AndyPad Pre-Orders Start Today

Who remembers us talking about the AndyPad? If you don’t you should because these are some extremely competitively priced Android tablets and today they are finally up for pre-order. We’ve covered the AndyPad more than a few times in the past and recently they received some hands-on treatment.

Over on andypad.co.uk they have officially gone up for pre-order. Both the AndyPad and the AndyPad Pro. While these aren’t like what we are used to with Honeycomb tablets they do offer some decent specs all at amazingly low prices.

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Samsung Galaxy Note Unveiled, 5.3″ High-Res HD Display, 1.4 Ghz Dual-Core and more

Live in Berlin, Germany, here at IFA 2011 Samsung has just unveiled their next product line and the evolution of mobile devices. They are calling this the Samsung Galaxy Note. With the Note you can do more, and see more all on the go with one device. Bringing together a perfect blend of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets with a touch of pen and paper all rolled into one we have the Samsung Galaxy Note. Anyone see a stylus?

Samsung has just announced this amazing new platform and we have all the dirt for you right here. The Samsung Galaxy Note will be the ultimate device. No longer will users carry a phone, tablet, camera, notepad, pen, paper and more — instead you’ll have the Galaxy Note. What Samsung has designed is a device with a 5.3″ Super AMOLED display with HD WXGA 1280×800 resolution, powered by a 1.4 Ghz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and more. All this running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
Details are still trickling in on this awesome device so we are still gathering our thoughts but I do know one thing, I want one ASAP. The Galaxy Note will feature many of the same specs we have grown to love from the Samsung Galaxy S II. The Galaxy Note will also have an 8 MP camera with LED flash, a 2 MP front camera for video chat. Being ultra-portable even though we have a large display it will only be 9.65mm (0.37″) thin and weigh 178 grams. At first it appears to be a Galaxy S II but you quickly realize it’s something much more.
With Samsung’s own unique S-Pen technology note taking and input for drawing or anything else you’d ever need will be as simple as can be. Included with the device will be a stylus that neatly is concealed in the device as seen in the photos. On the side is a small button that, when you hold it down and tap, activates some of the pen-specific features. As soon as we get more details and hear all about this new mobile device we will be sure to update you all, oh and expect some hands-on coming very shortly.
The Samsung Galaxy Note will come in both LTE and HSPA+ flavors and will see a global release but no other details have been released at this time. Feel free to follow along and watch the official Samsung Unpacked IFA Keynote right here at our sister site at live.slashgear.com
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Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Unveiled, HD AMOLED Display and 1.4 Ghz Dual-core

Today live in Berlin at IFA 2011 Samsung has just announced the brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 and boy does it look awesome. The Tab 7.7 features the world’s first tablet to offer a Super AMOLED Plus display and with a HD resolution of 1280×800 on that small screen it looks amazing. We have plenty of press shots below and you can follow along during the Samsung Keynote right here at live.slashgear.com/

Where do I start. This 7.7″ Tablet will be powered by a 1.4 Ghz dual-core processor, Android 3.2 Honeycomb, have that amazing Super AMOLED Plus Display with a 1280×800 resolution as said above, 1GB Ram, come in 16GB, 32GB, and a 64GB variant. 3MP rear camera with flash and 2MP front for video chat and more. It measures just 7.89 millimeters thin and weighs only 335 grams (12 ounces), basically making this tablet one of the most portable devices in the market. We have a 5,100 mAh battery for over 10 hours of video playback all wrapped in that tiny package.

If you noticed from the images we also see 3G on board. This tablet will feature full voice and video call capabilities with HSPA+ 21 Mbps network connectivity (We’ll see how US carriers take to that idea). We have 1080p video playback, micro SD support and all of this is running on Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Exact dimensions are 196.7x 133 x 7.89mm and like previously mentioned it only weighs in at 335 grams making this thing extremely lightweight. All of that in a package that is thinner than the Amazon Kindle, do want.
While we don’t have availability or pricing yet, we do have some hands-on videos coming soon but what else do you need to know? Android 3.2, dual-core, 7.7″ AMOLED Plus HD Display, and 3G connectivity for voice and data — I’m sold already!
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Motorola Droid 2 Gingerbread OTA Update Available NOW

That’s right, folks. Tonight’s your lucky night if you’re a Droid 2 user. Seems the Gingerbread soak test for the Motorola Droid 2 went over well seeing how Moto is to begin rolling out the tasty Android treat for the masses starting tonight at 11:59PM. This will bring your device up to Android 2.3.3 and all the Gingerbread goodies that come along with it. Are you guys as hyped about this as I am (and I don’t even own the device)? If you don’t like waiting, you can also pull the update to your Droid 2 by going into your Settings > About Phone > System Updates. As always make sure your phone is fully charged and don’t forget to leave us some feedback on how the update went! Good luck!
Thanks, Anon!

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Apple releases iOS 5 beta 7, here’s the change log

Apple has just seeded iOS 5 beta 7 to developers for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch testing. Apple is expected to release iOS 5 for consumers in the coming weeks. The full change log is after the break.

Accounts

• When creating an iCloud account, you can use any Apple ID as long as it is a full email address and not a MobileMe account. If you have a MobileMe account, you can move that account to iCloud. You can find more information on iCloud at: http://developer.apple.com/icloud

AirPlay

• Starting in iOS 5, video content in applications and websites are AirPlay-enabled by default.
• iOS 5 supports AirPlay of video via AV Foundation.

API Validation

• NEW: Starting in iOS 5.0 development tools beta 7, it is possible to extract APIs used by an application and have them checked for private APIs usage. This option will be offered at Validation time.

Apple TV

• Apple TV Software beta enables users to mirror the contents of an iPad 2 to an Apple TV (2nd generation) using AirPlay. This beta software also enables Photo Stream on Apple TV so users can access photos stored in iCloud. Apple TV Software beta is being provided to test the latest AirPlay functionality with your iOS 5 apps and web sites. If you wish to install Apple TV Software beta on your device, you must first register your device UDID in the iOS Developer Program Portal.
• Slideshow settings are not remembered for slideshow playback (always plays back in Reflections theme). Screen savers settings are behaving properly.

Binary Compatibility

• On applications linked against the iOS 5.0 SDK, scroll view content offsets will no longer be rounded to integral pixels during a pinch gesture.

Calendar

• Birthday calendars are not currently available via the icloud.com website or in Windows. They will be available in a future release.

Core Image

• Several filters have been added since beta 1. The current list now includes the following filters:CIAdditionCompositing, CIAffineTransform, CICheckerboardGenerator, CIColorBlendMode, CIColorBurnBlendMode, CIColorControls, CIColorCube, CIColorDodgeBlendMode,CIColorInvert, CIColorMatrix, CIColorMonochrome, CIConstantColorGenerator, CICrop, CIDarkenBlendMode, CIDifferenceBlendMode, CIExclusionBlendMode, CIExposureAdjust,CIFalseColor, CIGammaAdjust, CIGaussianGradient, CIHardLightBlendMode, CIHighlightShadowAdjust, CIHueAdjust, CIHueBlendMode, CILightenBlendMode, CILinearGradient,CILuminosityBlendMode, CIMaximumCompositing, CIMinimumCompositing, CIMultiplyBlendMode, CIMultiplyCompositing, CIOverlayBlendMode, CIRadialGradient,CISaturationBlendMode, CIScreenBlendMode, CISepiaTone, CISoftLightBlendMode, CISourceAtopCompositing, CISourceInCompositing, CISourceOutCompositing,CISourceOverCompositing, CIStraightenFilter, CIStripesGenerator, CITemperatureAndTint, CIToneCurve, CIVibrance, CIVignette, and CIWhitePointAdjust

iBooks

• iBooks 1.2.2 may fail to display some text or images in books. Please update to iBooks 1.3 in the App Store.

iCloud Backup

• If you enable iCloud Backup, automatic backup with iTunes when syncing will be disabled. We also suggest that you manually back up your device with iTunes. Backups made with earlier versions of iOS 5 beta will soon become incompatible, and will no longer be available. It is strongly advised you upgrade to this version of the iOS 5 beta in order to continue backing up your devices.

iCloud Storage

• NEW: Starting in iOS 5 beta 7, the requirements for specifying container identifier strings in your application’s entitlements have changed. Each container identifier that does not include a wildcard character must exactly match the bundle identifier of an application published using the same team ID as your application. You are not required to include an entitlement that matches your app’s own bundle identifier; for example, a lite and pro version of your app could both specify the pro app’s bundle identifier to share the same container. The requirements for container identifiers that include wildcard characters have not changed, but you may need to update existing wildcard identifiers after changing any non-wildcard identifiers in your application’s entitlements to match the new rules.
• NEW: In this beta of iOS 5.0 the number of times an app can synchronize in quick succession with the servers has been reduced. If you are debugging your app and want to see whether your synchronize requests are being throttled, you can call the -[NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore _printDebugDescription] method directly in gdb. Please note that -[NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore _printDebugDescription] is an SPI so you are strongly advised not to use it in your app.
• On KVS, the per-key limit has been raised to 64Kb (to match the per-app limit); and the maximum number of keys has been raised to 256.
• During the iOS 5 beta period, any documents stored on the servers might be purged periodically before GM. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you do not store any critical documents or information on the servers.
• Provisioning Profiles no longer need to be enabled for iCloud in the iOS Provisioning Portal. All newly generated provisioning profiles are now automatically enabled for iCloud. If you are using an Xcode managed Team Provisioning Profile, click refresh in the Xcode Organizer to obtain a new iCloud-enabled profile. To enable all other provisioning profiles for iCloud, simply regenerate your profiles in the iOS Provisioning Portal.
• If your application is using the NSMetadataQuery class, you must set a predicate, the predicate is now honored. But the predicate is an NSPredicate-style predicate, not a Spotlight-style predicate an example of this is that you must use LIKE instead of = for wild card matching. The differences are defined in more detail at:http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Predicates/Articles/pSpotlightComparison.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40002370-SW1
• In this beta, the setSortDescriptors: method of NSMetadataQuery is not supported.
• To use iCloud prior to beta 5, you had to manually specify various container identifiers (your application’s Display set) within an Entitlements file for both of your Mac OS X and iOS projects.Starting in beta 5, to enable iCloud storage within your apps, simply click the “Enable Entitlements” checkbox in the Summary pane of your project. Xcode will create a custom entitlements file for your project that automatically includes your Team ID. You can add additional iCloud Container values as required by your application. (Note that you must regenerate your existing provisioning profiles, either with Xcode or in the iOS Provisioning Portal, to use iCloud storage.)If you specify a custom identifier string for your iCloud Key-Value Store or iCloud Container entitlement values, you no longer need to prepend your Team ID to the beginning of the string. Xcode will prepend your Team ID to these entries automatically
• The container identifier string you pass to the URLForUbiquityContainerIdentifier: method of NSFileManager MUST include the team ID at the beginning of the string. As a convenience, if you passnil, Foundation uses the first document container ID specified in your app’s entitlements.
• There are issues using the Cloud Storage document API in conjunction with protected data which can lead to data corruption.
• In this beta, file presenters (objects that adopt the NSFilePresenter protocol) do not receive some of the messages that they’re supposed to receive, especially:
  • presentedSubitemDidAppearAtURL:
  • presentedSubitemDidChangeAtURL:
  You can workaround this by implementing the relinquishPresentedItemToWriter: method and checking to see if the writer actually wrote when your file presenter reacquires.
  File presenters do receive presentedItemDidChange: messages in this beta.
• While reporting a bug related to the iCloud storage interfaces, please include the logs collected during your debugging session. To generate these logs, you must install a special debug profile on your device.The debug profile can be obtained from http://connect.apple.com. This profile enables the generation of debug logs that are needed to diagnose any problems using iCloud storage. The instructions to collect the logs are:
  1. Install the profile. (The easiest way to do this is to mail it to yourself and open the attachment on their device.)
  2. Reproduce the bug.
  3. Sync with iTunes to pull the logs off your device.
  4. Attach the logs to your bug report. You can find the logs in ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/DeviceName/DiagnosticLogs.
  These logs can grow large very quickly, so you should remove the profile after you have reproduced the problem and pulled the logs for the bug report.
• File names are case-insensitive in OS X but case-sensitive in iOS. This can lead to problems when syncing files between the two. You should take steps on iOS to avoid creating files whose names differ only by case.

Find My iPhone

• After OTA update Find My iPhone does not work. To make it functional you can toggle the the Find My iPhone from OFF to ON in Settings.

GameKit

• NEW: Auto-matching with the Turn-based view controller does not work. Invites or the direct auto-match API can be used as a workaround.
• Match data for turn based matches is currently limited to 4 KB of data.
• FIXED: Events will be passed to the delegate whenever a turn is made on a match, instead of just when it becomes the local player’s turn.

iMessage

• iMessage beta 1 will be unable to communicate with iMessage users on beta 2 or later.
• FIXED:Setup Assistant does not provide AppleID password as an input for the FaceTime in iMessage.

interface Builder

• FIXED: When editing the value of a constraint in the inspector, the constraint remains selected, and the outline view continues to show the constraint as selected.
• In XCode 4.2 when copying views (either a single view or multiple views), both the user defined constraints directly on the selected view and the user defined constraints between the views being copied are copied to the pasteboard.
• Changing the segment style of an NSSegmentedControl object to “Automatic” might crash in documents using Cocoa Auto Layout. To workaround the issue use an explicit segment style such as Round or Textured, and at runtime, change the segment style to automatic using the setSegmentStyle: method.

iTunes

• NEW: When trying to restore an iPhone 3GS or iPod touch 3rd generation device running Beta 6 to Beta 7 using iTunes, you will have to set the device into DFU or you can OTA update to Beta 7. To enter DFU mode you will have to:
  1. Connect the device to USB on your Mac.
  2. Turn the device off.
  3. Launch iTunes on your Mac.
  4. Hold down the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds.
  5. Continue holding the Home button but let go of the Power button.
  6. Hold Home button for 13 seconds or until the device shows up in iTunes.
• The version of iTunes that comes with beta 7 cannot sync devices that have the beta 6 software installed. To avoid this problem, do the following:
  1. Sync any devices that have beta 6 installed to the version of iTunes that came with beta 6.
  2. Upgrade iTunes to the version that comes with beta 7.
  3. Connect the device and install the beta 7 software. (Understand that you might see a failure to sync error when you first connect the device.)
  4. After installing the beta 7 software, restore from your the backup you made in step 1.

Mail

• When changing the host name of an email account in settings, blank messages may be seen in the unified inbox. As a workaround, delete and re-add the account instead of changing its host name.

Music Player

• When deleting a song or video from Music/Videos on the device it crashes the app.

OpenGLES

• FIXED: After the lighting stage, whether lighting is enabled or not, the resulting color values are not clamped in GLKit/GLKEffects with either GLKLightingTypePerVertex or GLKLightingTypePerPixel set on the effect. As a result it is not uncommon to see differences in lighting between the two, especially when multiple lights are enabled. This differs from OpenGLES 1.1 which clamps color values after the lighting stage regardless of whether or not lighting is enabled.

OTA Software Update

• Users who installed iOS 5 beta 6 over the air from iOS 5 beta 3 must first erase all content and settings by choosing Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings in order to install iOS 5 beta 7 over the air. This only impacts users who did not update to iOS 5 beta 4.
• If you are doing an OTA software update, you will need to re-sync your photos with iTunes.”
• FIXED: There may be some cases where purchases from the App Store or iTunes Store appear to be stalled because the device is downloading something else in the background. A workaround is to disconnect the device from power (unplug the device).
• NEW: If you have a passcode set, it must be removed before updating to seed 7 from previous seeds. It can be re-enabled after the update is complete. Failure to do so may require iMessage to be re-enabled in settings.

Reminders

• FIXED: If reminders syncing is enabled for a Yahoo account and there is no reminders collection on the server, it will continually get recreated by the phone. Due to a Yahoo server bug, that collection will show up as an event calendar.

Security

• In iOS 5.0 signing of certificates with MD5 signatures is not supported. Please ensure that certificates use signature algorithms based on SHA1 or SHA2.

Simulator

• Location services are not functional in iOS 4.3 simulator running on Mac OS 10.7 with Xcode 4.2.

Springboard

• Push and local notifications for apps appear in the new Notification Center in iOS 5. Notification Center displays notifications that are considered “unread.” In order to accommodate push and local notifications that have no “unread” status, developers can use their application badge count to trigger a clearing of notifications from Notification Center. When an application clears its badge count (by setting it to zero), iOS 5 will clear its notifications from Notification Center.

UI Automation

• There is a known issue when using the performTaskOnHost API in a UI Automation script. If the task being performed with the API outputs excessively (say, thousands of lines of text) to standard out or standard error, the task may deadlock until the timeout is reached, at which point it will throw a javascript exception.
• The lock() and unlock() functions of UIATarget have been replaced with the lockForDuration(<seconds>) function.
• Starting in iOS 5 beta 2, you can now trigger the execution of an UI Automation script on an iOS device from the host terminal by using the instruments tool. The command is:
  • instruments -w <device id> -t <template> <application>
• When using the cli instruments for UI Automation you can now target the default Automation Template and pass the script and results path into the tool as environment variable options. For example:
  • instruments -w <device id> -t /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle/Contents/Resources/Automation.tracetemplate <application> -e UIASCRIPT <script> -e UIARESULTSPATH <results path>

UIKit

• In iOS 5.0 UIPickerView doesn’t send its pickerView:didSelectRow:inComponent: delegate message due to a programatic selection.
• Starting in iOS 5 beta 3, the exclusiveTouch property of UIControl has returned to its original default value of NO.
• Returning nil from the tableView:viewForHeaderInSection: method (or its footer equivalent) is no longer sufficient to hide a header. You must override tableView:heightForHeaderInSection:and return 0.0 to hide a header.
• In the iOS 5 beta, the UITableView class has two methods to move one cell from one row to another with defined parameters. These APIs are:
  • moveSection:toSection:
  • moveRowAtIndexPath:toIndexPath:
• Using the UIWebView class in Interface Builder, setting transparent background color is possible in iOS 5. Developers compiling against the new SDK can check their XIB for the UIWebView transparent setting.
• In the iOS 5 beta, the UINavigationBar, UIToolbar, and UITabBar implementations have changed so that the drawRect: method is not called on instances of these classes unless it is implemented in a subclass. Apps that have re-implemented drawRect: in a category on any of these classes will find that the drawRect: method isn’t called. UIKit does link-checking to keep the method from being called in apps linked before iOS 5 but does not support this design on iOS 5 or later. Apps can either:
  • Use the customization API for bars that in iOS 5 and later, which is the preferred way.
  • Subclass UINavigationBar (or the other bar classes) and override drawRect: in the subclass.
• The indexPathForRow:inSection:, section, and row methods of NSIndexPath now use NSInteger instead of NSUInteger, so that these types match with methods defined on UITableView.
• We have changed the behavior of scrollToRowAtIndexPath:atScrollPosition:animated: such that UITableViewScrollPositionTop and UITableViewScrollPositionBottom now adjust for the top and bottom portions of the contentInset property.
• NEW: In releases prior to iOS 5.0, the UIPopoverController class would unconditionally set the autoresizing masks of view controllers which were the content view controller of the popover controller. It would also unconditionally set the autoresizing masks of the views of view controllers pushed on to a UINavigationController object which was the content view controller of the popover controller.In iOS 5.0, the UIPopoverController class will no longer do this for applications linked on iOS 5.0 or later. Developers should ensure that the autoresizing masks of views are set properly to allow for arbitrary resizing within any container, not just popovers. A mask of (UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight) would not be unreasonable.
• The completion handler for saveToURL:forSaveOperation:completionHandler: is now being called outside of the coordinated write block, where it used to be called inside.
• FIXED: The autosaveWithCompletionHandler: method will now only be called for period-based saves and it is safe to return without saving. Documents must save, though, if thesaveToURL:forSaveOperation:completionHandler: method is invoked.

Safari and WebKit

• In iOS 5, a new inherited CSS property, -webkit-overflow-scrolling, is available. The value touch allows the web developer to opt in to native-style scrolling in an overflow:scroll element. The default value for this property is auto, which allows single-finger scrolling without momentum.
• The WebKit framework has picked up a newer WebKit engine, which closely matches Safari 5.1. Some areas to be aware of with the new WebKit framework on iOS:
  • There is a new HTML5-compliant parser.
  • Text layout width may change slightly because word-rounding behavior now has floating-point-based precision.
  • There is improved validation of the <input type=number> form field, which includes removing leading zeros and number formatting.
  • Touch events are now supported on input fields.
  • window.onerror is now supported.
  • There is a new user agent that does not have locale information in the User Agent string.
  • URLs are now canonicalized by making the scheme all lowercase. If a fake URL is used to pass information from a UIWebView back to native code, make sure that the scheme is always lowercase, or that the native code compares the scheme in a case-insensitive manner.

Wi-Fi Syncing

• In iOS 5 beta 4 and later, wireless syncing is now available on Windows as well as the Mac. (This support requires OS X 10.6.8 or Lion.) You will see an option to enable wireless syncing when you connect your device to iTunes with the USB cable. It is recommended you perform your initial sync with a cable after restoring your device.
  • Wireless syncing is triggered automatically when the device is connected to power and on the same network as the paired computer. Or, you can manually trigger a sync from iTunes or from Settings > General > iTunes Sync (same network as paired computer required).
  • If you find issues with apps, media and/or photos synced to your device, you can reset then resync. From Settings > General > Reset, choose Erase all Content and Settings. Then reconnect to iTunes and sync again.

Xcode

• NEW: Starting with Xcode 4.2 in iOS 5.0 beta 7, support to run and debug applications in the iOS 4.3 Simulator and on devices with iOS versions older than 4.2 is made optional and installed on demand. This support is no longer shipped as part of the core tools packaging, and made available for download and installation through the “Downloads” pane of the Xcode Preferences panel. A valid iOS developer ADC account is required to obtain this content.To obtain the iOS 4.3 Simulator, select the “More Simulators…” item from the Run Destinations popup in the main toolbar. This will present the Downloads pane of the Preferences with UI to initiate the installation of the simulator.To obtain iOS device support for pre-iOS 4.2 devices, connect a device and activate it for development in the Organizer. Xcode will provide a prompt to initiate the download of the device support components.If the Xcode 4.2 in iOS 5.0 beta 7 is installed over a previous Xcode 4.2 beta or Xcode 4.1, the iOS 4.3 Simulator and device support from the previous install will already be present, and the additional components will display as “Installed” in the Downloads pane of the Xcode Preferences.The installation packages for the downloaded components will be stored in ~Library/Developer/Xcode. When a new version of Xcode (beta or GM) will be installed, subsequent requests to install these components will use the local packages without requiring a new download.
• In some cases, Xcode 4.2 Organizer does not display a device that is in restore mode. As a workaround you can use iTunes to restore.
• In iOS 5 beta 5, iOS Simulator is not compatible with previous releases of the iCloud Developer Seed for OS X. It is highly recommended that you update to the latest iCloud Developer Seed to ensure compatibility.
• iOS 5.0 SDK supports both iOS 4.3 and iOS 5.0 simulators.

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AT&T tempts FCC, promises to bring 5,000 jobs back to U.S. if T-Mobile merger is approved

AT&T said on Wednesday that it promises to bring 5,000 of its outsourced call center jobs back to the United States if its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA is approved by the FCC. AT&T also promised that it will not layoff any AT&T or T-Mobile call center employee who is employed at the time of the merger. In addition, AT&T will invest $8 billion in its U.S. infrastructure and the Economic Policy Institute has suggested that move could provide up to 96,000 new jobs. AT&T made its announcement hours before the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the merger. “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the Justice Department said. AT&T responded and said that “there was no indication” from the DOJ that a lawsuit was being contemplated. “We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court,” AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel Wayne Watts said, noting that AT&T will continue to fight for the merger’s approval. Read on for the full press release from AT&T.

AT&T to Bring 5,000 Call Center Jobs Back to U.S. Following T-Mobile Merger Closing
Commits Merger Will Not Result in Job Losses for Existing U.S. Wireless Call Center Employees of T-Mobile and AT&T
Largest Return of Jobs by Any U.S. Company Since 2008
DALLAS, Aug. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today committed that after closing its proposed merger with T-Mobile USA, it will bring back 5,000 wireless call center jobs to the United States that today are outsourced to other countries.
Today’s commitment results from AT&T developing detailed analysis focused specifically on identifying opportunities with the T-Mobile merger to bring good-paying wireless call center jobs back to the United States.
In addition to bringing jobs back, AT&T committed that the merger will not result in any job losses for U.S.-based wireless call center employees of T-Mobile USA or AT&T, who are on the payroll when the merger closes.
The 5,000 new wireless call center jobs at AT&T will offer among the nation’s most highly competitive wages and benefits. AT&T, which has not yet determined where in the U.S. the new jobs will be located, is the nation’s largest employer of full-time union employees and the only unionized major U.S. wireless carrier.
“At a time when many Americans are struggling and our economy faces significant challenges, we’re pleased that the T-Mobile merger allows us to bring 5,000 jobs back to the United States and significantly increase our investment here,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. “This merger and today’s commitment are good for our employees, our customers and our country.”
Today’s announcement represents the largest commitment by an individual American company to bring jobs back to the U.S. since the economic crisis began in 2008.
Also, AT&T has committed as part of the T-Mobile merger to increase its U.S. infrastructure investment by more than $8 billion.  According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute that was commissioned by the Communications Workers of America, AT&T’s increased investment is estimated to produce up to approximately 96,000 new U.S. jobs.
AT&T said today’s jobs commitment does not change its previous guidance on the expected overall merger synergies.
Beyond the jobs created, AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA provides a fast, efficient and certain solution to the impending exhaustion of wireless spectrum in many markets, which limits both companies’ ability to meet the ongoing explosive customer demand for mobile broadband. The uniquely complementary nature of AT&T and T-Mobile’s network assets will allow the combined company to add wireless network capacity – the functional equivalent of new spectrum – sooner than any other alternative.
This additional wireless network capacity will enable AT&T to offer better service — fewer dropped and blocked calls, and faster data speeds. Plus, the economic scale, additional spectrum and other benefits resulting from the merger will enable AT&T to deliver high-speed 4G LTE mobile broadband service to 97 percent of the U.S. population, or 55 million more Americans than it would without the merger. Reaching 97 percent of the population with LTE will create a much more extensive and robust mobile broadband platform that will fuel growth and investment throughout the country.

The benefits of the AT&T and T-Mobile merger have been recognized by numerous elected officials throughout the country, including 27 governors, more than 100 mayors, 11 state attorneys general, 79 Democratic Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and more than 150 chambers of commerce from 40 states, as well as a dozen labor unions and dozens of high-tech companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Oracle.

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Nokia 703 Windows Phone image leaks; may reveal specs, launch date

A purported marketing image of an upcoming Nokia Windows Phone has been published by WMPoweruser, and it could confirm several specs surrounding one of Nokia’s first Windows Phone devices. Dubbed the Nokia 703, the specs provided on the image above, if accurate, suggest that we’re looking at a mid-range handset. Some speculate that the device may be Nokia’s “Sea Ray,” though it was believed that the Sea Ray would share the same 3.9-inch AMOLED display as the Nokia N9. Nokia 703 spec highlights apparently include a 3.7-inch 480 x 800-pixel LCD display, a 5-megapixel camera with support for 720p HD video capture, 8GB of storage, 512MB of RAM and dimensions coming in at 112 x 60.8 x 12.3-millimeters. Though the text on the sheet is extremely blurry, it also looks like Nokia intends to launch the device on November 27th, but we’ll likely learn more at Nokia World in October.
Read

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Toshiba Excite Ultra-Thin Tablet Pictured at IFA

Beyond what we’ve seen thus far in what new apps we’ll be getting to see on these USA versions of the Galaxy S II, there are a sparse (and perhaps thankfully sparse) few additional new apps to behold on each of the devices. One app that we’re refreshingly GLAD to see added to the lineup comes on AT&T’s version of the Galaxy S II, an app called “Featured Apps”, it being an extremely simple system for AT&T to be showing off applications that it suggests specifically to the device it’s featured on, thereby helping the (perhaps new) owner with finding out with what their device is capable of.

Inside this extremely easy to understand tiny application, we’re able to cycle through several pages of suggested apps that include an icon and a short description of what they’re all about. Once you tap an app you’re interested in, you’re brought straight to the Android Market. Notice also, separate from this app, that the Android Market appears to be coming up as the newest version (version 3.0.27 as seen back in this post by Cory a week or so ago), this meaning you’ve got the ability to essentially lock anyone who isn’t you out from purchasing apps with your account should they somehow gain access to your device.

The AT&T Featured Apps app has only a few apps per screen, only a few screens here at the outset, and a simple About page for you to learn what version of the Apps App you’ve got running. This will almost certainly play a bigger role in AT&T’s future relationship with apps of all sort should it prove to be successful here on the Galaxy S II. It all depends on if YOU plan on using it.
Also note that this video was filmed at the GSII event in NYC that we attended earlier this week. Find all the Galaxy S II content your heart could possibly desire by hitting our [Galaxy S II] portal.

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Motorola DROID Bionic Launching September 8th, 16GB SD card included

There you have it folks. If we didn’t already have a pretty strong idea this was the day, these documents make it even more officially official. Verizon equipment guides have now been leaked showing the Droid Bionic will launch across all major channels on September 8th, just like rumors suggested. There is no mention of direct fill or pre-orders so that status is still unknown, maybe they want everyone waiting in line at stores.


For those waiting or counting we have just a little over a week to wait, can you manage a few more days with that old and slow Droid 2? While looking over the spec sheets and guides listed at the source below they give all sorts of details regarding the Bionic. After a closer look it appears it will be shipping with obviously the dual-core CPU and 1GB of ram, but also it will come standard with a 16GB Micro SD card pre-installed. Much better than what we’ve seen in the past and that is one less thing users will need to buy.

It also states the Bionics weight. It is listed at 5.60oz which isn’t the lightest device, but isn’t the heaviest either. That makes the Bionic slightly heavier than the similarly sized Droid X2 but lighter than both the Thunderbolt and the Droid 3. Samsung still has everyone beat on lightweight smartphones and that doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon. For now I’m sure more will continue to leak over the next few days, oh and the DroidDoes.com site has been initiated. Read more on that here.
[via Droid-Life]

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