Thursday, November 1, 2012

Google Android News Android Forums

Google Android News Android Forums

US Cellular announces new 4G LTE markets, expands existing ones

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 04:51 PM PDT

Multi-regional carrier US Cellular has announced an additional slew of new 4G LTE markets today, expanding its previous road map in several states. According to the company’s official PR; Wisconsin, North Carolina, Illinois,  Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Oklahoma are all set to receive additional, new 4G LTE markets beginning November 5th. In addition to these expansions, US Cellular has also listed four new markets that are to receive expansions at some point before the end of 2012. In total, the carrier hopes to cover 58 percent of customers by year’s end. Hit the break for today’s press release.

U.S. CELLULAR ANNOUNCES NEW 4G LTE™ NETWORK MARKETS

New cities and states will begin receiving access to 4G LTE speeds on November 5

CHICAGO (Oct. 31, 2012) – U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM), in conjunction with its partner, King Street Wireless, is launching a 4G LTE network in over 30 new markets on Monday, November 5th.

The November rollout expands the 4G LTE footprint in select cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Oklahoma, and brings 4G LTE coverage to some of U.S. Cellular's leading markets in Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. The next wave of market launches will follow shortly in Rockford, Ill., Medford, Ore., Yakima, Wash., and Knoxville, Tenn.

4G LTE speeds will enhance the wireless experience and allow customers to begin watching a movie in seconds and enjoy smoother video streaming with little to no buffering, and video chatting with family or business colleagues is seamless. With 4G LTE capable smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S® III, Samsung Galaxy Metrix TM and the Samsung Galaxy Note™ II, customers have the ability to talk and access the Internet at the same time.  Additionally, U.S. Cellular offers 4G LTE capable data devices including the Huawei UML397 4G LTE USB Wireless Modem and the Samsung SCH-LC11 Mobile Hotspot, allowing customers to experience data speeds up to 10 times faster.
"With more than half of our customers having access to 4G LTE speeds by the start of the holiday season, we are helping customers simplify and organize their lives more quickly and easier than ever," said David Kimbell, senior vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer for U.S. Cellular. "The 4G LTE network builds upon our award-winning customer satisfaction and is the only one that comes with a valuable rewards program and other unique benefits like Overage Protection and Battery Swap."

The 4G LTE network builds on the 3G data services that U.S. Cellular customers already enjoy on the carrier's high-quality nationwide network. U.S. Cellular has the highest call quality and network satisfaction of any national carrier. For more information about the 4G LTE experience, visit uscellular.com/4G.

About King Street Wireless, L.P.
King Street Wireless, L.P. currently holds 700 MHz wireless spectrum in 27 states and is partnering with Chicago-based U.S. Cellular to deliver high-speed 4G LTE service to U.S. Cellular's customers in several of the carrier's markets.  King Street Wireless is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia where it is recognized for its involvement in its community both through its economic development and philanthropic efforts. To learn more about King Street Wireless, visit www.kingstreetwireless.com

About U.S. Cellular
U.S. Cellular rewards its customers with unmatched benefits and industry-leading innovations designed to elevate the customer experience. The Chicago-based carrier has a strong line-up of cutting-edge devices that are all backed by its high-speed nationwide network that has the highest call quality of any national carrier. By the end of 2012, 58 percent of customers will have access to 4G LTE speeds. U.S. Cellular was named a J.D. Power and Associates Customer Service Champion in 2012 for the second year in a row. To learn more about U.S. Cellular, visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com. To get the latest news, promos and videos, connect with U.S. Cellular on Facebook.com/uscellular, Twitter.com/uscellular and YouTube.com/uscellularcorp.

4G LTE not available in all areas. See uscellular.com/4G for detailed coverage info. 4G LTE service is provided in partnership with King Street Wireless. LTE is a trademark of ETSI.

[Deal] Amazon Wireless has the DROID RAZR HD for $129 and the DROID RAZR MAXX HD for $179

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 04:12 PM PDT

One of the newest members of Motorola’s RAZR family is on sale for a pretty big discount on Amazon right now. If you’re not already a Verizon customer, you can pick up the RAZR HD for $129 with a two year contract. If you’re already with Big Red, you can still get the device for $149 on a device upgrade. You’re saving money either way, as Verizon is currently asking $199 for the device.

Sound tempting, but you would rather have the bigger battery in the RAZR MAXX HD? Amazon’s got you covered. The 3,300 mAh beast of a phone is also on sale for $179 for new customers ($199 with an upgrade). If you’ve been wanting to try out Verizon service in your area and you like Motorola hardware, this is a tough deal to pass up. Anyone going to be picking up one of these devices before the end of the week?

Sources: Amazon - DROID RAZR MAXX HD / Amazon - DROID RAZR HD – Black / Amazon - DROID RAZR HD – White

Intel is already developing 48-core mobile processors

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT

Quad-core phones? Old news. All the manufacturers are doing that now. How about a 48-core CPU for smartphones and tablets? Intel’s looking to shake up the mobile market and make that kind of processing power a reality within the next ten years. Intel developers are currently looking into using and managing multiple cores in a mobile processor to really push what our smartphones can do.

Enric Herrero, a research scientist for Intel, talked a bit about processor power in smartphones. He explained how work can be divided between multiple cores today, but because of the lack of resources in phones, the operations tend to drag because the cores have to share resources to do all the work. It’s important to note that Intel is looking not only at using those multiple cores, but managing them as well, to overcome those lack of resources.

Intel’s CTO, Justin Rattner, is pretty positive about these multi-core chips. He thinks these multi-core processors could hit mobile devices much sooner than the researchers’ ten-year prediction. With the rate that phones have been progressing just within the past two years, I think it’s definitely possible.

Intel has had a hard time breaking into mobile computing with their processors even though they’ve got a pretty tight grip on the desktop side of computing. I think something as big as this would be great for their presence in the mobile market. What do you think? Are 48-core chips pointless, or revolutionary? Let us know in the comments.

Source: ComputerWorld

T-Mobile and AT&T agree to let customers share networks in hurricane aftermath

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 02:10 PM PDT

AT&T and T-Mobile announced an agreement today to help customers of both carriers who are located in Hurricane Sandy’s heavily impacted areas. The agreement enables customers of either network to roam on the other network in a seamless fashion as if they were on their primary network. Roaming in the impacted areas will not result in any additional fees. Both networks use GSM and UMTS, making the agreement feasible. The carriers hope this will help customers who are having trouble getting a signal. Hit the break for the full press release.

AT&T and T-Mobile Open Networks to Customers of Both Carriers in New York and New Jersey

Dallas and Bellevue, Wash. — October 31, 2012 — In the wake of destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy, AT&T and T-Mobile are taking extraordinary measures to make sure our customers can stay in touch.

AT&T and T-Mobile have entered into an agreement to enable roaming on their networks to customers of both companies in the heavily impacted areas and where capacity is available and for subscribers with a compatible device.

AT&T and T-Mobile customers will be able to place calls just as they normally would, but their calls will be carried by whichever network is most operational in their area. This will be seamless for AT&T and T-Mobile customers with no change to their current rate plans or service agreements even if the phone indicates the device is attached to the other carrier's network.

T-Mobile and AT&T both utilize network technology based on GSM and UMTS standards, which allows for this sharing of voice and data traffic.

Featured Play Store Review: Hands on with Nia: Jewel Hunter [Arcade & Action / Brain & Puzzle]

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 01:20 PM PDT

TvoiNet recently released a really cool puzzler called Nia: Jewel Hunter. You play a girl named Nia, who happens to be your average office worker. Unfortunately an earthquake forces her into unknown worlds. Your job is to get her home, but you will have to find all the gold and gems at each level. Right now there are 9 levels from the desert and 9 levels from the underworld plus 2 bonus levels.

Much like any other puzzle game, Nia is quite easy early on, but will progress pretty quickly. In the first chapter, which takes place in the desert, you will find yourself running around a the outside of a 3D temple with many floors. The floors consist of gold and gems that you will need to pick up. You can jump or fall through openings to get to each level, but it’s not as simple as that. You can literally run around all 4 sides of the building, but the problem is you will be blocked at certain sections by a stone partition wall. There will be certain areas of the building that have a button to push that will help you out. For example, you might be able to move these stone partitions or open sliding hatches that give you access to areas that you need to get to. As far as exiting and finishing each level, the exit door won’t open until you pick up one of the gems. You still want the second jem since you need to collect all gems in order to see the two bonus levels. It’s hard to explain so I put together a hands on video below.

Throughout your journey you will find newer obstacles and traps which include elevators, travelators, doors with combination locks, and deadbolts. Some of these can actually help or hurt you depending on how you use them.

The gameplay is pretty simple. To the bottom left of the display, you will find right and left controls. Nia automatically turns corners so you won’t have to worry about that. To the bottom right you will find the jump button, which you can also use to push buttons. Nia is very easy to pick up and figure out what you need to do, it’s figuring out how to do it that’s the problem.

Nia is free, but you will most likely need to make an in-app purchase in order to continue. The gold that you collect will be used to buy into the next level. This means that you want to make sure you collect all the gold before exiting the area. The issue is that even if you do that, you will eventually have a shortage of gold to buy in to the next level. You will be forced to either replay previous levels to grab more gold or purchase gold with an in-app purchase. Playing levels again doesn’t make any sense so I recommend making that in-app purchase. It probably won’t cost you more than a few bucks, which is what it would cost for a paid version anyway. The bottomline is the game is free for you to try and if you like it, you can spend some money, which is the method I like best.

I think you will find Nia: Jewel Hunter to be very challenging and different from normal puzzle games. Check out my hands on video and hit one of the download links to get started. As always, let me know what you think.

Features:

  • Beautiful 3d levels
  • Cute Nia Character
  • Gorgeous Environments
  • Collect jewels and coins
  • Two control schemes, touch and button
  • Play over 18 large levels
  • 2 Bonus levels
  • Unlock clever puzzles and secrets
  • Free to play!

 

Nia_Jewel_Hunter_01 Nia_Jewel_Hunter_02 Nia_Jewel_Hunter_03 Nia_Jewel_Hunter_04 Nia_Jewel_Hunter_05 Nia_Jewel_Hunter_06 Nia_Jewel_Hunter_07 Nia_Jewel_Hunter_Splash_Banner

 

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

QR Code generator

Play Store Download Link

Thanks to a support page, Verizon’s HTC Droid DNA confirmed

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 12:47 PM PDT

Remember the awesome 5″ 1080p HD device that came out in Japan as the HTC Butterfly J? Verizon has been rumored for a while now to carry the device and thanks to a support page, the name has been verified to be the HTC Droid DNA. Kind of an odd name if you ask me. Either way, this will be one hell of a device with high end specs.

Still no word on availability or pricing, but my guess is sometime before the holidays at probably north of $300 with an agreement. As soon as we find more news regarding the DNA, we’ll be sure to let you all know!

source: Droid Life

Contest: Win one of two Nexus 7 tablets courtesy of NVIDIA and TalkAndroid

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 11:30 AM PDT

Earlier today we posted our review of the latest Tegra game to hit the Google Play Store and TegraZone, called Zombie Driver. In celebration of this release, NVIDIA gave us two 16GB Nexus 7 tablets to give out to our awesome readers. We are going to keep this simple folks. We know it’s Halloween, but we aren’t going to ask you to send us photos of your costumes or any of that. Just follow these simple rules.

  1. One Nexus 7 will be given out here in the main site and one will be given out in our forums
  2. To enter the main site contest, comment below telling us what your favorite candy bar is
  3. To enter the forums contest, go to this post, and reply with what your favorite game is currently
  4. For chances to win both tablets, you need to enter in both places (although very unlikely, you can’t win twice)
  5. You have until tomorrow night, November 1 at 11:59PM EST to enter either contest
  6. We will pick the winners at random and announce them on Friday, November 2
  7. If you are a winner, you will receive an email with instructions to the one associated with your account

That’s it. Remember you need to enter both here and in our forums for a chance to win both tablets.

Good Luck!!

SlimPort HDMI adapter for Nexus 4 shows up on Amazon

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 09:58 AM PDT

With the Nexus 4 officially announced, the next thing to discuss are the fun accessories that can be added to make it an even better device. You may have already heard about the charging orb, but here is another treat for you. The SlimPort HDMI adapter allows you to take whatever you are watching on your Nexus 4 and play it on any HDMI device, like a TV or projector. A nice pro to using SlimPort is that it will charge your Nexus 4 during playback which makes watching things on the big screen that much easier. Rumor has it this is the first of a handful of accessories SlimPort will be making for the Nexus 4 so keep an eye out during the coming weeks if you plan on getting a Nexus 4 soon.

via: Phandroid
source: Amazon

Low-end ARCHOS 80 Cobalt 8-inch tablet announced

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 09:41 AM PDT

Today ARCHOS announced their new ARCHOS 80 Cobalt tablet. The 8-inch device is destined to be a lower-end tablet device, though it does contain a couple features that may be of interest to buyers. The basic specs include:

  • 1.6GHz dual core processor with a quad core GPU
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 8GB of internal memory
  • microSD slot capable of supporting up to 64GB
  • front-facing 0.3 MP camera
  • rear-facing 2.0 MP camera
  • 1024×768 8-inch screen
  • Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

You may have noticed that, while most of the specs are not bleeding edge, the ARCHOS 80 Cobalt does have a microSD slot available as well as a rear-facing camera. Noticeably absent from the ARCHOS announcement is pricing or availability information. That should be coming soon as ARCHOS will want to capitalize on the upcoming holiday shopping season. Even for a low-end device, it seems the price will need to be rock-bottom to entice buyers away from something like a Nexus 7.

archos_80_01 archos_80_02 archos_80_03 archos_80_04 archos_80_05

source: ARCHOS

LG Nexus 4 reappears on Carphone Warehouse for pre-order

Posted: 31 Oct 2012 09:15 AM PDT

After a false start at taking pre-orders last week for Google’s new LG Nexus 4 smartphone, prompting an apology from Carphone Warehouse, it looks like things are back on track for UK buyers to place their order. The pre-order page has reappeared with an expected delivery date of November 13th, the same date Google indicates the device will be available for purchase at the Google Play Store.

Pricing for the LG Nexus 4 via Carphone Warehouse is listed as free for customers signing up for a new line or upgrade starting at £31 ($50 USD) per month for the 16GB version, although adding data pushes the price up. Carphone Warehouse lists the device as being available for O2 or Vodafone subscribers. The LG Nexus 4 will be available for £239 ($383 USD) via the Google Play Store, so you will need to do your math to figure out whether a subsidized phone is the better deal. Hit the source link for more details or to start your order.

source: Carphone Warehouse
Posted by at 5:40 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)