAXY Fit, the Samsung GALAXY Gio and the Samsung GALAXY mini. All offer a unique take on the smartphone experience, expanding the Android™-powered Samsung GALAXY smartphone line-up to the broader consumer market.
Following the phenomenal global success of the Samsung GALAXY S, the new Samsung GALAXY smartphones will meet the diverse demands of current and potential smartphone users. The Samsung GALAXY family shows that smartphones can cater to any lifestyle, with enhanced multimedia and application capabilities as well as a social hub keeping users in touch with friends and family. Each device in the Samsung GALAXY family has been created to meet unique needs and allow users to share the fun and excitement in their lives with friends and family.
Users have access to limitless entertainment possibilities through over 100,000 applications from Android Market™ and Samsung Apps, while quick communication is enabled via QuickType by SWYPE text input. The Samsung GALAXY family comes equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity and Social Hub which lets users view their contacts, SNS, IM and email together in an integrated one-page layout, keeping them constantly connected.
JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business, said, "In creating the Samsung GALAXY smartphone line-up, we wanted to expand on the things that made the Samsung GALAXY S such a runaway success whilst diversifying our product range. Each device delivers something different, with the idea that each user is an individual and wants their mobile experience to be easy and fun. With these four Samsung GALAXY smartphones we help them share the joy they have in their lives and bring their experiences to their friends and family."
The Samsung GALAXY family was inspired by the success of the original Samsung GALAXY S, which has sold an astonishing 10 million devices in just seven months. In designing this family of devices, Samsung has taken the award-winning Samsung GALAXY S and tailored it to meet the diverse and growing needs of consumers. The Samsung GALAXY family will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress from February 14th to 17th in Barcelona.
T-Mobile internal documentation has confirmed three forthcoming launch dates for the long-awaited Samsung Galaxy S 4G, Dell Streak 7 and LG G Slate.
The Samsung Galaxy S 4G (nee Vibrant 4G) will be launched on February 23rd with an upgraded HSPA+ compatible radio and Android Froyo. The Dell Streak 7 tablet is set to launch on February 7th with Android 2.2, an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and a 7 inch display at 800×480 resolution for $299.99 after new 2 year agreement.
The LG G Slate is slated for launch on March 23rd with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and HSPA+ support.
Verizon has confirmed that the first update for its LG VL600 4G LTE modem will improve performance and is available now as a Windows installer, with the long-awaited Mac OS X support update slated for rollout in February for both modems.
The UML290 and the LG VL600 were first launched in December with the rollout of LTE service in 38 major markets and over 60 airports in the country.
I’ve always wondered why a manufacturer doesn’t wait until everything works fine before releasing a device otherwise they need to update soon after release when things start to go wrong, and this seems to have been the case with the Notion Ink Adam.
However, according to an article over on Ubergizmo by way of Electronista, Notion Ink has apparently pulled a recent over the air update to the Notion Ink Adam, which it has been reported bricks, the Android tablet.
Word is a large quantity of Notion Ink Adam customers have been contacting the company’s customer support causing Notion Ink to pull the update until such times they can fix the problem.
There’s no official word on what the issue is, but apparently users of Notion Ink Fan have been saying the cause may be the update file failing to completely download. Apparently Notion Ink will email customers once a solution has been found and the over the air update can resume.
So any of our readers that happen to have a Notion Ink Adam grab the update and have had their tablet bricked? If so feel free to shout out your annoyance in our comments area below.
It's not just Big Red taking issue with the FCC's final stance on net neutrality, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise -- landline and wireless operators tend to do a pretty good job harmonizing their opinions on regulatory issues, and net neutrality is about as big of a regulatory issue as you're going to get. Next up to drop the legal hammer is MetroPCS, filing this week with the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and saying that it wants to make sure "the concerns of competitive wireless carriers, like MetroPCS, are addressed." Interestingly, the company specifically calls out net neutrality complaints against its new 4G plans -- which stratify non-browser data usage as a separate category with its own bucket -- as one of the reasons it's filing the appeal; separately, the carrier says that it's going to formally respond to those complaints next month, so it's clearly not ready to back down and rethink its LTE strategy. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.
MetroPCS has filed a complaint against the FCC regarding its recently announced net neutrality rules and is seeking to avoid those rules from becoming law. CEO Roger Linquist issued the following statement:
“MetroPCS’ concerns regarding the jurisdictional basis for the net neutrality rules, the recent appeal filed by Verizon, and challenges raised by some proponents of net neutrality to MetroPCS’ recent 4G rate plans, have caused Metro PCS to appeal the FCC’s net neutrality order to ensure that the concerns of competitive wireless carriers, like MetroPCS, are addressed.”
The MetroPCS complaint comes on the heels of other complaints made by Verizon and consumer protection groups in the past few weeks.
More and more word is hitting the net waves concerning the next generation iPhone, the iPhone 5 and the most recent word is that Apple is gearing up for massive sales of the iPhone 5 and the Verizon iPhone 4.
According to an article over on Nexus404, by Chris Smith, word has it that Apple has placed orders for ten to twelve million Verizon CDMA iPhone units along with an initial order for ten million iPhone 5 units.
Apparently the word is also that Pegatron will suspend vacations and triple employee wages with a view to getting ahead with orders for the iPhone 5. Production is taking place in Pegatron’s Shanghai plans but will also use their Suzhou plant to help cope with the Apple orders.
So there you have it the latest rumour on the iPhone 5, which may or may not be true as Pegatron and Apple aren’t about to spill the beans with any offcial announcement, but if the iPhone 5 is coming in June then its fairly clear that suppliers would be working on the device.
The Mini Connected app finally hit the App Store back in December, enabling those with suitably equipped little German/British autos to connect their iPhones and iPods and do what nature intended. Well, everything nature intended except for streaming Pandora. Now that solemn right is a possibility too, with the latest version of Pandora available in iTunes. Update that, plug your iPhone into your Mini, and you can get your stream on, just like we did at CES. However, if you're more of a domestics guy or gal you don't have to feel left out, because this new version supports Ford's SYNC AppLink as well. And, yes, we had some quality hands-on time with that, too.
Staying true to its Galaxy S forefather, the Nexus S has shown up with a new white shell, which, just as with the Galaxy S, only extends to its rear portions, leaving the front end a familiar shade of noir. Just what's keeping manufacturers from blanching their phones' visage, we don't know, but at least it's looking like there'll be some variation in the Nexus S' palette. We did notice a "Silver Black" Nexus S sprouting up in European retailers' listings a couple of weeks ago, which this could well be -- it all depends on how loosely these companies define the word "silver." There's no knowledge on when or where this chromatically altered S will be on sale, but you'll know more as soon as we do.
Talk of 3D features in LG's upcoming G-Slate are becoming less and less implausible-sounding by the day, capped off this week with a couple of doozies: first off, Carphone Warehouse's Dutch outpost -- called simply The Phone House there -- briefly posted a teaser for an upcoming "Optimus 3D" Android smartphone, though the page has since been removed. Secondly, the world's tech media (us included) just received an invite to LG's shindig at Mobile World Congress next month where it teases a new Optimus model that takes us "into the new dimension." Pretty strong foreshadowing there, wouldn't you say? This should all work itself out in the next couple weeks -- but we're warning you right now, LG: if any of this stuff isn't glasses-free, we're expecting you to buy us all Guccis (fortunately, odds are good they're using that 4.3-inch glasses-free unit demoed at CES this month).
After a bit of a false start, Google's finally officially turned on Google Voice number porting for all existing users. $20 is all it takes to swap your main line over to the service, although you'll have to cancel your existing service contracts to make it all happen. The service is currently only for existing GV users, so you can't open a new account and port straight away, but Google says new accounts will get the option in the "next few weeks." So -- anyone out there going to take the plunge?
Sigh. We don't know whether to congratulate the enterprising spirit of this venture or to bemoan the sad state of a world where a 60-something-year old lady feels compelled to turn into an iPhone smuggler. Either way, Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport has given us a pretty good reason for the use of full body scanners, which revealed the woman in question was strapped with 44 iPhone 4s all around her body. Dressed in traditional Georgian attire, the lady had some struggles walking around, which raised suspicion and got the officials to run her through the machines. Guess this gives us a whole new definition to the phrase "stocking stuffer," eh?
[Original image credit: buystoreshelving.com]
Following up on the news of Nokia canceling the X7 for AT&T last week, it seems that T-Mobile has canceled the successor to its surprisingly popular Nuron in the Nuron 2, which would have been a rebranded Nokia C5-03.
The C5-03 as available in Europe features S60 5th Edition, a 3.2 inch resistive touch display with a resolution of 640 x 360, 5.0 megapixel camera with no flash and video recording at 15 frames per second, Wi-Fi, GPS, a digital compass, quadband GSM/EDGE support and triband 3G, 3.5 mm headphone jack, microUSB port and Bluetooth 2.0.
Training on the device was to have started tomorrow with the launch meant for February 4th before it was canceled within the last week. The cancelation of the Nuron 2 is a strange one as the first Nuron was considered one of the most popular Nokia Symbian smartphones in the US.
The cancelation of the X7 and the increasing irrelevance of Nokia and Symbian in the US market may have influenced the carrier’s decision to cancel the phone so close to launch as Nokia continues to struggle with decreasing market share in the US and other developed countries.