lte - 23/30 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Verizon Releases Explosive New Ad For Samsung's DROID Charge - Prepare To Have Your Mind Blown

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Charge (i510), Samsung, Verizon Wireless

Big Red has always been renowned for its awe-inspiring commercials, but this latest spot for the DROID Charge takes things to a whole new level. Trapdoors, monolithic Microsoft Surface-style touchscreens, mind-boggling explosions - you name it, Verizon's included it. I won't spoil the fun for you, though; go ahead and watch the ad for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz13Ecw9Fr4

Too bad that fulmination didn't rid the phone of its outrageous $300 price tag.

Source: Verizon (YouTube) via Droid Life

Apr

Verizon Has 565,000 4G LTE Subscribers, Will Speeds Start Suffering Soon?

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Carriers, Editorials, News, Verizon Wireless

Verizon released the first subscriber figures for its rapidly expanding 4G network today - presumably to highlight strong sales of the carrier's first 4G handset, the HTC Thunderbolt.

Of the 565,000 (500,000 is the number Verizon added to its subscriber base in Q1) 4G users, about 260,000 are utilizing Verizon's LTE service via an HTC Thunderbolt. This means that since the launch of the Thunderbolt on March 17, Verizon has been gaining over 100,000 new LTE subscribers a week. And with 4G devices like the Samsung DROID Charge and the Motorola DROID BIONIC on the way, it seems Big Red's 4G campaign is just getting started.

Apr

Verizon Expanding Its LTE Market To 6 More Areas Starting Today, For A Total Of 47

Posted by Cameron Summerson in 4G, News, Verizon Wireless

As of today, Verizon Wireless has announced plans to expand its 4G LTE market to 6 more cities, including Clarksville, TN; Hopkinsville, KY; Cleveland, TN; Columbia and Hilton Head, SC; Wilmington, NC; and the Greater Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. These new additions will bring the total list of 4G covered areas to 47:

· Phoenix, Ariz.

· Los Angeles, Calif.

· Oakland, Calif.

· San Diego, Calif.

· San Francisco, Calif.

· San Jose, Calif.

· Denver, Colo.

· Washington, D.C.

· Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

· Jacksonville, Fla.

· Miami, Fla.

· Orlando, Fla.

· Tampa, Fla.

· West Palm Beach, Fla.

Apr

Samsung DROID Charge Shows Up On Walmart Site, Still Unannounced

Posted by David Ruddock in Charge (i510), Samsung

Verizon's doing about as well keeping the Charge under wraps as Sprint did with the EVO Shift 4G - and now, the Samsung DROID has shown up on Walmart's online wireless store, albeit only in the form of a stock photo:

For a phone that's still unannounced (technically), and reportedly being released tomorrow, Verizon doesn't seem too concerned with generating fanfare for its second LTE device.

After the release date flip-flopping on the Thunderbolt, it wouldn't surprise in the least if the Charge was facing a [sort of expected] minor delay.

Droid-life

Apr

HTC Incredible 2 Press Shots Surface, Evince DROID Branding

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in HTC, Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Rumors, Verizon Wireless

Like all good things Verizon, the HTC Incredible 2 didn't remain hidden from the public's eye for long; following the release of a leaked RUU and a Big Red roadmap confirming the device's impending launch, PocketNow got its paws on the following triad of press shots:

From the looks of it, the Incredible 2 will be virtually identical to HTC's popular Incredible S, with the exception of a Verizon logo and the inclusion of a CDMA radio. In fact, Android Central reports that it'll sport the same 8MP camera, Android 2.2.1 firmware, and HTC Sense keyboard.

Also noteworthy is that, as shown by the eerie red robot eye, the Incredible 2 will most likely belong to Verizon's DROID family.

Apr

Editorial: Motorola XOOM Sales Estimated At 100,000 So Far - Does It Really Matter?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, XOOM

No doubt you've seen at least one mention of the 100,000-XOOM sales figure somewhere on the web today - and for me, it has reached the point of mild annoyance. From this number, all sorts of wild extrapolations and theories are being tossed around about Motorola's future, Android's future, and the viability of tablets in an Apple-dominated market.

Boy Genius Report took a step back, and presented a level-headed but clearly pro-XOOM take on the news:

So, according to Deutsche Bank, Motorola has sold 100,000 XOOM tablets in less than a month and a half, which is an average of over 75,000 units per month.

Apr

T-Mobile Bringing 4G HSPA+ To 10 New Cities, 42Mbps To Vegas, Orlando, and New York

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Carriers, News, T-Mobile

Merger be damned, T-Mobile is continuing the expansion of its (potentially short-lived) 4G HSPA+ network, having added ten new cities, along with promising to double download speed caps in some major markets. The cities that have recently had T-Mobile 4G coverage activated include:

Ames, Iowa
Anderson, Indiana
Battle Creek/Benton Harbor/Jackson, Michigan
Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado
Lawrence/Manhattan, Kansas
Springfield, Illinois
Wichita Falls, Texas

The major markets receiving the upgrade to theoretical 42Mbps HSPA+ (note: there are no 42Mbps HSPA+ phones out there) will first be Las Vegas, Orlando, and New York, with Chicago, Long Island, and Northern New Jersey following shortly after.

Apr

Verizon's 4G LTE Up To 10 Times Faster Than Sprint's WiMAX 4G, Says Independent Testing

Posted by David Ruddock in Carriers, Editorials, News, Sprint, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless

An independent test conducted by a research firm in New York City comparing the speeds of Verizon's and Sprint's respective 4G networks has made at least one thing clear: Big Red owns the Big Apple. After conducting over 1000 individual network speed tests in various locations throughout the city, BTIG Research tallied up the averages, and it's not a pretty picture for Sprint:

The connections were tethered through an HTC Thunderbolt and an HTC EVO 4G, respectively

You're seeing that right - Verizon's 4G LTE is averaging a whopping 10.3Mbps (down) when on a laptop tethered to an HTC Thunderbolt, while the EVO 4G barely eeks out 1.6.

Mar

Video: CyanogenMod 7 (Gingerbread) Gets Unofficially Booted On HTC Thunderbolt, Not Yet Usable

Posted by David Ruddock in Development, Gingerbread 2.3, HTC, News, Thunderbolt (Mecha), Videos

DANGER: There is a link to download this unofficial, unsupported CM7 ROM in an XDA thread linked at the bottom of this post. Use of that software is 100% at your own risk, and unless you're a developer, there's not much reason to be playing with at this point. There is no data connectivity, no sound, and no Google Apps. Consider yourself warned.

A number of Gingerbread-hungry developers (including some from the CyanogenMod team, particularly Slayher) are hard at work preparing CyanogenMod 7 for its Thunderbolt debut, and progress is steadily being made. In the video above, you can see CyanogenMod 7 successfully booting up on the HTC Thunderbolt (albeit without the signature boot animation) and running through various simple tasks in Android.

Mar

EVO 3D and EVO View 4G Officially Announced - Dual-Core EVO 3D Doesn't Have A Kickstand

Posted by Will Shanklin in EVO 3D (Shooter), EVO View 4G, News, Sprint

As expected, Sprint just unveiled their upcoming EVO 3D handset and the EVO View 4G tablet. Both devices will have WiMax capabilities on Sprint's "4G" network (there was no mention of LTE, as Sprint is rumored to be transitioning to). No prices were announced today, and the release was announced as "this summer" (we expect a June-July release to compete with the iPhone 5).

HTC EVO 3D

As seen in our live blog of the event, the EVO 3D will have a 4.3" stereoscopic (for glasses-free 3D) qHD display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and dual 5MP rear cameras that capture 3D.