Voices

FCC Asks AT&T for Pricing, Spectrum Data

Federal telecommunications regulators reviewing AT&T Inc.’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA on Friday delivered their first request for information on the deal, demanding detailed data on AT&T’s pricing, spectrum holdings and any alternatives it considered to solve its capacity constraints.

Did Apple's Grip on Touch Screens Hold Back PlayBook?

Research in Motion’s PlayBook tablet might have launched a month earlier were it not one thing: A shortage of touch-screen panels caused by the iPad.

Apple's Touch-Panel Appetite Leaves Little for Rivals

Apple is to the touch-panel business what Starbucks is to the coffee business–a market maker and mover. Particularly a mover. To wit: Claims today that Apple’s voracious appetite for the component is expected to cause an industrywide shortage this year. According to Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes, Apple has locked up nearly 60 percent of the world’s touch-panel capacity.

Verizon’s iPhone Picture Comes Into Focus

Most of the questions that remained when the product was announced on Jan. 11 have now been answered, including how much the data and hotspot service will cost.

Memory Chips Are About to Get Cheaper

As demand for PCs has slowed, so has demand for the memory chips that go into them. Good news for everyone but the companies that make memory.

In 4G Race, Verizon Pulls Ahead With Pricey Speed

Verizon Wireless’s new 4G network is “wicked fast” but potentially costly, writes Walt.

Skype Postmortem: Overloaded Servers and Desktop Bugs Brought Us Down

Two problems conspired in a strange confluence of events to knock millions of users off Skype last week.

Steve Jobs: AT&T’s iPhone Problems Should Get Better “By the End of the Summer”

Will Apple ditch AT&T for Verizon or another carrier? Steve Jobs wouldn’t address that directly tonight at D8. But he did say that AT&T’s well-documented trouble handling calls made with his iPhone should improve soon. How soon? “By the end of the summer.”

Gaming WWDC: A New iPhone–But Not on Verizon

Now that a pair of lost next-generation iPhone prototypes has robbed Apple of the element of surprise, the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference is likely to be a “non-event” for its stock. So says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who doesn’t expect the WWDC to have much in the way of big “Oh, One More Thing” moments. According to Munster, Apple will probably announce a fourth-generation iPhone at the conference, and the device will probably look a lot like the prototypes we saw earlier this spring.

Prediction: 1.2 Million iPads Sold in June Quarter and a New iPhone Form Factor

This is, perhaps, stating the obvious, but 2010 is likely to be a big year for Apple. With the iPad set to arrive April 3 and the company presumably heading into an iPhone upgrade cycle, Apple is poised to move a lot of product in the coming months. That’s the word from Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes, who is quite bullish about Apple’s prospects.

Qualcomm Calls for Traffic Shaping

AT&T: We Crippled SlingPlayer TV App

Investors Gaga for GOOG