What carrier is going to be the first one to launch a 3G femtocell in the USA? Any bets? AT&T will say that its MicroCell solution will be available to customers before the end of the year. Sprint on the other hand is saying that its model will be the first 3G femtocell in the USA.

Mathew Oommen, Sprint’s VP of device and technology development apparently promised that Sprint will in fact be the first carrier to have a 3G femtocell device:

Just like Sprint was the first with 2G, we’ll definitely be the first in the 3G space as well. We’re not talking about trials; we’re talking about full commercial service.

Said device will offer extended EV-DO Rev. A coverage for all those Sprint 3G gadgets in your home. No specific details have been revealed so far and we have no prices details just yet. We’ll be back with all the specs once Sprint makes them available.

via Unstrung

Tags: 3G, At&T, At&T, CDMA, Coverage, EV-DO Rev A, femtocell, Mobile News, Sprint, Sprint

The result? It’s a draw! It’s not that the iPhone 3GS is not faster! It’s more likely that AT&T’s current 3G network can’t be used yet to show the iPhone’s true potential. If you got excited about the whole Speed coming with the 3GS you should be pretty bummed right now. Sure your new phone has a faster processor and it can record video, but it fails where it really shouldn’t. That connectivity speed is not attainable just yet.

The speed test above was conducted in Chicago and it clearly shows that the iPhone 3GS won’t be better than the 3G model. It’s just a little faster at downloads with 1202kbps for the 3GS vs 1161kbps for the 3G and similar when it comes to uploads speed. Latency-wise it does a little better with numbers at 175ms vs 210ms.

So folks, there you have it! You should be just fine with your iPhone 3G at least until AT&T has deployed and thoroughly tested the new 7.2Mbps network. For now AT&T hasn’t even rolled out the public trial of this upgraded 3G network which means that only AT&T personnel would have access to it. Basically any speed test conducted in the Chicago area would have been done on AT&T’s regular 3G network which better explains the similar performance of the iPhone 3GS and 3G. We hope that by the end of the year those bars in the graph above will significantly change in favor of the 3GS as AT&T will finish upgrading its 3G network. When that happens, you should have no problem ditching your iPhone 3G in favor of the new model.

via Gizmodo

Tags: 3G, 7.2Mbps, Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone 3GS, Mobile News, Network

We have been closely watching the conflict between Apple and Palm waiting for it to turn into a war but that hasn’t happened yet. Sure each side made some snappy comments regarding the other side’s phone but that was it. Even AT&T became involved when it started to compare the iPhone and the Pre.

Sprint on the other hand was pretty quiet. At least until now! Sprint seems ready to declare war to Apple and AT&T. Just check out the ad above. The Pre does things the iPhone can’t. Not only is Sprint referring to iPhone’s lack of multitasking support but it’s also suggesting that AT&T is charging too much for iPhone plans. Let’s see how and when will Apple and AT&T respond! Which side are you going to take?

via PreCentral

Tags: Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone, Mobile News, Palm, Palm, Portable Devices, pre, Sprint, Sprint

Remember that femtocell solution from AT&T meant to improve that 3G connection? MicroCell was the name of it and AT&T it’s still working on. The carrier will apparently launch it by the end of the year as testing was successful enough. So why not launch it earlier? After all the competition already has similar solution in place ready to enhance their 3G network. And let’s keep in mind that a few million iPhone users out there could surely use MicroCell to boost AT&T’s current 3G coverage. What femtocell solution do you currently use?

Tags: 3G, At&T, At&T, femtocell, iPhone, MicroCell

AT&T is denying those rumors saying that future iPhone tethering plan will cost $55 and it’s doing that via Facebook. That’s an odd, but interesting way to announce something like that. Especially since the company hasn’t actually announced the official pricing for iPhone tethering. I guess Facebook isn’t the place to make such an announcement, is it? Here’s what AT&T said:

There are a lot of reports out there, but wanted you guys to know that rumors of $55 tethering plan on top of an unlimited data plan are false. We’ll have more news to share when the iPhone tethering option is closer to launch.

AT&T hasn’t announced the official availability dates for iPhone tethering either so we’re just going to have to wait for it some more.

via daringfireball

Tags: Apple, At&T, At&T, Facebook, iPhone, tethering

Now that the iPhone 3G S has been out for a full day people are turning in all sorts of reports. Especially since the new phone is close enough to what everyone wanted since the first generation iPhone. One of the improvements of the 3G S is supposed to be the 3G connectivity. The iPhone 3G S could, at least on paper, use that 7.2Mbps 3G speed but it looks like it doesn’t really do that. First of all, AT&T is still working on upgrading its network to 7.2Mbps, and, unless you live in Chicago, you won’t be getting speeds anywhere near that. As you can see from the test screenshot above, the 3G S is indeed faster but the added speed isn’t significant. In fact it’s all thanks to the new processor of the phone. In other words, you’ll still have to wait for a faster 3G connectivity so better postpone upgrading to iPhone 3G S if all you want is just faster download and upload speeds. Maybe next year when Apple will launch the iPhone LTE, AT&T/Verizon customers will be able to surf the Internet on the go at speeds of 7.2Mbps and beyond.

via Engadget

Tags: 3G, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone 3G S, LTE, Mobile News, Portable Devices, Verizon, Verizon

Is the iPhone 3G S going to be more successful than the iPhone 3G was in its first sales weekend? Well if we are to believe AT&T it looks that “hundreds of thousands” have pre-ordered the iPhone 3G S. That’s what Ralph De La Vega, president of AT&T has declared in an interview with CNBC. So what is the real number so far? How many hundreds of thousands have pre-ordered the new iPhone? Ten? If you were a betting person would you bet for or against Apple and AT&T selling more than a million phones in the first weekend? What can Sprint say now about its record Pre sales?

read…

Tags: Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone 3G S, Palm, pre, sales, Samsung, Sprint

Those people that were waiting in lines for getting the iPhone 3G last year are about to be rewarded by AT&T. And not only those! In fact everyone that purchased an iPhone 3G from July to September 2008 will be eligible to a cheap upgrade to the iPhone 3G S. By cheap I mean the same subsidized prices that will be available for new customers: $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model. Unfortunately those that are eligible for the upgrade will still have to qualify for it. That means other conditions like plan minimums, credit ratings and stuff like that should be met. Everyone else will just have to pay more to get the iPhone 3G S.

via AT&T

Tags: 3G, 3gs, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone, Mobile News, Portable Devices

Just like we told you earlier on today iPhone 3.0 is available today and if you own an iPhone or iPod touch you should update it and start taking advantage of the goodies inside the new OS version. Or should you rather wait instead? If you’re relying on Apple and AT&T to reactivate your phone after software update you should definitely wait since the servers might unpleasantly surprise you. And why not wait to install the update? After all you surely have some jailbreaking and unlocking traces to clean up, don’t you?

Tags: Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone, iPhone 3.0 OS, Server

If you’ve been paying attention you probably already know this but for those who don’t just a friendly reminder; Apple is gearing up to launch OS 3.0 for the iPhone and iPod touch later today.

This is the update that adds cut, copy and paste along with MMS, additional landscape keyboard support and the new Spotlight Search.

There’s no telling on when exactly the update will go live but be we will be sure to keep you posted.

You can read more information about the software update here.

Tags: Apple, Apple, At&T, Cell Phones, copy, cut and paste, iPhone, iPhone, iPod Touch, landscape keyboard, mms, os 3.0, spotlight search

Could it be possible for Apple to have already started shipping those pre-ordered iPhone 3G S? I mean we’re still a few days to go until Apple and AT&T stores start selling the iPhone 3G S and it looks like Apple has announced some of those first lucky buyers that their pre-ordered phones are getting shipped.

According to some leaked and unconfirmed news, it has been estimated that, on average, 800 people per store have reserved an iPhone 3G S. That means we are probably looking at at least 200,000 reserved phones if not more. What do you think, will Apple beat it’s first weekend iPhone 3G sales record?

via crazyhawt

Tags: 3G, 3gs, Apple, Apple, At&T, iPhone, Mobile News, Portable Devices, pre-order, shipping

We knew the HTC Snap is coming sometime in June but we didn’t have an exact date in mind. Now we do folks! Sprint will start selling the Snap on June 21 so you have just about a week to wait for it. The phone will cost you $150 after some rebate and with a usual 2-year agreement. In case you don’t need a contract from Sprint, the phone will be available from Best Buy for $519. So what will you choose between the iPhone 3GS which is arriving on June 19 from AT&T and the HTC Snap?

via phonescoop

Tags: 3gs, At&T, At&T, HTC, HTC, iPhone, Mobile News, qwerty, SNAP, Sprint, Sprint, Windows Mobile

It looks like AT&T’s pre-order sale for the iPhone 3GS has sold-out days ahead of the actual release date. In case you haven’t pre-ordered your new iPhone 3GS you will have to think about starting your first line in front of an AT&T or Apple store. Those people that still want to pre-order the phone will have to wait about two weeks to get their hands on it, which is not too long a wait considering the fact that Apple has done this before and it should have a whole new perspective on resupplying stores. Everyone else that pre-ordered their handset in time will unfortunately still have to wait in line but at least they know an iPhone 3G is out there waiting for them.

via Engadget

Tags: Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, Portable Devices, pre-order

Although we already know that AT&T is going to support MMS and tethering on the iPhone 3GS a little later this summer we hear now that the carrier is already supporting MMS messages and tethering on the current iPhone 3G as long as it’s running iPhone OS 3.0.

iPhone 3.0 hasn’t been released yet but it’s available for download from various torrent sites. That doesn’t mean you have to go ahead and get it and try to make MMS and tethering work on your own. But you can always wait a few more days to officially get OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS. Then you can bother AT&T’s customer service asking them how to enable MMS and tethering on your iPhone.

via Engadget

Tags: 3G, 3gs, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone, iPhone 3.0, mms, Mobile News, Portable Devices, tethering

Verizon is certainly not too happy about the fact that the Pre and the iPhone 3GS are taking all the headlines these days. And I’m not sure if Big Red has anything hot enough to offer its customers. How many Verizon customers will switch to Sprint or AT&T?

Just in case you don’t want to switch carriers you should be aware of the fact that Verizon has a couple of new phones available for you, the Casio Exilim and the Motorola Rival A455.

The Casio Exilim is a phone made for the photographer in you. It comes with a 180-degree rotating display and a 5.1 megapixel although Verizon you should know there are some phones out there capable of taking 8 megapixel pictures which would suit better to passionate photographers. Although this Casio Exilim will come with camera-like features that other phones lack

Here are some of the most important features:

• 5.1 megapixel auto focus camera with flash, lots of photo related features and video recording
• 180–degree rotating display
• optical 3x zoom
• resistant to water, humidity, salt-fog, shock, vibration, dust, solar radiation, altitude, temperature.
• bluetooth
• up to 8GB microSD memory
• music and video playing capabilities
• V CAST Music with Rhapsody (Subscription, Wireless and PC Downloads)
• V CAST Videos
• GPS
• 2.3-inch 65K TFT Color

The phone is available right away online and you’ll have to pay for it $279.99 after a $50 instant rebate and with a two-year contract. Hmmm, so you’re telling me that for $199 I could get a new phone with some photo features, bigger screen and lots of apps?

via Verizon

Tags: Apple, At&T, At&T, camera phone, Casio, EXILIM, iPhone 3GS, Mobile News, Mobile Software, Palm, pre, Sprint, Sprint, Verizon, Verizon Wireless

One of the first countries to get the new iPhone 3GS, besides the USA, is Canada. The new Apple smartphone will be available starting with June 19 and you’ll be able to buy it from Rogers or Fido; you choose! As for prices, the Canadian iPhone 3GS will cost as follows: $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB version. Just like in the States the old 8GB iPhone 3G will cost $99 on contract. In case you already own one of those 3Gs from Rogers or Fido an you are not qualifying for any hardware upgrade program then you will get the iPhone 3GS with no strings attached.

Did you like all that? Well we have more! Tethering will be available if you have a data plan that offers at least 1GB of traffic per month. And that should be quite easy to obtain since those 6GB for $30 per month data plans will be back in action. Wondering about MMS? Well those will be supported as soon as the new iPhone 3.0 OS gets launched. A new iPhone value pack will tell you more about that whole MMS thing.

Doesn’t all that sound just a little better than what AT&T is currently offering? Which comes to my real question: what has AT&T been doing while Apple cooked up the new iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 3.0 OS? Shouldn’t they have been prepared to launch the iPhone 3GS at full speed?

Tags: 3G, 3gs, Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, Canada, fido, iPhone, Mobile News, Off The Topic, Other Brands, Portable Devices, Rogers, Samsung, Uncategorized

You must have been pleasantly surprised by Apple’s new vision of the iPhone. There’s Copy, Cut and Paste, video recording, voice control, a compass and lots of other features. There’s even MMS and tethering support. That’s when you might have been unpleasantly surprised by the fact that AT&T will only support MMS and tethering later on. What’s the matter Apple, did you fail to tell your exclusive partner about the new iPhone 3.0 OS features?

So why is AT&T not supporting MMS until later this summer? It looks like the company will have to manually remove all the “Opt Out MMS codes” on every account. Really AT&T? 29 carriers around the world will offer MMS for the iPhone 3GS at launch.

As for the whole tethering thing, Apple isn’t saying no to it straight away. But it will take a while until AT&T will launch a $70/month unlimited data and tethering plan for the iPhone 3GS. 22 carriers in 44 countries will offer iPhone 3GS tethering at launch.

But these are just rumors for now, waiting for some sort of confirmation. And since we’re speaking about tethering, will Sprint offer Pre tethering?

Tags: 3G, 3gs, Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone, mms, Mobile News, Palm, Portable Devices, pre, Sprint, Sprint, tethering

Palm and Sprint managed to sell about 50,000 Pre units in the opening weekend according to JPMorgan. What do you think about the number? Were you expecting a larger amount of sold Pres?

Palm and Sprint haven’t confirmed anything just yet but we expect them to tell us more about their first weekend performance. Can it be compared to the first-gen iPhone’s first weekend sales? It surely can’t be compared with the first weekend sales of the iPhone 3G. AT&T and Apple sold about 1,000,000 iPhone 3Gs last year in the opening weekend which is quite a performance. Will Apple steal potential Pre buyers with the new iPhone that is about to be unveiled? We’ll be monitoring closely the battle between Apple and Palm in the following weeks.

via ZDNet

Tags: 3G, Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone, Mobile News, Palm, Palm, Portable Devices, pre, sales, Sprint, Sprint

This is an interesting rumor shaping up here! It looks like Apple is going to launch the new iPhone Video on Monday right after the WWDC official announcement. That’s a bit surprising compared to last year’s course of events. The iPhone 3G was announced at the WWDC but the actual launch occurred about a month later. Is Apple afraid of the Pre now? Will the Cupertino-based company have enough new iPhones to go around? Is AT&T ready for the Video?

We’ve seen yesterday how Sprint and Palm presented a no lines policy. Did they happen to know the new iPhone will be available? Will everyone get in lines in front of Apple stores? We’ll be following this huge battle for you so stick around for future Apple vs Palm reports. Someone start the popcorn!

via gearlive

Tags: Apple, Apple, At&T, At&T, iPhone, Mobile News, Palm, Palm, Portable Devices, pre, Sprint, video, wwdc

While the Blackberry Bold has been on AT&T for some time now, the 8900 was just introduced to the service but regardless, both phones are getting a price drop.

Originally priced at $299.99 the Bold will be getting a price drop of $100 to $199.99 while the 8900 gets dropped from $199.99 to $149.99.

These are both welcome price drops considering they are 2 highly sought after phones. Perhaps RIM is looking to boost their market share before Apple drops a new iPhone?

Read (AT&T)

Tags: 8900, At&T, BlackBerry, Bold, Cell Phones, Curve, Mobile News, price cut, Research In Motion