Orange Armenia offers unique roaming discount in USA (Armenia, USA)
Telecom operator Orange has reshuffled the list of Orange Zone countries which will from now on include the USA. Now, while roaming on AT&T USA network, Orange customers can enjoy a unique $0.64 rate for all outgoing and incoming calls, SMS and GPRS. This is great news for those who travel to the USA.
The same tariff is available for other Orange Zone countries where customers can join the following networks: Orange France, Orange Spain, Orange United Kingdom, Orange Slovakia, Orange Austria, Orange Poland, Orange Romania, Orange Moldova, Orange Luxembourg, Orange Liechtenstein, Orange Switzerland as well as Mobistar Belgium.
To activate roaming customers just need to dial *121# before leaving the country.
Apple may be looking to launch its own mobile data service (USA)
US giant Apple may be planning another surprise for its iPhone and iPad users. According to a report by Slashgear, Apple may be planning to offer mobile data services across the USA for the likes of the iPhone and iPad.
As per the report, Apple currently has more than a massive 250 million credit card numbers on file through iTunes, and iTunes has the ability to take payments just as easily as any mobile carrier in the United States today. The difference is that groups like Verizon and T-Mobile own their own spectrum. Apple would have to either have plans in place to purchase spectrum or would have had to already have purchased spectrum to make this work inside 2012 – and that’s not news you can easily keep under wraps.
LG favours Android over Windows (USA, South Korea)
Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer has recently announced that the company is planning to focus on smartphones running on Google’s Android mobile operating system. According to a report by KoreaHerald, the executive also said LG is taking a step back from Windows phones powered by Microsoft’s platform, adding that it will continue research and development efforts on Windows Phones.
As per the report, a spokesperson for LG revealed that the total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure. Further, the company currently has no plans of rolling out another LG-manufactured Windows phone soon.
The report reveals that Ballmer may holding a meeting with the chief of LG Electronics, as the U.S. software giant chief is expected to visit Seoul this month. Microsoft Korea spokesperson Lee Seung-yeon said that Ballmer, who will speak about the ‘new era of technology,’ will be staying for a day in Seoul.
Verizon users for Razr and Rezound may get Android 4.0 upgrade in May (USA)
Verizon users may finally have reason to celebrate as recent rumours suggest that users of the Droid Razr and the Rezound may be getting the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update in May, according to a report by Cnet.
As per the report Verizon plans to push Ice Cream Sandwich over the air to HTC Rezound users on May 9 and Droid Razr / Razr MAXX users on May 21. It’s also noted that Verizon typically pushes out updates in batches over a two-week period, so Rezound and Razr owners probably shouldn’t expect to see that little Android icon unpacking the update on the exact dates above.
As reported earlier, Vodafone’s Samsung Galaxy S II holders received their Android update earlier this month.
T-Mobile to receive breakup fee airwaves from AT&T (USA)
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cleared the way for T-Mobile USA to receive about $1 billion in wireless airwaves it is owed as part of the breakup fee for AT&T Inc.’s failed $39 billion takeover bid, according to a report by DJN.
As per the report, T-Mobile has slated the airwaves, or spectrum, for its build out over the next several years of a high-speed mobile broadband network to keep pace with its larger rivals. The spectrum will bolster T-Mobile’s network in 12 large U.S. markets.
AT&T promised the spectrum and about $3 billion in cash for walking away from the deal in December after meeting resistance from regulators, competitors and attorneys general concerned over the impact to competition. T-Mobile is playing catchup with AT&T and Verizon Wireless in building out the faster network, known as 4G LTE.
T-Mobile Brings HTC One S to the U.S. (USA)
At the Mobile World Congress 2012, HTC announced the upcoming availability of the HTC One S, with T-Mobile as the premier launch partner in the U.S. the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s thinnest smartphone (7.95mm), featuring an ultra-sleek, aluminum unibody design. The next smartphone to take advantage of 4G technology (HSPA+42) running on America’s Largest 4G Network, the HTC One S is T-Mobile’s first product to ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and HTC Sense 4.
With access to T-Mobile’s fastest network speeds, the HTC One S allows for a high-quality entertainment experience, which is also enhanced by Beats By Dr. Dre technology. The Beats Audio integration in the HTC One S is enabled for richer, more authentic sound when consumers listen to music. The HTC One S also makes it simple to get and listen to music, with Google Music pre-loaded on the device for easy cloud-based access to the user’s personal music collection.
Andrew Sherrard, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA, said that they’re thrilled to partner with HTC on the launch of its new HTC One series of smartphones and to bring the HTC One S to the U.S. With the HTC One S, they’re not only delivering on our promise to bring leading-edge technology to market but are continuing to provide customers with the best 4G entertainment experiences from listening to high-quality music to streaming high-resolution movies.
Consumers increasingly expect smartphone camera technology that offers the ability to capture life’s moments with high-quality photos and videos – and the HTC One S delivers. Joining T-Mobile’s best-in-class lineup of advanced camera smartphones from HTC, the arrival of the HTC One S marks the introduction of HTC’s new amazing camera experience that rivals traditional digital cameras. With the introduction of HTC ImageSense, improvements are brought to every part of the 8-megapixel camera, including lens, the sensor and the software. Camera enhancements include:
Superfast Capture – The HTC One S dramatically reduces the time it takes to capture those key moments, with an estimated 0.7-second shot time and a 0.2-second autofocus that allows for nearly unlimited continuous shots.
High Quality Photos in Adverse Conditions – The HTC One S delivers dramatic enhancements in image capture quality even in adverse lighting conditions. The f/2.0 lens on the HTC One S offers amazing low-light performance, capturing 40 percent more light than the f/2.4 lenses available on other high-end phones.
Concurrent Video/Still Capture – HTC One S lets the user capture a shot and shoot video at the same time – perfect for capturing life’s moments as they happen. While shooting 1080p HD video, consumers just need to tap the shutter button and the device snaps a high-resolution still photo while the video continues to shoot. Consumers can also capture a still from a previously recorded video.
Jason Mackenzie, president, global sales and marketing, HTC Corporation, said that people take photos on their phone more than any activity other than making phone calls, which is why they improved every part of the camera experience on HTC One S. They’re thrilled to bring their combination of their premium design, amazing camera and authentic sound to T-Mobile customers in the U.S.
The HTC One S will be one of the fastest smartphones running on America’s Largest 4G Network, with access to T-Mobile’s fastest 4G (HSPA+ 42) speeds, currently available in 175 markets, reaching more than 180 million Americans. Equipped with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor by Qualcomm, the HTC One S delivers powerful performance while Web browsing, streaming movies and watching TV shows on the device’s 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED touch screen.
Telefónica and Intel launch an innovative pilot for hybrid clouds (Spain, USA)
Telefónica Digital and Intel have developed a joint pilot to demonstrate that enterprises can easily scale up their computing capacity by moving or growing applications from their internal data centers to the external public or third party cloud.
Telefónica Digital, Intel Labs and the Intel Architecture Group announced that they have successfully conducted the first phase of a joint innovative research program to prove technologies that will allow large, small and medium enterprises to seamlessly migrate computing workloads from their local data center to a third-party public cloud. This solution demonstrates the concept of a cloud-bursting hybrid cloud service.
This solution allows enterprises to move as much of their applications and information technology as they wish to the public cloud, allowing them to keep their important applications (or parts of applications) running internally. This flexibility allows enterprises to meet temporary spikes in demand for business continuity, and to optimize their data center use and capacity.
Companies can now seamlessly interact between their internal cloud and the external public cloud, with no portability or interoperability issues between these two different environments.
The public cloud provides an integrated portal where enterprises will be able to manage their internal data center resources and the resources deployed on the public cloud. Enterprises will be able to interoperate transparently between these two environments. The hybrid cloud provides complete IT capabilities to IT managers in a quick, secure, efficient and flexible manner.
This joint pilot has demonstrated successfully the cloud-bursting exchange from a local private cloud (played by the Intel Cloud Builder facility) to the public cloud (played by the Telefónica Virtual Data Center public cloud service). Cloud resource provisioning across the hybrid cloud is achieved under the OpenStack framework, proving the feasibility of distributing workloads from private to public clouds on top of this open source platform.
The next phase of activities are planned to illustrate the trustworthy enforcement of infrastructure management policies across cloud service boundaries. Operational parameters such as power management policies will be deployed using Intel Trusted Execution Technology, Intel Node Manager and Intel Data Center Manager.
Jim Blakley, Intel Architecture Systems Integration Division Director at Intel, said that this capability brings a previously unavailable level of transparency and federation between cloud consumers and Cloud providers, helping preserve the service policies across cloud boundaries down to the hardware platform level. Cloud consumers will have an easier time assessing service quality and SLA compliance. Cloud providers will be able to offer differentiated cloud services even when their offering is part of a larger service.
Moisés Navarro, Cloud Global Director for Telefónica Digital said that innovations like ‘GoToCloud’ or ‘Real Elastic Cloud’, developed by Telefónica, show their clear commitment on taking care of clients’ needs as well as providing value to the cloud service model. From the Telefónica Digital perspective, the hybrid cloud will contribute to the data-center operator’s ‘Go to Cloud’ strategy that aims to boost the migration of corporate applications to the cloud, as an evolution of its Virtual Data Center cloud product.
Apple to offer refund for iPad to Australian consumers (USA, Australia)
Apple has offered to refund Australian consumers who purchased the iPad 3 as it is not compatible with the nations 4G network. As per reports, the consumers alleged that the US giant had provided misleading information by promoting 4G capabilities in the new iPad.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a statement claiming that Apple had represented to Australian consumers that the product ‘iPad with WiFi + 4G’ can, with a sim card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case.
A report by the guardian reveals that Apple admitted that the new iPad does not work on the country’s network. Telstra does offer 4G services to users in Australia, however the new iPad connects to 4G on the 700MHz and 2100Mhz frequencies, neither of which is used by Telstra.
As per the report, Apple has said that it will issue a statement and send emails to consumers offering them a refund if the iPad was bought under the misconception of compatibility with the nation’s 4G network.
AT&T to sell Nokia Lumia 900 from 8 April (USA)
Mobile operator AT&T will sell the Nokia Lumia 900, which is powered by Windows Phone software, in the US market. According to reports, the phone will go on sale on 8 April, with customers allowed to pre-order the same on Friday itself.
The Nokia 900 is expected to be sold at $100 with a contract of two years. With rival manufacturers Samsung and Apple controlling majority of the market share, Nokia has been actively working to establish itself in the smartphone arena. The Finnish maker hopes to target the US market with its new Windows Phone, as previously, Nokia phones powered by Symbian versions were unable to make a place amongst the iOS and Android smartphones.
The price has been kept much lower than that charged by Apple and Samsung in a bid to appeal to a larger market segment. The 4G enabled phone will use AT&T’s LTE network to offer users faster download speeds and better internet connectivity.
As per reports, the Lumia 900 comes with a display screen of 4.3-inches and an 8-megapixel rear camera. The phone also offers a front facing camera to enable video calling.
However, industry analysts remain skeptical regarding Nokia’s ability to enhance its market share over the other giants. The low price may attract certain customers but customer loyalty towards brands like Apple and Samsung is extremely high and may be tough to break.
