Hey SF Bay Area iPhonestas…good news! Your beloved carrier, the one and only AT&T, has big plans for major 3G network upgrades across the SF Bay Area come 2010.
Apparently, the lovely folks over at AT&T have pumped some $65 million “from 2008 through the 3rd quarter of 2009 to complete a substantial upgrade of its local 3G wireless network in the greater San Francisco Bay Area with the launch of additional wireless spectrum in the 850 MHz band.” Based on the endless complaints I hear from my iPhone carrying friends ’round these parts, this has got to be music to their ears.
Here in the states, T-Mobile has been no strangerto screw-ups, but we’d always just figured that their UK counterparts were stand-up guys. After all, they’re British – as we all know, every one from that side of the pond is charming, affable, and rocks a bloody good accent. Unfortunately, it looks like not everyone employed there is as scrupulous as their customers would hope – a story by the BBC has confirmed that T-Mobile UK employees sold private subscriber data to a third-party broker.
T-Mobile UK and the British authorities have been taking steps to handle the incident, with the Information Commissioner’s Office going as far as trying to stick offenders with a prison sentence instead of the ordinary £5,000 fine that comes with a violation of Britain’s Data Protection Act. The article itself keeps mum about exactly what kind of data was sold, and to which “phone firms” eventually ponied up for it. To date, the actual damage done doesn’t seem to be too bad – at worst, customers have complained about receiving unsolicited phone calls right before their contract expired, but it raises very serious questions about the trustworthiness of a company that handles sensitive information on a daily basis. Between stateside service outages and and now this, we have to wonder whether or not T-Mobile will be able to shake off their newfound status as the magenta-headed stepchild of the wireless industry.
Yay, rumors! Today’s fun rumor comes courtesy of one Mr. Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros. analyst, who believes (thanks to his sources in the supply chain) that a BlackBerry 9900 has not only hit the prototype phase, but also features an entirely new form factor for RIM – a touchscreen slider.
Here’s a weird one for you: A few hours ago, Motorola DROID users began reporting that the cameras on their handsets were suddenly.. better. The camera’s ability to auto-focus, which I’d railed in our review of the product, seemed to drastically improve overnight. And it did!
Most assumed that Verizon and Motorola had managed to sneak out some sort of stealth over-the-air update, patching the camera’s settings on the fly. A number of sites reported as much. Some even took offense to this idea, declaring that such things shouldn’t be allowed without their explicit permission. According to the folks that should know best, there was no over-the-air update at all; the camera fixed itself, and in 24.5 days, it’ll break all over again.
Data problems? What data problems? Oh right, thosedata problems. Well, its been about a month so, like with any sort of break up or troubled relationship, you’ve had your chance to grieve and be angry…now it’s time to move on, folks.
At least that seems to be T-Mobile’s position. Thus, Big T has resumed selling both its older Sidekick and the newer Sidekick LX, each for slightly less than the pre-data loss prices nonetheless.
China Unicom’s chairman believes that the iPhone will be the most popular phone in China, beating out Nokia and RIM for the crown of Bounteous Emperor of the Eastern Phone World. Read More
Hey, you! I know you. You’re the one that gets all hot around the collar over shots of unreleased iPhone accessories, aren’t you? Boy, oh boy – are you gonna love this..
Sure, it’s not much – but here’s the world’s first look at the just announced, GPS-boosting, speakerphone-touting iPhone car cradle from Magellan. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Hey! That looks a lot like the TomTom iPhone car cradle!”, don’t worry — you’re not crazy. The Magellan cradle looks a bit smoother around the edges (is that a mixture of matte and glossy plastic we see?), but the similarities are striking enough that we’re starting to wonder if these are both manufactured in the same house. One more shot after the jump.
Google might be in the middle of turning the navigation market on its head with hints that their free turn-by-turn service might make its way to the iPhone, but that’s not scaring the big players away. TomTom and Telenav have both been on the platform for months and show no sign of turning tail, and now another big-name has jumped into the mix: Magellan.
Just minutes ago, Magellan announced that their first application, Roadmate, has hit the App Store at an “introductory price” (which, more often than not, tends to be the final price pitched as “introductory” for the sake of pumping launch sales) of $79.99.
What do you mean, US MVNOs are generally doomed from the start? Sure, Helio went under. Yeah yeah, so did Disney Mobile. And Mobile ESPN. And Amp’d, Voce, and Sonopia. Thats only what, a billion dollars or so thrown down the drain? Don’t be such a naysayer.
The MVNO game is one hell of a risky business, but it seems like no one told the folks at Simple Mobile that. Earlier this morning, this fledgling MVNO opened its doors to all major US markets, plus Puerto Rico.
Extra, extra! Read all about it. AT&T becomes exclusive carrier for the LG Shine II. Well, that was fun, wasn’t it – making a big deal about yet another handset being launched on AT&T? Yes. Yes it was. All jokes aside, LG is launching its next-gen Shine, the LG Shine II, on AT&T whether you like it or not.
Ah, BlackBerry Curve 8520. We’ve got pretty fond memories of your exclusive days over on T-Mobile. So what gives? Why the jump to AT&T all of a sudden? Oh right…increasing market share and giving consumers what they want – an inexpensive and relatively capable smartphone. Nice.
As much as we rag on Windows Mobile (and that’s a lot), I have to say that the HD2 is a handsome phone and I’d be proud to sport it. That’s what gives the short video above some of its tension. You could drop a CLIQ and I wouldn’t flinch — in fact, I encourage you to drop your CLIQ. But this HD2 is a pretty little object and I don’t want it to come to any harm. Watchy the video and see if it does.
Long before Windows Marketplace launched on Windows Mobile 6.5 as Microsoft’s answer to the App-Store-Craze, we knew it would be extended down into Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 – the only question was “When?. The answer, it seems, is today.
Microsoft has just announced that the Marketplace is available to 6.0 and 6.1 users beginning immediately.
The nation’s “fastest” (and often most frustrating) 3G network (i.e. AT&T) is adding another netbook to its lineup of 3G portable devices, the Samsung Go. So what exactly is said Go? Well, according to Sammy, it’s “a compact and lightweight netbook with instant access to broadband speeds powered by the nation’s fastest 3G network and the Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system.”
Oh, you don’t have a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 yet? Yeah, neither do we. But the guys over at HDBlog somehow managed to scrounge up two of the devices, and they appear to be running a newer software build than anything we’ve seen before.
Attention Battlestar Galactica Android OS fans, Samsung has just taken the wraps off its newest Android-powered smartphone, the Galaxy Spica. By the sound of that name, it appears the Cylons have taken control of Samsung’s mobile division.
The newest soldier in the ever-growing ‘droid army features a 800MHz processor (just like its Moment sibling) and is the first Android smartphone to include native DivX support (so you won’t have to convert your downloaded collection of BSG to watch on the go!). Along with the improved codec support, the Galaxy Spica (GS) also touts other improved multimedia-centric features like the inclusion of DNSe 2.0 for “better sound quality” and 3.5 mm jack for use with your favorite headphones.
When the Motorola Droid launched this month everyone was amazed that a company so down on its luck was able to put together a well-designed phone running a powerful, “brand new” OS. The whole package – hardware, software, and marketing – seemed flawless. In fact, phones running Android 1.5 now look hopelessly outdated and with 2.0’s gesture, CDMA, and search support you’d wonder why handset manufacturers like HTC, LG, Kyocera, and Samsung are using 1.5 at all.
The reasons have more to do with Google than any decision on the carriers’ part. In fact, according to a source close to the handset business, Google’s Android team directly assisted Motorola and Verizon in building the Droid’s software from the ground up and is currently assisting another, unknown, handset maker in Korea to create a finely-tuned hardware and software combination. Most important, however, is that this is sort of assistance most manufacturers do not receive and, in the end, they are dinged for running an “older” version of Android.
While Android 2.0 has been floating around on Motorola DROIDs for over a week now, one important chunk of it has been under lock-and-key: the source. Even amongst manufacturing partners, we’re told, Google hasn’t been completely open; outside of Motorola (and more recently, HTC), most of the other handset manufacturers have been left out in the cold with nothing to keep them warm but Android v1.6. Until tonight, that is.
As the sun set over the Silicon Valley last night, Google pushed the source code for Android 2.0 to the Android Open Source Project. Within two hours, the endlessly able Android community had it up and running on the eldest Android of them all, the T-Mobile G1.
Palm and Sprint have taken a very different approach to the launch of the Pixi than they did with its slightly older and slightly brawnier brother, the Palm Pre. In the days leading up to the Pre, both parties were on full attack mode; keynotes were held, massive tradeshow booths were built, full page newspaper ads were run, and countdowns ticked away. With the Pixi? They’ve got a commercial.
Compared to Palm’s last run, the marketing campaign surrounding the Pixi is decidedly more average – and after spending a few days with the phone, I’d say they made the right decision there.
It’s a rare day when we post a web comic here on MobileCrunch. To my knowledge, we’ve only done it once before. But you know what? This one’s just too good — and too topical — to pass up.
Hey SF Bay Area iPhonestas…good news! Your 
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