Michelle Maisto

Softbank has reached another “significant milestone” in its efforts to close its deal with Sprint, it said in a May 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A registration statement related to its agreed transaction with Sprint has “been declared effective” by the SEC, paving the way for Sprint to mail off a […]

Facebook-owned Instagram added a Facebook-like feature May 2: the ability to tag people, places or things in photos. Called Photos of You, the feature further rounds out the app, Instagram said in a blog post. “Your captions and hashtags capture the ‘what?’ and your Photo Map answers the ‘where?’ but until today we’ve never quite […]

The BlackBerry network suffered a particularly ill-timed outage early May 3. In March, BlackBerry had its besmirched name cleared, when the Department of Defense responded to reports that it was ending its relationship with the ailing phone maker, known for its security and stability but lack of consumer appeal. It wasn’t leaving BlackBerry, the DOD […]

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is joining Google, BlackBerry, Earthlink, Red Hat and others in the fight against companies that make a business entirely of creating lawsuits over patent rights. The latter are referred to as nonpracticing entities (NPEs), patent assertion entities (PAEs) or, most commonly, patent trolls. On May 2, Schumer introduced legislation that […]

HTC, posting full first-quarter 2013 results May 2, said it’s optimistic about what’s to come. During the first quarter the company had hoped to benefit from the new HTC One, but supplier delays put the smartphone in just a handful of markets, instead of the planned 80. The result was a net profit of approximately […]

Tablets are in the enterprise, whether put there by management or brought in by employees, and they’re becoming as indispensable to workers as smartphones. This was the message at the second annual TabTimes Tablet Strategy conference in New York April 30, where IT decision makers, tech experts, vendors and industry leaders came together to discuss […]

President Barack Obama on May 1 announced plans to nominate Tom Wheeler as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and appointed Commissioner Mignon Clyburn the acting chair. During the transition period, Clyburn will be the first woman to lead the FCC. Current Chair Julius Genachowski announced March 22 that he planned to step down […]

John Legere was behind the New York Stock Exchange opening bell May 1, ringing in a new competitor in the U.S. wireless mobile market: T-Mobile US, Inc. The new entity is the result of a merger between the Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile USA and Dallas-based prepaid carrier MetroPCS, though the new combined company will still operate […]

The Role of Tablets in a Fast-Evolving Mobile Market by Michelle Maisto Three Pilot Programs Test Tablets’ Roles In Education Deborah Moschella Saks, director of user services at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, discussed a $30,000 technical grant the school established for “designing new instructional techniques and programs.” Largely involving iPads, these have included pushing […]

“Softbank delivers superior value to Sprint shareholders—I’m very confident about that,” Softbank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said during an April 30 presentation during which he set out to prove his statement. In October, Softbank and Sprint reached an agreement in which Japan’s third-largest wireless carrier will receive a 70 percent share of this nation’s […]

WhatsApp, Apple’s iMessage, BlackBerry’s Messenger and other popular, free mobile “chat apps” that enable users of the same app to communicate for free, have pushed over-the-top (OTT) messaging numbers ahead of peer-to-peer (P2P) Short Message Service (SMS) numbers for the first time. Informa Telecoms & Media analyst Pamela Clark-Dickson wrote in an April 29 blog […]

Just as Samsung is clearing up supply delays and getting the Galaxy S 4 into waiting markets—Sprint announced April 29 that units are “now flowing” into its sales channels—reviews are emerging that might give some buyers pause. Everyone agrees that the S 4 is feature-packed and unlike anything on the market. But that doesn’t mean […]