It doesn’t look like we’ve got any showstoppers here — but just as with any major new smartphone release, Verizon’s Pre Plus is starting to take some lumps after romping in the field for a week since its retail availability kicked off. Of the two biggies being cited so far, one is of particular concern: apps other than VZ Navigator don’t seem to take advantage of GPS augmentation, meaning they’re relying on a straight-up GPS signal alone to get a location lock — something that often doesn’t work on a phone (a reliable workaround seems to be to open VZ Navigator before you open the app you really need, but still, not an optimal situation). The second, less troublesome issue involves sending MMS messages over WiFi; basically, you can’t. The phone forgets to fire up cellular data to send the message and tries to route it over the WiFi connection instead, which inevitably fails. What’s odd about both of these is that they seem like regressions from the software already rolled out to Sprint (and other) Pres, and a surprising lack of rigor from a carrier known for putting its phones through the gauntlet prior to release. Let’s hope we see an over-the-air update in short order, shall we? Palm Pre Plus MMS and GPS issues crop up, webOS update can’t come soon enough originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posts Tagged ‘fcc-fridays’
Palm Pre Plus MMS and GPS issues crop up, webOS update can’t come soon enough
February 1st, 2010 
jedwan 
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG 
Tags: chris-ziegler, engadget, fcc-fridays, gps, japanese, podcasts, preplus, problem, verizon, verizonwireless, vz-navigator 
No Comments »Bada getting ‘latest version of TouchWiz,’ first model a lock for MWC
February 1st, 2010 admin The screen shots we’ve seen of Bada so far don’t really remind us of the TouchWiz we know and love (or hate) today, but a new blog post on Samsung’s official Bada site says that the platform will definitely be hooked up with “the latest version of TouchWiz” with “chic touch interaction and components to increase its simplicity and ease of use.” What’s unclear is whether this’ll be a ground-up rethinking of Sammy’s classic full-touch user experience or just a grafting of its latest production version onto Bada — but the good news is that we’ll find out soon enough, because the company goes on to say that we’ll be seeing “the new Bada smartphone at MWC this month.” We’ll admit, we don’t know how we feel yet about the use of “Bada” and “smartphone” in the same sentence — but we’ll know plenty more in a couple of weeks. Bada getting ‘latest version of TouchWiz,’ first model a lock for MWC originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, Cell Phone, engadget, htc, LG Tags: aol, bada, engadget-mobile, facebook, fcc-fridays, japanese, mobile, news, people, price, samsung, touchwiz No Comments »China Unicom profits down 50 percent, NTT DoCoMo up by the same margin
February 1st, 2010 jedwan Call it proof that there’s a global wireless karma equilibrium, if you will, that needs to be maintained: China Unicom has warned that its net profit for 2009 will be down a whopping 50 percent, while one of its doppelgangers across the Sea of Japan — NTT DoCoMo — has encountered exactly the opposite fortune on news that it has posted a 48 percent year-over-year improvement in black ink. Unicom blames a perfect storm for its misfortune, citing the sale of its CDMA network in 2008 for an artificially inflated profit a year ago combined with the immense expense involved in rolling out its HSPA cells over the course of 2009. DoCoMo, meanwhile, ironically benefited from weak demand for new handsets that pushed its procurement costs lower, and it might be the start of a revolution in the way Japanese phones are announced and offered. Reports circulating today suggest that the carrier is gearing up to offer micro SIMs capable of working with Apple’s iPad , which would mark a first for any major Japanese network; historically, you’ve had to buy a phone from them, but with LTE looking more globally harmonious than any network technology before it, this might be the start of something good. Speaking of LTE, NEC has announced that it’ll be demoing a concept LTE “terminal” (presumably a handset) in cooperation with DoCoMo at MWC this month, likely the first example of many we’ll see over the course of the year as a number of carriers around the world march toward live 4G networks. [Thanks, Rata] China Unicom profits down 50 percent, NTT DoCoMo up by the same margin originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: att, china, chinaunicom, days-ago, earnings, engadget, fcc-fridays, financial, japan, ntt docomo, podcasts, related No Comments »Mobiado’s 712ZAF yet another way to rid yourself of bothersome $100 bills
January 31st, 2010 admin Cash weighing you down? Credit limit too high? Luxury phone specialist Mobiado might just have the answer with its latest creation, the 712ZAF candybar. Billed as the successor to the Luminoso , the Vancouver-based company’s latest execution of conspicuous consumption features a 2.2-inch QVGA display, AGPS, two-mic dynamic noise reduction, a 5 megapixel camera with flash, and quadband EDGE plus UMTS 900 / 1900 / 2100 (Mobiado has always had a bad habit of simply calling out “WCDMA” without specifying UMTS or HSPA, but on that tiny display, it really doesn’t matter too much). The aluminum frame is surrounded with a ceramic coat in your choice of six colors; no word on price or availability, but we’ll venture a guess that breaking open your piggy bank isn’t going to cover it. Mobiado’s 712ZAF yet another way to rid yourself of bothersome $100 bills originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: 712zaf, aol, chris-ziegler, chuck-norris, democrats, engadget, fcc-fridays, htc, luxury, mobiado, mobile, vancouver No Comments »Samsung S5620 ‘Monte’ possibly leaked, looks better than it sounds
January 31st, 2010 jedwan We know the FCC’s already gotten a gander at this thing, but the general public… well, that’s another story altogether. Daily Mobile has a bunch of shots of what it claims to be Sammy’s upcoming S5620 Monte, a silly name from a company that certainly hasn’t shied away from funny branding in the past (one quick look at the Corby or Rant should be able to verify that for you). Anyhow, we’re told to expect a TouchWiz-powered feature phone here with a 3-inch display, HSDPA, and a 3.5mm headphone jack which you can clearly see in some of the pictures. A quick look at the FCC filing also reveals WiFi, though the lack of WCDMA testing indicates that we won’t have 850 or 1900MHz 3G support — in other words, North Americans are out of luck as usual. If we had to guess, this one might get the covers pulled off at MWC next month. Samsung S5620 ‘Monte’ possibly leaked, looks better than it sounds originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: engadget, espag-ntildeol, fcc-fridays, in the wild, monte, related, samsung, super-bowl No Comments »Blyk-powered ‘Orange Shots’ service coming next month to Monkey customers
January 31st, 2010 jedwan Now that Blyk’s free-service-for-ads model has officially bitten the dust, we’re starting to see new ideas come out of the woodwork from the Dutch company that might (or might not) stand a better chance of striking a survivable balance of value and profitability. Orange UK has announced that it’ll be launching Orange Shots as of February 1, a program for advertisers that lets them target subscribers of its Monkey prepaid service in very specific ways. Sound familiar? Yeah, that was pretty much what Blyk had been doing all along — difference being that they’re no longer trading access to that targeted group for free minutes and texts. As far as we can tell, Orange is simply offering its subscribers the hope of getting special offers from advertisers, meaning its margins are probably going to be a lot higher here than Blyk’s ever were before — assuming Monkey customers agree to sign up, of course. For now, it’s purely opt-in; let’s hope it stays that way. Blyk-powered ‘Orange Shots’ service coming next month to Monkey customers originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: att, engadget, engadget-mobile, fcc-fridays, htc, japanese, mobile, orange, orange shots, return-false No Comments »Xperia X10 officially headed to T-Mobile in Germany this April
January 30th, 2010 admin Announced to the world in early November last year, the Xperia X10 has been Sony Ericsson’s paper flagship device for a good few months now, and unfortunately the latest official word seems to confirm that the wait will be even longer. NTT DoCoMo has already stated it’ll launch the handset in Japan this April, and T-Mobile has now also gone official with an April timeframe for the X10′s German arrival. Guess we can consider that February 10 “expected launch” in the UK dead and buried by this point. It’s all rather lackluster in our eyes — we’ve seen HTC produce the devastatingly versatile HD2 and even the Nexus One in the time it’s taken Sony Ericsson to iron out bugs in a UI we suspected was too ambitious from the start . Let’s hope the final product is worth the wait, eh? Xperia X10 officially headed to T-Mobile in Germany this April originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: aol, engadget-mobile, ericsson, fcc-fridays, htc, nexus, return-false, sony ericsson x10, sony-ericsson, x10, xperia, xperiax10 No Comments »Samsung sneaks the S5550 to market, still no official announcement
January 6th, 2010 admin Samsung’s curvy, slidy, shiney and soon to be available in pink S5550 — which we saw back in November in the FCC’s superwarehouse of joy — has hit retail shops in Spain, but mum’s still the word from Samsung. Phonehouse’s catalog is fairly slim on the details but we know it features a 5 megapixel cam with LED flash, looks to be metallic (at least the back), has a 2.2-inch AMOLED display, and looks to have a forward-facing camera. The other bullet point in the ad expounds its social networking features, which are pretty evident from the pic above. Interestingly the FCC’s report shows this set at least has 850 and 1900MHz radios on board, which would make it an honest-to-goodness world phone. We can’t seem to find a price anywhere, but we’re sure if you’re in Spain and drop them a line they’ll be more that willing to help you out. Samsung sneaks the S5550 to market, still no official announcement originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: engadget, espag-ntildeol, fcc-fridays, internet, news, s5550, samsung, yahoo No Comments »White House gets involved in spectrum fight, says more is needed for competition’s sake
January 5th, 2010 admin The Fed’s already been aggressively moving to get out ahead of this impending spectrum crisis that everyone seems to be predicting these days, but now the NTIA — the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration — is chiming in, and the sentiment pretty much echoes what’s already been said by everyone else (besides the broadcast TV peeps, that is). The NTIA’s coming at it from the angle that wired broadband alone won’t be enough to support sufficient competition for rural internet access, something that the FCC has made a priority, and that digging up free airwaves is now “a primary tool for promoting broadband competition.” They’ve got some headwind and plenty of bigwig opposition to make that a reality, but there’s some hope for freeing up a few slivers of government-owned spectrum as well; at any rate, it’s said an additional 300MHz is necessary to keep pace with demand over the next six years, so it’ll take a small miracle to keep everyone out of a crunch. White House gets involved in spectrum fight, says more is needed for competition’s sake originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: apple, commerce department, espag-ntildeol, facebook, fcc-fridays, news, podcasts, Spectrum, video, yahoo No Comments »Official WinMo 6.5 upgrade for HTC Ozone leaked
December 31st, 2009 admin Upgrading a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard device to 6.5 is like putting a fresh coat of paint on your rusted-out ’78 Duster, but in the scheme of things, a 6.5 upgrade is still far, far better than a punch in the face. On that note, we’re excited to hear that an official update is in the works for Verizon’s Ozone from HTC, the CDMA remix of the Snap that launched with 6.1 mere months before 6.5 became widely available. Actually, it’s more than “in the works” — it’s available right this very second, just not through any official channels. As usual, it’s xda-developers coming through with a copy of the update, so apply it at your own risk; in reality, 6.5 brings very little to the table for Standard handsets, so you shouldn’t feel too bad if you wuss out and wait for Verizon to give you the blessed version. Just don’t be surprised if you end up waiting half a year for it. Official WinMo 6.5 upgrade for HTC Ozone leaked originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: fcc-fridays, japanese, mobile, ozone, sports, update, vzw, windows mobile, windowsmobile6.5 No Comments »
