Pandora radio the automated music recommendation service, has a new HTML5 design to make it a lot more responsive, simpler to use, and better integrated with other platforms and services.

Some of the new functions incorporate:

• Simplified Station Creation – Enhanced auto-complete selections and personalized suggestions make making new stations and discovering new music or comedy far more intuitive and personal.
• Discovery of Music with Friends – Enhanced listener profiles and a new music feed supply a centralized location to discover, like and comment on what buddies and like-minded listeners are discovering and enjoying on Pandora. The music feed will roll out slowly more than the course of the coming days. In addition to the prominent new “share” button, stations now have their own URLs, generating it super straightforward for listeners to share preferred stations via Twitter, Facebook, or email.
• Improved Control – Prominent and ubiquitous access to familiar player control buttons which includes Play, Pause, Thumbs-Up and Thumbs-Down icons helps listeners to simply personalize their music and comedy stations. A new shuffle function also permits listeners to shuffle any collection of stations to add selection to their listening expertise.
• Enhanced Artist Data – An choice to find out a lot more about the music, discover lyrics, read artists’ biographies and expand the album art size.
• Unlimited listening – The company has removed the 40 hours listening cap – you can now listen as a lot as you want for free of charge.

The new social feed will roll out more than the next couple of days. Here’s a link to view and to edit privacy settings.

Pandora Radio has two subscription plans: a totally free subscription supported by advertisements, and a fee-based subscription with no ads. There are also advertisements in “Pandora Mobile” for mobile phones and “Pandora in The Residence” computer appliances. Most users select the cost-free subscription.

Pandora uses the Music Genome Project to reflect your musical taste, with over 400 diverse musical attributes. These 400 attributes are combined into bigger groups called focus traits. There are two,000 concentrate traits. Examples of these are rhythm syncopation, important tonality, vocal harmonies, and displayed instrumental proficiency.

In other news, Adobe announced nowadays Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 for creating “immersive” 3D application experiences across devices and platforms. Meanwhile, standards-based HTML5 technologies, which do not need proprietary plug-ins like Flash, are becoming increasingly popular.

Flash Player 11 and AIR three are slated to ship to desktop systems in early October, and will function hardware-accelerated rendering that are said to render 2D and 3D graphics 𔄙,000 times faster” than with Flash Player 10 and AIR 2.

Flash doesn’t play on Apple’s iOS devices, Windows Phones or BlackBerry smartphones. Microsoft says its tablet-oriented, Metro-style version of Internet Explorer 10 will also not offer you any plug-in support, rather utilizing HTML5 on Windows 8-based mobile devices as well. Microsoft’s own Silverlight plug-in, lengthy a competitor to Flash, will also suffer at the hands of the alter in IE policy.

dailywireless.org

Huawei has announced commercial availability of the world’s very first LTE TDD wireless broadband router, the Huawei B593, through Saudi Arabian operator Mobily in October this year, in conjunction with their big-scale LTE TDD network.

The Huawei B593 supports LTE TDD and FDD, capabilities a download speed of up to 100M and offers access to up to 32 WiFi devices as well as desktop computers through an Ethernet cable.

Mobily is the largest mobile broadband service provider in Saudi Arabia and a subsidiary of multinational UAE telecom operator Etisalat.

Aircel and Huawei have already effectively tested LTE TDD in India with plans to launch the service soon. Other significant scale TD-LTE networks consist of the Australian Broadband Net, Clearwire’s LTE Advanced network and China Mobile.

dailywireless.org

We very first told you about the Saygus VPhone back in 2009, but never heard a factor about it until now. It ought to have been on the market by June 2010, but it took way longer to get approved than anyone expected.

Verizon’s open development program (ODI) was created for machine-to-machine devices like energy meters and thermostats, but 9 phones have been approved before the VPhone. The reality that it took this long to get approved shows you how challenging it is for mobile phone companies to pass through the carrier labs.

What does any of this mean? You will be able to acquire the telephone and use Verizon Wireless’s network, but it won’t be supported by them. That means it will be free of bloatware so it will be the closest factor to a Nexus device.

Sadly the specs are absolutely nothing to rave about. As for what Android version, we have no idea, but wouldn’t be surprised if it is a Froyo device. Hit the break for the rest of the specs.

Read Much more…

Saygus VPhone finally goes by means of Verizon Wireless’s open development initiative

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

T-Mobile announced today that they have doubled their HSPA+ network speed from a theoretical 21 Mbps to 42 Mbps in 55 markets. In addition, they announced the T-Mobile Rocket 3.0 USB stick that supports the faster data network speeds.

The Rocket 3.0 USB stick, from ZTE, will be available tomorrow for $ 99.99 after a $ 50 mail-in rebate and two year mobile broadband agreement.

T-Mobile’s broadband plans start at $ 29.99 for 200 MB up to $ 84.99 for 10 GB and customers with a voice line of service receive a 20% discount. You can also buy the Rocket 3.0 without a contract for $ 199.99.

A new phone capable of 42 Mbps will be released “before the end of the year,” said Eric Schlumpf, T-Mobile’s vice president and general manager for the Pacific Northwest. Its current phones capable of 21 Mbps include the Galaxy S 4G, MyTouch 4G, G2, Sidekick and G2X, along with the upcoming Sensation and BlackBerry Bold 9900.

After 21-Mbit/s HSPA+ on the 3G upgrade path, operators can either deploy multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) antennas to boost data speeds up to 28 Mbit/s or implement dual-carrier HSPA+ to double available capacity to 42 Mbit/s. Heavy Reading says dual-carrier is what T-Mobile is implementing. It’s “cheaper and easier” than deploying MIMO, which is why most operators are heading for dual-carrier as they look to increase available capacity on their existing 3G networks.

AT&T hopes to combine T-Mobile’s AWS frequencies (1.7/2.1 GHz) with their 700 MHz LTE network. The 700 MHz band would, of course, likely travel 2-3 times further that the AWS half.

Telefónica was among the first operator to upgrade from 21-Mbit/s HSPA+ to dual-cell HSPA+, which enables peak data rates of 42 Mbit/s. Other operators that have fired up dual-cell HSPA+ include Sweden’s Hi3G Access AB, Hong Kong CSL, Telstra in Australia, and Telus Mobility in Canada. (See Light Reading: MWC 2010: Dual-Carrier Duel, and T-Mobile USA Promises 42-Mbit/s 3G in 2011.

dailywireless.org

Twitter released it’s 2.0 update today providing users a plethora of new enhancements to both the UI and overall performance. The new changes implemented are as follows:

• Easier navigation and layout
• Scanning your contacts to help locate your friends on Twitter
• Universal search
• Autocomplete @usernames while tweeting
• Even easier photo uploading
• Faster tweet actions (reply, retweet, follow, etc)

Perhaps these new updates will bring more users back to the official Android app for Twitter rather than all the substitutes.

Summary and Downloads:

Application: Twitter for Android
Developer: Twitter, Inc.
Cost: FREE

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Remember that snazzy Toshiba tablet prototype that we were speculating about early last month? Well, Toshiba has finally launched the official Toshiba Tablet website, with a confirmation that the Honeycomb device will be available this spring.

The website itself is pretty sleek and pleasing to the eye, which is hopefully a sign that the Toshiba Tablet will be just as great. The Android section of the website confirms that the tablet will be running Honeycomb and allow custom desktops, apps, and the like.

Take a look at TheToshibaTablet.com by clicking the source link. Be sure to let us know your thoughts on the upcoming Toshiba Tablet in the comments.

TheToshibaTablet.com goes live, Toshiba Honeycomb tablet coming this spring

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

As expected, Motorola took their shot at the iPad with their full length commercial during the Super Bowl Ad extravaganza.  Give it a gander below and let us know what you think.  In addition, Motorola has launched the official page for the Xoom and provides tons of pics, videos, and an in depth look at the features.  Check it out here.  And lastly, the guys over at Engadget caught wind of a Best Buy circular showing the Xoom to initially come in at $800.00 with a Feb 24th launch date.  Will you get one, or will that price tag deter you?  Hit the break to check out some more pics and to view the Xoom ad aired during Super Bowl XLV.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Motorola Xoom Ad Airs During The Super Bowl, Xoom Site Also Goes Live, Provides An In-Depth Look. Best Buy Also Says Xoom Tab Will Run You $800

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

If you’re watching the Super Bowl, and if you live in America you probably are, you also probably saw the Motorola XOOM commercial. If you didn’t, check it out below:

The Motorola XOOM minisite also went live which offers a pretty in-depth look at the device:

Lastly, Engadget spotted a BestBuy ad for the XOOM and it’s listed at $800 plus a $20 fee for 1GB of monthly data and $80 for 10GB of monthly data:

If it comes out on February 24th as they’re indicating, will you pick it up for the $800 + plan or will the price prevent you?

View full post on Android Phone Fans

rel="attachment wp-att-25193" href="http://www.appcraver.com/wimpcom-family-friendly-videos/wimp-com-familyfriendlyvideos/"> style=' float: left; padding: 4px; margin: 0 7px 2px 0;' class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-25193" title="wimp.com-familyfriendlyvideos" src="http://www.appcraver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/wimp.com-familyfriendlyvideos-200x300.png" alt="" width="200" height="300" />If you’ve enjoyed the selection of videos available at Wimp.com on your computer, you can now get easy access to the same collection on the go with title="wimp.com family friendly videos app" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wimp-com-family-friendly-videos/id412842333?mt=8&partnerId=30&siteID=saW0nB/fQ6o" target="_blank">Wimp.com – Family Friendly Videos. If you aren’t familiar with it, Wimp.com is a video site with a fairly random collection of user-created videos. Though not as popular as YouTube, Wimp.com has been around for a couple of years and isn’t unheard of.

The Wimp.com – Family Friendly Videos app provides quick, easy access to the same videos available on their site. You can browse by upload date or pick your poison and search the archives. You won’t necessarily find the viral videos everyone is talking about around the water cooler, but there is an interesting and varied collection for perusal. The videos you discover can be shared on Twitter or Facebook, emailed to a friend, or saved for viewing later.

Read the rest of href="http://www.appcraver.com/wimpcom-family-friendly-videos/">Wimp.com’s Video Site Goes Mobile with Wimp.com – Family Friendly Videos

AppCraver.com, 2011. | href="http://www.appcraver.com/">Best iPhone Applications | href="http://www.appcraver.com/picks/">Top iPhone Apps

The UK’s mobile operator O2, a subsidiary of Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider Telefónica, which is big in Europe and Latin America, is planning to deploy 13,000 Wi-Fi hotspots over the next two years — with free internet access.

Initially the hotspots will be available in 450, O2-owned sites, reports the BBC, but will be expanded to other locations, including shops and restaurants. The network won’t just be for O2 customers: anyone with a mobile phone will be able to sign up and use the service, reports The Register. Free internet access will be paid for by venue advertising.

O2 already offers its premium subscribers access to hotspots run by The Cloud and BT OpenZone. That totals around 7,500 hotspots. Those deals will remain in place while O2 deploys its new free-to-all Wi-Fi network.

O2 Wi-Fi, will eventually replace the mobile operator’s existing 450 O2 Cloud hotspots, the company said in its announcement on Wednesday. It has promised that by 2013, it will at least double the number of existing premium hotspots offered by BT OpenZone and The Cloud, or close to 13,000, according to the company.

BT’s OpenZone and Fon networks are currently the biggest networks in the UK. BT’s Fon network offers WiFi connections that piggyback on BT home broadband networks. But O2 said that its competing service would offer “premium public hotspots, as opposed to using residential connections with limited bandwidth” – a swipe at FON. The Cloud claims to have around 22,000 hotspots internationally, while Virgin Media is also toying with the idea of creating a nationwide wi-fi network, reports the BBC.

Users wanting to take advantage will need to provide a mobile phone number, from any network, which will be confirmed with a text message. O2 then links the number to the MAC code (unique identity) of the handset, enabling it to automatically authorize future connections as well as spotting when the customer enters a hotspot area – enabling the delivery of advertising by text message or MMS. O2 says it expects venues hosting the service will pay for it, so targeted advertising is just a sideline, said the company.

View full post on dailywireless.org

Line2 has been a powerhouse app on the iPhone for quite a while. As of yesterday, the company released its services for Android users.

“We are so excited to bring Line2 to Android devices.” said Peter Sisson, Founder and CEO of Toktumi. “We designed Line2 for Android from a clean slate, rather than just porting over the user experience from our Apple version.  We kept all the features, but we adopted UI conventions familiar to Android customers, and took advantage of some cool Android capabilities.”

What does this mean for us? Well, Line2 does exactly what it says. It gives you a second number attached to your Android device. I know this has been a repeated question asked by consumers when I worked for T-Mobile. Many people really want or need a second phone number for business purposes or just because. It was always a headache and a hassle to try set up call forwarding on many land line carriers. All that stops now.

Set up is simple, download the app from the market, it’s FREE. Follow the on screen instructions and you are ready to rock a second number in less then 5 minutes. The app allows you unlimited calls and texts through Line2 using Wi-Fi or 3G/4G data services. Using VoIP services to allow you to call and text an unlimited amount of time with out the need for cell coverage.

Some key features about the application:

* Your own unique phone number
* Make calls over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G cellular data networks using VoIP
* Make calls using cellular voice calling when VoIP isn’t an option
* Call waiting, call hold, call transfer, and conferencing
* Visual voicemail on your phone or by email
* Text messaging (SMS) in portrait or landscape mode
* Low international rates

Now I told you the app is free, I am sort of right. The Line2 application is a free download in the market. They offer you a 30 day free trial to test out the service. Once the 30 days is up then you can sign up for a simple monthly cost of only $9.95 a month to continue to use the service. Which really isn’t a bad price for unlimited calls and texts in the U.S. and Canada. Plus all the above mentioned other perks.

Something that might interest our international travelers, Since this is a VoIP service, you don’t have to worry about those pesky international roaming charges anymore. Simply make sure you are on a a data connection, you are good to go. I am not sure how well it works personally but I am certain is should work really well. You can learn more about the international costs on their website.

I set this application up today with minimal difficulty. It integrates into your phone book, so no worries of trying to add you contacts or anything. You can either open the application and make your call or even go through your normal phonebook, when you try to call someone, it will prompt you to use your phone or Line2. Makes using the feature very easy.

Click or Scan the QRCode below to find out more information about the Line2 application.

Summary and Downloads:

Application: Line2
Developer: Toktumi, Inc.
Cost: FREE

View full post on AndroidSPIN

BridgeWave Communications today announced that XO Communications, one of the nation’s largest communications service providers, has deployed BridgeWave’s FlexPort80 high capacity 80 GHz backhaul for customers not directly connected to their nationwide fiber network.

XO Communications, which offers IP communications for more than 90,000 customers, needed a wireless transmission product providing high-capacity backhaul supporting both legacy TDM voice traffic and increasing amounts of IP traffic.

FlexPort80 provided full-rate gigabit speeds and supported both native TDM and IP traffic. Their one-piece, all-outdoor solution eliminated the need to lease rack space inside cabinets or in buildings. Alternative microwave solutions required two separate radios and provided less than full-rate gigabit connectivity.

BridgeWave’s FlexPort product family, once focused on the 80 GHz millimeter wave bands for short haul deployments, has recently expanded to the licensed 18 and 23 GHz microwave bands for medium range connectivity.

BridgeWave says their 60 GHz and 80 GHz links offer up to ten times the bandwidth of comparably-priced lower-frequency license-free and licensed-band wireless links, while providing superior interference immunity and data security.

Clearwire recently deployed BridgeWave’s gigabit radios in its CLEAR network in New York City. BridgeWave’s 80 GHz links have also been deployed in several key Northeastern Clearwire markets including Boston, Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Pittsburgh. Clearwire has also been a big backer of DragonWave backhaul, using the 18 and 23 GHz frequencies.

WiMAX or LTE towers typically support 3 sectors, each requiring more than 50 Mbps each. If multiple carriers are supported, then the capacity requirements for each location can exceed 300 Mbps. Wireless Ethernet rings, supporting multiple towers, can easily boost requirements into the Gbps range. Features like Cross Polarization Interference Cancellation enable two channels (one vertical, one horizontal) to be transmitted over the same frequency, essentially doubling the amount of bandwidth in a given channel.

In other news, wireless backhaul player Ceragon Networks is getting into microwave, having acquired Nera Networks for $48.5 million. Nera’s long-distance microwave gear will be added to Ceragon’s wireless backhaul portfolio, which already includes Ethernet, TDM and microwave products. Ceragon expects to double in size and gain business in Latin America and Africa.

The E-band includes 70 GHz, 80 GHz and 90 GHz. Other Gbps wireless gear in the E band is available from Alvarion, Ceragon, DragonWave, E-Band Communications, Gigabeam, Loea, Proxim’s GigaLink, and Exalt, among others.

When compared to the much larger, well established microwave equipment market, which is expected to reach $6.5 billion by 2014, millimeter wave technology is still in its infancy, says research firm Infonetics Research.

Infonetics Research predicts the 70/80 GHz and 90 GHz equipment will grow to over $450 million by 2014. They predict nearly 3/4 of all millimeter wave equipment purchased for mobile backhaul will be used in metro areas with high cell density and 4G networks. Visant says that HSPA+, WiMAX and LTE base stations and aggregation points require Gbps speeds. Visant Strategies forecast that revenue from 60 GHz and 70/80 GHz PTP radios will reach over $500 million in 2016, with a 5 fold growth driven by mobile backhaul. The unlicensed 60 GHz radio shipments will also grow at the same rate, but driven by private enterprise and government networks, particularly public safety wireless networks.

Market share standings are expected to shake up once the big microwave vendors launch millimeter wave products in 2010 and 2011, according to market researchers. The development of E-band chips currently requires a leap of faith that the market volume will justify the development costs, but consumer 60 GHz gear may aid development. SiBEAM, for example, builds 60 GHz chipsets using CMOS. SiGe BiCMOS chips enable WPAN devices to be priced as low as $100 for fixed wireless, according to IBM.

Microwave chips aren’t just for communications anymore. They enable new sensor applications.

Are dental xray attachments for your iPhone next? Imagine an Intel i7 handheld with Nvidia GPUs in a couple years. Like Wordlens for doctors. Nanoscience and metamaterials are opening new worlds.

Amazon Web Services handles image processing tasks for Elemental Technologies. Amazon’s new cloud application, Elastic Beanstalk, manages cloud applications automatically. Developers simply upload their application and Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing and auto-scaling.

Related Dailywireless stories on Millimter Band radios include; Proxim: Affordable Licensed Backhaul, BridgeWave: Gigabit Backhaul, Exalt on 5 GHz, DragonWave: More Bits per Buck, 3.65 GHz Gets Real, 70GHz Radios, NextPhase + GigaBeam Deliver SoCal Biz Nets, EZ Wireless Deploys 60 GHz for DOJ, FiberTower to Backhaul Sprint WiMAX, XO Expands Backhaul, and Millimeter Gigabit Gets Competition.

View full post on dailywireless.org

BridgeWave Communications today announced that XO Communications, one of the nation’s largest communications service providers, has deployed BridgeWave’s FlexPort80 high capacity 80 GHz backhaul for customers not directly connected to their nationwide fiber network.

XO Communications, which offers IP communications for more than 90,000 customers, needed a wireless transmission product providing high-capacity backhaul supporting both legacy TDM voice traffic and increasing amounts of IP traffic.

FlexPort80 provided full-rate gigabit speeds and supported both native TDM and IP traffic. Their one-piece, all-outdoor solution eliminated the need to lease rack space inside cabinets or in buildings. Alternative microwave solutions required two separate radios and provided less than full-rate gigabit connectivity.

BridgeWave’s FlexPort product family, once focused on the 80 GHz millimeter wave bands for short haul deployments, has recently expanded to the licensed 18 and 23 GHz microwave bands for medium range connectivity.

BridgeWave says their 60 GHz and 80 GHz links offer up to ten times the bandwidth of comparably-priced lower-frequency license-free and licensed-band wireless links, while providing superior interference immunity and data security.

Clearwire recently deployed BridgeWave’s gigabit radios in its CLEAR network in New York City. BridgeWave’s 80 GHz links have also been deployed in several key Northeastern Clearwire markets including Boston, Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Pittsburgh. Clearwire has also been a big backer of DragonWave backhaul, using the 18 and 23 GHz frequencies.

WiMAX or LTE towers typically support 3 sectors, each requiring more than 50 Mbps each. If multiple carriers are supported, then the capacity requirements for each location can exceed 300 Mbps. Wireless Ethernet rings, supporting multiple towers, can easily boost requirements into the Gbps range. Features like Cross Polarization Interference Cancellation enable two channels (one vertical, one horizontal) to be transmitted over the same frequency, essentially doubling the amount of bandwidth in a given channel.

The E-band includes 70 GHz, 80 GHz and 90 GHz. Other Gbps wireless gear in the E band is available from Alvarion, Ceragon, DragonWave, E-Band Communications, Gigabeam, Loea, Proxim’s GigaLink, and Exalt, among others.

When compared to the much larger, well established microwave equipment market, which is expected to reach $6.5 billion by 2014, millimeter wave technology is still in its infancy, says research firm Infonetics Research.

Infonetics Research predicts the 70/80 GHz and 90 GHz equipment will grow to over $450 million by 2014. They predict nearly 3/4 of all millimeter wave equipment purchased for mobile backhaul will be used in metro areas with high cell density and 4G networks. Visant says that HSPA+, WiMAX and LTE base stations and aggregation points require Gbps speeds. Visant Strategies forecast that revenue from 60 GHz and 70/80 GHz PTP radios will reach over $500 million in 2016, with a 5 fold growth driven by mobile backhaul. The unlicensed 60 GHz radio shipments will also grow at the same rate, but driven by private enterprise and government networks, particularly public safety wireless networks.

Market share standings are expected to shake up once the big microwave vendors launch millimeter wave products in 2010 and 2011, according to market researchers. The development of E-band chips currently requires a leap of faith that the market volume will justify the development costs, but consumer 60 GHz gear may aid development. SiBEAM, for example, builds 60 GHz chipsets using CMOS. SiGe BiCMOS chips enable WPAN devices to be priced as low as $100 for fixed wireless, according to IBM.

Are dental xray attachments for your iPhone next? Hey, maybe Amazon Web Services could handle the image processing. Their Elastic Beanstalk, announced today, manages applications in the AWS cloud, automatically. Developers simply upload their application and Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.

Related Dailywireless stories on Millimter Band radios include; Proxim: Affordable Licensed Backhaul, BridgeWave: Gigabit Backhaul, Exalt on 5 GHz, DragonWave: More Bits per Buck, 3.65 GHz Gets Real, 70GHz Radios, NextPhase + GigaBeam Deliver SoCal Biz Nets, EZ Wireless Deploys 60 GHz for DOJ, FiberTower to Backhaul Sprint WiMAX, XO Expands Backhaul, and Millimeter Gigabit Gets Competition.

View full post on dailywireless.org

According to an estimate from eMarketer, Facebook took in $1.86 billion in worldwide advertising revenue for 2010, an 86% increase over the company’s estimated 2009 advertising revenue of $740 million worldwide. Not surprisingly, the majority of that, $1.21 billion, was earned inside the U.S., reports Ad Age

The majority of revenue, 60% or $1.12 billion, was earned from smaller companies in 2010. That’s greater than the $740 million coming from major marketers like Coke, P&G or Match.com, says Ad Age. The top two advertisers were AT&T and Match.com, while Google was number five.

ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick says the 3rd largest advertiser is a mysterious company listed as Make-my-baby.com. In reality, it’s spam from Microsoft that surreptitiously installs a toolbar promotion.

“Installing the toolbar includes managing the browser default search settings and setting your homepage to bing.com”, says Google’s Matt Cutts.

View full post on dailywireless.org

SwiftKey Keyboard has gone on sale for $1.99, and probably only for a limited time. It should be going on for a number of weeks, though, so you’ve got a little bit of time to make up your mind on getting it. This price is down from $3.99. Be sure to check out the app on ApptlyAndroid.

Also, TouchType sent out an email reminding people that the VIP program signup ends on January 18th, which is why SwiftKey is going on sale. If you haven’t signed up yet, be sure to hit it up here.

SwiftKet Keyboard Goes On Sale, VIP Group to Close Soon

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile carrier in Korea, said it will begin Long Term Evolution (LTE) service in July and drop its investment in WiBro, the Korea version of mobile WiMAX.

The CDMA-based operator plans to launch commercial LTE services in Seoul during the third quarter of this year and make “heavy investments in high-speed Wi-Fi and data femtocell.” The company will expand LTE coverage to metropolitan and six major cities in 2012. Nationwide LTE coverage will be established in 2013, the company said.

After benchmark tests for LTE vendors, Samsung, LG-Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks, SK Telecom will select the final equipment vendors for its LTE service as early as this month.

SK Telecom, which controls half of the country’s mobile market, was one of the first operators in the world to launch WiMAX services in 2006. It shared an exclusive WiMAX license with the dominant land-line carrier, Korea Telecom. KT, South Korea’s top fixed-line operator and No. 2 mobile carrier, has been the main WiMAX supporter in the country. KT’s WIBRO services are currently available in Seoul (including the subway).

Intel said less than four months ago that KT would be the first carrier in the world to provide nation-wide WiMAX coverage. Intel claimed KT’s WIBRO/WiMAX service would cover 82 cities in Korea, serving 85 percent of the Korean population — as soon as March 2011. But in the same breath, KT said it will invest US $1.49 billion to construct a nationwide LTE network, working with Samsung and LG-Ericsson. KT considers that 3G and LTE alone can’t meet all data traffic, the company said in a statement.

As of March 2009, Korea had some 46 million total mobile subscribers with a penetration rate almost 100%. Three operators; SK Telecom, Korea Telecom Freetel (half owned by Korea Telecom), and LG Telecom control most of the mobile service in South Korea. At the end of November 2010, market share for SK Telecom was 50.6%, with 25.61 million subscribers, while KT had 31.6%, with 15.99 million subscribers and LG Uplus had 17.8% market share, with 9.01 million subscribers.

LG Telecom plans to install 50,000 Wi-Fi zones. The CDMA operator said it will have 25,000 Wi-Fi zones in place by March in cooperation with Seoul Metro, schools, large retailers and other firms.

To preserve the environment and prevent disasters caused by flooding, the South Korean government is undertaking a two billion dollar restoration project of the country’s four major rivers – the Han River, the Yeongsan River, the Nakdong River and the Seomjin River – and surrounding recreational areas. With funding from the government, South Korea’s Water Resource Management Corporation is deploying Firetide wireless infrastructure. When completed in 2012, Firetide’s WiFi system will provide a sensor network for water level, temperature and pollution measurement; a video surveillance network to monitor the dams; and public Wi-Fi service for adjacent riverside parks.

4G Trends has a summary of major LTE developments, worldwide. The 3G/4G Blog rounds up all the latest technical papers and Powerpoints. Below is a Google map of operator commitments to LTE, by operator, launch date and vendor.

Related LTE stories on Dailywireless include; TD-LTE for China Mobile, China Mobile: Slow TD-SCDMA Sales , World’s First TD-LTE Data Call, End Near for Indian WiMAX?, Internet Traffic: 18 Minute Gap?, LTE Vs WiMAX in Asia: World War IV?, Age of Exascale, LTE in Japan by December, ZTE Criticized, Big Contracts for Alcatel-Lucent, 3G Launches in India, Qualcomm India: For Sale?, Qualcomm Gets Indian Partners, Vendors Scramble for Indian Backhaul, India’s Broadband Auction: It’s Done, LTE-TDD & WiMAX: Two Peas in a Pod? Indian 3g/4g Auction: Qualcomm Bidding TD-LTE, LTE Migration White Paper, LTE: Wait For ItBlowback on 2.6 GHz, LTE: Cox Cable Calling, LTE Phones to be Showcased at MWC, T-Mobile USA Merger? and Solutions Promoted for Voice over LTE.

View full post on dailywireless.org

Flickr, the grandfather of online photo-sharing sites, is giving the kids a new way to use the site with their fancy Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 devices. Yahoo has announced Flickr for Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 — native Flickr apps for Windows phones and tablets.

Flickr already offers an iOS app for Apple devices, but the new Windows 7 apps look considerably slicker and offer a much better interface than what you’ll find the iOS app. The new software won’t be available until the end of January, but you can check out the video below for a teaser.

According to our friends at ReadWriteWeb, the new Flickr for Windows 7 apps use Windows Azure, Microsoft’s foray into cloud-based software, behind the scenes. It’s an interesting choice of platform considering Flickr is already, well, in the cloud. Given that Yahoo has a considerable infrastructure of web-based services, why use Azure?

Marcus Spiering, Flickr’s mobile product manager at Yahoo, tells RWW that “Azure allowed us to build an app quickly and do it with quality.” Reading between the lines it’s hard to escape the subtext: Yahoo’s own tools weren’t up to the task.

Whatever the case, Flickr for Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 is a slick looking app and we’re hoping to see the iOS version get a similar makeover. Curiously, there’s still no official Flickr app for Android.

See Also:

• New Flickr Is Bigger, Wider and Uncut
• Mining Flickr to Build 3D Models of the World
• Flickr Adds Limited OpenID Support

View full post on Webmonkey

Happy New Year everyone! This is our first post of 2011, and for those of you who are really interested in the HTC EVO Shift 4G, this one is for you. The latest 4G slider from Sprint now has a pre-order page on Amazon.com, and is currently priced at $199.99 with a new 2-year contract.

Now, you may recall a couple stories we featured last month where the price seemed pretty firmly set at $149.99. The first was an internal Best Buy document, although the authenticity of the photo was somewhat in question. However, the second instance of this price came from a RadioShack ad showing the same $149.99 price.

I am not entirely sure what the cause of this price difference is, but I find it hard to believe that a $50 price difference between retailers will last. Furthermore, when you actually try and continue through to pre-order from Amazon Wireless you are greeted with a lovely 404 page, so perhaps we’ll see a change in price before customers are actually able to buy the phone. Stay tuned.

HTC EVO Shift 4G pre-order page goes live on Amazon, priced at $200

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

The CM7 alpha train just keeps rolling along, it has now made its way to T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G. Naturally, the Alpha state means that one should only flash this out of absolute curiosity, play around then flash back to the original ROM; or have two myTouch 4Gs laying around.

XDA member, option94, compiled this one and has some pretty simple instructions for getting it flashed; provided, of course, your myTouch is ready for custom ROMs.

[Read on Android Spin]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Last week, I caught some flak for being skeptical about a site that may or may not have been an officially sanctioned website promising information about an upcoming HTC 4G device. It was legitimate, but that doesn’t mean I have to forgive it for being so half-assed. Thankfully, we can move past that as HTC has given us a signup sheet to receive information on this “mystery” directly from the horse’s mouth.

HTC is even so bold as to offer dissemination of information through email, cleverly ridding the ever plaguing 320 character limit of two SMS messages. Maybe it will catch on.

Sign up at HTC’s site.

View full post on Android Phone Fans

This should probably be considered the troll of the week. Stephanie Vinge, who is with corporate communication division and clearly been living in a cave these past few weeks tweeted the above message a few minutes ago.

I suppose someone should tell her that until ITU lowered their 4G standards last week, nobody, not even Sprint, had a 4G network. With that settled, T-Mobile has two 4G devices to match Sprint’s: The T-Mobile G2 and the MyTouch 4G.

It may be true that Verizon has yet to launch any 4G devices on their LTE network, so she can have this one. But I expect a follow up tweet on January 7th, restating where every company stands in the 4G forecast.

[via Into Mobile]

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A lot of the newer Android phones come with the awesome Swype keyboard pre-installed. If you have a Galaxy S phone, for example, you’re very familiar with Sype. If you aren’t familiar with it, it allows you type simply by tapping the first letter of the word you wish to enter and simply dragging your finger over all the letters in the word. Personally, in spite of the physical keyboard on my Epic, I rarely use it due to Swype. The only downside of Swype was that if it did not come pre-installed on your phone, it was only available via a very limited, closed beta test. Until today. Swype announced today that they are opening the beta up to anyone interested in giving it a try.

Keep in mind, this is still a beta application, and may have some issues on your particular phone. But if you have been waiting for this, hit the source link and sign up with an email account that comes to your phone. Note: If Swype DID come pre-installed on your phone, this won’t work at all…but you don’t need it.

Swype Goes Into Open Beta

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The 4G wars are officially raging. Sprint had a bit of a head start, but they’re not just resting on their laurels. They have 2 4G handsets out, and just launched 4G service in two new markets, bringing their total count to 70. Sprint customers in Denver, CO and Bridgeport, CT with 4G handsets can now take advantage of that premium data charge. Press release below.

Read More…

Sprint 4G Goes Live in Denver and Bridgeport

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Opera software has released Opera 11, a major update for the company’s flagship web browser.

Opera’s market share is the smallest of the major web browsers — around 2 to 4 percent — but Opera has long been the bellwether of web browsers. What Opera does first, others soon copy. Tools like tabbed browsing, mouse gestures and a page that shows thumbnails of your favorite sites when opening a new tab were first introduced in Opera and later appeared in other web browsers.

If you’d like to give Opera 11 a try, head over to the Opera download page.

While Opera 11 continues to push the browser with an innovative feature called “Tab Stacking,” it’s also an unusual release that sees Opera playing a little catch-up. Until today, Opera was the only browser that did not have a system in place for third-party add-ons. Opera 11 changes that, adding an extensions framework similar to what you’ll find in Safari and Google Chrome.

For the launch of Opera 11 there are some 200 add-ons available for popular tasks like blocking ads, downloading YouTube videos and managing passwords. While 200 add-ons is nothing next to what’s available for Firefox or Chrome, Opera’s decision to base its extensions framework on the W3C Widget specification (which defines a “widget” as a downloadable and locally stored web application), means it should be relatively easy to port existing Chrome and Safari extensions to Opera’s platform. So easy, in fact, that Opera reports developers are submitting between 10 and 20 new extensions each day.

The Opera 11 extensions manager

To make it easier to find extensions for Opera 11, the company has launched a new website for publishing and searching Opera extensions.

One thing you may not find in the new extensions store are Flash-blocking add-ons. Actually you probably will, but you don’t need them. Opera 11 can now be set to load plug-ins (like Flash or Silverlight) only on demand. Just head to the preferences menu, select the Advanced tab and then click Content. There, you’ll see a new option to only load plug-ins on demand. The feature is disabled by default.

Opera may be the last browser to get extensions, but it’s still leading the pack when it comes to innovative ideas for tabbed browsing. Opera 11 introduces “Tab Stacking,” a way to group your tabs together to better organize the webpages you’re viewing.

Tab Stacking is ingeniously simple and works a little bit like the way you create folders of apps on the iPhone’s home screen. You group related tabs by dragging them on top of each other. Your “stack” then collapses down into a single tab. To access the tabs in a stack, you simply mouse over the group and it expands, or you can click the arrow to the right of the grouped tab, which has the same effect.

Tab Stacking in Opera 11

Firefox 4 will also introduce a new interface for grouping tabs when it is finalized in a few months. However, Firefox 4’s current implementation (still in beta) suddenly looks awkward and primitive next to Opera’s take on the same idea. It’s more elegant, and it plays on a behavior many users — those with iPhones or iPads — are already familiar with.

We looked at Tab Stacking in depth when we reviewed the Opera 11 beta last month. Since then Opera has totally rewritten the underlying code. Although you might not notice much of a difference if you tried the beta release, the new version is reportedly more stable.

The best way to understand Tab Stacking is to see it in action:

Opera’s mouse gestures have been improved in this release, though there’s still not much support for gesture-based trackpads. In my testing, gestures like pinching zoomed in and out, but other options like three or four-finger swipes aren’t supported.

Of course, all the new features would be less exciting if they slowed things down, but luckily they don’t. Opera hasn’t given any hard and fast numbers, but in our experience Opera 11 is faster than its predecessors and on par with Firefox 4b7 and Chrome 8. The speed boost is particularly noticeable on Linux, where Opera 11 is roughly 30 percent faster.

Perhaps even more impressive, Opera 11 is actually 30 percent smaller than previous releases, saving you a bit of download time and disk space.

Other noteworthy features in the Opera 11 include a revamped, simplified URL bar, which, like Google Chrome, dispenses with the “http://” bit at the front of URLs and highlights the security status of the current page.

Thanks to the new add-ons framework, Opera fans no longer need to envy other browsers, and the Tab Stacking feature once again shows Opera leading the way. Even if you don’t switch to Opera 11, the release is still good news for users of other browsers which, if history is any guide, will soon be mimicking Opera’s lead.

See Also:

• Opera 11 Beta Lets You Stack Your Browser Tabs
• New Beta Release Gives Firefox a Shot of Jäger
• Chrome 8 Offers Built-in PDF Tools, Security Fixes

View full post on Webmonkey