HTC Holiday Smiles For The Camera, Shows Off AT&T's LTE Network Speeds

A couple of weeks ago the first photos of the HTC Holiday emerged, displaying its impressive hardware innards for the world to see. Now, BGR has landed some new photos of this up-and-coming device, which includes speed tests that show what AT&T's LTE network is capable of. Clocking an astounding 29Mbps, AT&T is looking to put the hurt on VZW's LTE network once it becomes more widespread.

     

^{Yes, a cotton swab is now an acceptable standard of measurement.}

The hardware on this phone is nothing to scoff at either, as early reports revealed a 4.5-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1GB RAM, 8MP and 1.3MP cameras, and Android 2.3.4.
There's no official word on when we can expect this device to hit Ma Bell's sales floor, but from the look of it, that time should be drawing near.
[via BGR]

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Sprint sues to block AT&T/T-Mobile merger

Sprint announced on Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit with a federal court in the U.S. District of Columbia in an effort to block AT&T’s planned $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom. The suit is related to the Department of Justice’s lawsuit, which was filed on August 31st. “Sprint opposes AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile,” Sprint’s vice president of litigation Suzan Haller said. “With today’s legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal.” Sprint argued that the merger will “harm retail consumers and corporate customers by causing higher prices and less innovation” and said it will “entrench the duopoly of AT&T and Verizon” by allowing those two carriers 90% of U.S. wireless profits and more than three quarters of the market. Sprint also said the merger would “harm Sprint and other independent wireless carriers” and would give AT&T control of backhaul, roaming and wireless spectrum. AT&T responded to the DOJ’s suit last week and said the deal is in the best interest of consumers and the “facts will prevail in court.”  Read on for the full press release from Sprint.

Sprint Files Suit to Block Proposed AT&T and T-Mobile Transaction
WASHINGTON (BUSINESS WIRE), September 06, 2011 – Sprint Nextel [NYSE:S] today brought suit against AT&T, Inc., AT&T Mobility, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile seeking to block the proposed acquisition as a violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in the District of Columbia as a related case to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) suit against the proposed acquisition.
“Sprint opposes AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile,” said Susan Z. Haller, vice president-Litigation, Sprint. “With today’s legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal.”

Sprint’s lawsuit focuses on the competitive and consumer harms which would result from a takeover of T-Mobile by AT&T. The proposed takeover would:

• Harm retail consumers and corporate customers by causing higher prices and less innovation.
• Entrench the duopoly control of AT&T and Verizon, the two “Ma Bell” descendants, of the almost one-quarter of a trillion dollar wireless market. As a result of the transaction, AT&T and Verizon would control more than three-quarters of that market and 90 percent of the profits.

• Harm Sprint and the other independent wireless carriers. If the transaction were to be allowed, a combined AT&T and T-Mobile would have the ability to use its control over backhaul, roaming and spectrum, and its increased market position to exclude competitors, raise their costs, restrict their access to handsets, damage their businesses and ultimately to lessen competition.

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With or without AT&T/T-Mobile merger, analyst says Sprint already lost

Lead by chief executive Dan Hesse, Sprint has likely been the most vocal opponent of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion T-Mobile USA acquisition. The Department of Justice announced last week that it was filing a lawsuit in an attempt to block the deal, and while AT&T was none too happy with the news, Sprint predictably responded by applauding the DOJ’s decision to fight the merger. But even if the merger is blocked, Sprint has arguably already lost to AT&T and Verizon Wireless according to Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King. “It essentially maintains the status quo, which, given the results of Sprint over the last couple of years, is not the best place to be,” King told The New York Times. Read on for more.
As Sprint continues to shed subscribers at an alarming rate — the nation’s No. 3 carrier lost 101,000 postpaid subscribers last quarter — analysts are rightfully beginning to wonder how Sprint’s situation will improve if AT&T and T-Mobile do not merge. With the amount of time and resources Sprint is putting into fighting the acquisition, this is certainly a valid question. The addition of Apple’s iPhone 5 is expected by some to bolster Sprint’s business when it launches next month, but each of the four major wireless carriers in the U.S. will carry the handset beginning next month according to reports. As such, the addition of the iPhone 5 could do more to increase smartphone sales among Sprint’s current subscriber base — and put more stress on the carrier’s network thanks to its unlimited data plans — than it will to attract new business.

Sprint’s 4G plans also weigh heavily on investors’ minds right now. Sprint announced plans to adopt 4G LTE in addition to its WiMAX services in a deal with LightSquared worth $13.5 billion for the carrier over the next 15 years. LightSquared is having issues with its LTE build-out however, as its spectrum is found to interfere with frequencies used by GPS services. Sprint’s WiMAX partner Clearwire is also planning to adopt LTE, but only if it can find the cash. Sprint is expected to discuss its 4G strategy next month during a press event on October 7th, where BGR will be reporting live.

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White Samsung Galaxy S II now available from Vodafone UK

That white version of Samsung's Galaxy S II flagship smartphone that we expected to arrive on September 1 is now available to purchase from Vodafone UK. It may be a few days late, but that hasn't stopped the white version from looking as dapper as ever. Fashionably late, right? Interested buyers can pick it up for free with a new two-year contract and a monthly plan of 36 GBP or greater.

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LG Thrill 4G 3D Handset Software and Hardware Specs, Debut Price of $29

Everyone loves new technology, and first-ever greatness. The Evo 3-D 4G mobile handset was the first mobile smartphone to offer the ability to view 3-D content without the need for special glasses or other hardware. And for a couple of months it remained the only smartphone, and one of only two mobile devices, the Nintendo 3DS being the other, to deliver effectively on the promise of 3-D glasses free viewing. Now, AT&T’s new 3-D handset joins this exclusively small group of such capable devices.
The LG Thrill is offered on the AT&T 4G network at a retail price of $99 with new two-year activation. Matching the HTC 3-D Evo 4G handset in screen size while offering a lower retail price, LG and AT&T hope to steal market share from the Sprint HTC 3-D Evo phone. In many ways, the two handsets are very similar. They both employ duel rear facing cameras to capture content for processing in three dimensions, and they both offer Android’s 2.2 Froyo operating system out-of-the-box, with a free over the air upgrade in the future.
The stereoscopic 3-D imaging software required employs a 3-D hardware graphics accelerator and aforementioned dual five megapixel cameras. Three-dimensional recording can be obtained by simply taking simultaneous images wor video from two separate angles. 3-D software can then guess what a 3-D image would look like. This is the same system used by HTC for their Evo 4G 3-D handset, and is employed here as well with the LG Thrill 4G.

A Texas Instruments OMAP dual core processor at 1.0 GHz with 512 MB of RAM memory and 3-D software engine process the LG Thrill user’s requests, and those dual five megapixel cameras can record in true 1080p 2D high definition or 720p 3-D resolution. LED flash and autofocus features are also on board the LG Thrill 4G, and 3-D still shots as well as video recording can be taken.
Physically, the LG Thrill 4G is approximately 50% heavier than the average 4G smartphone, at 5.9 ounces, and is 5.07 x 2.68 x 0.47 inches in size. The familiar rectangular black slab form is employed by LG, and the Android operating system gives full support of Adobe’s Flash media player.
A microUSB port offers multiple device interfacing and connectivity options, and a microSD slot allows for future storage upgrades. The LG Thrill 4G handset is also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi accessible, and offers video out relay to a large screen HDTV or monitor via the HDMI out port.  The Thrill has debuted on AT&T at an affordable $99 and at Amazon for $29.

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Microsoft Is The Winner In Google-Motorola Deal, Says Acer Exec

OEMs are already raising an eyebrow (or both) at the Google-Motorola deal and rumors have started surfacing of manufacturers being unhappy about the move. Samsung is even said to be considering leaving Android for its own platform.

Walter Deppeler, president of Acer's operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Microsoft was the real winner of the Google-Motorola deal, "as the deal makes Google a direct rival to its phone-making clients". "They work against some of their clients," he said. "It was a good gift to Microsoft". There was no official statement from Acer for the future but the president of operations said the company will definitely take the deal in consideration before deciding on future platform choices.

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Android Update Alliance Put Under Microscope, Gingerbread Found Missing

Remember back at Google I/O when the folks at Google announced an alliance between manufacturers that would all but guarantee you’d have updates sent to your Android devices up to and including 18 months after its inception date? Have you heard anything about that group since? Not just a whole heck of a lot, right? Well check it out, the folks at AndroidAndMe have done a study taking into account every released device at this very moment and have found which devices have the most current OS (and we’re talking only about smartphones here, not tablets), that OS being Android 2.3 Gingerbread right this moment. What they’ve found, first of all, is that HTC is in the clear lead with 13 devices on Gingerbread while Samsung is the closest behind with 9 devices on Gingerbread in total.

Lets not forget Sony Ericsson and Motorola who sit down next in line with 5 and 4 devices respectively on Gingerbread, then noting that Pantech has none, Casio has none, and Kyocera is tied with LG at 1 device in total. Most groups have more Android 2.2 FroYo devices than they do Gingerbread devices, with the grand exception being, again, HTC with 9 more devices on Gingerbread than on FroYo. Both Samsung and Motorola have one more device on FroYo than on Gingerbread while both Kyocera and Sony Ericsson’s entire collection (1 and 5 respectively) are updated to Gingerbread. Because of this last factoid you could argue that it’s Sony Ericsson and Kyocera, not HTC, that’s winning this update battle.

On the other hand, per the original announcement of who would be in the Update Alliance in the first place, the following manufacturers are the true members:
HTC
Samsung
Sony Ericsson
LG
Motorola
The big four carriers, red, yellow, blue, and pink, are all included in the carrier list of members of the Update Alliance, along with Vodafone and, of course, Google (though Google isn’t a carrier, they’re certainly on the list of those working to bring updates asap to devices.) How Google is working to do this, and indeed how any of these groups are working to do this is still a mystery.
As far as how many phones, by manufacturer, have received an update which were either out at the time of the announcement or have been released since, the numbers are much closer to one another, HTC still in the lead with 14 out of its 24 devices receiving an update, Samsung in second with 13/33, Motorola next with 10/25, LG after that with 9/15, and Sony Ericsson in last place with 4/14. These are the manufacturers that are in the alliance.
Finally there’s one big gigantic undeniably large and in charge list in the gallery below courtesy of AndroidAndMe which contains every single Android device out right at this moment. Have a look at it and let us know what you think of or what you know of the Android Update Alliance thus far. Seem like a successful initiative to you?
[via AndroidAndMe]

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Andy Pad now on Amazon – same price, same everything

A reseller calling itself “Verticool” has just started selling the Andy Pad tablet via Amazon, if you’d rather the newly launched Android device came with the usual Amazon terms & conditions attached to it.
The prices are the same as buying direct, with both the standard Andy Pad available for £129 and the Pro model going for £179. You get free P&P on both. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

In a bid to make this news even less interesting, that’s a photo of Verticool’s Andy Pad branded Andy pad
Carry Case which is also now available. Look, it says “Andy Pad” on it, so potential muggers know it’s not an iPad so they may as well leave you alone.

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Best Buy memo points to October 21 US iPhone 5 release

A source of GoAndroid has leaked details of an internal Best Buy memo, which includes a significant hint at the iPhone 5’s release date. For those in the US, at least.

The memo explains that an “Apple Fixture Installation” will take place at 6am on the morning of Friday October 21. Interesting.

There’s nothing more specific in the memo, and no mention of the iPhone 5 per se, but October is being touted by many rumour mongers as the arrival date for Apple’s next smartphone.
The tipster explains that a 6am start with a manager on hand is quite unusual, but that a similar thingy happened when the iPhone 4 touched down last year.
Further backing up the idea of an October 21 release for the iPhone 5, the tipster revealed that Best Buy Mobile managers will attend a meeting on October 10 to discuss “upcoming BIG release dates”.
Considering Apple has yet to fire out a save-the-date, October 21 is looking like as good a guess as any for now. Salt? Maybe just a sprinkle.

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