According to our earlier intelligence, AT&T should have launched the LG Vu yesterday. While that hasn't happened, we did spotted promo stuff for the device hitting the AT&T stores. Now I would like to state - it's coming this day or on Monday, but I simply can't say that. Earlier, we saw the carrier cancelling the Sony Ericsson K850i and at this point we're even afraid of Deja “Vu” effect. We can only hope AT&T is on track with the mobile TV enabled device launch. Stay tuned…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

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Well lookey lookey who came away with the cookie(s). The FCC has just revealed details on the winners of the recently ended 700Mhz spectrum auction, and it looks like industry heavyweights AT&T and Verizon Wireless are walking away with the biggest slices of 700Mhz-cake.

As expected, Verizon Wireless managed to wrangle the highly sought-after and talked-up C-Block with requisite open-access stipulations. Huge Red's $4,741,807,000 bid earned them the right to claim the necessary 700Mhz C-Block licenses to blanket the continental United Says, forgoing coverage in Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the Gulf of Mexico. Verizon's bid bested Google's $4.71 billion bid for the open-access spectrum.

AT&T plunked down a respectable chunk of change to win a 12Mhz swatch of 700Mhz B-Block spectrum in 227 regional licenses. The new spectrum can be used with AT&T's recently acquired spectrum from Aloha Partners.

MetroPCS, the unlimited calling plan carrier, also scored huge with an A-Block license that covers the Boston area.

Qualcomm also came away with portions of the B- and E-Block - possibly to augment their MediaFLO bandwidth. Frontier Wireless, in partnership with EchoStar, also won licenses in the E-Block that covers most of the US. Will Frontier Wireless launch their own video network on this spectrum? Possibly, we'll have to wait and see.

Qualcomm's bid on the public-safety D-Block didn't meet the reserve price of $1.13 billion, so we should be seeing that slice of spectrum go up for auction in the near future.

So, what net effect can we anticipate from the biggest wireless auction in US history? The industry's No. 1 and No. 2 wireless carriers just got that much stronger and are poised to usher in more advanced wireless services in the near future. AT&T's spectrum holdings “position the company to further enhance the quality and reliability of existing wireless broadband and voice services, and to set the foundation for new-generation wireless broadband technologies and services,” according to Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T's wireless unit.

Unfortunately, we won't see any more competition in the wireless industry from start-ups and newcomers. What we'll see is more of the same from wireless incumbents AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Which is to state, more of the same policies attached to more advanced wireless services.

[Via: Reuters]

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Sprint's only hope to retain, or at least partially regain, their formerly successful days as a Top 3 US wireless carrier is to concentrate on becoming the premier wireless broadband provider. That means Sprint will have to focus on the data side of their operations - as I mentioned a while back.

So, in a move that should help the ailing wireless operator turn over a new data-centric leaf, Sprint has announced plans to switch to an all IP-based network, according to InfoWorld. Sprint would be the first carrier to use a network entirely based on the same structure as the internet - unifying their CDMA, iDEN, and future WiMAX networks under a single IP-based structure.

Ben Vos, vice president of core technologies at Sprint, stated that the move to IP structure is required to ensure that a consistent data-experience is delivered to each subscriber - regardless of whether the data is access from a  smartphone, dumbphone, PDA, or notebook. “You need to have a unified service architecture at the heart of the network that’s agnostic of those underlying technologies at the edge,” stated Vos.

As Sprint moves towards becoming a data provider, it will become increasingly important to make sure that devices across all networks can communicate reliably and that software can work in a consistent manner across all networks. An all IP-based network allows developers to write applications that can be deployed on multiple networks no need for changes to the code. In comparison, Verizon uses some IP-based technology, but the use of legacy technology limits Verizon's network flexibility.

In other news, Sprint states that it is on-track to go live with its national WiMAX/XOHM network soon. The recent soft-launch of the commercial XOHM network in choose US cities was a success. But, Sprint will wait until after it publishes its Q1 financial report to comment on which markets Sprint will initially expand their WiMAX service.

[Via: Electronista]

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all made on a apple laptop for fun.

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If you're feeling a tinge of deja vu all over again, it's because this has all happened before. HTC, long known to be developing a handset running the Android open-source OS, has finally come out in the open and announced that their Android handset will be called the “Dream.”

Back in the early days of the Android OS announcements, along with the OHA announcements, we were hearing that Google was hard at work on a Google Phone (gPhone, as many have fondly referred to it) made by HTC. Then, with the announcement of Android, those gPhone rumors pretty much died. HTC was still reported to be manufacturing the a handset based on Google's OS. The HTC Dream was stated to actually be a handful of varied Android prototypes.

Now, HTC is back in the mix with the HTC Dream. The Windows Mobile-handset manufacturing giant is keeping details about the HTC Dream as closely guarded as possible. What we know is that the commercial version of the Dream will rock  a large touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard (slide or swivel style), and will be geared towards simple world wide web navigation. The handset will reportedly be 3-inches wide by 5-inches long and is expected to hit the market near the end of 2008 - which is in line with widely held expectations for the first Android handset to launch by year's end.

The HTC Omni could still materialize as the HTC Dream. The specs seem to line up nicely with the expected HTC Dream. And, it remains to be seen if HTC will indeed ship 1 million of these Android handsets in 2008.

Note: Image doesn't necessarily represent the HTC Dream. 

[Via: InfoWorld]

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While the rest of us mere mortals will have to make do with screenshots and videos of the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.1 UI, an enterprising ROM-cook over at xda-developers forum has installed the not-yet-released Windows Mobile 6.1 OS on an HTC Star Trek smartphone.

Apparently not content with having Windows Mobile 6.0 on the Star Trek, xda-developers member Erofich has managed to tweak the touch-based Windows Mobile 6.1 OS for the non-touchscreen HTC Star Trek. The directional pad and keys have been mapped to provide touchscreen inputs in place of a finger or stylus, and the WM6.1 install seems to be running with no major problems.

Erofich has also managed to get Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard ported to the HTC Star Trek (and all its branded variants) as well. Check out the xda-developers forums post for more info on how to get WM6.1 on your own Star Trek.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

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Speak about lockdown. In a move that should make anti-trust litigators foam at the mouth, Apple has reportedly banned the development of any music player application for the iPhone.

The new iPhone SDK apparently restricts applications from accessing iTunes functions, effectively prohibiting developers from accessing the iTunes music library or expanding on the iPhone's music-player. That means services like Amazon and eMusic will most likely be unable to create an iPhone application that grants iPhone users to buy and download music outside of Apple's iTunes (desktop or iPhone-based).

We'll have to see how this pans out. The banning of any application accessing the iPhone's music files or the development of an music applications outside of iTunes may be a veritable pitcher of sweat tea to the buzzing swarms of lawyers waiting to file suit against Apple. But, if Steve Jobs' past decisions are any indicator, he might just try to lock down the iPhone's music abilities. The iPhone's music abilities are pretty impressive as it is already.

[Via: MacWorld]

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Sprint isn't doing so well as a traditional voice-carrier amidst its more popular competition. So, the struggling network operator is re-focusing its resources on the data-side of mobile communications.

Apple's iPhone has forced the industry to re-think how mobile phones deal with web-content. The fake internet that's served up with those crappy, bundled WAP browsers is no longer acceptable to the informed consumer. And, as such, Sprint has announced that they will be bringing a more desktop-like web-browsing experience to all data-capable handsets in its lineup. In partnership with OpenWave, Sprint will be pushing the OpenWeb content adaptation platform (PDF link) to all compatible handsets, free of charge.

Through the use of proxy-servers, OpenWeb should grant web-friendly Sprint handsets to surf the internet with webpages formatted in easy-to-read layouts that mimics the look and feel of desktop browsing - no matter the processing and memory limitations of a particular handset. The OpenWeb platform intercepts all website requests, formats them for the mobile phone, and sends an optimized version of the website to then handset.

Sprint users should see the OpenWave OpenWeb implementation start to roll out in coming weeks. We're sure Palm Treo and Centro fans are going to have a field day with this one. Let's hope Sprint's data-side push will culminate in a successful WiMAX/XOHM network launch.

[Via: treocentral]

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Following on Nokia's more developed and wide-ranging offerings with their N-Gage gaming platform, Verizon Wireless has announced the launch of their exclusive new 3D game, Metal Gear Solid Mobile.

Made by the same folks that brought us Metal Gear Solid console games, Metal Gear Solid Mobile is a absolutely new game with novel features. The new mobile game includes 3D effects and camera work that surpasses anything available in the mobile gaming space, allowing the player to control first-person and third-person perspectives and multiple weapon choices. There's also a new feature that grants the user to take a picture with their mobile phone's camera and integrate the picture's colors into the game-character's camo-gear.

Metal Gear Solid Mobile won the Grand Prix and Operator’s Choice awards at the 2008 International Mobile Gaming Awards, and now you can have it on your Verizon Wireless handset for $4.99 a monthly or $10.99 for outright buy.

[Via: Mobility Site]

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Sprint isn't doing so well as a traditional voice-carrier amidst its more popular competition. So, the struggling network operator is re-focusing its resources on the data-side of mobile communications.

Apple's iPhone has forced the industry to re-think how mobile phones deal with web-content. The fake world wide web that's served up with those crappy, bundled WAP browsers is no longer acceptable to the informed consumer. And, as such, Sprint has announced that they will be bringing a more desktop-like web-browsing experience to all data-capable handsets in its lineup. In partnership with OpenWave, Sprint will be pushing the OpenWeb content adaptation platform (PDF link) to all compatible handsets, free of charge.

Through the use of proxy-servers, OpenWeb should allow web-friendly Sprint handsets to surf the internet with webpages formatted in easy-to-read layouts that mimics the look and feel of desktop browsing - no matter the processing and memory limitations of a particular handset. The OpenWeb platform intercepts all website requests, formats them for the mobile phone, and sends an optimized version of the website to then handset.

Sprint users should see the OpenWave OpenWeb implementation start to roll out in coming weeks. We're sure Palm Treo and Centro fans are going to have a field day with this one. Let's hope Sprint's data-side push will culminate in a successful WiMAX/XOHM network launch.

[Via: treocentral]

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• Sprint planning to switch to IP-based network in push to become data-centric provider
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