Cricket announces Huawei Mercury smartphone

Cricket has announced the launch of the Huawei Mercury, a new Android smartphone that promises to be its most powerful yet. The Mercury sports a 4-inch display and is powered by a 1.4GHz processor.
The Mercury is a variant of the Huawei Honor, and Cricket is the first carrier in the U.S. to release a version of it. The Mercury's display is a 4-inch, FWVGA (480 x 854 pixel) touchscreen unit, and the 1.4GHz processor is a single-core chip. There is an 8 megapixel camera on the back complete with autofocus, flash, and HD video capabilities, while a VGA camera on the front provides video chat capabilities. The Mercury supports stereo Bluetooth streaming of audio, and can act as a mobile hotspot for up to 5 devices simultaneously.
Cricket does not clarify which version of Android is found on the Mercury, but the Honor launched with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, so we will assume that the Mercury has a similar Gingerbread build on it. Cricket says the Mercury will be available today for $249.99, and can be used on Cricket's $55 per month unlimited plans.

Read more »

Glu Mobile ID Packs Launch on Select Sprint Devices

Glu Mobile, a leading global publisher of Social Mobile games, today announced a new way for Sprint customers to access the diverse offering of Glu games with a couple simple clicks. Part of Sprint ID, a service that downloads apps, widgets, wallpapers and other content related to a person's interest at the push of a couple buttons, the Glu ID packs allow users convenient access to many of their favorite Glu games - including top titles: Gun Bros, Bug Village, Contract Killer, Guitar Hero and Deer Hunter Challenge.
Owners of select Sprint devices such as the LG Optimus S (TM), Motorola PHOTON(TM) 4G, and Sanyo Zio(TM), Samsung Galaxy S(TM) II Epic(TM) Touch 4G , and Samsung Galaxy Tab(TM) will be able to choose Glu ID packs for instant access to high-quality Social Mobile games for any audience. Glu ID packs include family-friendly, casual and hardcore shooter games - all with stunning graphics and exciting gameplay.
"Glu is excited to partner with Sprint to provide our audiences with a convenient and accessible way to play their favorite Glu games, while also discovering more of our diverse offerings," said Mike DeLaet, vice president of sales and marketing at Glu.
Available Glu ID packs are:
* Guitar Hero & More: Download this ID pack and prepare to rock out to Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock. As an intermission, check out the 10 additional Glu games available in this ID pack.
* Deer Hunter & More: This ID pack is a bulls-eye for shooting fanatics with Deer Hunter Challenge, Deer Hunter 3D and Deer Hunter African Safari. Waiting to reload? This ID pack includes a dozen more Glu games to test your skills.
* Free Glu Games: Thirteen Glu games at your fingertips for the best price: FREE! This ID pack features top franchises like Guitar Hero and Deer Hunter.
All three ID packs feature Glu top shooter games, Gun Bros and Contract Killer.
Glu ID packs are free to download with an Everything Data plan from Sprint. Users can download up to four additional ID packs onto their device, in addition to Glu. To see all Sprint ID packs, visit www.sprint.com/sprintid.
About Glu Mobile
Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) is a leading global developer and publisher of Social Mobile games for smartphone and tablet devices. Glu's unique technology platform enables its titles to be accessible to a broad audience of consumers all over the world - supporting iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Google Chrome and beyond. Glu is focused on bringing the best in social, freemium, cross-platform mobile gaming experiences to the mass market. Founded in 2001, Glu is headquartered in San Francisco and has major offices in Kirkland, Washington, Brazil, Canada, China, Russia and the UK. Glu is focused on creating compelling original IP and also partners with leading entertainment brands including Activision, Atari, Caesar's and Fox. Consumers can find high-quality entertainment created exclusively for their mobile devices wherever they see the 'g' character logo or at www.glu.com. For live updates, please follow Glu via Twitter at www.twitter.com/glumobile or become a Glu fan at Facebook.com/glumobile.

Read more »

Google+ Pages get multiple admins, new notifications and more

In what looks to be the last major feature push before the Christmas period, the Google team has today announced a number of new updates for Google+, delivering multi-admin controls, new notifications and +1 analytics.
After listening to user feedback after the public launch of Pages (which saw us reinstate our The Next Web account), Google now allows brands and businesses to nominate up to 50 named managers as administrators for a page — perfect for companies with large marketing and social media teams that previously needed to share login credentials.

Also dropping is a new notification flow that delivers all of the activity on a page, giving admins the chance to keep an eye on conversations, messages and shares of their content.
In an effort to provide managers with a better idea of how Google+ users are interacting with page content, Google has combined counts of users that have engaged with a page, whether it be a +1 or the addition of a page to a circle.

To demonstrate the new features, Google has posted a new video which describes each of the new features and how to add them:

With additional page controls, Google has taken a step closer to providing users with access to features similar to Facebook Pages. Google says this is just the start of its page updates, we will of course notify you of them as they roll out.

Read more »

Verizon-bound Galaxy Tab 7.7 Passes the FCC

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 looked ready for a Verizon release after an appearance in the carrier’s inventory system, and looks even more primed for an LTE launch after a trip to the FCC. The Honeycomb-laden tablet was spotted getting its 4G radio and CDMA bands checked out by the federal entity, clearing the slimline slate for a US release. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 features a 1280 x 800 Super AMOLED display, dual-core 1.4GHz processor, and measures in at a mere 7.89mm thick. It could gain a few millimeters thanks to the addition of LTE, but the difference should be marginal at best. There is no indication of when we could actually see the Galaxy Tab 7.7 launch on Verizon.
[via The Verge]

Read more »

Ice Cream Sandwich AOSP Build Compiled for the Motorola XOOM

Now that Android 4.0.3 is available as part of the Android Open Source Project’s codebase, you can expect to see a lot of effort from the developer community to get Ice Cream Sandwich ported to new devices. An easy place to start is the Motorola XOOM. The world’s first Honeycomb tablet received its own custom-tailored AOSP build from Google, so getting it up and running was mostly a matter of compiling the code and flashing over the new software. The guys at DroidNerd did just that and posted the results up to their YouTube page. They call the updated OS “crazy fast” on the XOOM, making it feel “new again.” With all this fresh source code floating around, we are expecting many opportunities to make Android devices feel new again will be popping up over the coming weeks.
[via DroidNerd]

Read more »

AT&T reportedly having difficulties selling T-Mobile assets

According to sources reporting to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T has hit yet another snag in its efforts to acquire T-Mobile, as it is now having difficulty selling T-Mobile assets to other carriers. This selling of assets, also known as divesting, is crucial for AT&T, as it may be the only way for it to gain regulatory approval for the purchase.
Earlier reports had said that AT&T was in talks with Leap Wireless, owner of Cricket, to sell some portion of the spectrum and other assets acquired from the purchase of T-Mobile to Leap. Other reports had said that Dish Communications or MetroPCS were also likely suitors for T-Mobile's assets.
Apparently, at this point, all of those negotiations have collapsed, and those involved say that the deals would not have been significant enough to sway the Justice Department's opposition to the purchase.
The Justice Department and AT&T have put their legal fight on hold until next month, in order to give time for AT&T to figure out its next move as to whether or not it will continue pursuing the acquisition. It has also been rumored that AT&T and T-Mobile could form a joint venture should the outright purchase not gain approval from the government.
[Via: Mobile Burn]

Read more »

Sprint Asking Partners To Get Rid Of Carrier IQ

Carrier IQ got a lot of press lately but all that ink turned out to be a tad bitter for the company. Starting from the moment the software bit was discovered until the official Carrier IQ position, and statements from carriers and OEMs, the buzz is just getting more and more hyped.

According to recent reports based on information received from "sources inside HTC", "as a result of the lawsuits targeting Carrier IQ, Sprint, and other CIQ-using OEMs", Sprint "has asked all of their partners to get rid of Carrier IQ". We're talking about the same Sprint that recently said "Carrier IQ can be found on most Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones". Sprint made it clear that it "does not and can not" look or record contents of messages, photos and videos on phones but the usage of the Carrier IQ bit is limited to understanding device performance on the network, a fact that is also laid down in Sprint's privacy policy.

The plan is for OEMs to prepare updates which will then be delivered over-the-air to phones, refreshes which will of course be lacking Carrier IQ. There's no timeframe attached but you can expect updates to start hitting devices in the very near future.

[Source: Geek]

Read more »

Google launches new features for Google+ Pages, adds noise control to your stream and more

Google has just announced a pretty impressive list of new features for Google+ users.
One of the main complaints users have had is the noise – or more importantly – having very little control over it on Google+. Now you can be sure to see all the posts you want to using a new slider which is visible at the top of each circle. You can then determine just how much of that circle will appear in your main stream.

After launching Google+ pages to much fanfare, Google is making a few changes to the feature, finally making it easier to assign administrators. Companies can now delegate up to 50 administrators for any page, with notifications, and more. Page administrators will also be able to find out more about their users, with an aggregated user count of users who have +1′d your page, or added it to their circles.

Google+ has certainly been the rising star among the online photography community so it’s great to see more features being added into the mix. An already pretty impressive looking lightbox has been redesigned with improved navigation, enhanced comments and all-in-all, a better experience. Not to be outdone by Facebook, Google+ also has a new and more intuitive photo-tagging feature.

What do you think of Google+’s new features? Let us know in the comments

Read more »

Motorola DROID RAZR Maxx turns up in Verizon system

Earlier this month we reported about a Motorola DROID RAZR MAX that was rumored to be on the way to Verizon outlets, and it looks like those stories are about to come true. The folks over at Droid-Life managed to get their hands on a photograph showing a listing of devices in Verizon’s systems and there is a phone known as the “Motorola DROID RAZR Maxx” in between the regular DROID RAZR and the DROID RAZR White.
While this is confirmation of the device’s existence, there’s no new information about the phone or a possible release date. The DROID RAZR MAX/RAZR Maxx is said to be an improved version of the DROID RAZR – possibly with a larger battery, or a 720p HD Display. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted.

Read more »