Engadget has received a memo stating that AT&T has discontinued their A-List features for new customers effective immediately. AT&T originally launched these features 2 years ago to compete with the other big carriers int the USA such as Verizon and T-Mobile.
Continue reading AT&T Discounts A-List Effective Immediately
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here’s some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of August 15, 2011:
Phone Releases
Other news
We here at NHCBBA Mobile tend to spend way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol’ Federal Communications Commission’s site. Since we couldn’t possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we’ve gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don’t need). Like to know!
Phone
Read – RIM REM71UW
posted Aug 3rd 2011 5:16PM
It, as they say, is on. Google’s with a post not-so-subtly-titled “When patents attack Android,” which directly addresses what he calls a “hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.” Drummond then goes on to cite a number of examples of this “organized campaign” from those trying to “strangle” Android, including Apple and Microsoft teaming up to buy Novell and Nortel’s old patents “to make sure Google didn’t get them,” Microsoft seeking $15 licensing fees for each Android device, and lawsuits against the likes of Barnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung.According to Drummond, those efforts amount to a “tax” that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers and manufacturers alike, and that “instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation.” He further goes on to bemoan the “anti-competitive strategy” that’s “escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth,” and closes things out by noting that he’s encouraged by Justice Department investigations into the aforementioned Novell and Nortel patent issues. Hit the source link to read the full post yourself.Update: And now, shots have been fired from both sides. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel, has shot off the following tweet: “Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.” We’re guessing the truth lies somewhere in between, as it always does.
Update 2: Hoo boy! The hits just keep coming’ out of Redmond. Frank Shaw, lead corporate communications for Microsoft has just tweeted an image of an email between Brad Smith and Kent Walker (Google’s General Counsel) that appears to corroborate the claims that Microsoft wanted to team up with El Goog.
via: Engadget
Research In Motion originally said that its QNX-powered BlackBerry PlayBook tablet would be capable of running Android applications through a virtual player this summer. While early builds of the software have already been leaked, we’re nearing the end of the summer and PlayBook owners are still Android-less. Unfortunately, Engadget has learned that the BlackBerry maker has delayed support for Android applications until ‘late fall.’ There’s no word on an exact date, but the sooner RIM can offer support the more attractive its PlayBook tablet will be.
US carriers were quick to acknowledge their allegiance to Voice over LTE (VoLTE), a 4G VoIP-related technology first demonstrated in February. Ever since that time, however, talk of deployment plans have been replaced by crickets. MetroPCS was the first to break the silence, as CEO Roger Linquist announced at this morning’s quarterly earnings call that his company’s “planning to begin introducing VoLTE-capable handsets early next year to move voice as well as data traffic to [its] LTE network.” The outfit’s wasting no time making the full transition to 4G, as it’s already begun migrating its SMS and MMS services to this service. An increasing sense of urgency is likely hitting the company hard, as implementing VoLTE will ease some of the burden of its limited spectrum by devoting more bandwidth to 4G. What’s better, the anticipated timeframe may even allow MetroPCS to beat Verizon to market — which has also targeted 2012 as a launch date for its equivalent service — as well as AT&T, currently aiming for a 2013 takeoff. No matter what, we’re ecstatic to soon be flooded with more HD-clarity calls than we care to take.
Connected Planet
Engadget
AT&T today officially confirmed what so many had expected for some time now: the carrier will be throttling select users’ unlimited data plans. The move, which takes effect on October 1st, is a response to a “serious wireless spectrum crunch,” according to a message issued today. The changes will not affect most customers, according to the company, primarily targeting those who fall within the top five percent of heavy users in a given billing cycle. Once the new period begins, speeds will be restored. Even with this new plan in place, however, the company says that the spectrum problems still won’t be resolved — it does have a simple solution, however, explaining that “nothing short of completing the T-Mobile merger will provide additional spectrum capacity to address these near term challenges.”
Full text after the break.
In the rough and tumble debate surrounding the mobile phone’s ability to cause cancer, both sides agree that our young ones — indeed, some of the heaviest users — could be at an increased risk for cellular-induced tumors. According to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the radio emissions from mobile devices penetrate much deeper into the brains of children, and in the case of little tykes ages five to eight, their noggins will absorb twice the energy of the average adult. This, combined with their developing nervous systems, has brought concern for the welfare of our youngest mobile-savvy citizens, and led to a European study of nearly 1,000 (informed?) participants. Data was gathered over a four-year period, which relied upon self-reporting methods, where youngsters were found to not talk very often, and typically sent text messages instead — big surprise, right?
While long-term risks remain unknown, the researchers conclude that “a large and immediate risk of cellphones causing brain tumors in children can be excluded.” In other words: little Suzy won’t begin sprouting cancer cells overnight. While you doting parents may find comfort in the latest research, you might consider stopping short of giving the mischievous rascal an unlimited voice plan. After all, gossip still spreads best at the school yard.
[Image courtesy Derek Olson (flickr)]
Night Hawk Computers Blackberry Alliance 