E-Z Life

Sprint’s got a nice head start in the 4G race over Verizon and AT&T — a message it’s heavily broadcasting these days — but with the onslaught of LTE networks and equipment around the world now just months away, momentum is unquestionably going to shift, giving the carrier every reason to act quickly to build out now and score as many subscribers as it possibly can. That seems to be the gist of a rumor coming out of AndroidGuys today that says Sprint is working on a deal with Walmart to install WiMAX cells on all (yes, all) of its locations, a move that would give it a significant boost in national coverage while presumably lowering infrastructure costs significantly. As many Walmarts as there are, it seems like this would still leave huge coverage gaps (particularly in rural areas) between locations, but hey — maybe these guys are going for the parking lot RV crowd, which would actually make a ton of sense. Best part? You’d probably be able to buy the modem right in the store.

Sprint hooking up with Walmart for WiMAX buildout? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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webOS version 1.3.5.2 for Euro-spec GSM Pres just hit over the last handful of hours, bringing a host of changes — but the biggest, perhaps, is the addition of Bluetooth tethering capability. The move is particularly interesting in light of Palm’s announcement last week that it’ll use its Mobile Hotspot app to enable tethering via WiFi, but it’s unclear how much (if any) crossover there’ll be between units that support one technology or the other. All things considered, which would you rather have?

Palm’s webOS 1.3.5.2 for European Pres adds Bluetooth tethering originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Apple_rumor_roundup_improbable_removable_battery_edition’; Now that CES is officially over, it’s apparently time for the vague Apple rumor factory to start churning out sketchy reports about tablets, next-gen iPhones, and “vanishing” domain names. Yeah, it’s getting silly out there, but judging by our tip box you all can’t get enough, so let’s do this thing rapid-fire style.

The rumor: The Korea Times, citing unnamed sources at Korea Telecom, says the carrier is planning for a 4G iPhone featuring an OLED display, a front-facing video camera, a fast new dual-core CPU, and a removable battery. General launch is expected in June, but corporate clients will be doing a “litmus test” in April.
Our take: We will eat our hats if Apple puts a removable battery in the iPhone. Plus, Apple doesn’t do focus group testing, least of all with enterprise customers. This just seems like wishful thinking — we could have made up a more convincing rumor while eating a hat.

The rumor: 10.1 OLED and LCD display panels are no longer available anywhere, because Apple has “pre-ordered them all” to secure volume discounts and keep the tablet’s price down.
Our take: We certainly saw plenty of new 10.1-inch netbooks and slates at CES, including some multitouch LCD units, and no one was complaining. Also, we saw several larger OLED displays at CES, but they were all too expensive and impractical for shipping products, so that’s gotta be one hell of a discount.

The rumor: Apple has mysteriously shut down the FingerWorks website, which means something tablet-related because… well, it must mean something, right?
Our take: Apple bought FingerWorks years ago — we’re surprised this hadn’t happened sooner. We bet the hosting contract just ran out. Alternatively, Steve Jobs is trying to send us a message by yanking an obscure touch-related domain just weeks before a highly-anticipated product launch, because he is the master of extremely minor hints about nothing.

All in all, a pretty lame set of rumors — there’s barely anything here for pundits and the mass media to conflate and distort into something bigger. At least give us a poorly-translated French telecom executive speaking off the cuff, you know? Have some dignity.

Continue reading Apple rumor roundup: improbable removable battery edition

Apple rumor roundup: improbable removable battery edition originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you caught our coverage during CES 2010 (and you better have!), then you probably saw our quick sit-down with Senior Product Manager for Android, Erick Tseng. We had such a good time chatting with him and had so many other questions, we thought having him on the Engadget Show made lots of sense! So, this Saturday, January 16th, Erick will join us live on-stage to answer all of our burning questions (and yours too — shout them out in comments). We’ll also be doing a wrap-up of all the gear we saw at CES during our editors roundtable, and giving away a bunch of stuff to audience members (including CES swag and limited edition Engadget t-shirts)! Oh, and we’ll have more chiptune goodness from our friend Glomag.

The Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are — as always — free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served… so get there early! Here’s all the info you need:

• There is no admission fee — tickets are completely free
• The event is all ages
• Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2PM on Saturday, doors will open for seating at 4:30PM, and the show begins at 5PM
• You cannot collect tickets for friends or family — anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket
• Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we’re full, we’re full
• The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break)
• The show length is around an hour

If you’re a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we’ll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.

Subscribe to the Show:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.

Continue reading The Engadget Show tapes this Saturday, January 16th with Erick Tseng of Google and our CES wrap-up!

The Engadget Show tapes this Saturday, January 16th with Erick Tseng of Google and our CES wrap-up! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We stopped by Ooma’s booth at CES for a quick hands-on with the new HD Telo and some time with the iPhone app. Voice quality on the service was pretty decent, although we did notice a pretty significant bit of lag — we’re assuming things would work better on a quality connection, as opposed to the slammed pipes here on the show floor. The new DECT handset was also quite nice, although it took a second to figure out how to initiate a call. We also played with the iPhone app for a second — it worked as advertised, although once again we were limited by both the poor network connections on the show floor. It’s certainly an interesting concept, though — we’ll have to wait to see how this all works in the home.

Ooma Telo HD, Handset, and iPhone app hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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