We can’t say we were overly concerned about busting through the Vita’s 2GB monthly data threshold when the handheld’s 3G variant hits AT&T next month, but the network, it seems, isn’t taking any chances. According to the Vita’s AT&T page, Ma Bell’s making sure you’ll never be blocked from nabbing those download-capped PlayStation Minis by upping the previously announced 2GB for plan to 3GB for . Surprised? Don’t be — this change just brings Sony’s next generation handheld in-line with the network’s updated data plans. The Vita’s budget-friendly for 250MB option is still ripe for the picking, but that won’t get you far if you plan to watch Netflix on the go, will it?

PlayStation Vita gets updated 3G data plan, offers an extra gigabyte for a Lincoln originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are you and all of your friends flocking to buy that thing shown above at full retail price? Exactly. Evigroup’s SmartPaddle Pro tablet is now available from €699 (under 0) for the base 10-inch configuration with no GPS, no 3G and a 32GB solid-state hard drive. Additional configurations are available with 1 or 2GB of RAM, and the high-end configuration, which includes 3G and GPS goes for under ,500. The SmartPaddle Pro, with all the trimmings (including head-tracking), retails for around ,530. Other specs include a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, five hour run time, mini-HDMI port and capacitive touchscreen, none of which seem to justify the (still bloated) new price tag. Click past the break for the full video, which is apparently set to an Enya album.

Continue reading Evigroup drops SmartPaddle Pro price to €699, optional head-tracking feature watches you intently

Evigroup drops SmartPaddle Pro price to €699, optional head-tracking feature watches you intently originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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 December 5, 2011:

• C Spire announced this week that it’s launching the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. The device is currently available for purchase for with a two-year commitment and after a mail-in rebate. [AndroidCentral]
• Images and specs of Philips’ first Android device, the W920, surfaced this week, and its spec sheet doesn’t look very good: Froyo, a 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 CPU, 512MB of RAM, a 4.3-inch WVGA display, a 5MP camera, 10.5mm thin frame and it has a 1,280mAh battery. The fun part is the rumored price tag: £400 (7). [LandofDroid]
• Ting is a new Sprint MVNO that’ll launch mid-2012. It’ll be prepaid and use a bump-up and bump-down model for pricing — in other words, going over your minutes will just bump you into the next higher plan, while using fewer minutes can bump you to a lower plan. [Cnet]
• Another prepaid provider in the news this week is PrepaYd Wireless, which launched this week. It offers a “Y Pay More” plan that will give you unlimited talk, text and 3G data for per month. If you don’t need data, you can get all-you-can-eat talk and text for . Much like Ting, PrepaYd Wireless utilizes the Sprint network. [MobileTechNews]
• If you use a BlackBerry OS 7 device on AT&T, the carrier is offering you two free months of BBM Music. Normally you need to pay a month to store 50 songs. [Crackberry]
• While we’re on the subject of BlackBerry phones, Twitter for BlackBerry just got updated to version 2.1 and now offers multi-account support. In addition to being able to view up to five accounts in the same feed, it also includes the ability to tweet one thing to more than one account simultaneously. [BlackBerry]
• Pandora and Windows Phone may never mix well, but at least the radio service can be enjoyed now through an unofficial Pandora app called MetroRadio. It’s free, and is finally available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. [WPCentral]

Mobile Miscellany: week of December 5, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile unveiled a new 4G tablet on Tuesday with the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus arriving in T-Mobile stores on Nov. 16. The Plus designation helps differentiate this 7-inch Galaxy Tab from last year’s model as the newer version includes a faster processor and support for Google Android 3.2; a software platform meant for tablets, not smartphones. The slate’s 0 price tag with contract can be spread out over 20 months with customers paying 9.99 down and each month to purchase the hardware.

I bought the original Galaxy Tab on T-Mobile’s network last December and enjoy both the form factor and the mobility provided by the integrated 3G radio. The look of this new model is very similar to the 7-inch tablet I use, but here are some of the improvements and carry-over features:

• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor instead of a 1 GHz single core
• 21 Mbps HSPA+ / 4G support; my Tab only has a 7.2 Mbps radio for 3G speeds
• Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) instead of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• 16 GB of internal storage with a microSD expansion slot
• 1024 x 600 resolution, capacitive touch 7-inch display
• 3 megapixel rear camera (with 720p video capture added) and 2 megapixel front camera
• An infrared sensor for use as a universal consumer electronics remote control

Aside from the faster mobile broadband radio and dual-core chip, much of the new Galaxy Tab mimics the old one. They’re welcome improvements, of course, and although there’s no guarantee of a software upgrade to Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich, the hardware appears capable of supporting one.

One other available “feature” that wasn’t available when I bought my Galaxy Tab is the payment plan. I paid 0 — a sale price — with contract for my Tab. T-Mobile is trying to lure potential buyers by reducing the up-front cost of the hardware; something it’s done before with smartphones and is now trying with higher priced tablets. For 9.99 at the point of sale — and a mail-in rebate — consumers can leave the store with a new Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. The remaining cost is made up over the life of the contract with added to each monthly bill for 20 months. This is in addition to the monthly data service, which starts at .99.

A payment plan may generate some sales, but it convinces me more than ever that tablets shouldn’t be sold on contract. While I opted to buy a Wi-Fi version of the iPad, Apple got this aspect right with its 3G models. The problem for competing tablets is that without contracts, the devices are simply priced too high from a consumer’s perspective. Apple doesn’t seem to have that problem given that a 3G iPad starts at 9, mainly because the perceived experience brought from the iPad.

That has little to do with the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus since this isn’t what I’d call a direct competitor to the iPad for most people. But it illustrates the challenge that carriers face in the tablet market: consumers often choose a device first and a network second. Unless consumers plan to use their tablet as much as their primary computing device, a monthly data commitment and cost isn’t appealing.

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Republic Wireless, the division of Bandwidth.com that offers customers an Android phone with unlimited voice, data and text for a month, launches Tuesday. It’s a revolutionary price point in the industry but it’s also an attempt to make Wi-Fi calling easier and more user-friendly. If it works it could change the wireless game in ways that other mobile broadband upstarts have tried and failed to do.

Republic Wireless’ love affair with Wi-Fi.

Republic Wireless has made Wi-Fi the linchpin of its mobile service with a cellular network provided by Sprint as its backup. Customers will join the service by paying 9 to get a phone and then a month after that with no contracts. There’s a 30-day window for someone to return the phone and get their money back. So how does this work?

By default all calls, data and texts are sent via Wi-Fi networks when possible, and switch only to cellular if no Wi-Fi access is available. That’s one reason for the low price on the service, as most people can access an existing Wi-Fi network in their home or office for free. Brian Dally, the general manager of Republic says he expects at least 60 percent of the traffic to go over Wi-Fi networks. But he assures me that when he says unlimited data that it does extend to the 3G portion of the service as well.

Om said this sounds a lot like UMA, the technology that T-Mobile used for its Home Zone products and that many people loved. But Dally said Republic is not using the Kineto technology that UMA is based on, and that the user experience won’t be quite seamless when it comes to switching from one network to the other. At the moment users will hear a tone in the middle of a call signaling the change in networks, but the call will continue. That’s better than it cutting off entirely, but Dally says he’s still looking for feedback on the user experience and invited me to check back in a few weeks on the forums to see what users think.

Cheap matters but hardware does too.

To ensure the primacy of Wi-Fi, Republic had to build software that puts Wi-Fi first. It chose to do this using the Android OS not only because the platform is hot but it also allows developers to access the hardware. The first phone for the system will be the LG Optimus. If that’s not optimal, Dally promises that more phones are coming but he was mum about the timeline and particular devices.

The  LG Optimus Android smartphone runs the Gingerbread version of Android and will come preloaded with the Republic software. A first-time user will be asked to put in his Wi-Fi network and then for information on other Wi-Fi access points. The phone will remember that information. Users will also be able to download apps to help manage authentication and payment for Wi-fi networks if they want, but Republic won’t preload any of that onto the handset.

The use of Sprint as the network partner means the phone uses Sprint’s CDMA network, so it won’t roam internationally. And, if Sprint coverage doesn’t work well in your area, think carefully about taking it up. We expect Kevin Tofel to take the handset through its paces later this week.

Is it too good to be true?

The idea of disrupting the cellular world is not a new one, and while VoIP calling over Wi-Fi has come a long way, the quality of experience can be sub par. Dally agrees that delivering better quality of service on Wi-Fi is something he hopes will happen, but he’s also confident that today’s Wi-Fi networks and the ubiquity of access is enough to make this service viable.

And beyond providing cheap mobile service, Dally espouses some of the same ethos that his parent company Bandwidth.com shares– The idea is to take telecommunications from the realm of a few large carriers and make it more egalitarian and IP-based. “The phone prefers WiFi because its ubiquitous and cheap and it’s not controlled by a few large companies,” Dally said. Bandwidth.com owns an IP network (which Republic will use to connect calls) that currently provides VoIP services to Skype, Google Voice and other IP voice providers.

Between Bandwidth.com’s network, Sprint and your home Wi-Fi points, Dally believes he has a service. And given the emphasis on public in all of the company’s branding, I’m wondering if there’s a Fon element to be found here, where members can sign up to share their hot spots. And while today Republic isn’t signing partnerships with existing hot spot and access providers such as the AT&T-owned Wayport, Boingo or even iPass, Dally doesn’t rule them out in the future. Such partnerships which would give it even more flexibility to default to Wi-Fi coverage.

So it’s possible that Republic could flip the mobile phone model so cellular connections and pricing goes the way of satellite phone pricing — expensive and suitable only for a select few who roam the uninhabited wilds. I’ll be eager to see how this experiment plays out. The beta starts Tuesday with Republic offering to ship a cluster of handsets every Friday based on a first come first served basis.

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What’s four pounds, rugged and essential for the smartphone toting soldiers of the future? Why it’s a portable LTE network in a box, of course. BTS and Radisys recently demoed their CoreTx and Trillium products, which may one day bring 4G connectivity to dangerous spots like disaster areas and battlefields. BTS already delivers 3G to areas of Afghanistan and is now working on this upgraded system with support for both LTE and HSPA+. You’ll find a few more details in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Portable LTE network in a box demoed, ready to deliver 4G to war zone near you

Portable LTE network in a box demoed, ready to deliver 4G to war zone near you originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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