Wednesday, May 25, 2011

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Leap Joins… Everyone In Opposing The AT&T/T-Mobile Deal

Posted: 24 May 2011 02:50 PM PDT

At this point, it would probably be safe to say that just about everyone opposes the AT&T/T-Mobile deal (besides, you know, AT&T and T-Mobile.) We've heard senators, CEOs, and FCC members openly object to AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, and this time Leap Wireless (the parent company behind the 8th largest carrier in the US, Cricket) is jumping on the hater bandwagon.

"A competitive marketplace is critical to wireless innovation – and small and mid-sized carriers such as Cricket are driving that innovation," said Doug Hutcheson, president and CEO at Leap and Cricket Wireless. "The proposed acquisition would eliminate T-Mobile as an important nationwide competitor in the industry. It also raises problems of spectrum concentration and impaired access to spectrum by competitive carriers; undercuts access to wholesale voice and data roaming services; and threatens to foster reduced device availability and reduced interoperability of wireless networks and devices, among many other issues."

According to Hutcheson, results like that aren't "in the public interest." The FCC and DOJ are still conducting a thorough review of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year.

[via Phone Scoop]

Apple Steals A Glance At Five Upcoming Samsung Products… Legally

Posted: 24 May 2011 01:39 PM PDT

A little "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours" seems to be going down between handset makers Samsung and Apple during their ongoing patent battle, only Apple has become that kid that never ends up showing theirs.

In mid-April, Apple filed a lawsuit claiming that Samsung infringed on patents with regards to the design of its products. Last week, Federal Judge Lucy Koh ruled that Apple can have a sneak peak of soon-to-be-released Samsung devices to ensure that the products don't infringe on Apple's patents. Samsung has been forced to provide five of its devices to Apple: the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, the Infuse 4G, and the Infuse 4G LTE. The court hasn't yet formed an official conclusion, but Judge Koh did make a point of mentioning that thus far, evidence points toward the notion that Samsung may have imitated Apple's designs.

"Apple has produced images of Samsung products and other evidence that provide a reasonable basis for Apple's belief that Samsung's new products are designed to mimic Apple's products," said Koh. This shouldn't be too big of a blow to Samsung, though, as only Apple's legal team was granted access to the forthcoming Samsung products. Since the Samsung Galaxy S II and Infuse 4G are already available in the U.K. and U.S., the engineers back in Cupertino will really only be excluded from checking out three of the five devices in question.

It all started on April 18, when Apple accused Samsung of "slavishly" copying its iPad and iPod designs. South Korea-based Samsung responded by accusing Apple of copying its own designs. After a month or two of back-and-forth, things seem to be swinging in the latter's favor after Koh's ruling last week.

What's interesting is that Samsung and Apple actually engage in a pretty symbiotic relationship. Samsung provides LCD panels and semiconductors needed to create iPads and iPhones, whereas Apple takes the cake as Samsung's number one customer. Nonetheless, the gruesome duel underway between both companies' legal teams may cause disintegration within the relationship.

[via Mobiledia]

Google Planning NFC Roll-Out For May 26

Posted: 24 May 2011 12:32 PM PDT

Bloomberg reports that Google plans to dip its far-reaching toes into the mobile payment space starting May 26 on phones from Sprint, according to statements made by three unnamed people close to the situation. The service will give owners of select Android phones (like the Nexus S), the ability to perform transactions and redeem coupons with their smartphone, said the sources.

Last month Sprint said it was talking with a number of different manufacturers and technology companies on NFC payment systems, and it would seem that Google is one of them. The anonymous sources claim that Google's NFC service will roll out in March in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

Though spokespeople from both Sprint and Google declined to comment, we expect that Google's May 26 press event may have something to do with these hushed plans.

[via Bloomberg]

No iOS 5 for the iPhone 3GS, says Eldar Murtazin

Posted: 24 May 2011 12:08 PM PDT

Given the bevy of issues that the first builds of iOS 4 brought to the iPhone 3GS (poor performance, decreased battery life, random mid-call reboots), it was pretty clear that the 3GS was reaching the end of its update life cycle.

According to the partially-notorious Eldar Murtazin (who, while not always right, regularly nails some massive scoops), the iPhone 3GS won’t be seeing iOS 5 come its way by any official means. On one hand, this isn’t too surprising: the 3GS is nearly two years old, afterall; on the other, Apple is still selling this one alongside the iPhone 4, so even fairly recent customers may end up feeling left out in the cold.

[Via Twitter]

T-Mobile Doubles 4G Network Speeds, Introduces Rocket 3.0 Laptop Stick

Posted: 24 May 2011 09:44 AM PDT

In a world where second-gen devices launch mere months after their predecessors, I guess it's not too much of a surprise that large-scale upgrades are already being implemented to 4G networks. T-Mobile, specifically, has announced that it will double the speed of its 4G network in 55 different markets.

The goal is to offer download speeds of 42 Mbps to Atlanta, Ga., Chicago, Ill., Los Angeles, Calif, among others. And that's not all T-Mo customers have to look forward to, as the pink carrier is also launching its first 42 Mbps-capable 4G product, a laptop sick called the T-Mobile Rocket 3.0.

Manufactured by ZTE, the Rocket 3.0 laptop stick will sell for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on a 2GB two-year contract. Off-contract, the Rocket 3.0 will jump to $199.99. T-Mobile promises more 4G devices soon, 25 in 2011 to be exact, to join the dozen 4G-capable devices already in its portfolio.


Microsoft Officially Announces Windows Phone 7.1 Mango With 500 New Features

Posted: 24 May 2011 08:13 AM PDT

Today at Microsoft's Windows Phone VIP Reception, president of mobile communications Andy Lees and senior Windows Phone product manager Derek Snyder gave us a quick rundown of what to expect out of the newest version of the Windows Phone platform, WP7.1 or "Mango."

Though he didn't have time to cover all 500 new features, the focus will certainly center around communication, applications, and the way we use mobile internet. Along with the current service offerings in People Hub such as Facebook, Hotmail, and Gmail, Microsoft has gone ahead and added LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mango will also bring with it a Groups feature, allowing multiple people to communicate across a multiple platforms, while simultaneously integrating those people's profiles, pictures, and a group history of all events and communication shared. Instead of only being able to communicate with groups that all share the same hardware maker, Mango employs Windows Live Messenger and Facebook Chat to keep you connected with friends, including those with other phones.

Another communication upgrade is an adjustment to call history, which integrates voicemail, missed calls, text messages, and any calendar events with regards to that particular contact. Speech-to-text will also offer a completely hands-free experience for texting, which was definitely impressive in the demo.

Mango also upgrades all the different Windows Phone Hubs, most significantly Pictures, Office, and Xbox Live. Mango offers what Microsoft has dubbed people-centric pictures, which employs facial recognition software to quickly tag and share with friends straight from the Pictures app.

The Office experience has also undergone a bit of a revamp. Mango will support Office 365 along with SkyDrive (which offers users 25GB of free storage). Office in Mango brings just about identical functionality to mobile, allowing users to highlight and arrange Excel cells or make changes to a Word document and save without worrying about any garbled information. Xbox Live Hub basically brings all of your gaming app experiences into one place in Mango, offering the friends scores, integrating a cute little avatar, and offering a quick-resume experience during multitasking.

Finally, Mango will include and use Internet Explorer 9, which uses hardware acceleration and supports HTML5 to deliver a quick experience. When tested against the iPhone 4, the BlackBerry Torch, and the Samsung Droid Charge, the Windows Phone running Mango blew the other browsers out of the water, delivering 27 frames per second compared to BlackBerry's 4 fps and Android's 10 fps. The iPhone 4 couldn't get started.

Bing is also very deeply integrated into the browsing experience. An information search will bring up a Quick Card for a particular movie, event, place, business. Quick Cards offer all the possible information you could want including upcoming events, or other nearby restaurants in the neighborhood. Speaking of neighborhood, Mango also offers a feature called Local Scout, which organizes places by category for each individual neighborhood. Also, if you’ve enjoyed Bing Voice, Mango will be a real treat as Windows Phone 7.1 will bring with it Bing Vision. With Bing Vision, you can simply snap a picture of a QR code, a 2D bar code, or even a book cover to bring up a Quick Card for that product.

Mango will hit users in the Fall, according to Mr. Lees, but developers can get their hands on the SDK now.


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