Realistically, most Americans won’t have a chance to enjoy the full spoils of T-Mobile’s shiny new 21Mbps HSPA+ network any time soon, but hey, at least they appear to be making solid progress. In a recent chat with GigaOM, T-Mobile’s VP of engineering Dave Mayo has said that the requisite software for HSPA+ service is already rolled out to cell sites along the California coast and in major cities between Washington, DC and Boston, but like AT&T, it’s not the software that’s the concern — it’s the width of the backhaul pipe. The company says that it’s got 20Mbps fiber connections to just 7 percent of its cells presently but plans to rapidly expand that to around 25 percent “within the next few weeks.” Ultimately, that’s going to be the key for every carrier around the world that’s deploying 3.75 to 4G networks — the cells themselves might be easy, but getting enough data piped to them is another story altogether.

[Thanks, Burnside]

T-Mobile lighting up tons of fiber-powered backhaul ‘within the next few weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So it turns out LG really wasn’t messing around with the “Mini” name on its new GD880 full touchscreen set that’s likely due to break out at its MWC open house next week, because our dear colleagues at Engadget Spanish have scored a quick video of the thing — and goodness, it’s small. F480 owners and fans are probably going to feel right at home with this thing, a phone that LG claims is the world’s smallest with a 3.2-inch display. The phone’s hard angles and odd material transitions are probably going to be an acquired taste for some, but hey, just how badly do you want a record-holding device (no matter how trivial that record may be) in your pocket?

LG GD880 Mini briefly caught on video originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android’s all the rage in this week’s edition of the Engadget Mobile Podcast, filling our hearts and minds with visions of Google-flavored mobile tech to come at Mobile World Congress. And, exploiting the fully interactive nature of online communications, we answer the questions you’ve floated our way since the last ‘cast.

Hosts: Chris Ziegler, Sean Cooper
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Daestro – Light Powered (Ghostly International)

01:44 – Motorola Droid gets official multitouch support — in Google Maps, anyway
08:45 – Nexus One gets a software update, enables multitouch (updated with video!)
09:24 – Google Maps 4.0 with Buzz support now available in Android Market
15:34 – Motorola Devour officially coming to Verizon next month
24:41 – MWC
42:37 – Listener Questions

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Mobile Podcast 034 – 02.10.2010 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though you’d have to argue that Sprint is a leaner, smarter company than it was a couple years ago, it’s not out of the woods yet. The company’s fourth quarter earnings show that it’s still losing money to the tune of $980 million — a $502 million decline from the quarter prior — and net wireless subscribers declined by some 148,000, though there’s a lot of hand-waving here (iDEN lost 504,000 subs, for example, while the CDMA network actually gained 3,000, and there were a couple big acquisitions thrown into the mix). Churn decreased slightly against both the third quarter and the fourth quarter of ’08 — a good sign, to be sure — and ARPUs were generally up, though prepaid ARPU specifically took a hit as a result of the Virgin Mobile buy; who knew that Virgin customers had lower ARPUs than Boost’s? To end on a high note, Sprint says it’s working with the highest free cash flow in company history and it saw its first net gain in CDMA subs (however small that gain might be) in six quarters, so there’s reason to keep the faith — and maybe this Supersonic can work some more magic, right?

Sprint turns in larger loss in fourth quarter, subscribers still leaving originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia Nuron for T-Mobile looking more official than ever in press shots originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG Neon and KS360 owners, avert your eyes, because seriously — this thing might be like a knife through your fragile heart. Complementing the GD880 announcement today, LG’s showing the full-QWERTY GT350 with a 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen that works throughout the UI, unlike the limited-function touch employed by its predecessor — and just to twist that knife a little harder, they’ve gone from a 3-row keyboard layout to four. It’s got Facebook and Twitter integration built-in with direct social networking access straight from the keyboard (good to see they’re putting that extra row to use) along with push email and support for multiple accounts — perfect for the young’un who isn’t quite ready for a boring smartphone that’s had all the life and joy sucked out of it. Like the KS360, this one will be available in a variety of colors — blue, purple, silver, and black to start — when it launches in Europe come April.

LG’s GT350 makes the KS360 look like a punk originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s just gone ahead and pulled the trigger on announcing its S5620 Monte ahead of Mobile World Congress next week, offering a decent set of social features and Google integration at what should be a pretty reasonable price. The “reasonable price” part of this equation comes thanks to a 3-inch WQVGA display and 3.2 megapixel camera, though exact pricing hasn’t been announced; meanwhile, you’ve got a whole host of features that you’d typically associate with higher-end devices like WiFi, Exchange ActiveSync support, and integration with Google’s Latitude service to keep track of your friends’ whereabouts from afar. Riding atop the latest “2.0 Plus” version of Sammy’s ubiquitous TouchWiz UI, the phone features 3.6Mbps HSDPA on the 900 and 2100MHz bands (read: no US support here) and has AGPS, integrated FM radio with RDS, and microSD support up to 16GB. We should know more on pricing and availability around MWC, we imagine, but for now, specs and this lovely picture are all we’re going to get.

Samsung Monte now official, all the TouchWiz and Google Latitude you can handle originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Image via BGR]

BlackBerry Tour2-compatible visual VM on Verizon suggests release is growing near originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An exhaustive video preview over eleven minutes long of Samsung’s just-announced M100S Android set for Korea has turned up on YouTube — and at a glance, it looks like Seoul residents pining after a Nexus One should be redirecting at least some of their lust over to this thing. It’s snappy (we’re particularly heartened by how little time it takes to get into the camera app), it appears to have some gorgeous custom widgets, and let’s be real, it’s hard to argue with any phone sporting an antenna that long — especially when said antenna carries mobile TV along with it. Buyers have another month or so to wait before picking this up, so savor these videos and make ‘em last.

[Thanks, Sedat T.]

Continue reading Samsung M100S flaunted on video, looking snappy

Samsung M100S flaunted on video, looking snappy originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Bluetooth SIG’s device database isn’t typically the most helpful when it comes to tracking down specs and gorgeous, high-res photos — but often, it’s first way we hear of a new device, so we’ll take what we can get. Take this F350 from ZTE for example; from the single picture the SIG’s given us, we can’t even make out whether it’s a landscape or slider, a pivot, or a full touchscreen (doubtful) phone, but we can make out a shiny little Verizon swoosh three-quarters of the way down. It’ll apparently have a camera, voice command capability, Bluetooth (of course), and a 1X radio, but we’re not clear on whether that means it won’t have EV-DO. Now that we know Verizon’s working with ZTE, this makes quite a bit of sense, doesn’t it?

ZTE’s F350 has a Verizon logo on it, you do the math originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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