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AT&T's job cuts to be offset with hires in Mobility unit

AT&T has announced plans to cut 1.5 percent of its workforce of 309,000. Sad times ahead for the company? Not quite. Apparently the 4600 jobs will be harvested from managerial spots in its flagging wired home phone business, so no worries, wireless types. Now here's where it gets interesting: word has it that AT&T also expects to hire back that same number of employees into the fold -- the wireless fold, that is -- keeping the total headcount nice and steady. We'd wager that we'll see more cuts like this in the coming months and years, so if you were pondering that job as a switchboard operator, time to retrain. So yeah, turns out it's business as usual for the number one carrier after all -- unless you happen to be in the 4600-strong group of obsoleted folks, that is.

[Via mocoNews]

Hands-on with Samsung's Instinct


Samsung and Sprint were keeping their cards close all day today but we finally had a chance to check out Samsung's Instinct up close and personal. The handset's look and feel is really top notch, materials, finish, and the oh-so-glossy -- but hard to shoot -- screen is sweet. Haptics for touch feedback are here as well, and aside from some strange behavior while scrolling, was a pretty useful feature for letting you know you'd actually done something -- it was most noticeable, and most useful when typing. Not a bad effort, look for this to hit Sprint in June. Follow the link to the gallery on Engadget Mobile.

Nokia N810 with WiMAX set to launch at CTIA on April 1st?


Remember the rumor we saw floating about a few weeks ago about a Nokia N810 refresh? Well, the lads at The Boy Genius Report are reporting -- on a rumor mind you -- that Nokia is set to launch its N810 refresh with WiMAX at CTIA in April this year. Interestingly, the name will remain the same, and not be labeled the Nokia N830 as we'd first thought. Yeah, it's only a rumor at this point, but we're thinking that giving this radio-less internet appliance a bit more reach is nothing but a good thing.

iPhone gets ActiveSync support for Exchange


As was hinted at some days ago, the Cupertino crew decided that the iPhone was finally ready for prime time in belt clips around the nation. Well, great news friends, Enterprise to Apple means Microsoft Exchange and ActiveSync support. We can expect features like Push mail and Contacts, Global Address List, Cisco IPsec VPN, authentication via certificate, and even remote wipe. Also on the table is Salesforce.com's Sales Force Automation CRM Application (SFA) and they've even thrown in support for maps. When can we get our greedy little hands on this you ask? As soon as the next iPhone firmware update rolls out, that's when.

Hands-on with Nokia's S60 touch UI at MWC


Move along, nothing too new and thrilling here. We hunted down Nokia's touch demo and were completely un-thrilled by the whole package. Sure, it's still early days for the interface, but it's a case of same old same old as it's sporting the same UI, same OS, but now instead of using the d-pad, you're able to poke about with your finger. The demo was running on a small tablet in software only, no hardware yet, though, as we've already mentioned, devices should start arriving in the second half of the year. Hopefully Nokia will see the error -- in our opinion -- of its ways and drop some glitz -- feel free to pop on over and visit NVIDIA for some inspiration, Nokia -- down on this fairly glitz-free bit of wizardry. Hit the link to see the full gallery!

Hands-on with Polymer Vision's e-ink Readius


The long wait is over, the Polymer Vision Readius has finally made an appearance and from our quick -- and loving -- glance, it's the stuff. Featuring Bluetooth, dual-band HSDPA, tri-band GSM / EDGE, expandability via microSD, and it'll also SMS -- albeit, without a keyboard, it'll be tough -- and can make calls. The cellular calling and messaging features are likely an afterthought since connectivity to get at the content via the Readius portal was the goal. The site will push content to your device based on choices made there for feeds, newspapers, mags, audio books, and whatever else Polymer Vision sees fit to add. The device will support books in HTML, text files, and PDFs, though, we expect as they gain ground with partners the list may expand. Hit the gallery at Engadget Mobile for a pile of pics of it in action.

Hands-on with Nokia's high-rolling N96


The Nokia N96 is here and while it certainly doesn't blow the doors off the current N95 in all its many varieties, it does refresh the form, add beauty, and the TV ain't all that bad to boot. What definitely stands out on the N96 is build quality, the material choices here are not as cheap as they were on its older siblings, it actually looks and feels like a high end device. We also were able to get some TV time in courtesy of some neighbor or another, we've enjoyed SlingPlayer Mobile on our devices for a while now, but there is just no comparing them, the DVB-H looks first rate. Peep the huge gallery over at Engadget Mobile.

Texas Instruments almost set to ship Android dev platform


Aside from the Android test platform we saw earlier this week, Texas Instruments has its Android development platform up and running and expects to be in a position to start shipping to developers -- yeah you, the programmers that will make our dreams come true -- in the next two months. Head on over to Engadget Mobile to peek at the rest of the details and pics.

Hands-on with NVIDIA's APX 2500, and yeah, it plays Quake


Yet another mobile platform, and this time with NVIDIA power. We had a chance to checkout the APX 2500 and its Quake skills at MWC today and we're definitely enthused about this new toy. Engadget Mobile has all the pics so just wander over via the link to see this thing in action.

Hands-on with iriver's 3-inch touchscreen phone


We bumped into iriver at CES this year, but they took the unnamed GSM phone away from us pretty quickly. We had a chance to actually get some pictures at Mobile World Congress, and it's not a half-bad looking handset. Head on over to Engadget Mobile for the gallery, come on, we know you want to.

Hands-on with modu: it's real and plenty fantastic


Modu lives! We had opportunity to check out one of Mobile World Congress' most unique offerings today, and we were impressed to say the least. This handset could completely change the way people use handsets giving them a really simple way to actually use your set for music, in-car, or on the go. Hit up Engadget Mobile for a huge gallery showing off some of what modu can do.

Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's world-beating XPERIA X1


We battled through crazy crowds -- seriously, it's a complete madhouse down there -- at Mobile World Congress to spend some time and grab some shots of Sony Ericssons' newest smart phone, the XPERIA X1. This handset is undoubtedly the finest bit of Windows Mobile -- 6? 6.1? -- this side of anywhere and bound to be a really hot ticket item. Hit up the read link to Engadget Mobile for a gallery just bursting with XPERIA flavor.

Google attacks: Android at Mobile World Congress


Seeing as Mobile World Congress is all about the cellular experience, we weren't too surprised to bump into some Android goodness while here. Texas Instruments had the handset you see above -- from an unknown vendor -- to demo the OS running on an OMAP 3430 at 500 MHz. The interface is dead quick and rather glorious, and while we had no internet connectivity on it, we still were able to have a peek at various applications -- check the gallery for more photos. NEC / Wind River were also showing off an Android prototype platform running on a Medity2 testbed -- also at 500 MHz -- though it's a pretty early implementation and was pretty wonky. Interestingly, neither of them had functional input in the browser, so while the NEC version was online, we couldn't point it anywhere useful. Radio types in the devices were GSM but we expect they'll likely have HSDPA once they finally land in our hands. In a few words, we like what we see.

Update: There seems to be a minor issue with how the gallery is displaying -- if you want to see all 46 gorgeous pics, just click on one of the photos.


Hands-on with LG's QWERTY clamshell, the KT610


We had no luck getting pics of this guy last night, but yahoo, we had a chance to play today. Putting the KT610 through its paces -- albeit in a crazy fast way -- we were completely underwhelmed by the interface speed and the screen, when open, is in a pretty odd position to actually read. Aside from those little details, this is a pretty slick little handset, here's hoping they sort the hardware to give it a little speed boost. Follow the link to the gallery.


Modu mystery unravelled, look ma, a modular handset


Mystery solved, modu is of course, a modular cellular handset -- the answer was in the name the whole time, clever. The fun begins with the idea that the actual handset can be slipped into "modu jackets" which let users completely change the look of their handset without having to replace it -- we see the potential for way too much glittery gem-encrusted foolishness here. The other half of the deal is slapping the modu into different modu-enabled consumer electronics, or "modu mates" -- think car stereos, photo frames, DAPs, and whatever else you can dream up. If we were betting types, we think modu is on to something pretty interesting here, and it seems with likes of Blaupunkt, Universal Music, and SanDisk already onboard, the Q4 launch might prove to be something special. We don't have any pics showing detail or any technical specs handy just now, but rest assured, we're going to be all over them at Mobile World Congress for more info.



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