The Verge - Mobile Posts

Verizon extends $60 and $70 prepaid plans to 2GB and 4GB of data

2013-05-19T08:48:02Z

Earlier this year, Verizon announced some new 3G prepaid plans for $60 and $70 dollars that offered 500MB and 2GB of data, respectively. Now, it looks like the company has silently bumped those allotments up to 2GB and 4GB without touching the price. Android Central reports that the changes go into effect immediately for those with existing plans, but new customers won’t get hold of the new rates until June 6th.

It’s a nice bump, but you can probably find lower prices and higher caps elsewhere, although your best option will depend on the coverage in your area. But in the future, as more and more of Verizon’s traffic gets pushed onto its newer LTE network, we expect the company to keep milking its existing 3G infrastructure with...

What would you like to see Google do next after I/O? - Verge Forums

2013-05-18T16:13:05Z

ZTE and Huawei face EU investigation over predatory pricing

2013-05-18T15:39:06Z

Chinese telecommunications giants ZTE and Huawei are set to face an EU investigation for anti-competitive behavior. Although the pair have both seen moderate success marketing their consumer devices in the region, the investigation is regarding the companies' infrastructure equipment, which provides the backbone for the industry. In recent years Chinese companies have taken around a quarter of of the EU market, with sales of around €1 billion (roughly $1.3 billion). But according to European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, the success has been due to anti-competitive predatory pricing.

Alleged state support leads to an unfair playing field

De Gucht isn't launching a formal investigation just yet, but says he's willing to in...

T-Mobile drops anti-net neutrality lawsuit filed by MetroPCS, leaving Verizon on its own

2013-05-17T20:29:33Z

Cellphone carriers have generally met net neutrality proposals with varying levels of hostility, but Verizon and MetroPCS have been particularly belligerent: in 2011, they sued to overturn the FCC's then-newly adopted Open Internet rules. Since then, the two have consistently argued in court against the rules, which they've said undermine the freedom to run their networks as they see fit. But as T-Mobile finalizes its merger with MetroPCS, it's decided it doesn't want an old lawsuit to come with its new spectrum. In a court statement filed today, T-Mobile has moved to dismiss its appeals claim.

T-Mobile's decision to back out doesn't mean the suit is over. Verizon will continue its litigation, though the court document indicates that it...

US Department of Defense approves iPhones and iPads for military use

2013-05-17T14:49:41Z

The US Department of Defense has cleared Apple's iPhone and iPad for use on its military networks. Bloomberg reports that devices running Apple's latest iOS 6 operating system have been approved for internal deployment, becoming the third company after Samsung and BlackBerry to see its devices certified.

Samsung CEO claims Galaxy S4 will hit 10 million sales in under a month

2013-05-17T11:45:32Z

Samsung's Galaxy S4 handset is well on its way to becoming the company's bestselling smartphone. Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun told The Korea Times the Galaxy S4 is set to surpass the 10 million sales mark next week, reaching the milestone less than a month after it launched. Shin says the Galaxy S4 "is selling much faster" than its predecessor, which took 50 days to reach the same figure.

Intel could have been inside the original iPhone, says outgoing CEO

2013-05-16T21:02:29Z

Intel CEO Paul Otellini is stepping down today, and The Atlantic has published a lengthy profile of the outgoing CEO. While the article mostly argues that Intel thrived under Otellini's watch, it also reveals what could have been: Otellini told the publication that he personally shot down a chance to put Intel processors in the original Apple iPhone.

Facebook on building for Google Glass: it's another way to 'plug into the world'

2013-05-16T19:57:27Z

Google today launched several new services for Glass — dubbed "Glassware" — including a Facebook app that lets you post photos to your timeline. Facebook's efforts were led by Mobile Product Manager Erick Tseng, a former Product Manager on Android, after an early conversation with some old colleagues at Google. "They've done a great job creating, even at this early stage, an environment that made it quite simple for us to build this app," he says. "We only had two engineers that worked on this — from the day we came up with idea with Google to today was just a few months."

Pick your poison: messaging will be fragmented, expensive, or locked-in

2013-05-16T14:22:19Z

The hottest space in mobile tech right now is messaging, with all the apps that let you skip past high-priced SMS and send texts for free (or very cheap). Just this week, we've heard that BlackBerry Messenger will soon work on iPhone and Android — and yesterday, Google Hangouts launched on those same platforms. Facebook, too, has made a big push to promote its Messenger solution with Facebook Home and Chat Heads just last month. Added together, these apps have surpassed traditional SMS in the total number of messages sent.

Yet for all that innovation in chat, there's still a problem. All these communication apps can't communicate with each other. Either you and your friends all need to standardize on a certain app or — more likely...

Windows Phone overtakes BlackBerry to claim third place in 2013 smartphone shipments

2013-05-16T11:48:22Z

Market research firm IDC just released its latest quarterly look at the smartphone market, and for the first time Windows Phone marketshare has eclipsed BlackBerry. During Q1 2013, Windows Phone devices accounted for 3.2 percent of all smartphones shipped around the world, while BlackBerry devices made up 2.9 percent of the market. That's a change from last quarter, when Windows Phone made up 2.6 percent of all shipments, compared to 3.2 percent for BlackBerry. While that's good news for Microsoft in a relative sense — they've been trailing BlackBerry for third place for quite some time — it's pretty obvious that we still don't have a true third smartphone ecosystem that consumers are responding to yet.

It's still a two-horse race...