T-Mobile Purchases 10MHz Of AWS Spectrum From U.S. Cellular

T-Mobile announced on Friday that it is buying 10MHz of Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) from U.S. Cellular. The price that T-Mobile is paying for the spectrum is $308 million in cash. The purchased spectrum covers 32 million people in 29 markets and will allow T-Mobile to bring 4G LTE service to new markets, and expand the service in areas where the carrier already offers it in the Mississippi Valley region.

Some of the areas covered by the purchase include St. Louis; Nashville; Kansas City; Memphis; Lexington; Little Rock-North Little Rock; Birmingham; New Orleans; and Louisville. The deal still needs to receive certain regulatory approval from the FCC and the DOJ and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

T-Mobile Sets Date For A Press Event On July 10th

T-Mobile is sending out invites to a press event that is set to take place July 10 in New York City. As far as what we should expect, all we get is the tagline, “Our boldest moves yet.” Well, that’s pretty mysterious. The last big moves T-Mobile made was their announcement of the UNcarrier pricing plans and so far, those seem to be going over pretty well in the industry, as even AT&T introduced similar plans. 

Moto X Appears In Leaked Image, Being Tested On Sprint’s LTE Network

Motorola officially announced the X Phone on-stage at the AllThingsD conference earlier this year, but left out many of the details, including the design of the device. PhoneArena however, has now gotten its hands on what appears to be the Motorola X Phone. We can’t tell all that much from the image, except that it appears to have a Motorola logo in the upper left corner and on-screen buttons. The screen is somewhere around the 4.7-inch mark, which falls in line with what we’ve heard before. This specific model is being tested on Sprint, according to the report, and carries the XT1056 model number. The device also appears to be running stock Android.

Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside says the device will be released this October on all Major US carriers and will be manufactured in Texas.

Google Unveils New Motorola Mobility Logo

Motorola has been undergoing a major shift as a company. As part of the overhaul, however, Motorola looks to have a new logo. The new logo made its first appearance on the site of Techweek, an event Motorola is co-sponsoring this week. Now, this does make us wonder if the logo is here to stay or if it just for the conference, but we’re inclined to say that it’s here for good. Companies don’t change their logos all that often, as they are not something taken lightly.

The new logo is much simpler than Motorola’s old look, which was a bolded, italicized “MOTOROLA.” Now, everything is in lowercase font with a much softer color. The classic red “M” is now the same color as everything else and is surrounded by a wheel of colors. The most notable change, however, is what is underneath. To show of its new bosses, Motorola is now advertising that it is “a Google company.”

Official Trailer For Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Jobs’ Film Goes Live

Ahead of its August 16th opening, the creators of the “Jobs” biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs have released the first official trailer. The trailer gives a peak at the film, demonstrating that the movie will cover early Apple with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to Steve Jobs’s departure to Steve Jobs’s return in the 1990s.

Google Mine Service Leaks

Google prepares a new service that's called Google Mine. It's integrated with Google+ and it's a way to keep track of the items you own or you'd like to have and share some of them with your circles. Right now, the service is tested internally at Google.

"Google Mine lets you share your belongings with your friends and keep up to date with what your friends are sharing. It enables you to control which of your Google+ Circles you share an item with. It also lets you rate and review the items, upload photos of them and share updates on the Google+ Stream where your friends get to see and comment on them."

Google Mine lets you organize the things you own, use, wish for, and more: gadgets, clothing, electronics, DVDs, cars, bikes or anything!

It also enables social interactions around them with your Circles using Google+

• Catalog your belongings, track what you have
• Review your belongings for your friends to see
• Control who sees what, track conversations
• Send requests to borrow or try out friends' stuff
• Share stuff you wish for, get recommendations
• Share stuff you are giving away, find takers
• Follow, browse, search stuff that friends share

There's also an Android app, currently available in Bazaar, Google's internal Play Store. Sound off in the comment section, is this something you will use or is it useless? Let us know what you think.



Source: Google Operating System

Google Confirms Antitrust Review Of Waze Deal

The Federal Trade Commission has contacted Google in regards to its $1.1 billion purchase of social mapping service Waze. Google announced earlier this month that it intended to purchase the Israeli company, but the very next day consumer watchdog groups called for an investigation into the deal.

Google confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Saturday that it had indeed been contacted by lawyers from the FTC, but declined to comment further on the matter.

Waze has taken the mobile mapping space by storm with its ability to use the GPS in users’ phones to track traffic and suggest less congested routes. Since the beginning of the year there has been a lot of talk about who may purchase the service with both Apple and Facebook being noted as potential suitors.

While Waze’s revenue wasn't high enough to trigger an automatic review of the deal, there was enough interest there to see if the integration of the company into Google Maps would possibly hinder competition. Google stated earlier this year that it would not be a complete integration with some facets of Waze being integrated into Google Maps and vice versa, but that the company would remain a separate entity.

According to the report it seems unlikely that the FTC will completely kill the deal as significant evidence would need to be found that the deal would hinder competition. With Apple and Nokia being notable competitors to Google Maps at this time, this is more than likely just a review to make sure of Google’s intentions.

Source: The Wall Street Journel

Aio Wireless Adds LTE Service

Aio Wireless today added LTE 4G to its service offering. Aio Wireless is a subsidiary of AT&T and offers no-contract wireless service in the U.S. The wireless network launched in Houston, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Gainesville, Fla., last month and today has expanded to Naples and Ft. Myers, Fla. Aio will gradually become available across AT&T's footprint around the U.S. over the course of the next year. Aio said that customers who already own LTE-capable equipment will receive an over-the-air update that adds support for Aio's LTE network. In addition to the availability of LTE, Aio also today announced the ZTE Overture, a new Android smartphone that will go one sale in July. The Overture has a 4-inch screen, 5-megapixel camera, front-facing camera, LTE, and support for memory cards up to 32GB. It runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but pricing wasn't disclosed. Aio offers unlimited talk, text, and data plans that range from $35 to $70 per month to feature phones, smartphones, and tablets. In addition to the handsets it sells, Aio will also provide service to people who bring in their own, unlocked devices. Aio hopes to compete with other prepaid brands, such as Sprint's Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile's Ultra Mobile.

Sprint Raises Clearwire Offer

Sprint today raised its bid for Clearwire from $3.40 per share to $5.00 per share, besting Dish Network's offer of $4.40 per share by 14%. Following the raised offer, Clearwire's board of directors has accepted the new bid and recommends that Clearwire's shareholders vote in favor of Sprint's proposal and not Dish's. In addition to the raised offer, Sprint also agreed to pay Clearwire a $115 million termination fee if the deal falls through under certain circumstances. According to Clearwire, Sprint's offer has the backing from a significant percentage of Clearwire's shareholders, including Comcast, Intel, and Brighthouse Networks, among others. Sprint hopes this final offer will give it the approval it needs among Clearwire's remaining investors. Earlier this week, Sprint filed a lawsuit against Dish seeking to prevent it from acquiring Clearwire after Clearwire's board recommended Dish's proposal be accepted. Dish has yet to respond to this latest move from Sprint.


Source: Clearwire

Facebook Unveils Video Sharing For Instagram

Facebook has announced video sharing for its massively popular photo sharing network, Instagram.

Video sharing through Instagram is similar to other social networks and apps in that videos are limited in time, 15 seconds in this case, and are able to be assembled in clips or chunks. Instagram will set itself apart from its fiercest competition, Vine, with the ability to delete clips and with filters. There are 13 brand new filters developed just for Instagram’s new video sharing. All of Instagram’s new video sharing features are built right into the existing Instagram app, and excluding custom image stabilization, are going to be available on Android from day one.

Source: Google Play Store