Mobile

AT&T customers can now choose postpaid data plans for their tablet PCs.

Starting today, AT&T said, customers can opt to pay $14.99 for 250MB of monthly data or $25 for 2GB of monthly data. The postpaid option will show up on the person's monthly wireless bill after the data is used. Prepaid plans, which feature the same price and data allotments, are charged on a person's credit card prior to their use.

Both the postpaid and prepaid plans are month-to-month, meaning that customers have no long-term contract.

The only difference, apparently, between the … Read more

Just how many subscribers have ditched AT&T since the carrier lost its exclusive hold on the iPhone to Verizon?

AT&T is mum on specific numbers, but a top executive has offered this hazy assessment: the company isn't surprised by the level of defections.

Speaking yesterday at a Morgan Stanley technology conference in San Francisco, Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said his company hasn't seen any surprises in customer defections and that "everything is pretty much within our expectations," according to a Webcast of his … Read more

WASHINGTON--Hopes for a solution to the looming crisis in available radio spectrum for mobile broadband users were raised today.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) introduced legislation aimed at solving some of the biggest threats to the mobile Internet, feeding hopes of bipartisan solutions for spectrum woes in an increasingly divided Congress.

"The Reforming Airwaves by Developing Incentives and Opportunistic Sharing (Radios) Act will set the proper foundation to meet growing demand for spectrum through greater planning and coordination and by promoting more innovative and efficient use of spectrum resources," Sens. Snowe and Kerry said in a statement. … Read more

The new iPad 2 will hit store shelves in the U.S. on March 11.

If you've been waiting to see what Apple would put in the latest version of the hit tablet, here's a quick FAQ that spells out some of the key features. It also is a quick guide to what's new for the iPad 2 and how much one of these new devices will cost you.

For a blow-by-blow account of today's announcement in San Francisco, check out CNET's archived Live Blog. And for a recap and analysis on what it all means check out this CNET story.

How is the iPad 2 different from the original iPad? In a nut shell, the iPad 2 is thinner, lighter, faster, and has two cameras for video conferencing.

The new iPad uses a new A5 dual-core processor, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs says is twice as fast as the previous iPad. He also said it will help boost graphics performance making it nine times faster. The newer iPad is also about 33 percent thinner and lighter than the original iPad: 1.3 pounds instead of 1.5. And it now comes in white as well as black.

Additionally, the iPad 2 now offers two cameras, which means it can be used for video conferencing via Apple's FaceTime app or a third-party video conferencing app, such as Skype. The rear camera is 720p. And the front camera is "VGA-quality" suitable for video and still photography.… Read more

The wait is over for eager Apple fans wanting the next-generation iPad. At an invite-only event in San Francisco today, the company took the wraps off the iPad 2.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is taking a leave of absence from the company, returned to unveil the new product, which is expected to be a hot seller.

As anticipated, the new tablet has two cameras and is faster with dual-core processors. They just about double CPU performance and make the graphics speed 9 times faster, while using the same power as the processor from the first iPad. The iPad 2 … Read more

Mobile-security company Lookout released a new free Android app today called Plan B that lets you find a lost phone without having downloaded special software onto it beforehand. You just install the app over the Web after the device goes missing.

To use the app you need access to the Android Market Web site and a Google account. Once the app is downloaded over the Web, an e-mail arrives in the associated Gmail account telling you the app is locating the phone, followed by another e-mail with a Google Map showing where the phone is.

Plan B will send follow-up … Read more

Samsung may be working on another Galaxy Tab.

The company updated its Samsung Mobile Facebook page yesterday announcing its plans to introduce "more surprises" at the company's Unpacked event on March 22. The announcement was accompanied by an image showing a tablet with text saying, "What's your Tab life?" More importantly, the image included "78910."

Although Samsung was tight-lipped about the number, it could very well insinuate that the company is adding an 8.9-inch device to its line of Galaxy Tabs. It currently sells a 7-inch model and unveiled a 10.1-inch model … Read more

If you were hoping to get your hands on the Panasonic Jungle, you'll need to settle for something else.

Panasonic has chosen to discontinue its efforts on the portable-gaming device, Reuters reported today. The company apparently announced it had "decided to suspend further development due to changes in the market and in our own strategic direction," Reuters reported.

The Jungle handheld was first revealed late last year. The device was slated to compete with the Nintendo DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable. However, Panasonic had a somewhat different idea with the Jungle. Rather than allow developers to … Read more

China Unicom, one of China's three largest wireless operators, plans to introduce its own mobile operating system to compete head-to-head with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android OS in China.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the wireless operator, which is building a third-generation wireless network that competes with China Mobile and China Telecom, is developing a new mobile OS brand known as "WoPhone."

The new operating system is based on Linux, and it's geared toward mobile handsets and tablets. Companies that plan to build devices using the new OS include China's ZTE, … Read more