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Rumor: Nokia Lumia 900 to sell for $99.99

Posted by John Ball Categories: Smartphones, Handhelds, Microsoft, Rumors,

Nokia Lumia $99

With January almost over and CES behind us, the rumor mill has moved on to the next big thing. Today, the device in the limelight is the Nokia Lumia 900, Windows Phone Mango device that's at the top of our lust list. Set to launch March 18, 2012, you can expect to start seeing advertisements soon, and if word on the street is correct, the device will be just $99.99 with a two year contract. That is huge. That's half of what we expected the device to launch at, what with its 4.3-inch display and 4G LTE data speeds.


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Unboxing Live 078: Samsung Galaxy Nexus

In this edition of Unboxing Live, we open up the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone to be released that runs Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich. This smartphone supports Verizon Wireless 4G LTE, allowing for super-fast mobile broadband, and has a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display. Get a look at it here in the unboxing, and then when you're ready, be sure to check out our full Galaxy Nexus review, as well as our Galaxy Nexus unboxing gallery.

Big thank you to MozyPro and JackThreads for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out! MozyPro provides simple, automatic, and secure data backup. As for JackThreads, we've got exclusive invite codes that give you $5 to use towards anything you'd like on the site.


Samsung Galaxy Note coming to AT&T’s 4G LTE network

Samsung Galaxy Note AT&T

Samsung has announced that its Galaxy Note mini-tablet/super-big phone will officially be coming to AT&T in the near future. The Galaxy Note sports a 5.3-inch 800x1280 Super AMOLED Plus display, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and even includes a fancy stylus (though, they call it an S-pen.) The device will run on AT&T's newly-launched 4G LTE network. We're still waiting on a shipping date, but hey, at least it's confirmed now!


AT&T 4G LTE hits NYC, LA, San Francisco, 8 other cities

ATT 4G LTE rollout

Today AT&T is pushing forward with its 4G LTE deployment, lighting up 11 new markets with super-fast mobile broadband. Cities included in this rollout, which just so happens to double AT&T's LTE footprint, include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, and Boston. This brings its number of LTE-covered markets to 26, reaching 76 million people. That sounds great, but it's still nowhere near Verizon's 200 million people covered by its own 4G LTE network. Also, devices. AT&T is lacking in 4G devices. However, that's nothing that a little CES love can't fix next week.

Read More | AT&T

Samsung Galaxy Nexus review

Galaxy Nexus review

How much does Android 4.0 mean to you? How much do you need to have it right now? Because that's the dilemma with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone ($299-$649). Overall it's not quite as good a phone as the Motorola Droid RAZR ($299). But right now, it's the only phone running Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), and that's the future.

In many ways, this is the ultimate early adopter phone. The phone itself isn't perfect; typically, Nexus phones aren't the best hardware on the market. But the software takes a major leap forward, with everything from a better Gmail experience to a faster browser and the ability to put folders on your home screens. Do you need that right now? Then yes, you need the Nexus. Why else might you want to jump on board the latest flagship Google device? Hit the link and follow us through our full Galaxy Nexus review for the answers.

Click to continue reading Samsung Galaxy Nexus review


RIM BlackBerry 10 smartphones delayed, PlayBook written off

BlackBerry Playbook

Research in Motion wrote off $485 million worth of PlayBooks that it was unable to sell, as net income and revenue both fell significantly from a year ago.

RIM also said that a delay in a key dual-core chip will push back the release of the company's first BlackBerry 10 smartphones to the latter half of 2012.

Both Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the company's co-chief executive officers, said that they asked the company's compensation committee to reduce their respective salaries to just a dollar, even as a cross-management team works to cut costs. Balsillie said that the decision had been made because of a perception that the company's management had "fallen short" of expectations.

In all, RIM reported a number of future disappointments, even as the company's top line continued in the black, thanks to its success overseas. RIM was profitable, even through net income fell to $265 million from $911 million a year ago. Revenue fell 5 percent from the same period, from $5.5 billion to $5.2 billion.

"We ask for your patience and confidence and hope to report further progress in the coming quarters," Lazaridis said in a conference call with analysts.

Click to continue reading RIM BlackBerry 10 smartphones delayed, PlayBook written off


LG Nitro HD review

LG Nitro HD review

The LG Nitro HD ($249.99 with two-year contract) is the third smartphone to tap into AT&T's emerging 4G LTE network and (after the HTC Rezound) the second phone available in the U.S. to feature a 720p display. That display looks absolutely dazzling in person and the Nitro is a performance speed demon. We're leaving our Editors' Choice with the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket ($249.99) for its better signal strength and data speeds, but make no mistake: Either phone is a great choice.

Design, Screen, Call Quality, and Data Speeds
The Nitro HD looks and feels a a lot like the Skyrocket. It measures 5.27 by 2.67 by .4 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.5 ounces. It's made entirely of matte black plastic and features a textured back panel. While the look is somewhat generic, that all seems irrelevant once you feast your eyes on the Nitro's glorious, 4.5-inch 720-by-1280 AH-IPS (Advanced High-Performance In-Plane Switching) display. It's a real stunner. At 329 ppi, it has even greater pixel density than the Apple iPhone 4S ($199, 4.5 stars), with its 326 ppi Retina Display. For further comparison, a device like the Motorola Droid RAZR ($299.99, 4.5 stars), which features a 4.3-inch qHD display, has 256 ppi.

Click to continue reading LG Nitro HD review


2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Free 4G Android smartphones at Radio Shack

Free Samsung Infuse 4G

Our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide tries to hit you with gift recommendations at all different price points, and this one may be the least expensive. Radio Shack is selling a bunch of 4G Android smartphones for free, with two-year contract, this holiday season. You can get devices like the Samsung Stratosphere for Verizon, Samsung Infuse 4G for AT&T, and the HTC EVO Design 4G for Sprint. All of these devices support faster data speeds, and at a price of free, they're a tremendous deal. 

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Motorola Droid RAZR unboxing gallery

Droid RAZR thin

Motorola has ressurrected the RAZR from the dead, slapped the Droid branding on it, and has come up with a 7.1mm thin powerhouse. Appropriately called the Droid RAZR, the smartphone has a Gorilla Glass covered 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display and a body made of Kevlar, making it lightweight, water-resistant, and durable. On the inside you've got a dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP4430 chip, 8 megapixel camera that records 1080p video, 1 GB RAM, and 16 GB flash storage onboard (and another 16 GB on the included microSD card.) It runs on Verizon's 4G LTE network. so you know, it's fast. We'll be getting a review up soon, but in the meantime, be sure to peep our Droid RAZR unboxing gallery first!

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Verizon WIreless to allow customers to pay for ‘Turbo’ speed boost for apps

Verizon turbo APIVerizon will publish an API that could allow consumers to "turbocharge" the network bandwidth their smartphone apps use for a small fee, executives said Tuesday.

Verizon anticipates that a customer running an app on a smartphone will have the option to dynamically snatch more bandwidth for that app, if network congestion slows it down, said Hugh Fletcher, associate director for technology in Verizon's Product Development and Technology team. The app, however, must be running what Verizon referred to as the network optimization API it is currently developing, and hopes to publish by the third quarter of 2012.

Users could have the option to pay for the extra bandwidth via a separate microtransaction API Verizon is developing and hopes to have in place by the end of 2012, Fletcher said.

Click to continue reading Verizon WIreless to allow customers to pay for ‘Turbo’ speed boost for apps


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