Mobile

Shoppers perusing Wal-Mart for a cell phone will soon have double the options--that is, a choice of purchasing a prepaid phone on two carriers instead of just one.

Wal-Mart's Straight Talk wireless service, which has previously run only on Verizon's networks, is expanding to AT&T. StraightTalk is a brand made by TracFone, and is sold exclusively in Wal-Mart stores.

AT&T confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Monday that StraightTalk phones will work on the network. Wal-Mart would not comment on the impetus behind building out the service to include AT&T.

The … Read more

In 2006, Spyglass Consulting Group released a report, Trends in Mobile Communications, finding that 59 percent of physicians interviewed were using smartphones. Today, according to the firm's latest report, that figure has jumped to 94 percent.

"Physician smartphone adoption is occurring more rapidly than with members of the general public," said Gregg Malkary, managing director at Spyglass. Moreover, Malkary added, "Physicians are showing a clear preference [almost double] for using the Apple iPhone (44 percent) over the RIM BlackBerry (25 percent)."

A note of caution: the study's sample size is small. The "Point … Read more

HTC announced Tuesday that it's launching its own name brand of smartphones in China, with four phones set to take the stage this year.

Although the mobile phone maker already holds a presence in the Chinese market, its phones there have previously been sold under the Dopod brand. These will be the first phones in China to carry the HTC name.

"We are proud to introduce the HTC brand in China and look forward to bringing a fresh customer-centric smartphone experience to consumers in China," Cher Wang, chairman of HTC, said in a statement.

The phones will … Read more

AT&T has confirmed that it's working on a fix for the software glitch in its Alcatel-Lucent equipment. Reuters reported earlier today that the wireless carrier will issues the fix in the next two to three weeks.

The fix, which AT&T says is relevant for less than two percent of its customers, is expected to significantly boost upload speeds from as low as 100Kbps to as high as 1.7Mbps. Download speeds, which were not affected by the glitch, should not change.

AT&T first admitted the problem on July 7 after customers in select … Read more

Some Verizon Communications landline phone customers and AT&T wireless customers in Manhattan were unable to make phone calls Monday due to an equipment problem on Verizon's network.

Linda Laughlin, a spokeswoman for Verizon, said that some residential and business customers in parts of New York City were receiving a fast-busy signal instead of a dial tone and were unable to make phone calls on Monday.

Laughlin blamed the issue on a digital cross connect that was not working properly due to severe weather in the area over the weekend. A digital cross connect is a piece of … Read more

AT&T has added another city to its free public Wi-Fi hot spot initiative to help alleviate network congestion.

The company announced Monday that Charlotte, N.C., will be the second city added to its pilot program, which offers free Wi-Fi to customers in what it calls Wi-Fi hot zones, or large sections of cities. The large outdoor Wi-Fi hot zone in Charlotte offers Wi-Fi coverage from South Brevard Street around the NASCAR Hall of Fame Plaza to East Trade Street. It also offers customers waiting to use the nearby Lynx light rail free Wi-Fi.

In May, AT&… Read more

The Wireless Power Consortium has finalized a standard for wireless charging of mobile devices, bringing universal charging for products one step closer to reality.

On Friday, the trade alliance said that it has agreed upon specifications for three key areas of the Qi low-power standard, which is based on magnetic induction technology. The three areas are interface definition, which outlines the requirements for power transfer between the transmitter and receiver; the performance requirements; and the test procedure for compliance with the standard.

The specifications for the interface definition have been released to consortium members, with the public release set for … Read more

Though only a month old, Apple's new iOS 4 has found its way onto 50 percent of a sample 9 million iPhones tracked by ad network Chitika, according to stats released Monday.

Among 9 million iPhone impressions seen across Chitika's network, iOS 4 holds a slight lead over iOS 3, which was found on 49 percent of the phone's traffic. The overwhelming majority of devices included in the sampling were iPhones, according to Chitika, while a handful (just under half a percent) were iPod Touch devices.

On a more granular level, the initial July 21 release of iOS 4.0 … Read more

Amid reports that HTC is working hard to bring its Sense user interface to Windows Phone 7 gadgets, there's been at least one reported sighting of just such a phone that lacks Sense.

A tipster has shared with Engadget some details of a "mystery HTC Windows Phone 7 device" that the gadget blog describes as likely a developer build with hardware that's ready to go. But the phone doesn't seem to have a Sense skin atop the Windows Phone 7 OS, according to the report.

Smartphone makers typically tweak the user interface of the handsets … Read more