Verizon Gets Ready to Launch 4G

Verizon Wireless is ready to talk about its 4G rollout plans, announcing that it will hold a press event on Wednesday to officially spill the beans. Some of those beans, though, are already out there. The company has said it will launch the 4G network (using the Long Term Evolution, or LTE, protocol) in 38 cities before the end of the year.

Waiting for Godot: Apple's Fall Event Is Definitely Happening, but Exactly When and What?

Oh, it’s coming. According to several sources, and as has been widely expected, Apple will once again be holding its annual autumn special event, possibly closer to mid-September this time. Apple, which has had a fall hello-there confab every year since 2005, waited until August 31 last year to announce its “Let’s Rock” event on September 9 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. Likely on the agenda this year: Blinging the iPod.

What New Features Will Google Reveal at Mobile Event Thursday? Some Think It Should Be Integrated Video Calling.

Today, Google sent out a notice that it would be holding an event Thursday morning at its San Francisco offices, where the search giant would be “unveiling a couple of cool new mobile features.” Although it is not going to be the case, said sources, some wish one of those features coming soon would be integrated video calling in the Android mobile operating system, especially given that Apple is reportedly planning an aggressive expansion of its FaceTime software in its many devices.

Was the iPhone’s Launch in China Really a Bust?

Apple’s internationally coveted iPhone finally arrived at market in China last week and by most accounts its debut was uncharacteristically muted. There is “no sign of the sort of sellout reception that greeted the smart phone at its introduction in other countries,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Clearly, the device’s Chinese launch wasn’t the rousing success to which we’ve become accustomed. That said, it probably wasn’t quite the bust it’s been made out to be, either.
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Why So Sirius?

It Was Hard Enough to Take You Seriously With the Word "Phonograph" in Your Name…

You’ve got to love the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry–if not for its hopelessly antediluvian moniker, then for its we’re-on-a-mission-from-God attitude toward its criminal case against torrent index The Pirate Bay. Just two days into the trial–apparently the hottest ticket in Stockholm right now–and already, half the charges against the Swedish site have been dropped because of the prosecution’s fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the torrent-distributed protocol.
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Xohm: No Long-Term Commitments Besides Baltimore Residency

Among the announcements forgotten for a moment amid the shrieks of agony and general keening on Wall Street today, one from Sprint Nextel announcing a single-market launch of Xohm, its new WiMax wireless service. The company lit up Xohm only in Baltimore today, fulfilling its promise to have the service up and running by the end of September. That said, it’s still nearly a year late.

Human Sacrifice, Comcast and BitTorrent Working Together… Mass Hysteria! …

It’s a Comcastic day for BitTorrent. This morning the cable provider, under fire for degrading the performance of the peer-to-peer file-sharing service on its broadband network, announced plans to develop better ways to manage peer-to-peer traffic.

Microsoft Announces Significant Announcement

Microsoft (MSFT) made a “significant” company announcement this morning, one thankfully unrelated to its bid for the much diminished Yahoo (YHOO) Inc. But what is there for the software giant to talk about these days other than Yahoo, really? Why that old saw, software interoperability, of course. In a statement issued this morning, the software [...]

Microsoft Forced to Dance Samba