Section: Business News, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones HTC executives are surely celebrating after the totals for Q2 were tallied up. The Taiwanese based company enjoyed unprecedented success, largely because of a booming smartphone industry catalyzed by quality HTC smartphones. In terms of profit year-to-year, it grew by 33% making investors and stockholders of the company extremely happy. Last year, the total profit was $202 million and this year the profit equaled $268 million. Total revenue equaled $1.88 billion and sales were up 58%. Android’s popularity from last year to this year definitely helped increase the overall profit for HTC as HTC is a major manufacturer for quality Android phones. The Q2 results even beat HTC’s own expectations for the Quarter - just to show you how good of a quarter it was for the “quietly brilliant” company. Via [HTC] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones 
Last we heard, the white version of the HTC EVO 4G wasn’t supposed to launch in Best Buy stores until July 11. For all you white EVO 4G fanatics, you’ll be happy to know that your phone came in five days early! Best Buy stores have reportedly already received shipment of the white device and are already fulfilling pre-orders of the first 4G phone on the Sprint network. I’m sure white iPhone fans are seething with envy since the Android counterpart is already available in both colors. Now let’s just hope Best buy can keep enough white HTC EVO 4G’s in stock. Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Websites, Online Music/Video 
Before making a smartphone purchase, it’s important to do some research beforehand. However, with new phones, it’s hard to find good reviews mainly because not many people have the phone yet. Therefore, it is a good idea to check out the carrier’s video for the phone, even if it is biased to show only its strong points. Today, a little more than a week before the Droid X launches, Verizon uploaded a video review of the latest Droid smartphone from Motorola to their YouTube channel. As you would probably expect, the video highlights all the key features that makes the phone great. With the HTC Droid Incredible being repeatedly delayed, maybe the video will persuade you to switch your pre-order to a Droid X. Check out the video in its entirety below:  Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones 
While everyone in America was celebrating the 4th of July, the Queen of England was getting her geek on at a tour of Research in Motion. And, after being shown around by RIM founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis (and after receiving one awesome lab coat), she was presented with a brand new White Blackberry Bold 9700. So is that all I have to be to get free gadgets? Being the next King should be no big deal.
Read [Crackberry via Mobile Crunch] Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile 
AT&T claims to have the fastest 3G network nationwide, despite all the issues it might have with all the iPhone users out there using the network. With it’s newer HSUPA network, the carrier should have 3G upload speeds up to about 1 Mbps. It looks like in some markets that number dropped this past weekend.
It seems in some markets, AT&T’s 3G upload speeds may be capped at just about 100 kbps, only 10 percent of what the network should be capable of. The caps seem to have started this past weekend, with no warning or statement about what was happening. The areas affected are: NYC, Central Jersey, Boston, Orlando, Seattle, South Jersey/Philly, Columbus, Cleveland, West Houston, Phoenix, Northern Colorado, St. Paul/Minesota, Suffolk County/Long Island, Quad Cities, South Jersey, Denver, Detroit Metro, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Fairfax, Minneapolis
Living in one of the affected areas, I’ve been able to confirm that the upload speeds are, in fact clocked at lower than 100 kbps (see image above). The download speeds are typical, ranging between 1 and 2 Mbps, but upload speeds drop dramatically to somewhere between 82 and 98 kbps. It is possible that there could just be a temporary service update that’s bringing the upload speeds down. Or it could be just a simple error somewhere. Either way, there has been no statement by AT&T warning that the speeds would be dropping, or that there is something causing the issues. It looks like an official statement could be coming soon, but that doesn’t change the fact that the upload speeds were far lower than expected on a weekend when many would be uploading pictures of fireworks or Fourth of July parties. Read [Gizmodo] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking 
Chances are if you have an Android phone and use Twitter, you’ve at least tried out Twidroid. Many use it as their Twitter client of choice, both before and after the release of Twitter for Android. It looks as if the app will become even more popular, or at least more widely-known.
Twidroid has been acquired by TweetUp, and the name of the application to Twidroyd. The reason for the name change is to avoid any potential legal issues with Lucasfilms, which owns the Droid trademark (Verizon licensed the name for it’s smartphone line). It didn’t seem to be an issue before, but now that TweetUp owns the app there is always the possibility. There is an even greater chance given that Twidroyd will now be bundled with phones from “5 leading manufacturers.” The interesting bit here is that TweetUp already had an agreement with Twidroyd to bring the service to the app. TweetUp has similar deals with Seesmic and Tweetdeck, two of the more popular desktop, web and mobile Twitter clients. How each of them fare in relation to the official Twitter apps isn’t exactly known, but this could pose another threat to Seesmic and Tweetdeck. Both apps companies were effected by the Twitter purchase of Tweetie, and the creation of the official Twitter for Android app, and now a service they each have deals with has bought its own app. Seems this could be a common trend among apps built for social networks. Read [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones Losing your cell phone can be a frustrating ordeal, especially if you have valuable data stored on your phone. Smartphones are excellent candidates to be stolen because they are expensive and almost always contain important information. Samsung wants to help lessen the ordeal in case your Samsung Galaxy S or Samsung Wave phone gets stolen or lost where it could end up in the wrong hands. Enter Samsung Dive. This nifty piece of software is an extension of Mobile Tracker and allows you to remotely wipe all of the phone’s memory and even lock the phone. In addition, alerts can be set up online to inform you when the SIM card is changed and can alert you of the phone’s location. Best of all, the feature is available free and you need to enable Mobile Tracker on your device and make sure your phone is linked to your online Samsung account. This service is only available in Germany and the United Kingdom because of legal issues in other countries. However, Samsung has plans to roll out the service to other undisclosed countries. Via [Samsung Hub] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Audio, Portable Audio 
While the iPod reigns supreme over the Portable Media Player department, Coby is offering a nice little alternative to the iPod Nano for the budget-conscious shopper. With a 1.8 inch LCD color screen, the Coby MP620 sports 4GB of storage, integrated FM radio, and comes in a black, blue, and red color. Based on the image above, it looks very similar in size and style to the iPod Nano, which bodes well in the favor of the MP620. In addition, it plays audio and video, displays photos, and comes with a 12 hour battery life. In case 4GB of storage isn’t enough for you, Coby is offering another version of the MP620 which features 8GB of storage and it comes in the same colors. Now, I mentioned the MP3 Player is for the budget-conscious shopper or someone who is looking for a good deal; I say this because the 4GB version is priced at $29.55 and the 8GB version is priced at $43.05. I’m hard pressed to find another quality MP3 Player with the same amount of storage priced similarly. Check it out [Coby] Via [ChipChick] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile  In the never-ending race to build the Droid Incredible, Verizon has now pushed the shipping date to 8/3. After making the running change to a S-LCD screen from a hard-to-get AMOLED, HTC looks to get back on track at fulfilling orders. However, 8/3 pushes delivery past Motorola’s Droid X launch.
Both the Incredible and the Droid X are offered at the same price Verizon is still making the offer for those waiting ever-so-patiently for an Incredible to grab a Droid X instead. That’s got to be tempting as the Incredible’s delivery date slides again. Can’t remember the differences between the two? Here’s a handy chart, courtesy of Geeksugar:
 Read: [Unwired View] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Section: Communications, Cellphones, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile 
This past week saw the plug pulled on two products aimed at teens: the Microsoft KINs and the Sidekick. Despite both being pulled, each shows what’s wrong with the other. The simple fact of the matter is smartphones and teens don’t mix. The Microsoft KINs were a really interesting experiment. Instead of partnering with Microsoft to create a new niche of “quasi-smartphones”, Verizon decided to put big-boy pants on a device that was targeted to kids who couldn’t afford them (or at least, had parents who couldn’t afford them). Microsoft built a phone that would sit just above quick messaging devices and might have created a new revenue stream as a pre-smartphone device. Small steps for consumers to move up. But Verizon didn’t play ball. Whether that’s due to being afraid of confusing customers what level of data they need or just an incomplete understanding of the opportunity the KINs might have offered, we are not sure. It wasn’t the kids that failed MS, it was Verizon. The death of the Sidekick is something that should have been followed more. The Sidekick brought messaging to the teens in a way T9 phones just can’t. The Sidekick made QWERTY keyboards cool and that influence is still seen today in many of the slide-out, flip-out, designs that still fill mobile phone shops. What’s missing is software to separate the devices. Apple and Android-builders only get to play with folks who pony-up to a full data plan. What they miss is a sector of the market that can’t commit to another $30 for data. They are already commited (financially and mentally) to a $15-$20 a month unlimited texting plan. Phone makers makers can’t unhook texting from these kids lives, they can only augment it. That’s exactly why the KINs died. The networks seem content to keep the gap between the have-data and the no-datas a substantial one, dollar-wise. Keeping the divide wide will force teens will flock to devices that text well. That means the internet stays at bay. The KIN was an interim device for stepping kids up to an “adult” smartphone. Today’s teens text. Facebook and Twitter are not on the radar yet. A teen sees social networking sites as nice, but not must haves. Texting is still in the must have category. The New York times ran a post yesterday harping on how out of touch Microsoft is and using the KIN as the poster child for it. Ashlee Vance writes, “Microsoft employees were dismayed when they anonymously visited Verizon stores and discovered that employees for the carrier were reluctant to sell the Kin, said a Microsoft executive close to the Kin project. Verizon, the only carrier behind the Kin, tended to promote phones running Google's Android software. "It was killed abruptly because no one was buying it and there no was no credible reason to believe anyone would," this person said…Fewer than 10,000 Kins were sold.” Can you blame them? At the store-level, reps are charged with comparing phones and the KIN are not on the same level as Android running, app-loving, Swiss Army knives of devices. The KIN phones weren’t meant to go up against App phones, they were designed to fit neatly in between them and quick messaging devices The simplest I can make the argument is this: my teen has to have texting; she loves the games on my smartphone but that’s where the smartphone love ends for her. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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