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Virgin Mobile to launch Ocean 2 on March 3?

3. February 2009

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I was content with letting this press release slip into my trashcan but thought to give it a quick glance and I’m glad I did. Not because it has anything to do with Britney Spears, but the fact that Virgin Mobile dropped launch details surrounding Helio’s unreleased Ocean 2. VM is sponsoring Britney’s “Circus” tour [...] I was content with letting this press release slip into my trashcan but thought to give it a quick glance and I’m glad I did. Not because it has anything to do with Britney Spears, but the fact that Virgin Mobile dropped launch details surrounding Helio’s unreleased Ocean 2. VM is sponsoring Britney’s “Circus” tour which starts on March 3 with a private dress rehearsal on March 2 in New Orleans. A group of fans will be able to chronicle their time with an Ocean 2, says VM. The launch date isn’t set in stone according to the press release, but I’m going out on a limb and calling it now. As part of the sponsorship, some lucky fans will have the chance to catch a sneak peek at one of the most highly anticipated tours of the year, by attending Britney’s final private dress rehearsal in New Orleans on March 2. In conjunction with sponsorship of the “Circus” tour, Virgin Mobile USA plans to launch its new Ocean 2 multimedia device. Select fans at the private show will be given an Ocean 2 to chronicle the event. This “Ocean 2 Camera Crew” can blog, IM, email, post to social networking sites and send photos from this one mobile phone to share with friends and fans. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source[Mobilecrunch]

WSJ: Dell “preparing a move into cellphones as early as next month”

2. February 2009

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Filed under: Handsets You know who's blabbing again? That reclusive set of business people who always seem to be "familiar with the matter," that's who. This time, they've got the Wall Street Journal in a twist over renewed rumors that Dell is "preparing a move into cellphones as early as next month." Next month, is of course the big cellphone coming out party known as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona -- an event Dell has flat-out denied any intention to attend. Still, the evidence presented by the WSJ is pretty overwhelming. First, sources say that a variety of smartphone prototypes, including one with a QWERTY-less touchscreen and another with a sliding keyboard, have already been built running Android and Windows Mobile. Second, Dell's smartphone team "spent much of last year" meeting with suppliers, carriers, and Asian phone manufacturers. Dell's team includes the former head of Motorola's phone division (Ron Garriques) and another Moto employee (John Thode) who heads up Dell's netbook group. The latter being of interest since the iPhone and BlackBerry Storm are considered netbooks by their makers. Oh, and Dell still hasn't made good on its purchase of Zing and its plans to build an all encompassing media ecosystem to manage your audio and video files across PCs and mobile devices. Sources do contend that plans have not been finalized and Dell may still abandon the effort. But with Acer making the jump into Smartphones next month and other non-traditional players having great success in the space at the expense of the former cellphone powerhouses, one thing is clear: PC guys "will just walk in" and figure this out. Right Ed?WSJ: Dell "preparing a move into cellphones as early as next month" originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

NTT DoCoMo sees 16% uptick in nine-month operating profit

1. February 2009

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Filed under: NTT DoCoMo, Misc Given just how poorly most every other carrier company has been doing, we can't imagine the suits at NTT DoCoMo frowning about this. The Japanese wireless carrier has just outed its earnings for the nine months ending December 2008, and while the tail end was expectedly less-than-awesome, the nine month snapshot wasn't too shabby. Net income slipped 30 percent in October to December to $1.01 billion compared to $1.45 billion in the same window a year earlier, but a 16 percent increase in net profit (from $4.2 billion to $4.8 billion) was realized in the April to December '08 time frame. Moving forward, the company noted that its ongoing strategy was to "cut back on handset subsides and put the savings toward reducing tariffs had helping the company to retain customers" -- a mantra that was shared a few months earlier. For those hungry for more data points, give that read link a poke.NTT DoCoMo sees 16% uptick in nine-month operating profit originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

Samsung Propel Pro in the wild, caught on camera

30. January 2009

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, ATT, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE, UMTS More spy shots from the net, eh? This latest set shows what's purported to be the Propel Pro, an update to Samsung's QWERTY that launched last October. There's a more streamlined interface under the screen, including a new optical joystick that according to Boy Genius Report's source is "worthless." The Windows Mobile 6.1 device also sports 3G and a camera of unknown quality, although we expect to at least match its 1.3-megapixel predecessor. Mum's the word on price and availability.Samsung Propel Pro in the wild, caught on camera originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

Qualcomm taps former Amp’d chief Bill Stone to head FLO TV

30. January 2009

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Filed under: Multimedia Bill Stone has already had one tough job thrust upon him when he was named CEO of the troubled Amp'd Mobile, and Qualcomm seems to think that he's the guy to handle another pretty difficult task, with the company recently naming him president of FLO TV, not to mention senior vice president of Qualcomm. Stone, who's currently the CEO of mobile software firm Handango, will be replacing Gina Lombardi, who had been heading up Qualcomm's mobile TV initiatives for the past three years, and will apparently be staying on with Qualcomm in some other, unspecified capacity. No word on what the move means for Handango, but Stone will officially be taking the reins at FLO TV on February 2nd.Qualcomm taps former Amp'd chief Bill Stone to head FLO TV originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

Nokia’s 8800 gets more bling, more expensive, more ugly

29. January 2009

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian How do you improve on a phone that's already been diamond-studded, layered in carbon fiber, and then dipped in gold? Why, you add more diamonds and some hints of gratuitous platinum, of course. Meet the Nokia Royal Edition, an 8800 that succeeds its predecessors in terms of pretentiousness -- but not necessarily in looks. It has 1160 wee diamonds around the edges and platinum plates on the fore and aft, all surrounding the same internals as those other, plebeian fashionphones. Only 50 of these will be sold at an undisclosed price that surely is equally excessive.[Thanks, Robin]Nokia's 8800 gets more bling, more expensive, more ugly originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

Motorola’s VE465, ZN300, QA4 and VE66 Lux get one step closer to officialdom

29. January 2009

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola So, there's good news and not-so-awesome news. As for the former, we've got four new Motorola handsets that look to be as good as definite. As for the latter, there's only a sliver of a chance you'll actually be interested in owning one. That said, those looking for a new dumbphone (and unwilling to wait for the bounties sure to unfold at Mobile World Congress) can have a gander at the VE465, ZN300, QA4 and VE66 Lux. Unfortunately, the only one which has bothered to show its whole self (and not just its face) is the above pictured VE465, which we already knew was on the way courtesy of the FCC. Prep your best yawn and hit the read link if you're ready for more.Motorola's VE465, ZN300, QA4 and VE66 Lux get one step closer to officialdom originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

Colorware gets ahold of BlackBerry Curve 8900

28. January 2009

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Filed under: Handsets, RIM, BlackBerry OS It was inevitable, really. RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8900 is now being offered up by the paint gun-wielding fools at Colorware, who will gladly ugly up your handset as you see fit. 'Course, you can put together a rather striking piece of work too, but make sure you get a second opinion on your dream color scheme before mashing the buy button. As for costs? A solid coat will run you a buck twenty-nine, but if you change up the top, bottom, frame or sides, you can count on that figure inching higher and higher.[Via CrackBerry]Colorware gets ahold of BlackBerry Curve 8900 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

AT&T gets into the femtocell game with 3G MicroCell

27. January 2009

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Following on the heels of Sprint and Verizon, AT&T is set to launch its own femtocell - 3G MicroCell - giving its customers (who pay for a 3G MicroCell plan) unlimited minutes while connected to any MicroCell at home, business, or otherwise. MicroCell is essentially a personal miniature cell tower that connects to AT&T’s network via [...] Following on the heels of Sprint and Verizon, AT&T is set to launch its own femtocell - 3G MicroCell - giving its customers (who pay for a 3G MicroCell plan) unlimited minutes while connected to any MicroCell at home, business, or otherwise. MicroCell is essentially a personal miniature cell tower that connects to AT&T’s network via your existing broadband connection in order to boost and expand weak network coverage. It has an advertised range of up to 5000 square feet, works with any AT&T 3G device, provides a secure connection, allows for seamless call hand-over (i.e. uninterrupted transition from MicroCell to AT&T cellular network), and can handle up to 4 simultaneous voice or data users at a given time. As usual, we don’t have any pricing or release information, yet. [via PhoneNews] Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies Source[Mobilecrunch]

HP’s iPAQ Data Messenger finally up for pre-order

27. January 2009

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Filed under: Handsets, Vodafone, Windows Mobile, HP, GSM, EDGE In reality, HP should've made sure that its iPAQ Data Messenger shipped alongside the Voice Messenger back in December, but given that it didn't, we suppose it's a small victory that the handset is finally up for pre-order in the UK today. Of course, getting any halfway intelligent Briton to spend

Japanese officials to allocate LTE frequencies in June

27. January 2009

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Filed under: KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Misc, Softbank Mobile, LTE Just last month we heard that Japan's CDMA giant (that'd be KDDI) would be throwing its weight behind LTE, and now we have every idea that it'll be filling out an application to prove as much in April. According to a new report in The Mainichi Daily News, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has decided to begin taking applications for 4G frequency allocation beginning in around three months, while approvals are expected to start in June. NTT Docomo, KDDI, Softbank Mobile and Emobile have all been granted permission to apply, and if we had to bet, we'd say the entire foursome will do just that. Ah, 4G -- so close, yet so far away.[Thanks, Vagrant]Japanese officials to allocate LTE frequencies in June originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

FCC Fridays

26. January 2009

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Filed under: Features We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of 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). Enjoy!PhonesRead - Samsung C5220Read - Samsung E2210LRead - Samsung SCH-U750Read - Samsung S8300Read - Alcatel OT-102A / OT-202ARead - TechFaith Wireless DST3G COOLRead - UTStarcom UT2010Read - Sharp 932SHRead - Haier D2100Read - ZTE WP623NFCC Fridays originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink

Huawei’s HSPA+ modem a possibility for Vodafone trials

26. January 2009

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Filed under: Peripherals, Others, Vodafone, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA Rumors, mystery, and hopefulness sum up this tale, dear friends. We know that Vodafone's trialing some HSPA+ (that's 16Mbps of fast) and apparently way back in February of last year, Vodafone announced it was working with Huawei, Qualcomm, and Ericsson for this trial. Could Huawei's upcoming Mobile World Conference announcement of the first commercially available HSPA+ stick be the kit being used for this trial? Check back in a few weeks and we'll hopefully have all the answers, and, with a little luck, we'll have had a chance to check it out live.[Via T3 Magazine] Huawei's HSPA+ modem a possibility for Vodafone trials originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read

AT&T dropping unlimited data and messaging to $30

25. January 2009

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Filed under: ATT Info's flowing fast and furious on this whole MEdia Net thing now, and it turns out that there's more than just a name change involved. MEdia Basic, MEdia Works, MEdia Max 200, and MEdia Net 1MB are all going away (one megabyte, seriously?), but more importantly, unlimited data and messaging is getting a price cut to compete with Verizon. MEdia Max Unl... er, "Messaging & Data Unlimited" will run $30 starting January 25, a $5 price cut from the $35 you pay now. It's not often that we get to praise a carrier for a price cut on a popular service, is it?[Thanks, anonymous tipster]AT&T dropping unlimited data and messaging to $30 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink

Apple pushed 4.4 million iPhones in the last quarter

25. January 2009

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We’re just minutes into Apple’s quarterly earnings call, and the iPhones sales numbers for the first fiscal quarter of 2009 (which ran from Oct. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31st, 2008) are already in. Over the past 3 months, Apple has sold over 4,363,000 iphones. Compared to the 2.3 million iPhones sold in their fiscal first quarter [...] We’re just minutes into Apple’s quarterly earnings call, and the iPhones sales numbers for the first fiscal quarter of 2009 (which ran from Oct. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31st, 2008) are already in. Over the past 3 months, Apple has sold over 4,363,000 iphones. Compared to the 2.3 million iPhones sold in their fiscal first quarter of last year, this number is astronomical. Compared to the 6.9 million iPhones sold last quarter, however, it seems relatively low. While it may be that the demand caused by the 3G model of the iPhone may be wearing off, I’d expected Christmas purchases to pull sales on par or above Q4 of 2008, along the lines of the sudden App Store sales boost we saw in December. More on Apple’s quarterly earnings at CrunchGear. Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies Source[Mobilecrunch]

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Virgin Mobile to launch Ocean 2 on March 3?

WSJ: Dell “preparing a move into cellphones as early as next month”

NTT DoCoMo sees 16% uptick in nine-month operating profit

Samsung Propel Pro in the wild, caught on camera

Qualcomm taps former Amp’d chief Bill Stone to head FLO TV

Nokia’s 8800 gets more bling, more expensive, more ugly

Motorola’s VE465, ZN300, QA4 and VE66 Lux get one step closer to officialdom

Colorware gets ahold of BlackBerry Curve 8900

AT&T gets into the femtocell game with 3G MicroCell

HP’s iPAQ Data Messenger finally up for pre-order

Japanese officials to allocate LTE frequencies in June

FCC Fridays

Huawei’s HSPA+ modem a possibility for Vodafone trials

AT&T dropping unlimited data and messaging to $30

Apple pushed 4.4 million iPhones in the last quarter

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