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Tag: att

  • Nokia Lumia 925 Goes Live at AT&T Starting September 13th for $99.99, Pre-Orders Now Open

    Nokia Lumia 925 made its appearance at T-Mobile last month and now it is set to land at AT&T on September 13th. This is the first Lumia smartphone that features a metal design detail and it will be available for a monthly cost of $21 on AT$T Next plan or for $99.99 in a two-year agreement.

    AT&T Next is a new program that the company launched to allow its customers get a new device every year. Available only to upgrade eligible AT&T customers, AT&T Next lets you purchase a smartphone or tablet devoid of down payments, upgrade fees, and activation fees, and after paying 12 monthly installments you are allowed to trade it in and get a new device.

    Lumia 925, a Windows Phone that is slim, lightweight, and dominated by a 4.5-inch PureMotion HD + Gorilla Glass display, runs on AT&T's 4G LTE network. It sports an 8.7 megapixel camera that packs the usual high-performance optics and camera features Nokia is known for. At launch, the exclusive black version of the Lumia will be available to only AT$T customers.

    A couple of days obviously stand between the 4.5-inch aluminum-clad smartphone and its lovers but pre-orders already began.

  • "Facebook phone": HTC First to arrive with Facebook Home

    Facebook made another big announcement, this time about Facebook Home, an Android launcher that will be pre-loaded on HTC First. Although Facebook did not create its own phone, it managed to grab our attention with something between an operating system and an application that manages to turn an Android phone into a Facebook phone.

    According to Mark Zuckerberg,

    “We’re not building a phone; and we’re not building an operating system, but we are building something that’s a whole lot deeper than an app.”

    HTC First will be the first Android phone that will have Facebook Home pre-installed and it is expected on April 12th by AT&T, at the price of $99.99. It is described by Peter Chou of HTC as the "ultimate social phone" and if you are a Facebook fan you won't be disappointed. It will feature LTE connectivity, it will have a ualcomm dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor, a 4.3-inch display and it will run on Android Jelly Bean 4.1. What's more, it will be available in 4 colors, in black, white, red and light blue.

    Facebook Home will be a completely new experience, allowing you to connect with your friends faster than ever. If you also love Instagram, except for Facebook, you need to know that HTC First will be the first phone that will have Instagram pre-loaded at the device.

    As it seems, Facebook is targetinh a young mobile audience, trying to increase its audience, but also its revenue from the mobile market. HTC and At&T will also benefir from such a big collaboration with Facebook, while Android must be happy leaving iOS behind on such a social innovation.

    Whether you'd be interested in buying such a phone or not, HTC First was indeed the first Facebook phone and it cannot be ignored. At least for the time being. 

  • HTC partners with Facebook for HTC Myst

    HTC has decided to collaborate once again with Facebook and AT&T, in order to create another smartphone that focuses on the use of Facebook. It will be known as HTC Myst and its rumored specs are already online.

    It's not the first time that HTC collaborates with Facebook and AT&T, since they had already cooperated two years ago, for the release of HTC status, the smartphone with its own button for quick Facebook access. This was just the beginning, since HTC Myst plans to gain an even bigger part of the smartphone market. According to UnwiredView, HTC Myst is expected during the spring with its rumored specs already being online. Thus, if we want to have a first look at HTC Myst, it will have a 4.3-inch screen, a 1.5GHz dual core MSM8960 processor, a RAM of 1GB, a 16GB storage (without microSD),a rear camera of 5MP and a front one of 1.6MP. What's more, it will have all the latest apps by Facebook already preloaded, such as the typical Facebook app, the Facebook Messenger, Instagram and others, while it will run on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2.

    Although Facebook seems reluctant for the time being to create their own unique phone, this collaboration might be attractive for the customers that want to stay connected as much as possible. Facebook as a brand name is powerful enough to target some significant attention for HTC Myst, not to mention the power of AT&T and the decent smartphones by HTC. Hence, even though Mark Zuckerberg doesn't think it is necessary to have a Facebook smartphone, he still thinks that he can keep an eye at the smartphone market for future reconsideration. HTC Myst will not be the only phone that connects you on Facebook, but we still want to see its performance on the smartphone market. We are waiting for more details about its release, then.

  • Is Apple Manufacturing an HDTV?

    Even though it’s yet an unconfirmed rumor, it’s difficult not to get excited. According to a series of Tweets from industry insiders and an upcoming report by Jeffries, Apple is currently in production on their own HDTV, to come to market in 2013.

    The Jeffries report has not yet been released, so regrettably none of the details can be confirmed. But according to an industry analyst with access to the report, Apple will partner with Verizon and AT&T to handle the service for the Apple HDTV, or iTV as it will be called.

    Customers who don’t want to change out their current cable provider will still be able to get on the Apple bandwagon. The iTV will also sell as a set-top box for Comcast and the other regional providers. Initial reports put the first iTV at a retail price of $1,250, and Apple expects to ship as many as two million units by the end of 2013.

    Of course, this isn’t the first report on an Apple HDTV to come from Jeffries. Near the beginning of the year they suggested a forthcoming product called the iPanel, at around that same price break, and that five million of the devices would be produced by the end of 2012.

    Those rumors seem to be picking up more support as the months pass. The Wall Street Journal has started discussing Apple’s HDTV release, even suggesting it would link directly to the iCloud, to allow for both live and on-demand television services.

    Time will tell if any of these rumors are true. Hopefully Apple will shed some further light on their HDTV at this fall’s new product release conference.

  • Arizona-Based Nextiva Expands VoIP Business

    As broadband phone services continue to rise in popularity, regional VoIP providers are finding the means to expand their businesses. Nextiva, a VoIP firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona, expects to hire an additional 100 employees by the end of the year. They specialize in providing VoIP for small and mid-sized businesses, two of the largest growth areas in the industry.

    Executives from Nextiva were happy to point out that VoIP is being adopted by even the largest companies in the world, including communications corporations such as AT&T, an idea that seemed complete implausible even a couple of years ago. Nextiva has used that growth to post annual revenues well in the millions of dollars, and currently count thousands of users internationally.

    VoIP-List.com: extensive catalog of voip providers, available software and hardware resources

    According to Nextiva CIO Joshua Lesavoy, VoIP can save a business as much as 70% off their standard phone service. And since the service includes fax and text messages on top of traditional voice communication, there should be no limit to the potential growth in the sector.

    Nextiva was founded in 2006, and launched their VoIP service two years later. They are owned by UnitedWeb Inc., which is also based in Scottsdale, and earns several other technology companies. And while some communications traditionalists still believe that VoIP cannot be relied on, the quality of commercial broadband services now available means a standard that is well in line with if not better than traditional calling.

    In the past few years, Nextiva has grown from a staff of just a few engineers to more than 165 people, and they even handle their customer service internally with a fully staffed call center. With more than 25 million small businesses currently in existence, chances are this particular small business will grow consistently for years to come.

  • Apple Expected to Extend iPhone To Multiple Carriers


    Apple will almost certainly break with its exclusive AT&T agreement and allow other carriers to support the iPhone, according to analysts.

    Citigroup’s research firm say that while the arrangement with AT&T has benefitted Apple, the company is likely to open its smartphone to more US operators within the next two years.

    Analyst Richard Gardner cites a number of reasons for this, including the fact Apple is in a strong position and so can have its demands met by carriers.

    These extend to generous data plans, a lack of co-branding and an absence of revenue sharing at the App Store.

    What is also likely to be a major issue for Apple is the potentially dwindling pool of new iPhone users at AT&T.

    It is estimated that rivals Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile combined could offer a target market of up to 150 million subscribers by 2010 (although only around 20 per cent are likely to become iPhone owners).

    While it has been suggested that AT&T is interested in paying to extend exclusivity, the cost to do so might be prohibitive.

    As Gardner points it would need to be high since the revenues offered by going with multiple carriers are large.

  • Internet Calling Companies Struggling With European and US Carriers

    As soon as Skype released its iPhone application  problems emerged with using it with some carriers. both in Europe and the US.

    In a USA Today article last week, a senior AT&T official, Jim Cicconi, suggested that the carrier, in cooperation with Apple, expects device vendors to block consumers’ access to Skype’s VoIP application that competes with AT&T’s own voice service. "Skype is a competitor, just like Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile,” said Cicconi.

    According to Free Press, AT&T is not the only carrier limiting consumers’ wireless Internet access – T-Mobile is reportedly restricting the availability of tethering within Google’s Android Marketplace. And most major wireless companies have terms of service that prohibit the use of certain applications and services.

    That was the reason that, in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Free Press called on the agency to confirm that wireless networks must adhere to the Internet Policy Statement, which protects consumers’ right to access any online content and services on any device of their choosing.

    "The Internet in your pocket should be just as free and open as the Internet in your home,” said Chris Riley, policy counsel of Free Press.

    Free Press is asking acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps to inform AT&T and other US wireless operators that they cannot adopt discriminating terms of service prohibiting the use of certain applications.

    At the same time agencies informed that German carrier T-Mobile, an exclusive carrier of the iPhone in Germany, will not allow customers to use the application, and is blocking it both physically and contractually.

    “It is clearly stated in our customer contracts that such services may not be used,” T-Mobile spokesperson Alexander von Schmettow told The Local, a German online site. “There are two reasons for this – because the high level of traffic would hinder our network performance, and because if the Skype programme didn’t work properly, customers would make us responsible for it.”

    Skype quickly responded on that: “They pretend that their action has to do with technical concerns: this is baseless. Skype works perfectly well on iPhone, as hundreds of thousands of people globally can already readily attest. There is no technical justification for this arbitrary blocking of Skype, and it represents a barrier to online business put in place by a private company just because they can, because they control access to the Internet,” said Robert Miller, Skype’s General Counsel

    “Yet, no one can do anything about it: German or EU regulation does not forbid such blatantly unfair practices. But we are trying to change things, together with other Internet companies."

  • Research Identifies IP Media Phone as $7bn Opportunity by 2013


    The evolution of the media phone product segment may just be beginning but it has the potential to become the 4th screen in the home.

    That’s according to a report by In-Stat, which said the device could also become a next generation business IP phone.

    The researchers say service providers and IP phone manufacturers are introducing media phones to add value to traditional voice telephones and enable IP-based services.

    Already devices such as the Verizon Hub and AT&T HomeManager, which support both IP communications and the delivery of Internet information and multimedia content, have been launched on the market.

    The free report, The Media Phone Has Arrived, can be downloaded from the In-stat website.

    Other findings include:

    • Consumer media phones will generate between $4-$8 billion in annual revenue, worldwide, by 2013.
    • Business media phones will generate $3.3 billion in annual revenue, worldwide, in 2013.
    • The US market will open up in 2009, with Europe coming on line in 2010.