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Samsung announces GT-B9120 for Android flip phone fans in China
The emergence of Android, and the decline of the flip-phone form factor happened as such, that the two aren't all that well acquainted. Samsung, however, wants to firm-up that relationship, bringing the two together once more. The GT-B9120 is the result. A flip phone with Google's Gingerbread operating system from the Galaxy-maker, headed for the Chinese market. There's dual 3.5-inch 480 x 800 screens, and a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260 doing the business. A 5-megapixel camera will send photos off to the 16GB internal storage, and HSPA, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth make up the wireless options. Somewhere someone's dream has just been answered, we just hope that person is in China.
Apple closes in on $2.25 million settlement in Australia for disputed 4G iPad claim
The legal drama surrounding Apple's 4G labeling of some iPad models in Australia might be coming to an end. The Australian reports that Apple has agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle claims that the company's use of the term "Wi-Fi + 4G" was misleading because the tablet doesn't work with the country's 4G networks. Apple already offered to provide refunds to consumers who felt deceived by the labeling. The company also renamed the aforementioned model to "iPad WiFi + Cellular" in several territories. Apple hasn't quite made it across the finish line, however -- the settlement still requires court approval before it can be finalized and the Judge has adjourned the case until Wednesday to gather more information. [Thanks, Matt, Clayton]
Engadget Giveaway: win an HTC One S, courtesy of Bell Canada
The HTC One S has been making a splash across carriers in Canada, so it's only fitting that we ride the wave and give one away to a reader in the true north strong and free. The example we're giving out is Bell Canada's model, which mates the dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 and Android 4.0 with Bell-specific extras like Mobile TV. Should you live in the land of the red and white, fire off an entry according to the rules and you might just get HTC's super-skinny smartphone for yourself. Leave a comment below. Any comment will do. Duplicate entries will be filtered out and discarded, so adding additional comments won't increase your likelihood of winning. Contest is open to all residents of Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winners will be chosen randomly. One winner will receive one Bell Canada HTC One S. If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Bell Canada service will NOT be included. Also, HTC, Bell and Engadget are not held liable to honor warranties or customer service. The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here. Entries can be submitted until June 3, 2012 at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
China greenlights Apple's third-gen iPad for 3G use, China Unicom smiles knowingly
Apple's current iPad is already cleared for China in WiFi trim, but those of us who've wanted to roam through Kunming on care-free 3G haven't had any officially approved choices. That's ending soon, as the Chinese government just gave the cellular version (A1430) the all-clear. Like in most parts of the world, Apple's slate won't use LTE given the lack of any established network in the area; HSPA's as good as it will get. The clearance is slightly odd given that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce is leaning in Proview's direction when it comes to iPad trademark ownership. With the iPad still legally available in the country, though, it's safe to say that official 3G iPad carrier China Unicom is happy to prepare for a rush of customers who want to buy a cellular iPad without using the zipline delivery method.
ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL hits the FCC with AT&T-friendly LTE
ASUS isn't known for offering its tablets to North American carriers with 3G or 4G; an FCC filing for a cellular-capable Transformer Pad TF300 could be a clue at a break in the WiFi-only trend. Along with the usual wireless, a TF300TL variant of the Android 4.0 slate has stopped by the agency with the 850MHz and 1,900MHz frequencies needed for HSPA 3G as well as, best of all, 700MHz and 1,700MHz support for LTE-based 4G. All four are what we'd look for in an AT&T-oriented tablet, so don't be surprised if Ma Bell carries a 4G Transformer Pad before long. All but the 700MHz band would be handy for Canadian networks as well. There's no surefire evidence of when the tablet might make a more formal appearance, nor hints of whether or not it will keep the quad-core Tegra 3, although the slight spin on the regular TF300 formula could keep the wait short.
Verizon's ZTE-built Jetpack 890L 4G hotspot ships May 24th, promises globetrotting for $20
Verizon has just finished trotting out the last of its known 2012 Jetpack hotspots through the arrival of the ZTE-made model we saw back at CES in January. Now carrying a bit more Verizon red on the surface and a bit less Chinese in the name, the Jetpack 890L can share its 4G LTE sugar with as many as 10 WiFi devices at once. There's no removable battery like its Novatel-made Jetpack cousin, but you do get Global Ready (read: HSPA) roaming abroad. We're most liking the price. At $20 on a contract after a $50 mail-in rebate, the 890L will be the most frugal way to board the LTE hotspot train once it reaches stores on May 24th.
Amazon puts Samsung Galaxy S III up for US pre-orders, offers a slice of quad-core, unlocked utopia
Sufficiently enamored with Samsung's Galaxy S III that you've got to have one in the US before anyone else, and you don't want it sullied by carrier customizations in the trip across the Pacific? Amazon has your back with pre-orders for 16GB versions in both Marble White and Pebble Blue. Either will keep the speedy Exynos 4 Quad and will stay unlocked, so you can hop networks to your heart's content. Do expect to pay a steep premium for being the first kid on your block: at $800, you're spending a lot to get an HSPA+ model on June 1st when the LTE-toting, cheaper (if carrier-locked and possibly part-swapped) editions should reach the US days later.
Verizon purportedly giving DROID 4, RAZR and Rezound 'global' designation via software update (update: confirmed)
There's one major drawback that jet-setters and globetrotters utilizing one of Verizon's current LTE handsets must deal with: the lack of a GSM radio frequency. It's true, while CDMA and LTE have carved out a place for themselves here in the States, when the rubber literally meets the road (or tarmac), it's a GSM world we're living in. With that in mind, it appears as though Verizon is planning to make several of its current smartphones a bit more cosmopolitan by enabling the "global" capabilities already embedded within. Blog Droid-Life is reporting that new in-store collateral for the DROID 4, RAZR and Rezound contains the tagline, "Coming Soon: Use in an additional 185 countries." The new proficiency should be made available via a software update pushed out by Big Red, although some of you may have already taken matters into your own hands. No word on what the precise definition of "soon" is, but we've reached out to Verizon for comment and will update this post with any relevant information provided. Update: Verizon officials reached out to us and confirmed that the rumors are indeed true: the HTC Rezound, Motorola Droid RAZR / RAZR Maxx and Droid 4 will all be updated "this summer." The carrier told us: Customers will see a notification on their device when the software update is available for their device. After the software update, customers will be able to take their smartphone overseas and use voice service in more than 220 countries and receive data in more than 205 countries.
Samsung's Focus 2 arrives at AT&T today, a slice of LTE-equipped Mango for $50
Not long after Samsung's SGH-i667 "Mandel" looked like it would never see the light of day, the Windows Phone 7.5 device made its official debut at CTIA, dubbed as the Focus 2. As expected, the phone is officially on sale today at AT&T retailers across the US, giving folks another option aside from the HTC Titan II or flagship Lumia 900 for a fix of LTE and Mango on the network. To refresh your memory, you'll find a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and VGA camera up front, and a 5MP shooter on back that capture 720p video. Internally, there's a 1.4GHz single-core CPU (exceedingly par for the course for Windows Phone at this point) and a 1,750mAh battery to hopefully ensure you'll have enough juice to get through the day. Despite the speedy connectivity, we'd be remiss not to mention that the Focus 2 packs a paltry 8GB of non-expandable storage and only comes in Glossy Pure White -- but for fifty bucks under a new two-year agreement, we won't kvetch too much. Our full review is coming soon, so hit the source link for more details in the meantime.
GameStop Mobile launches as AT&T virtual carrier, gives us rare bring-your-own GSM in US (update)
Here's an expansion of mobile competition in the US that comes out of left field, even for us: GameStop as a cellular provider. GameStop Mobile, as it's called, is that rare bird of an AT&T-based MVNO that relies on a bring-your-own-device strategy. As long as your hardware works on AT&T's 850MHz and 1,900MHz bands and isn't locked to another carrier, you can bring any GSM- and HSPA-based phone (or data-only device) and use it contract-free: rates start at anything from a strictly pay-as-you-go $5 through to a $55 monthly plan with unlimited voice and text, if just an anemic 500MB of data. Tablet owners and other data-only fans can pay the same $55 for 1GB per month -- a bit stiff considering that those on AT&T proper can get 5GB of data for slightly less. No doubt this is to take advantage of iPad and iPhone trade-ins, PlayStation Vitas and the overall rise of unlocked devices. We're just wondering whether GameStop will catch a few customers subscribing as they pick up their Diablo III pre-orders or else face the uncertain future that befalls many MVNOs. Update: As our friends at Joystiq have pointed out, the GameStop Mobile website is no longer publicly accessible. Looks like someone may have pulled the switch a bit too early.
NEC tablet with GSM and HSPA breaks cover at the FCC
Regular readers will know that the FCC is a bit of a virtual whistle-blower, alerting tech-hungry Americans to when new goodies might soon be landing on their shores. Other times it coughs up the odd thing we weren't even waiting for. Today's offering appears to be a 3G tablet from NEC. There's little in the way of specification, or even pictures, but we do know it's sporting GSM and HSPA radios along with the standard WiFi. The device measures 222.6 mm across, which strongly points to a display somewhere in the 7-inch region. The KMP7R4D1-1A model number isn't ringing any bells right now, but we do remember a few Japanese models that bear a passing resemblance not that long ago.
Apple's iPad WiFi + 4G renamed 'iPad WiFi + Cellular' across many of its stores
Remember Apple's new iPad WiFi + 4G? Well, forget that moniker, as this variant of the company's latest slate has been quietly re-dubbed as the iPad WiFi + Cellular. As noticed by 9to5Mac, the change occurred within the last "24-48 hours" across many of Apple's region-specific webstores (update: and retail locations), including (but not limited to) those for the US, UK, Australia, Canada and various countries in Asia. If you'll recall, in many regions the best you'll get out of the slate is HSPA-connectivity, even though it's also equipped for LTE -- something that Apple itself had considered good enough to market it as 4G despite offering refunds to customers in Australia who (like many others) couldn't officially partake in its LTE. Interestingly, 9to5Mac also notes that a similar change hasn't made its way over to the iPad 2, which still has its cellular-equipped variant named, iPad 2 WiFi + 3G. We've reached out to Apple for comment, but the meantime, feel free to hit up the source links below for more insight.
T-Mobile reports customer growth for Q1 2012, tries not to think about Q4 2011
T-Mobile USA took a bit of a hit back in Q4, following its failed merger with Ma Bell, but things are looking up for the magenta network. It still took a 2.8 percent hit in terms of raw revenues, taking in $5 billion including service and equipment sales, but it's still proud to report a net growth of 187,000 customers and diminishing reports of customer losses when compared to previous quarters. T-Mobile's branded net customer loss of 510,000 marks a 28-percent improvement over its 706,000 Q4 loss, and is bolstered by a 13 percent increase in prepaid customers, totaling 249,000. The firm blames its previous quarter contract losses on the widespread availability of the iPhone 4S on its competitors' networks. It's also assuring investors that its lauded 4G rollout is still underway, and noted that it has signed agreements with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network to upgrade 37,000 cell sites with LTE hardware over the next two years. The company hopes a brand relaunch (and the availability of handsets like the Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Nokia Lumia 710, and HTC One S) will drive customers to the high-speed network as it fills out over 2012 and 2013. Hit the break for all of the financially riveting details.
Reported Tegra 4 roadmap hints at LTE, Q1 2013 release
Time to put on our "skepticles" as we pore over some reportedly leaked Tegra 4 details. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang went on record saying that we could expect a new Tegra "every single year", so if anything, the fourth iteration of the series is slightly overdue. Chinese site VR-Zone, however, thinks it's got the inside skinny on how the next deployment might look. If its alleged roadmap leaks are to be believed, there will be four variants, three with a quad-core ARM Cortex A15 configuration, with clock speeds from 1.2 to 2.0GHz. What caught our eye a little more, though, was the "SP3X" flavor. Not because it favors the A9, but because it appears to bring LTE to the table right off the bat. That said, given that it's not that long since NVIDIA announced the same for Tegra 3, we can't help but wonder if something just got lost in translation.[Thanks Rizwan]
BlackBerry PlayBook with '4G' out and about, wants to know where you put its SIM
Jim Balsillie might be on the outs, but it looks like his once boastful pet-project -- a BlackBerry PlayBook with integrated cellular wireless -- is finally coming to fruition. Per CrackBerry's forums comes the above snap of the Canadian slate donning a SIM card slot, nary a month after we first spotted the company's HSPA+ and LTE tablets pass through the FCC. That also lines up nicely with a previously leaked roadmap, promising a summer arrival. Will the mythical 4G-wielding PlayBook ever make it to market? Or like its WiMax brother, will it never be given the chance? While you ponder that, more pics await at the source.Update: A few more photos have surfaced on the CrackBerry forums, showing what appears to be native BBM on the device.
GSM Galaxy Nexus seeing signal issues after Android 4.0.4 update?
Sometimes, updates aren't as sweet as they initially sound. Such is the case with Android 4.0.4, which recently rolled out to owners of the GSM Galaxy Nexus. According to an increasingly vocal swath of members at xda-developers (and confirmed by a listing on Google's own Support page), there are mysterious signal issues now troubling the device. For many users, there's an inexplicable loss of signal -- a complete inability to make or receive calls and text messages -- after applying the v4.0.4 update, though it's beginning to look like Sleep is the issue. For some, preventing the phone from going to into a deep sleep mode has solved the dilemma, but it has also created a life where a nearby AC outlet is more of a necessity than usual. Hit up the source link to submit a bug report if you're experiencing precisely this, and let us know of any potential fixes down in comments below.
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G review
Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't, but the Galaxy S 4G no longer exists at T-Mobile. Just one year ago, it replaced the Vibrant -- the carrier's first Galaxy S handset -- and now the Galaxy S 4G has similarly felt the cold embrace of Father Time. Fear not, though, because it has a replacement, and it's really quite admirable. Folks, let us introduce you to the Galaxy S Blaze 4G. If you're curious about the rationale behind the Blaze nomenclature, its meaning is actually two-fold: first, it's capable of accessing T-Mobile's speedy HSPA+ 42Mbps network, and second -- get this -- it packs the same dual-core processor as T-Mobile's Galaxy S II. More Info T-Mobile announces the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, available 'later this year' Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G hands-on T-Mobile's Galaxy S Blaze 4G lands in select stores March 21st, everywhere else March 28th Despite these two enhancements, the Galaxy S Blaze 4G stops short of encroaching on premium territory -- instead preferring to straddle the line between middle-of-the-road and high-end. Similarly, it retails for $200 on contract, before a $50 mail-in rebate. With such a lofty price, it'll undoubtedly instigate comparisons to the Galaxy S II and, soon enough, the HTC One S. Most importantly, though, is the question of whether the Blaze 4G can stand on its own as a quality smartphone; we're fully aware that prices change, and a vexing purchase today could become a wise decision tomorrow. With this in mind, join us after the break as we explore the latest that Samsung has to offer for T-Mobile.
Mobile Miscellany: week of March 12th, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, we've seen T-Mobile expand its network coverage and take an argument to the FCC regarding interoperability requirements of the 700MHz band. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of March 12th, 2012.
HSPA+ BlackBerry PlayBook hits the FCC (update: LTE too)
RIM has been promising an HSPA+ capable BlackBerry PlayBook for over a year, and it looks like it's now one step closer to actually being released. A tablet from Research in Motion recently made its way through the FCC's approval process and, if the test reports are any indication, it's a tablet with built-in HSPA+ connectivity. Unfortunately, the FCC hasn't revealed much else just yet, but earlier rumors have suggested that the new tablet will also see speed bump of another sort: an upgrade to a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, as well as the addition of NFC. A leaked RIM roadmap that surfaced earlier this year also suggested that the tablet would be released in mid-2012. Update: And just like that, an LTE version has now also turned up on the FCC's site, operating on frequencies that could indicate support for either AT&T in the US or any of the big three carriers in Canada. Update 2: Now a second LTE version has turned up at the FCC, this one with support for Verizon's network.
Galaxy Note LTE gains access to T-Mobile's HSPA+ network with custom radio
To all T-Mobile users that've privately longed to wield the Galaxy Note, yet've remained deterred by its nasty EDGE speed limitation, we've just one thing to say: welcome to flavor country. A new workaround designed specifically for AT&T's LTE variant of the monolithic smartphone (and ostensibly, Canadian versions, but not the international model), has successfully enabled HSPA+ support for AWS networks. Just like the Galaxy S II Skyrocket hack, the process is fairly straightforward; users must simply enter a SIM unlock code and then flash one of three radio files to the handset -- feel free to experiment and pick the most reliable of the bunch. While all functions are said to work properly, your phone's battery life may take a hit, as reports indicate that signal strength isn't quite up to par. For those wanting to proceed, just be sure to obtain a stock copy of your phone's radio file before diving in -- otherwise, once the new baseband's in place, you'll be unable to access Ma Bell's LTE network. Isn't compromise the greatest?
