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AT&T launches one-day tablet data pass, brings internet connectivity to Tesla
AT&T senior vice president Chris Penrose announced a new $5 day pass for data at the GigaOm Mobilize conference in San Francisco today, with hopes that it'll compete against expensive hotel WiFi for frequent travelers. The day pass is limited to just 250MB of data. You can also opt for a $25 for 1GB plan that you can use any time within three months. The plan can be bought directly from the tablet itself via the carrier's website or AT&T's All Access app. "A WiFi tablet is good, but it's not good enough," said Penrose, hoping that all tablets will incorporate both WiFi and LTE going forward. He also said that the company is hard at work on its connected car strategy, working with BMW, Nissan, Ford and Tesla to bring internet connectivity into those vehicles. Some of these deals are 3G/HSPA+ and not necessarily LTE. Tesla's deal, for example, uses HSPA+ to power the electric car's communications, remote diagnostics, various infotainment features plus a mobile hotspot plan in the future. AT&T aims to use the traditional whole sale connectivity model with split SIM chip billing that can differentiate between types of data. This way the carrier knows which parts to bill to the customer and which to bill to the auto OEM. "If you haven't subscribed to a monthly plan, you can have a session-based plan. Say you download an audio book, the price of the book will also include the data cost of that download." It's already announced its GM strategy earlier this year, and Penrose said that it continues to plan to put LTE in GM's entire fleet as early as mid 2014.
Dennis Crowley: Foursquare's a discovery and recommendation engine first, social service second
Plenty of Foursquare fans use the app primarily as a means to share their own location and see the locations of others around them, but Foursquare isn't only about socially-acceptable stalking. At the GigaOm Mobilize conference today, company co-founder Dennis Crowley informed those of us in the room that thinking of Foursquare as merely a check-in app is misguided. According to him, the plan for Foursquare has always been for it to be a customized discovery and recommendation engine first, and a social tool second. You see, all your check-ins provide Foursquare with valuable information about you and your friend's habits. Those check-ins, as far as Foursquare's concerned, are merely an efficient means to get the data needed to build the individualized, location-aware search and recommendation engine that powers the explore tab in the app. Crowley said that he's been hearing plenty of positive feedback from users about the accuracy and usefulness of Foursquare-powered search, and some folks have even begun using it instead of Google. Foursquare isn't on Mountain View's level just yet, but it seems that Crowley and his cohort have the reigning king of search squarely in their sights.
Hands-on with HTC's Amaze 4G for T-Mobile (video)
So how does HTC's Amaze 4G stack up to its European counterpart, the Sensation XE? Pretty well actually. The 4.3-inch qHD smartphone also features Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU, but bumps the RAM from 768MB to 1GB. It's also HTC's first NFC toting device and joins T-Mobile's Galaxy S II as the other 42Mbps HSPA+ -capable handset on Magenta's network. More noteworthy is its trick eight megapixel shooter, which features the same backside-illuminated sensor, f2.2 wide-angle optics and 1080p video recording capability as the myTouch 4G Slide. Similarly, the Amaze 4G hangs on to quite a bit of that phone's camera software, including a new composite mode that automagically creates one stellar image out of five less than fabulous snapshots. We also liked the addition of two physical camera buttons, one for stills and the other for video. First impressions of the Sense-laden, Gingerbread smartphone? It's very much like a Sensation on steroids, with a definite T-Mobile flavor. Take a look at our gallery and hit the break for our hands-on video from Mobilize 2011. Myriam Joire contributed to this report. %Gallery-134939%
T-Mobile: 90 percent of 2011 smartphone sales were Android, 'ball is in Apple's court for iPhone 5'
Here at Mobilize, T-Mobile's CMO Cole Brodman revealed that over 75 percent of his company's phones sold in 2011 were smartphones, with 90 percent of those powered by Google's green little robots (read: Android). In a sense, that's not too shocking given the carrier's current portfolio, but it's still a truly dominating figure. We're going out on a limb and guessing that the other 10 percent are enterprise BlackBerry users, mixed in with a few enigmatic renegades for good measure. When asked about other platforms, like RIM, the CMO mentioned he was hopeful for a comeback from the latest crop of Canuck-sourced BlackBerry devices. He also noted that video was responsible for over half the traffic on T-Mob's 4G network. Finally, when asked about the iPhone 5, Brodman responded coyly: "the ball is in Apple's court. [We'd] love to have the iPhone... whenever Apple lets us know." In other words, don't bank on a T-Mob iPhone early next month. Keep up with our Mobilize 2011 coverage here! %Gallery-134903% %Gallery-134902%
T-Mobile Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot bringing OLED display, HSPA+ connectivity this October
It feels like just yesterday that we saw T-Mobile's original 4G Mobile HotSpot at CTIA (our review is here), and already the purgatory-presiding US carrier is ushering out a successor. Alongside the Galaxy S II and Amaze 4G, the Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot is being revealed at Mobilize, and it's hailed as the carrier's fastest ever in the category. Predictably, it'll enable five WiFi devices to hop onto T-Mob's HSPA+ 42 network, and there's a microSD card slot for handling file transfers. The wow factor comes courtesy of the embedded OLED indicator display, which shows signal strength, number of devices connected, number of unread text messages, connectivity to the internet, battery level and network connection type. Lips are zipped on pricing, but it'll be available at your nearest Magenta retailer next month. Keep up with our Mobilize 2011 coverage here!
T-Mobile makes Galaxy S II official at Mobilize: ships on October 12th for $230
Samsung might have already announced T-Mobile's variant of the Galaxy S II, but here at Mobilize the carrier's gone and revealed all the nitty-gritty details. We can now confirm that the 4.52-inch smartphone wields a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, eschewing Sammy's 1.2GHz Exynos found on its other stateside brethren. And much like the just announced Amaze 4G, it'll be one of the first phones to take advantage of the carrier's 42Mbps HSPA+ and T-Mobile TV functionality. The TouchWiz-covered, Gingerbread 2.3.5-sportin' superphone can be yours on October 10th for $229.99 (after a $50 mail in rebate) from Deutsche Telekom's website, or in stores and select dealers on the 12th. Stay tuned for an impending hands-on -- you can bide time by eying the PR after the break, or having a look at the gallery below. Keep up with our Mobilize 2011 coverage here! %Gallery-134906%
T-Mobile reveals HTC Amaze 4G, flaunts better camera and faster HSPA+
Europe may be enjoying the Sensation XE, but today at Mobilize, T-Mobile's announced that it's getting the exclusive on HTC's Amaze 4G ($259.99 on a two-year contract), while also confirming the hardware whispers we've heard. With its 4.3-inch qHD screen and 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, it's one of the first smartphones able to connect to T-Mobile's upgraded 4G (HSPA+ 42Mbps) network and is the first HTC phone featuring an NFC chip -- something we didn't gather from those early spy-shots, but the manufacturer promised a while ago. Pushing its photography credentials, the Amaze 4G's eight megapixel shooter can record 1080p video, with a dedicated camera button (and even a direct-to-camcorder button) to make the most of the handset's promised "zero shutter lag." Its also got that backlit sensor found in its sibling, the myTouch 4G Slide, so we're expecting admirable low-light performance, too. On the software side, it's running Android 2.3.4, coated in the inevitable Sense veneer and supporting the likes of HTC Watch and T-Mobile TV. Will it be enough to steal the network's king of Android crown away from the Galaxy S II when it ships October 12th? You tell us, as you check the PR after the break. Keep up with our Mobilize 2011 coverage here! %Gallery-134900%
Tango launches 3G and WiFi video calling on iOS and Android, no account required
Today at San Francisco's Mobilize conference, a company by the name of Tango launched its video calling application, appropriately called... yes, "Tango." Like Fring, it's available for both iOS and Android devices, and handles calls over 3G and WiFi. Like FaceTime, no account is required to initiate calls. We chatted with Eric Setton, CTO of Tango, who gave us a demo of the application (on video) using an iPhone 4 and EVO 4G. We also tested Tango by installing the application on an iPhone 4 and Nexus One, and it works as advertised -- although it only appears to initiate calls with people already in your contact list. Tango relies on the XMPP protocol used by Jabber and Google Talk to initiate calls via a centralized server, but the actual calls are peer-to-peer over 3G and WiFi. Call quality scales dynamically with connection performance. Currently, the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and 4th generation iPod touch are supported, as well as devices running Android 2.1 and higher (not 2.0 as mentioned in the video). Give it a try and let us know how it works for you -- and remember, it takes two to tango. Follow the break for the video demo!
Live from Motorola's Android announcement at Mobilize 09
We're at GigaOM's Mobilize conference today, where Motorola and CEO Sanjay Jha has come to reveal (or so we hope, anyway) its first volley of Android hardware -- hardware that could very well make or break the company. Follow the break for all the action live and in full color!
Motorola introduces the MOTOBLUR Android skin
As expected, Motorola just introduced its Android strategy at the Mobilize conference, and it's based around a skin called Blur -- or MOTOBLUR if you're feeling cute. It's built around social networking, and it features live widgets that integrate Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, MySpace, Yahoo, Last.fm and more. Like Palm's Synergy, Blur aggregates all your contacts into a single address book, but it shows you recent status updates along with photos when contacts call you -- very slick. There's also remote wipe and GPS tracking like MobileMe.%Gallery-72455%
