Breaking up is hard to do, but T-Mobile and Radio Shack seem to be handling the split rather well, all things considered. After Radio Shack alleged that T-Mo materially breached the terms of their agreement, the two have gone their separate ways. Or at least, they will on September 15. This is more of the awkward, still-living-together phase.
In the mean time, Radio Shack has moved on to the hot red head, signing a deal with Verizon. T-Mobile, on the other hand, is looking more like the desperate dumpee, hooking up with none other than the infamous and quite unexpected 7-Eleven. What a rebound, am I right? → Read More
The Droid X2 is one of those phones that you learn to quickly stop judging by its bezel. Despite having nearly identical hardware to its less powerful predecessor, the handset shipped with some pretty notable under-the-hood improvements. But one thing was still missing: Gingerbread.
Luckily, Verizon has released the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update this morning so the Droid X2 can continue to masquerade as a 2010 handset while performing like its fresh out of the box. → Read More
You could be forgiven (and are) for skipping over the LTE news of the last six months: the roll-out of the new 4G standard has been spotty and few consumers actually have any idea what it means, or whether they have it. But Verizon’s next big investment is starting to show up in more than small-run hot spots and high-end smartphones.
Today was a big day for LTE — the vanguard of really consumer-oriented devices is hitting, and while it’ll be some time before your free-with-contract phone or bargain-bin netbook is tapping into the fourth G, the news is still significant. → Read More
The board of directors of Verizon Communications has promoted COO Lowell McAdam to president and CEO of the company. Ivan Seidenberg will step down from the CEO role at the end of this month, completing a CEO succession plan that has been under way since last year. → Read More
Back in February when the Xperia Play was finally unveiled, there were quite a few people excited to see a gaming-centric phone headed to the States. And why not? Gaming continues to be one of the top activities on smartphones, and were it not for all that annoying glass-swiping, it would probably be the top activity, right?
Well, maybe not, since the D-pad-equipped Xperia Play has been subjected to a pretty embarrassing price drop, now going for $100 from Verizon on-contract. → Read More
The Motorola Droid 3 just hit the shelves four days ago, but that didn’t stop the guys from iFixIt from doing what they do best: tearing out its innards and splaying them out for all to ogle. → Read More
Hey, look! It’s the Samsung Epic 4G!
Wait, no it’s not. The Epic 4G is for Sprint… but that quite clearly says “Verizon”. → Read More
Verizon has a 4G LTE network. AT&T is building a 4G LTE network. They both use SIM cards.
Surely, after all these years of running on vastly different network technologies (Verizon’s CDMA vs AT&T’s GSM) thus requiring silly things like two separate models of the iPhone, the two would have figured out some way to make their new, strikingly-similar networks play friendly together, right?
Nope. → Read More
Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post titled “Is Android Surging Only Because Apple Is Letting It?“. Not surprisingly, it fired people up. About 1,000 comments later, there was a full-on fanboy war between the Apple and Google sides. But the point was actually something we can look back on. Was Android surging ahead of the iPhone in the United States because Apple only had a deal with AT&T?
Let’s revisit, shall we?
At the point that post was written, the Verizon iPhone was just a rumor. It was an oft-cited rumor, but still just a rumor. Apple had a deal with one carrier in the U.S., AT&T. Meanwhile, there were Android devices on all four major U.S. carriers. And by all accounts, the ones being sold by Verizon were doing the best in terms of sales. → Read More
The Internet is abuzz with chatter that this, the tablet in the pic above, is the Xoom 2. It’s featured in a new Verizon ad (embedded after the link) and while it lacks any branding besides the large Verizon logo on the back, it at least looks like a Xoom. It has the same matte black color scheme, contured back and, as Droid-Life points out, the same unique speaker found on the Xoom. But please-oh-please do not let it be the Xoom 2. Or rather, please don’t release the damn thing anytime soon.
The original Xoom started slowly rolling out back in late February. It was supposed to be the ultimate Honeycomb tablet — a sort of Nexus product. But it isn’t and the sales reflected that. It’s stupid expensive, hard to hold, lacks a USB host port and functional microSD card slot. Then there’s Honeycomb, which isn’t exactly fully cooked even now thanks to the lack of apps. It only makes sense that Verizon and Motorola would want to quickly recover from the Xoom disaster, but launching the Xoom 2 anytime soon would do just the opposite. → Read More
The Motorola Droid 3, or XT883, or Milestone, or whatever else you’d like to call it, has finally been launched in China, which means its only a matter of time before this third-gen Droid hits U.S. shelves.
For right now, we’re guesstimating a July 7 release from Verizon based on claims from Droid-Life sources, but we can’t say for sure until we get official word. → Read More
Chomp, an app search engine, has partnered with Verizon Wireless to offer an app search engine for the communications company’s mobile app marketplace, V Cast.
Chomp, which just launched an Android app that allows users to search across Google’s Android Marketplace, now allows customers to search for apps on the V Cast marketplace. Chomp now allows Verizon Wireless customers to find apps based on what the app does, as well as the title or name of the app. Verizon Wireless customers with V CAST apps enabled devices can download Chomp (which is free) from the marketplace. → Read More
Remember that unnamed Samsung 4G LTE Smartphone for Verizon and how it became known as the Samsung Droid Charge? Well thanks to recent leaked Verizon training documents, we get a nice rundown of the specs. → Read More
Apple has responded to an issue involving a small number of iPad 2 owners who have been unable to connect to Verizon 3G. Apple says they are aware of the issue and are investigating it. Also, it’s said that Apple is working on getting an iOS update out in the next few days, which should fix the issue. → Read More
Hell hath no fury like an Apple fanboy scorned. Verizon is just now starting to feel the rage previously directed at just AT&T. That’s what happens when iPad 2 orders fail to ship on time. Fanboys take to the forums and unleash the beast.
There’s a large thread of complaints over on Verizon’s official forum that details most of the transgressions. It seems that more than a few customers where promised their iPad 2 would ship either immediately or within 2-3 days upon ordering. That’s not the case. It’s more like 2-3 weeks for some but according to two separate trusted Verizon retail sources, that was the same estimated shipping window given on day 1. → Read More
Much has been made of the iPad’s role as a laptop replacement, but for me that war is over. The phone is increasingly a remote controller for the larger screen — I use its Personal Hotspot tethering to broker FaceTime calls on the move, and push notification as pointers into Twitter and the Web document store. Chatter provides a corporate firewalled collaboration space, and I spend the rest of my time discovering workarounds for current limitations that require my Mac Book Pro. They are as vanishingly few as times I can’t get through to Scoble or weekends where I can get my column in on time. → Read More
Following in the footsteps of AT&T, Verizon has drastically lowered prices on the first generation Wi-Fi iPad, according to MacRumors. If you stop by a Verizon store, you can now pick up the 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad for only $299, the 32 GB Wi-Fi for $399 and the 64 GB Wi-Fi for $499. These prices are obviously only good while supplies last.
AT&T’s $39 billion bid for T-Mobile this weekend wasn’t just a surprise to the general public. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was also “shocked” to find out about it. “That one was not on the radar screen,” he tells CNBC’s Jim Cramer in an interview today (transcript). He didn’t think it would be possible because of antitrust issues, and he is definitely playing up those issues now.
Hesse doesn’t like the deal one bit because it will make Sprint a distant third after AT&T and Verizon in the U.S. mobile market. (A combined AT&T-T-Mobile will have more than 100 million subscribers, as does Verizon already, while Sprint is half that size with 50 million). He’s already threatening to complain to Congress, and he’s practicing his arguments on TV. He warns Cramer of a duopoly situation: → Read More
In case you were wondering if your city is getting 4G from Verizon this year, scroll down and check out the extensive list. Today, Verizon announced an additional 59 markets that will get 4G LTE by the end of the year. This is in addition to the 39 initial markets and the 49 announced at CES. This brings total 4G LTE coverage to 147 US cities by the end of 2011. → Read More
This morning’s bombshell news that AT&T would be buying T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion has left a lot of questions. T-Mobile customers want to know what it means for them? AT&T customers want to know what it means for them? Would-be iPhone buyers want to know what it means for them? T-Mobile and AT&T have started addressing those already. One thing not addressed yet: what does this mean for Sprint, the nation’s third-largest carrier?
And it’s an especially poignant question for Sprint because as of last week, many at that company believed they would be merging with T-Mobile, we’ve heard. → Read More
