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Quick news from around the Web

@FierceWireless: Rambus Sees ITC Ruling Helping Sway Other Potential Licensees (sub. req.) Article #Nvidia. | Follow @FierceWireless

> AT&T Mobility announced the Sharp FX from Personal Communications Devices, a feature phone with a touchscreen and slide-out Qwerty keyboard that features Qualcomm’s FLO TV service. Release

> HTC plans to push its brand in mainland China. Article (sub. req.)

> Chip technology vendor ARM beat its revenue forecasts. Article

> Canadian carrier Rogers enjoyed a rise in quarterly earnings. Article

> The “Qi” wireless power specification is now ready. Article

> Verizon Wireless suffered a service outage in parts of Manhattan yesterday. Article (sub. req.)

Mobile Content News

> Global financial services provider Citigroup warned customers its free mobile banking application for Apple’s iPhone contains a security flaw. Article

> Google appears to be eying the launch of a digital music store later this year. Article

> Google introduced Google Maps for mobile 4.4, promising more efficient access to information on nearby locations. Article

> According to a new survey, no one would pay for Twitter. Article

European Wireless News

> Ireland’s Imagine acquired Clearwire’s operations in the country. Release

And finally… An app from Cloud Music leverages Google’s Docs storage service to stream music to Android rival Apple’s iPhone. Article

FierceWireless

Droid X Rated 4.5 out of 5 by Wireless and Mobile News Review of Reviews

Reviews of the Droid X by Motorola reveal that it is excellent and one of the hottest phones of the summer. The 4.3 inch (WVGA 854 x 480) touchscreen is referred to as gorgeous, beautiful and a knockout. The processor is speedy, making the Droid X the most powerful Android smartphone. Given Editor’s Choice by PCMag, the Droid X, marks the eXcellent spot  for Wi-Fi hotspots, Bluetooth voice dialing, video/multimedia, great call quality with super noise cancellation and good to great 8 megapixel camera.

Reviewers liked that the Droid X onscreen keyboard has multi-touch hold down shift key at same time some thought the keyboard was awesome while other found it the large screen a little too big. Droid X data download speeds were excellent. Noise cancellation works well on phone calls and video recording.  The Droid X runs Android 2.1 and because it has GPS, you can use it for free Google navigation. Of course it offers email capabilities. Motorola has added Moto Blur for unified social networking that works well even though it is timed delayed for Twitter.
Some reviewers loved that the Droid X has an HMDI cable to play
video on other devices. One review, however, pointed out that the HDMI
video out cable only works with the built-in photo/video app not YouTube
or V CAST. The full HTML browser allows for up to 8 open browsers and
pinch to
zoom.  DROID X
owners  get Android 2.2 and Adobe Flash
Player 10.1 with an over-the-air update in the latter half of the
summer as well as an update the faster FroYo Android 2.2.

Verizon
customers who have contracts ending by 12/31/2010 are elligible for an
upgrade without penalty.  DROID X by Motorola
will be available online
and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores beginning July 15 for
9.99
after a 0 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.
Don’t forget to use the
Instant Phone Rebate Only Available with Online Purchase
coupon-link to avoid waiting for a rebate (after you try it out in the
store.)

Verizon

Wireless
has had considerable success with the Droid line
of smartphones the well-reviewed
HTC Droid Incredible continually sells out and does not ship for
a few weeks. There have been shortages of the high-end components
smartphones need, we’re thinking if Droid X does neXt for your
smarphone, you may want to order it at 12:01 am July 15 online

Sascha Segan at PCMag rated the Droid X 4.5 out of 5 because it is THE most powerful Android smartphone. He liked the speedy processor,Wi-Fi hotspots, Bluetooth voice dialing, excellent reception and noise cancellation. It may be too big for some and if you don’t want Moto Blur, you are stuck with it.  He called the Droid X excellent and a little excessive. He gave it Editor’s Choice. He called the screen beautiful, the keyboard adequate, and Swype great for everything except urls and passwords. Data download speeds were excellent and he expects battery life to be better than Evo.The Moto Bllur automatic mix of Twitter and Facebook is great but messages can be a bit stale. The 1-GHz TI OMAP 3630 processor is faster than the Snapdragon. Music playing is fine, the camera is one of the best and video watching is excellent. He felt cheated because the video out cable only works with the built-in photo/video app not YouTube or V CAST.

Bonnie Cha at CNET rated the Droid X 4 out 5, for gorgeous touchscreen, video, 8 MP camera, HDMI out and Wi-Fi hotspot. She doesn’t like the sluggishness of the camera, Moto Blur and absence of front facing camera. She found the SWYPE keyboard accurate/quick and the standard Android onscreen keyboard awesome. It felt solid overall. The buttons are true physical mechanical, not screen. Moto Blur is less evasive and more refined. Video recording includes sound noise cancellation. The camera has effects, dual LED flash and 720 p video capture. It come with 8GB of onboard storage along with a 16GB microSD card, which can hande 32GB cards making it possible for
40GB of storage. Other features include Bluetooth, 3G, GPS, and integrated Wi-Fi. Call quality was great. Some data calls dropped. Photo quality was mixed.

Ginny Miles at PC World rated the Droid X 4.5 out of 5 for it’s beautiful 4.3 inch display and intuitive software as well as multimedia playback, network performance and features.  She called the Droid X the one of the hottest phones to debut this summer, but found performance sluggish at times. She liked the rubberized back and buttons, finding the design elegant. She misses the kickstand of the HTC EVO 4G. The 4.3-inch, WVGA 854-by-480-resolution display is a knockout. She found the multi-touch onscreen keyboard natural and Swype useful.  The 8 megapixel camera is respectable.  She found it to be speedy and  call quality good.

WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

From the files of the “Obvious Department” it turns out that AT&T uses experince more dropped calls than any other wireless carrier.

“ChangeWave Research, the company that does the polling for the InvestorPlace.com site, released the results of a survey of 4,040 smartphone users in the US done during March of this year. They were looking into “trends in customer satisfaction and loyalty, future market share demand, and the issue of dropped calls,” and discovered that AT&T’s results were in a death-spiral on all those measurements. As far as dropped calls go, while Verizon customers reported that 1.5% of their calls were dropped – the best result of the 4 US major carriers – AT&T customers said that 4.5% of their calls were dropped. Sprint and T-Mobile customers were essentially in a tie for second, with 2.4% and 2.5% of calls dropped respectively. And unsurprisingly, only 23% of AT&T customers said they were “very satisfied” with their service, as opposed to 49% of Verizon customers.”

So maybe us iPhone customers are not simply crybaby types. Perhaps there is more to it than AT&T wants to admit.

Will AT&T’s investment in new towers pay off? And how will we customers fare when the new iPhone is released later on this year. Will chaos ensue or will we see a smooth ride?

Att iPhone News, Hacks, App Reviews, How To and jailbreak

In a huge vote, CWA members at Verizon West ratified a three-year contract that increases wages by 8.25 percent and holds the line against health care cost-shifting for 5,500 workers in California.
CWA Union News

We know. You Droid Incredible owners have had to sit through an awful lot of Evo 4G news of late, and you’re feeling a little left out. We hear you. But there’s actually been some great stuff going on in the Droid Incredible forums, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. As such, let’s reward your patience with a free Verizon High-gloss silicone protective case for one lucky beloved Droid Incredible, courtesy of the Android Central Store.

What do you have to do? Just keep on doing what you’re doing. When you post in the Incredible forums today — as in June 8 — you’re automatically entered. We’ll pick a single post at random tonight and get your new case shipped off post haste. Good luck, everybody!

Posted originally at Android Central

Sponsored by www.droidappshowcase.com

Android Central – Android Central

Verizon, spokesTwitterer, Sheldon Leonard in Philadelphia, tweeted that “V CAST Video
coming to our Android devices beginning June 7…”

The V CAST service brings the Verizon video service to the Droid Incredible, Droid Eris, Droid, Moto Devour, and LG Ally on-demand TV shows and other
video content over 3G.

V CAST offers exclusive content, television shows  Fox, NBC, Nickelodeon and other networks. They also offer special events such as sports and concerts. Verizon will V CAST  through exclusive rights to stream live Univision
Interactive Media’s
Spanish-language broadcasts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer matches
from South Africa later this year.

Rates are per
day, while monthly use costs to a month. V Cast offers parental
controls. When you watch programming on V CAST Mobile TV, you do not
incur airtime
charges during usage.

 
If you would like to try the V CAST service. Verizon is offering a Free Trial, you can get 1 month
of V CAST Video On Demand free when
you subscribe

now.

You can receive calls while watching V CAST . You will be prompted of an
incoming call and will have the option
to accept or ignore the call. If you take the call, the application will
be suspended and will resume once the call has ended. However, you will
rejoin your program already in progress. If you ignore the call, the
application will resume and rejoin the program still in progress. The
program being watched will not pause or suspend.

WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Just ahead of the expected announcement of a refreshed iPhone from Apple Inc., Verizon Wireless announced this morning that it was making its Vcast Video service available to its growing library of smartphones powered by Google Inc.
RCR Wireless News

Original Ad from Verizon:

Tags:apple droid iphone verizonapple, droid, iphone, verizon

iPhone News

Never one to let a calling plan opportunity go to waste, Verizon Wireless today unveiled its latest group calling feature dubbed Group Communications.
RCR Wireless News

Verizon has announced that it will begin to offer V CAST Video service for its lineup of Android devices beginning tomorrow afternoon with the launch of a newly developed application that will stream content from its partners, with the launch coming…



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