CTIA 2010 - Event Roundup

Well the CTIA 2010 Wireless event is over but for those of you who missed out on any info, our round-up should provide you with what you may want to know. Several big industry-changing announcements were made during the event, including the introduction of 4G technology and the announcement of the HTC Evo, which is one of the most powerful smartphones announced to this date. The U.S wireless carriers all brought some news to the table as to what their future plans are and several companies released their new phones to try and build up some hype.

4G Technology and Where U.S Wireless Carriers Currently Stand

Sprint's announcement of 4G technology was definitely industry-changing and all of the U.S wireless carriers started to drop news and information on what direction they are headed in to provide consumers in the U.S up-t0-date speeds on wireless devices. Smartphones have been increasing traffic exponentially and the consumption of bandwidth on the current wireless technologies is heavily increasing. Check out more information on how each network is planning on providing a better experience to U.S consumers in our scoop.

AT&T To Begin Nationwide Rollout of 3G Microcell

AT&T announced that next month it will begin a nationwide rollout of its 3G MicroCell service. The 3G service will allow wireless subscribers to utilize their home Internet connection for enhanced voice and data coverage. The service will cost up to $19.99 per month for unlimited minutes. In addition to the monthly cost, the 3G MicroCell device will cost $150. Selecting a plan at purchase will get you a $100 mail-in rebate, dropping the long-term price of the unit to $50. Even though AT&T is the last of the big 4 U.S. carriers to offer such a device to its customers, user with poor services at home or business will greatly benefit from it.

HTC HD2 Released & Sells Out Quick

HTC released it's first Windows Phone 7 compatible hardware device on March 24th by T-Mobile. But, Walmart got first dibs at it,and folks were able to get their hands on it a few days early before the official release of March 24th. And, then Amazon jumped on the offer as well along with some other stores and defeated T-Mobile sales and sold the SmartPhone withing 4 hours of its release. The cell phone was discounted down to a mere $100.00. This was great, despite the fact that this cell phone was released yesterday. Amazon has out done itself by offering the HTC HD2 for $99.99 with a two years contract. HD2 initially shipped with Windows Mobile 6.5, but an upgrade is now possible, even though Microsoft originally announced that an upgrade from OS 6.5 to OS7 will not be possible. According to a tweet posted this morning on a Russian twitter account, it looks like HTC HD2 has been confirmed to get Windows Mobile 7 upgrade when it is released in Q3/Q4 of 2010. Though we are sure the OS will be leaked prior to it's official release.

Samsung's New Phone: Galaxy S

Samsung announced their new phone as well, known as the Galaxy S. The phone on a quick note can be described as astounding. Everything is bright and crisp, text legible, and the colors are jaw-droppingly beautiful. The touchscreen performance is a standout on this Android 2.1 device and coupled with Samsung’s 1GHz Application Processor, not only is the phone very responsive but the UI is smooth and fast. The Galaxy S can shoot HD video at 720p also, with its 5 megapixel cam and it plays back beautifully on its display. The spec sheet lists this as a triple-band HSPA device living in the 900 / 1800 / 1900 realm and while US availability was announced for this year, no word on the carrier has been made. For more info on the Galaxy S, head over to our overview article about the new phone.

Sprint's Groundbreaking New Device - HTC Evo & 4G Technology

Sprint released an announcement of unveiling a "groundbreaking new device" the day before the CTIA event and the company was spot on. On the first day of the event, they announced the HTC Evo and announced 4G technology incoming to their network. The company went from having a middle of the line phone line-up and average service to gaining a substantial lead in the industry. More news can be read about their announcements on our scoop of their announcements and more information on the HTC Evo can be found here.

T-Mobile's HSPA+ Network Announcement and Dell Mini Netbook

T-Mobile while not working towards 4G technology announced information of their acceptance and advancement on an HSPA+ network which they are planning on focusing on. Although they didn't give specific numbers, T-Mobile has mentioned that their HSPA+ network should work three to five times faster than their 3G network. Alongside with the announcement of their HSPA+ network, they also announced the release of a Dell Mini Netbook which will also have access to their HSPA+ network. For more information on netbook and the network, check our article here.

Some of the Other Announcements

Dell Announced It's First US Android Phone: Dell Aero

On March 22nd, AT&T announced that it will carry Dell's first Android smartphone in the U.S market, the Aero. The Aero offers a 5 megapixel camera, a 3.4-inch nHD display, GPS, WiFi support, and integrated access to social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. The phone also sports Dell's custom Android user interface. One thing that made this phone stand out was how the company boasted that is the lightest phone out but never released full weight specifications, which was a bit off. Full list of features can be found below:

2G Network : GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network : HSDPA 850 / 1900

Display Type : TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors

Size : 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches

- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate

- Multi-touch input method

- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off

Sound Alert types : Vibration; MP3 ringtones

Speakerphone : Yes

Memory Phonebook : Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall

Call records : Practically unlimited

Card slot : microSD (TransFlash) up to 32GB

Data GPRS : Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps

EDGE : Class 12

3G : HSDPA 3.6 Mbps

WLAN : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

Bluetooth : Yes v2.1 with A2DP

Infrared port : No

USB : Yes, miniUSB v2.0

Camera : Primary 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus

Features : Geo-tagging

Video : Yes

Secondary : No

Features OS : Android OS

Messaging : SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, IM

Browser : HTML

Games : Yes

Colors : Black

GPS : Yes, with A-GPS support

Java : Via third party application

- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player

- MP3/e-AAC+/WMA player

- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,

- YouTube, Google Talk

- Document viewer

- Photo viewer/editor

- Organizer

- Voice memo

- T9

Battery : Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh

LG Unveiled Two New Eco-Friendly Phones: LG Cosmos for Verizon Wireless and LG Remarq for Sprint

At CTIA 2010, LG unveiled two slide-out QWERTY phones for the mass-market, the LG Cosmos for Verizon Wireless and the LG Remarq for Sprint.

The LG Cosmos will provide access to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and other social networking sites, and it's 1.3 megapixel camera can share pictures directly to online albums and Facebook. The phone also supports Bluetooth 2.1, and sports a price tag of $30 / $80 and was already released on March 25, 2010.

The LG Remarq is said to be the most eco-friendly of the two, and even comes with a pre-loaded Eco Calculator application that allows users to calculate the CO2 reduction savings by walking or cycling as opposed to driving their car. The phone will be joining Sprint's new line of Eco-QWERTY phones in May. LG promised that users will be able to stay stay connected to friends and post their latest pics with easy access to Facebook and Photobucket. In addition to having a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the LG Remarq features a 1.3 megapixel camera, and MP3 player with a microSD slot, Stereo Bluetooth, and instant messaging. The phone will come in two colors, dark silver or turquoise and sport a $20 / $70 price tag with a release dat of May 9, 2010.

Motorola Announces i1

The Motorola i1 is a business-oriented smartphone heading for Sprint and it will be the first Android OS smartphone to offer Push To Talk (PTT) service. It will be capable of getting email from a wide range of business and consumer sources, including Microsoft Exchange. The Motorola model even meets military specifications for protection against dust, shock, vibration, and blowing rain but despite all that it isn't going to be huge or be a heavy lump. The i1 will have a ruggedized tablet shape with a 3.1 inch HVGA touchscreen and a wide array of third-party software available from the Android Marketplace. Users will be able to browse the Web with the Opera Mini 5 browser over an iDEN or Wi-Fi connection, but the standard Android browser will work only over Wi-Fi. This is to compensate for iDEN's rather slow data transfer speed. Check out some of the pics below for the phone, which is set to be released this summer:

Engadget had an excellent video tour of the phone which you can check out below:

OpenPeak Partners Up With AT&T For New Tablet

OpenPeak devices have been heard of for years but the company is finally getting behind its recently announced OpenTablet 7 in a big way, recently announcing a partnership with AT&T for data plans in the US. Neither party will confirm exact plan pricing, but it will probably be similar to iPad data pricing. The device itself is surprisingly well built and the software is rather mature as well. OpenPeak claims to have "thousands of apps" for its platform that stretches across devices including phones, frames, and now a tablet, with a Linux-based platform with a Flash layer on top.

The tablet has a smooth UI and seems pretty far along, though we're promised even more polish as things near the market released. The touchscreen keyboard could use some work btu for home automation and/or video conferencing (the device packs a 1080p front-facing camera and a 5 megapixel shooter around back), it seems like the OpenPeak can carve a niche for itself on the market. The 1.9GHz Moorestown chip under the hood, which offers huge power savings over Atom is an excellent step in the right direction. It helps with UI elements and vide, and even runs cool to the touch. The tablet comes packed with a docking station offers charging and port replication, but theres also an HDMI plug built right into the bottom of the tablet, along with a removable microSD up top. There is no word on an exact release date or price but it'll be rebranded with AT&T.

Palm Pixi Plus and Pre Plus Headed to AT&T "in the coming months"

Palm who had recent misfortunes of almost going out of business announced that their two popular phones are headed towards the AT&T network. The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be available for $149.99 and a deep-discount of $49.99 (with a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year contract), respectively. Both phones will be equipped similarly to their Verizon counterparts except AT*T will be offering a variation with a blue back plate. Both UMTS / HSDPA devices will support AT&T's new Address Book service as a Synergy sync option, and will have free auto-connect access to the carrier's WiFi +20,000 hotspots. We don't know exactly when during the "coming months" the phone will be available, lets just hope its soon.