IBLOG SPACE

In a move that’s epic to say the least , it appears to be official that AT&T has committed to purchase T-Mobile USA from their current owners Deusche Telekom AG. This will be a cash-and-stock transaction that has been valued at right around $39 billion – or 8% of company ownership. This agreement has been approved by the FCC and will be a definite step up the the competition, namely Verizon Wireless who currently heads the US mobile communication market. Will this transition make this team a powerhouse that’ll dominate the market instead? AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson hopes so, him noting in the press release below that this move will bring LTE to more than 294 million people in the USA. What this move represents is a boost for AT&T to a whopping 95% of the US population for coverage in their 4G network – this whole situation including a new $8 billion dollar investment by AT&T into infrastructure improvements which will bring higher quality voice and LTE to

The WiMAX version of the Google Nexus S has been confirmed, with a mention briefly spotted on Sprint’s site. Caught by an Engadget tipster (and then promptly yanked by the carrier) the Nexus S 4G will apparently be “the first smartphone with fully integrated Google Voice.” That means “the same number for all your calls and get cool features like voicemail transcription, web calling and more.” There’ll also be WiMAX, of course, together with EVDO Rev. A 3G for everywhere else, and we’re expecting the usual Nexus S functionality too. So, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, NFC, a 5-megapixel rear camera, curved Super AMOLED display and all the timely updates that having a Pure Google experience gets you.

Hardware specs on two of HTC’s other devices for CTIA 2011 have emerged, with the guts of the HTC EVO 3D and HTC EVO View 4G both apparently leaked. According to BGR , Sprint will be officially announcing the EVO 3D with a 4.3-inch qHD 960 x 540 autostereoscopic 3D display, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 8660 processor, twin 5-megapixel cameras on the back for shooting 3D photos and video, and an HDMI port for outputting 1080p HD regular video and 720p HD 3D video. There’ll also be a 1.3-megapixel front camera, dedicated camera button, Android 2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense on top, and a sizable 1,730 mAh battery to keep all that 3D goodness running for a full workday. 1GB of RAM and a 4GB ROM are also rumored, along with both a Blockbuster 3D On Demand app and a YouTube 3D app, as HTC takes on the LG Optimus 3D and replaces the HTC EVO 4G flagship. Meanwhile, Sprint’s version of the HTC Flyer – the HTC EVO View 4G – is also detailed, with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 display just like the

AMD’s new APU-based Fusion processors continue to score design wins, with Gateway the latest to slot the chips – along with the Radeon GPUs – into their notebooks. The Gateway NV51B05u leads the new NV Series, complete with AMD’s E-350 processor and Radeon HD 6310 graphics, WiFi b/g/n, HDMI with Full HD 1080p output support, and a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 display. Three USB ports, a DVD burner, gigabit ethernet and a 1.3-megapixel webcam are all standard across the line. The NV51B05u has 3GB of RAM and is priced at $469.99, but $449.99 gets you the NV51B02u and the range as a whole starts from $399.99 (for the AMD C-50 powered NV51B08u). There’s also a “social network” button with quick access to Facebook, Twitter and other sites, along with a memory card reader and one year warranty. The new Gateways are available now.

The Bolt mobile browser has hit a milestone with the announcement that the browser has now been installed by 20 million mobile users around the world. The browser is in use in more than 200 countries around the world and launched at MWC in February 2009. The developers behind the browser claim that the reason it is so popular is that it offers impressive features. The features of the browser include video streaming, tight social networking integration, and lots of other features that make the offer PC style browsing on mobiles. The company claims that users of the Bolt browser have now streamed over 130 million minutes of video and viewed nearly 2.3 billion web pages in a bit over a year of availability. Bolt will run on any mobile device that runs Java ME apps. That means that the browser will work on about 75% of the 4 billion devices on the market today. A Lite version of the browser is also available for phones that lack the power and performance needed for the full version of Bol

Sony is believed to be readying two new notebooks, including a VAIO Hybrid PC with an intelligent docking station, and a Chrome OS VAIO based on NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 . According to Sony Insider ‘s sources, the VAIO Hybrid PC will, on its own, be a relatively thin Core i7 machine complete with Intel WiDi, SSD storage, HDMI and a 1.13kg weight, along with Intel Thunderbolt just like Apple’s new MacBook Pro . Battery life from the ultraportable is expected to be 8 to 16.5 hours, helped by the absence of an onboard optical drive. However, when you’re back at your desk, the docking section will have an AMD Whistler-XT 1GB GPU, Blu-ray burner, HDMI and VGA outputs, ethernet and USB ports, in a unit weighing around 0.68kg (so you could, feasibly, carry it around with you as well). As for the Chrome OS machine, that will have an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage courtesy of a memory card. It will run NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor and have WWAN and WiFi from the outset, wi

Sprint has demanded US regulators look closely at the proposed AT&T takeover of T-Mobile USA , warning that the deal would “alter dramatically the structure of the communications industry” and lead to a negative impact on “innovation and robust competition.” If approved, Sprint says, the combined carrier would be three times its own size, and have hitherto unseen control over backhaul and other access systems. Meanwhile, T-Mobile has pulled out from an upcoming CTIA 2011 panel, pushing out a FAQ in which it attempts to placate customers confused by the acquisition news. More details after the cut “The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, if approved by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would alter dramatically the structure of the communications industry. AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers. A combined AT&T and T-Mobile would be almost three times the size of Sprint, the third largest wireles

The specifications for an unannounced a new Alienware portable computer has surfaced. The machine is called the M11X R3 and while no pics of the notebook are offered, it would be a safe bet to expect it to share a familial resemblance to the M17x 3D notebook pictured here. The little machine has some interesting specs for an ultraportable. It will have an 11.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768. The screen is LED backlit and has a TrueLife glossy panel. The RAM options for the machine are 1GB-8GB and all RAM sticks run 1333MHz and are DDR3. There will be three CPU options with a Core i5-2537M, a Core i7-2617M, and a Core i7-2675M option. Storage options will be up to 750GB HDD with a 256GB SSD option offered. Options for 3G and LTE/WiMax 4G will be available as well. It will come in red or black finishes. The only big questions whether or not a discrete GPU will be offered. With Alienware, being a gaming brand I would bet a discrete GPU is an option. The machine is pegged for

Ah, the Royal Wedding. Look past the romance and the opportunity for expensive dresses and horse-drawn carriages, and it’s the perfect chance to cash in with some hideous themed tat. In that vein, may we present the Special Edition Royal Wedding phone , courtesy of the Carphone Warehouse. £14.95 ($24) gets you a pre-pay Alcatel One Touch with a Union Jack fascia and the wedding date – along with Kate & William’s initials – on the back. That’s not all, though; Royalist cockles can be suitably warmed with William & Kate customised wall paper and a special “Wedding March” ringtone. Beautiful stuff, we’re sure you’ll agree, though it’s worth remembering that you can get the same handset, in basic grey, for £0.01 as the Carphone Warehouse 1p Phone .

In the gadget world, you often get what you pay for. Some folks really want a gadget like a new Android tablet and are willing to risk poor performance in exchange for buying a cheap and little known brand of tablet like the Ouku Tab that is now available on Lightinthebox. The tablet is a 7-inch offering that runs Android 2.1 and sells for $124.99. The Ouku is shipping now and that 7-inch screen is touch sensitive. The tablet has a 0.3MP camera and it and has integrated WiFi. The tablet will surf the web and can download from the Android Market. It supports all of the things you expect with Gmail and more. Internal storage is to 4GB of memory and it has external storage with T-Flash cards. It has a micro USB port, a headphone slot, and a mic port along with headphone port. The battery is good for 4-5 hours of use per charge. The processor running the show is an ARM 2818a from Rockchip running at 660MHz. The capacitive touchscreen resolution is 800 x 480.

It’s rather refreshing to see a launch date moved UP for a change. I am used to seeing things get delayed for one reason or another. You might recall that Eee Pad Transformer Android tablet that turns into a netbook we spent a bit of hands-on time with back at CES . If you liked what you saw in that video the Eee Pad Transformer has had its launch date moved up to this Friday rather than April. The tablet will hit Taiwan first and hopefully will come to the US and other countries shortly thereafter. The specs are already known and include a 10.1-inch screen, Android 3.0 for the OS, a Tegra 2 processor, and 1GB of RAM. The Transformer will be offered in versions with 16GB or 32GB of storage. There are still a few unknowns about the tablet though. We can’t be sure just how well received the software for turning keyboard input into something the touch-centric Android OS can understand will work. We also don’t know what the tablet will sell for since and official price isn’t offered. Asus

Energizer unveiled a new cordless charging system for smartphones like the Blackberry and the iPhone a while back. These are the sort of chargers that use a case or battery door, you just lay them on the charge plate, and they charge. The line of Energizer offerings is Qi-enabled allowing them to work with any case brand that supports Qi. Energizer has announced that it has added some new single zone chargers to its lineup. The single-zone offerings are smaller and only have space for one device to sit on the plate. The original Energizer charge plates were much larger and have space for more than one device. The smaller plates are perfect for anyone that has a limited amount of space on their desk to nightstand and only needs to charge a single device. Energizer will also be showing off new products at CTIA including a new travel adapter with an iPhone dock, nightlight, and three AC outlets and dual USB outlets. A universal USB wall adapter will debit and a DC universal car charger.

The Sprint Nexus S 4G has been made official this morning, the first Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone with 4G WiMAX support, and the first to bring the new Integrated Google Voice Experience to Sprint Android devices. The same Nexus S handset as we’ve seen from Google before, only with the added benefit of WiMAX connectivity, the Nexus S 4G will allow existing Sprint subscribers to use their current number as their Google Voice number, without having to pay to port it over. It will also support voicemail transcription and the usual divert features, allowing up to six phones to ring simultaneously on an incoming call. Otherwise the specs are as before, so a 4-inch Super AMOLED “Contour Display”, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel main camera and front-facing VGA camera. 16GB of internal storage, NFC and a 1GHz processor round out the key specs. The Google Nexus S 4G will arrive on Sprint this spring, priced at $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement including mandatory data plan.

The Integrated Google Voice functionality announced alongside the Sprint Nexus S 4G will be available to all Sprint CDMA handsets, regardless of whether or not they run Android. The carrier has signed a deal with Google that will see them offer subscribers the opportunity to use their Sprint number with Google Voice, no porting required, as well as using Google’s voicemail transcription service. Video demo after the cut Any Gmail and text messages sent from google.com/voice will display the Sprint number, while Google Voice users can choose to replace their Sprint number with their Google Voice number when placing calls or sending text messages from their handset. Sprint and Google will be rolling the functionality out through this year, with a sign-up page here .

I really like the cool BookBook cases from 12South . These cases look like old and battered hard cover books, but they are actually cases for all sorts of gadgets from the original iPad to the Kindle and more. 12South has announced that its BookBook style for the original iPad will fit the iPad 2. This is still one of the coolest cases you will find and is made from real leather and has a zipper closure to keep your iPad 2 safe and secure. This case will also fit the original iPad as well. And it comes in two styles. The BookBook for iPad sells for about $69.99 and comes in black and red styles. The case is made to fold backwards and turn into a stand to support the iPad in portrait mode. The case ships for free as well.

AT&T is doing its utmost this morning to convince investors, regulators and the general public that its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA is more than just a good idea for the carrier’s shareholders. In the AT&T presentation [pdf link; see gallery after the cut], the carrier promises that AT&T and T-Mobile customers will see benefits within a year of the deal closing; that will include freeing up T-Mobile’s 1700MHz AWS spectrum for AT&T to use for LTE roll-out. That, it’s suggested, would mean 95-percent of the US population would be able to get 4G LTE, along with benefits in 3G/4G coverage both in rural and urban areas. By combining the dual-band cell sites, AT&T reckons it can double 3G capacity in many areas, boosting coverage for subscribers on both networks, with Chicago, San Francisco and New York highlighted as particularly benefiting. As for complaints from rivals like Sprint that the acquisition would negatively impact competition, AT&T denies tha

The French data privacy regulator, CNIL, has slapped Google with a whopping €100,000 ($142,000) fine for its collection of private data during Street View surveying. The biggest fine CNIL (National Commission for Information Freedom) has imposed since sanctions were authorized in 2004, while the regulator conceded that Google had agreed to delete all the data inadvertently gathered, it still believed “that Google has not refrained from using the data identifying WiFi access points of individuals without their knowledge.” Under French law, that constituted “unfair collection” and, since Google was deemed to have received economic benefits from it, the fine was appropriate. Google’s Street View cars had scanned WiFi networks as they photographed French streets, with unencrypted information also netted in the haul. A similar inquiry in the US was closed back in October 2010 , with regulators deciding that Google’s apologetic promise to delete the information was enough to satisfy them.

Apple is reportedly preparing iOS 4.3.1 for release within the next one to two weeks, less than a month since the company pushed out iOS 4.3 . According to BGR ‘s sources, the update will include various bug fixes but also address an iPad 2 jailbreak vulnerability and introduce new baseband for the iPhone 3GS and original iPad. That new baseband could introduce issues for those wanting to unlock or jailbreak their devices, and Apple seems to be wasting no time in addressing the recent iPad 2 hacks . As for the bugfixes, they’re said to include: Fixing memory hang that results in memory corruption when reading large files from USIM filesystem Fixing problem with NTLM authentication in apps and on websites Fixing issue with the Springboard and 3rd party apps not recgonizing the gyroscope on the iPad 2

You certainly can’t accuse AT&T of holding back this morning. Not only is the carrier shouting about the potential benefits of its T-Mobile acquisition but it’s also got a pair of new devices: the Android 2.2 based LG Thrill 4G , complete with 4G connectivity and an autostereoscopic 3D display, and the Windows Phone 7 HTC HD7S . The LG Thrill 4G is basically AT&T’s branded version of the LG Optimus 3D , complete with a 4.3-inch glasses-free 3D display, dual 5-megapixel stereoscopic camera for shooting 3D stills and video, and a 1GHz dual-core processor. Due “in the coming months” the handset will have access to the LG 3D Space for 3D downloads, and come with 8GB of onboard storage and a pre-loaded 8GB microSD card slot. For more on the LG Optimus 3D, check out our hands-on coverage . As for the HTC HD7S, that’s AT&T’s version of the HTC HD7 , until now only available on T-Mobile in the US. It will be preloaded with AT&T U-verse for on-device video downloads, and have a