2009 -- Engadget Mobile

2009 posts

Palm Eos on track for AT&T release second half of 2009

by Ross Miller posted May 24th 2009 @ 5:52PM

The Palm news just keeps coming today. Looks like Centro successor Eos might be coming sooner than expected, with this purported AT&T slide listing a second half 2009 ship date, along with a "new Palm OS experience" tagline that we're gonna take to mean webOS for now (still no 100% confirmation, unfortunately), all the specs listed were the same as we heard before: 2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive touchscreen, 4GB storage, POP3, IMAP, and EAS support, integrated IM client, Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, and a sexy thin and light form factor. Keep an eye out for this one, we think it might go places.

Verizon's LTE vendor partners to be revealed at MWC

by Ross Miller posted Feb 10th 2009 @ 6:35PM

Looks like Verizon's LTE (Long Term Evolution) service might be on track to launch this year, after all. Speaking at a Digital Broadband Migration event at the University of Colorado at Boulder, executive VP and CTO Richard Lynch said the company's in the final stages of selecting vendor partners, and they'll be announced at next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. He also reiterated that service, which they've been trialing in conjunction with Vodafone, will co-exist with its current 3G platform. He said all vendors have been told that the they need to be and running this year. Hey fellas, let's not let Lynch down here.

Qualcomm could suffer from digital TV transition delay

by Darren Murph posted Jan 29th 2009 @ 4:51PM

We're honestly beginning to wonder: can Qualcomm catch a break? Between the years of fighting with Nokia and the absolutely abysmal MediaFLO adoption rate, we're seriously beginning to consider that a Qualcomm curse isn't too far from the realm of possibility. With the announcement this week that the impending digital TV transition could be pushed from late February to June 12th (though it looks as if the House has halted those plans for now), Qualcomm has begun to wail. In essence, this delay -- should it still go down -- will force the firm to continue paying fees to broadcasters in order for it to have almost immediate access to vacated analog waves as soon as the cutover takes place. The tab? COO Len Lauer says it'll be in the "tens of millions of dollars," and that's not counting lost revenue that it was surely expecting to pick up between March and June. Here's hoping one of those "breaks" finally catches up with it here.

HTC has high hopes, expects double-digit growth in '09

by Sean Cooper posted Jan 19th 2009 @ 8:20PM

HTC had a comfortable year in 2008, thanks to a pretty solid lineup of sets, and, of course, the T-Mobile G1 launch in October. While competitors like Sony Ericsson struggle, Peter Chou, HTC's president predicts that while things will be a bit tough in the short term, he's still confident of double-digit growth this year. With whispers of some more HTC "Android-ness" at Mobile World Congress this year, we expect they're bound to be getting a lot of press, and a lot more interest from people looking for a Windows Mobile alternative. HTC's revenues were up 28.65 percent this year, and with hints of what's to come, if we were betting types, we'd side with Peter.

Verizon CEO joins AT&T in backing digital TV delay -- as long as it's short

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 19th 2009 @ 6:32PM

After initially opposing the Obama administration / Jay Rockefeller digital TV delay -- pushing the analog TV shutoff date back from February 17 to June 12 -- Verizon CEO Ivan Seiderberg has jumped on board with competitor AT&T in support of the plan. Considering Verizon just dropped $9.63 billion on the soon / not-so-soon to be vacated airwaves for its 4G wireless rollout this is an interesting position to take, but it appears that as long as the delay is a mere 115 days he can join AT&T ($7 billion or so invested) in waiting for the DTV converter coupon program to work itself out. Of course, if anyone wants to take advantage of the extra time to subscribe to FiOS or U-verse, we're sure that wouldn't be problem either.

HTC's 2009 haul seemingly leaked, packs all sorts of gorgeous

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 12th 2009 @ 12:39PM

It's no secret that HTC wants to step up its Android game, and if this new stuff is to be believed, 2009's shaping up to be a banner year. Some cat over on PPCGeeks seems to have leaked a pretty believable '09 roadmap for HTC, showing tons of glorious hardware that appears -- at least on the surface -- to go toe-to-toe with the best Palm, Apple, and the rest of the gang can bring to the table. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all have dedicated stuff in here, including a "Jasper" that looks to combine the Touch HD with the Touch Pro, a successor to the monster Athena called "Ihoth," and this little guy, a garishly pink Android handset dubbed "Hero." We'd expect at least some of these to be announced at MWC next month, so we don't have long to wait -- assuming they're real, of course.

[Via wmpoweruser.com]

More of Motorola's 2009 Verizon lineup leaked

by Joshua Topolsky posted Dec 18th 2008 @ 7:38AM

Apparently the Motorola leak-fest begun yesterday hasn't come to a halt. After witnessing some compelling renders of smartphones the company has headed to Verizon, we're now privy to a set of featurephone / dumbphone mockups -- all courtesy of the Boy Genius Report. The new images show off a device supposedly called the "Niagra" (pictured), a slider in the vein of yesterday's "Calgary" QWERTY phone, a dowdy looking number called the "Fairbanks" (a PTT device), and a clamshell called the "Harmony." The latter two phones could hardly stoke much excitement, but the Niagra definitely gives us some hope for Moto's big comeback. Now -- these will all be powered by Android, right?

Dick Lynch: Verizon's LTE rollout to launch next year, not 2010

by Thomas Ricker posted Dec 10th 2008 @ 7:32AM

After ~~winning~~ purchasing spectrum in the 700MHz FCC auction, we were all a little disappointed to hear that we'd have to wait until the year 2010 for high-speed LTE networks to launch (widescale deployments coming later) on both Verizon and AT&T. In a surprise, seemingly off-the-cuff statement made Tuesday at Cisco's C-Scape conference, Verizon's unfortunately named executive VP and CTO, Dick Lynch, said, "We expect that LTE will actually be in service somewhere here in the U.S. probably this time next year." Lynch also said that Verizon plans to coordinate the rollout of femtocell base stations (likely with WiFi) to extend the signal indoors -- something that shouldn't be too difficult since LTE will be riding the old home-penetrating 700MHz analog TV signal. With LG demonstrating 60Mbps download speeds on the world's first LTE chips for cellphones and data cards yesterday, consider us packed and ready to move to the first city VZW lights up.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Acer-branded smartphone (purportedly) still on for 2009

by Darren Murph posted Dec 7th 2008 @ 1:27AM

For the third time this year, we're hearing straight from totally unofficial, somewhat sketchy Acer sources that the firm is still planning on producing its own smartphone in 2009. The latest report has company chairman JT Wang stating that the eventual launch may not happen until Q2 2009 (red flag), and he blamed the possible delay on the ongoing negotiations with carriers across the globe. If you'll recall, Acer's been talking up its own phone ever since it took E-Ten Information Systems in under its wings, but many months later, we still have no concrete evidence that anything is going on (mobile wise, at least) behind the firm's doors. We suppose time will tell, but we have serious doubts the hardcore Acer faithful will be holding their breath.

[Via Slashgear]