| HOME > RSS Feeds > Mobile and Wireless | ||
| Add To: | 
|
 |
Are Apple and AT T planning to launch a $99 8GB iPhone 3G S in time for the holidays? This rumor was offered by a popular source. True or not, what does it say about the Motorola Droid — and the growing crop of Apple look-alikes?
Verizon Launches Low-Key Droid Event in Times Square, with Big Hopes
Verizon tried a Times Square promotion for its Droid smartphone on Nov. 6, the same day as the device’s release. Despite the small number of people who turned out for the event, Verizon and Google are hoping that the Android-powered smartphone will attract massive amounts of customers, and justify prerelease advertising that positioned the Droid as a robust competitor to Apple's iPhone. Some early reviews seemed to put the iPhone and Droid on relatively even ground in the capabilities category.
Best Buy to Install Google Mobile App, But Not For Droid, IPhone
Beginning Nov. 9, sales associates for Best Buy Mobile will install Google Mobile App on all BlackBerry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, or Nokia S60 smartphones through the Walk Out Working program, a free in-store smartphone setup. The deal makes Best Buy the first retailer in the U.S. to distribute Google Mobile App on smartphones sold in store. However, Best Buy won't install Google Mobile App on the Motorola Droid or HTC Eris because it isn't available on Android. Google Mobile App support is missing in action on the iPhone, too.
Aruba, Motorola Settle Patent Dispute
WLAN vendor Aruba agrees to a one-time payment of $19.8 million to Motorola and its subsidiaries, Symbol Technologies and Wireless Valley Communications. The out-of-court settlement also calls for a cross-licensing agreement between Aruba and Motorola for WLAN communication technologies.
T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon Prepare for Holiday Flurry
The first week of November has been busy for phone manufacturers and carriers as they gear up for Nov. 27, the official first day of the holiday shopping season. The Android-based Motorola Cliq arrived on the T-Mobile network this week, while the Samsung Moment, also with Android, arrived in Sprint Nextel stores. The Chocolate Touch, the first of the Chocolate line with a touch screen, is now available from Verizon Wireless. Rounding out the week, Verizon debuted the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris. We've compiled a look at many of these models and their features to help you kick-start your comparison shopping.
Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris Now on Verizon Wireless Network
Verizon Wireless now offers not one but two smartphones featuring Google’s Android: the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris. While the move is expected to be a win for all parties, Motorola is most in need of a success.
eWEEK at 25: Wi-Fi Has Gone from Extravagance to Mission-Critical Enabler
As eWEEK looks back at its 25-year history, eWEEK Labs analysts considered the most important innovations in their respective coverage areas. For Senior Analyst Andrew Garcia, the choice was a no-brainer: Wi-Fi, a & gargantuan success story.&
First Impressions of the Motorola Droid from Verizon
As Verizon Wireless launches the Motorola Droid smartphone Nov. 6 for $199 with a two-year contract after a $100 rebate, it does so as the most heavily hyped smartphone since the gadget it will chase, the iPhone 3GS. Reviews have been streaming steadily into the blogosphere as intrepid gadget hawks from Boy Genius Report, Engadget and Gizmodo have covered every nuance of the gadget. But there haven't been too many sanctioned reviews until Nov. 5, when gadget gurus Walt Mossberg (paywall) of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of The New York Times put their first impressions of the Droid online. eWEEK takes the pros and cons of the Droid from Mossberg and Pogue point by point.
10 Things Apple, Google and RIM Won't Tell You About Mobile Phones
News Analysis: Apple, Google, RIM and the other major vendors might be enjoying the fruits of the touch-screen business, but there are some aspects of those products that they don't like to talk about. Here are 10 reasons why there is still plenty of room for improvement in mobile phone design, service and performance.
Nokia 3711 Phone Comes to T-Mobile for $69.99
The Nokia 3711 is a new budget-friendly option for the holiday season. It arrived Nov. 5 on the T-Mobile network for $69.99 and supports Web browsing, e-mail, IM and SMS and includes GPS, Bluetooth, a media player and a camera.
Clearwire's WiMax Hits Philadelphia Market
Clearwire Communications continues it aggressive national WiMax rollout with a Philadelphia debut. The rollout is part of Clearwire's plan to bring wireless 4G service to 80 markets covering up to 120 million people by the end of 2010.
HTC Eris Joins Verizon's Android Lineup
While the Motorola Android phone making its debut on Verizon Wireless Nov. 6 is getting all the hype, the carrier is also introducing the HTC Eris, another Android-based phone that will be available for $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year customer agreement.
BlackBerry Bold 9700 Is Sleek, Slim, but Not So Bold
Research In Motion’s share of the enterprise smartphone market has been challenged lately, as competitors ranging from Apple’s iPhone to the Palm Pre all seek to usurp the BlackBerry as device of choice for many business users. RIM’s response to this increasingly competitive landscape was to issue the Bold 9700, a phone that includes BlackBerry’s enterprise functionality in a sleeker and more streamlined package. While not a radical updating of its Bold line, the Bold 9700 does include improvements to its display and form-factor, as well as a newly tweaked operating system with BlackBerry OS 5.0.
BlackBerry Bold 9700 Is Sleeker Version of BlackBerry Experience
ANALYSIS: BlackBerry's new Bold 9700 smartphone is a sleeker, smaller version of the Bold 9000. While Research In Motion has tweaked the device’s software through the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 and improved some of its hardware, the Bold 9700 offers largely the same BlackBerry experience as previous devices, which could be sufficient for many enterprise users but carries the risk that RIM could be outpaced by competitors such as Google and Apple.
Motorola Droid Is a ‘Killer Phone,` Journal, Times Agree
The Motorola Droid is more of a “killer phone” than an iPhone killer, according to The New York Times’ David Pogue and the Wall Street Journal’s Walter S. Mossberg. The Android-running phone will arrive on the Verizon Wireless network Nov. 6.
Things to Ponder Before You Buy the Motorola-Verizon Droid
Verizon Wireless stores are opening as early as 7 a.m. local time Nov. 6 to begin selling the Motorola Droid, which is targeting Apple's iPhone with a killer ad campaign and offering Google Maps Navigation GPS and other perks such a 5 megapixel camera. The smartphone is $199 after a mail-in rebate. Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital says the mobile device requires a minimum $70 monthly service plan for two years, excluding text messaging. Gearlog has more on the service plans, noting that if you want to connect Droid to a Microsoft Exchange account, it will cost $30. Also, Verizon Wireless will enable Droid users to tether their smartphones to their laptops in 2010.
T-Mobile to Bill for Google Android Apps, Get Android Market Channel
T-Mobile CTO Cole Brodman says at the Open Mobile Summit that T-Mobile will let customers pay for Android applications on their monthly mobile bills starting Nov. 17. On that day, T-Mobile will also launch the T-Mobile Channel on Android Market to recommend some of the Market's apps to T-Mobile customers. Android Market currently hosts 12,000 applications, dwarfed by the 100,000 applications for Apple's iPhone. Android's growth is respectable for a platform that launched on smartphones little more than a year ago. The iPhone is a phenomenon no one has seen before in the nascent smartphone market.
Sybase Expands IT Management for iPhone
Sybase launched new product offerings for the iPhone with an eye toward increasing the smartphone's enterprise functionality. Among the features are administrative policy lockdown control and bidirectional synchronization between iPhone and database. Throughout 2009, Sybase has been increasing its reach in enterprise mobility, porting its offerings onto not only Apple's iPhone, but also BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.
10 Reasons Why, ATandT, Verizon and All Wireless Carriers Disappoint
News Analysis: AT T and Verizon Wireless might be battling out over their real coverage right now, but when it comes time to evaluate these companies and other wireless carriers, disappointment usually follows. Compared with wireless services overseas, the U.S. looks like a third-world country in terms of wireless coverage, 3G access, Internet connectivity and phone quality.
Apple App Store Hits 100,000 Apps, but Droid Is Coming
Apple's App Store now contains some 100,000 apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Although Apple declined to publicly estimate how many apps had been downloaded, eWEEK's math puts the number at 2.250 billion. The iPhone and the App Store could receive a challenge in a few days from the Motorola Droid smartphone, which runs on Google Android and could encourage developers to create an alternative mobile-application ecosystem.