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Google Home speakers can now make mobile calls, starting in Australia
For two years, Google Home users have been able to place calls from their smart speakers using the built-in VoIP functionality. From today that function is available using mobile service too, with Australian mobile provider Telstra becoming the first company to offer voice-activated calling via a mobile carrier.
Tesla replaces Elon Musk as board chair with Telstra CFO Robyn Denholm
As part of his settlement with the SEC over tweets about taking Tesla private, Elon Musk agreed to step down from his post as chairman of the board of directors. Now, while he's still CEO and retains his seat on the board, Tesla has announced his replacement: Robyn Denholm. Already a Tesla board member, she is currently CFO and head of strategy for the Australian telecom Telstra, but will leave that post once her six-month notice period is up to serve as board chair of Tesla full-time.
Fox tests auto-downloading movies onto your phone
Wouldn't you like it if newish movies trickle-downloaded onto your phone when you weren't looking so you could watch them later? That's the concept behind an experiment being carried out by 20th Century Fox over the next month. The studio has partnered with Australian mobile network Telstra and Ericsson to test a mobile app that quietly pulls down flicks for watching, offline, later on. Assuming, at least, that you pay the requisite fee to unlock the film that's quietly occupying space on your smartphone.
Australia gets first dibs on Gigabit LTE network and router
We're still years away before 5G fully goes live, so for now, Qualcomm continues to build on top of current 4G LTE technology to bridge the gap. The latest development on this end is the launch of the Netgear Mobile Router MR1100, which is the first mobile device to feature Gigabit LTE connectivity thanks to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X16 LTE modem. If all goes well, the lucky folks in Australia will be the first to use this device, as it'll be launched on world's first Gigabit LTE network courtesy of Telstra and Ericsson. According to Qualcomm's announcement at its summit today, Telstra will be launching its new speedy service "in the coming months," which means it could be this year or next year.
An Australian carrier's 'free data' day was totally abused
Mobile carriers rarely give anything away for free, so when Australian provider Telstra offered customers unlimited downloads for a whole day, they more than filled their pockets. To atone for a network outage last Tuesday, the operator turned its apology into a marketing stunt with the launch of "Free Mobile Data Sunday." There were no restrictions on what could be posted, browsed, shared and streamed, allowing Telstra customers to gobble up a record 1,841 terabytes of data in 24 hours.
Google grabs its first carrier partner for Project Loon tests in Australia
Google's internet-transmitting Project Loon balloons are set to float above Australia and beam data down to residents below. The company announced plans to use balloons to bring the internet to disconnected areas last year, and after semi-successful trials in New Zealand, Brazil and the States, it's teaming up with a local carrier (Australia's Telstra) for the first time to launch Loon's biggest test flight to date.
Hong Kong's CSL demos 300Mbps LTE Advanced service, due early 2014 (video)
It was only about four months ago when CSL, Telstra's part-owned operator behind Hong Kong's one2Free and 1010 networks, showed off its 150Mbps LTE Cat 4 upgrade; but why stop there? Today, the same company gave us a glimpse of its upcoming 300Mbps LTE Advanced service, which is enabled by aggregating its 20MHz carriers at both its 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz LTE bands. "The announcements in Korea and the announcements in Australia around LTE Advanced... the theoretical speed that they're delivering is 150Mbps. What we're talking about today is LTE-A300," said Phil Mottram, CEO of CSL. "It's definitely a first for Hong Kong, and it's potentially a world-first in terms of being able to deliver these theoretical, maximum download speeds at 300Mbps."
Kogan Mobile to wind down after wholesale provider ispONE goes bust
Virtual carriers are only as healthy as the companies that provide their services -- and Australia's Kogan Mobile is learning this the hard way. Its wholesale cellular partner ispONE has just entered administration following a contract dispute with Telstra, ending all its deals for prepaid 3G services and leaving Kogan Mobile no choice but to wind down. Customers have already lost the ability to add or replenish services; they'll have up to 60 days after a Telstra notice to use any credit they have left, and 180 days to port their numbers elsewhere. While Kogan's shutdown may only affect about 100,000 people, it still represents an unfortunate loss of competition in a country with few major providers.
Telstra says Windows Phone 8 GDR2 update should reach testing in mid-May
We've heard talk of a GDR2 update coming to Windows Phone 8, including more recent claims of restored FM radio support and a double-tap-to-wake feature, but it's been unclear when the mid-cycle refresh would show up. Telstra may have just given us a better clue: the Australian carrier tells customers on its support forums that Nokia should deliver its version of GDR2 for testing sometime in mid-May. That suggests the upgrade is relatively close, although we wouldn't make too many assumptions beyond that -- Telstra is just one of many networks that needs to sign off on GDR2, and it's likely neither the first nor the last. Nonetheless, it's apparent that Microsoft is relatively close to delivering a big tune-up.
Mobile Miscellany: week of April 22nd, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, a familiar smartphone leaked that's said to join the prepaid ranks at Verizon Wireless, AT&T swung back against the DOJ, and Rogers issued its quarterly earnings. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of April 22nd, 2013.
Nokia announces Australian carriers: Telstra gets the 920, Vodafone and Optus get the 820
Nokia's started its world tour of local announcements in Australia, letting slip that the Lumia 920 is coming to Telstra's LTE network down under. Those with an eye on the cheaper Lumia 820 are in luck too, as it's going to be carried by both Vodafone and Optus Business. The Finnish phone maker added that a number of leading retailers would be selling both handsets, but declined to go into specifics there. Pricing and availability will be announced toward the end of October, giving us hope that everything's on schedule for a strong pre-Christmas launch.
HTC 'preparing' Jelly Bean update for One XL and One S, no date yet
HTC has a long history of both raising and dashing hopes of Android upgrades on its devices. Moreover, the Australian network Telstra has often led that emotional rollercoaster, which means the detail on its software update page above is probably best approached with an air of detached calm. It tells us that both the HTC One XL (the global version of the American One X) and the One S have official Jelly Bean updates being "prepared" by HTC -- which is slightly more specific than what we last heard on this subject, when the manufacturer said it was "excited" about Google's latest OS version and planned to support it "across a variety" of handsets. If you happen to own a non-LTE, Tegra 3-based One X, then the absence of that handset on the list doesn't mean much -- that model simply isn't part of the carrier's line-up. [Thanks, Will]
Refresh Roundup: week of June 4th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Refresh Roundup: week of May 28th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Mobile Miscellany: week of May 21st, 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, it was revealed that the HTC EVO 4G LTE likely supports simultaneous voice and data connections on Sprint's network, Samsung's Galaxy Ace 2 landed at Three in the UK and Vertu revealed a refresh to its Constellation series of luxury phones. 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 May 21st, 2012.
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.
Refresh Roundup: week of April 23rd, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Refresh Roundup: week of March 5th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
HTC Velocity runs impressive speed test on Australia's new 4G network
How fast is Telstra's new 4G network? Pretty darned fast, according to a recent speed test that Ausdroid ran on an HTC Velocity -- Australia's first 4G handset. As the above image clearly demonstrates, the device impressively managed to reach download speeds of 32.82Mbps, with upload rates of 11.26Mbps. Ausdroid was quick to point out that speeds will likely vary across Telstra's network, though it wasn't the only one to report astronomic numbers. Trevor Long, in fact, actually managed to top Ausdroid's results, with a whopping 39.85Mbps downstream, and 11.88Mbps upstream. He also posted an image to his Twitter account, just to rub it in. Update: Long has actually outdone himself yet again, reaching speeds of 40.77Mbps (down) and 20.07Mbps (up). Photographic evidence after the break. [Thanks, Jason]
Did you fire off a bunch of texts this Christmas? Welcome to the museum
Finland might be the spiritual home of the SMS, but it also proves that this ancient form of communication is going the way of the rune stone. A mere 8.5 million texts were sent over the country's Sonera network on Christmas Eve, versus 10.9 million on that festive day in 2010. The same trend was spotted on other Finnish networks and also on the other side of the world: Christmas Day texts in Hong Kong were down nearly 14 percent on the year before, and Telstra in Australia experienced a nine percent year-on-year decline over the whole of 2011. Things are different in America, where texting has continued to grow, but that growth seems to be slowing down and some analysts expect "SMS erosion" to hit Verizon and AT&T by 2014. The obvious culprit is mobile internet: social networking apps, BBM, iMessage and a host of other 'free' options, but you won't find carriers complaining -- data contract ARPUs suit them just fine.
