mobility

FCC again balks on telephone network shutdown

Six months after wireline telephone operators and trade groups asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to begin shutting down their aging switched networks, the agency responded late Friday, calling for further study.

In a public notice (PDF) issued by an agency task force created in December 2012, the FCC reiterated the importance of accelerating the transition from switched networks to native IP infrastructure. But rather than approving limited trials to test technical and regulatory obstacles to a full conversion, the agency instead raised more questions about the trials and called for more rounds of comments.

The task force also … Read more

Recent FCC filings support rumors of Motorola X phone

The highly anticipated and hotly rumored Motorola X phone may have just popped up in FCC filings earlier this week.

According to the paperwork, the Motorola device includes the model number XT1058, and supports earlier rumors that the X phone will be available on AT&T.

For one thing, the handset is enabled for a GSM network, and it appears to be operating on 1900/850 bands -- both factors are indicative of an AT&T device.

The report also notes that the phone has 4G LTE and NFC capabilities.

Ever since Google acquired Motorola, talk of the … Read more

Apple, Samsung, others urged to help thwart mobile phone thefts

Apple and other mobile phone vendors are being asked to amp up the fight against cell phone theft.

In a series of letters sent today to the heads of Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola, and Microsoft, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman requested information on what they're doing to make their phones more safe and secure from thieves. Schneiderman also urged the companies to work with his office to devise ways to cut down on the lure of cell phones to criminals.

The attorney general pointed to a rise in the theft of phones and other mobile devices in … Read more

Clearwire board urges shareholders to OK Sprint offer

Clearwire's board of directors has gone through the due diligence evaluating buyout deals and all paths have led it to one conclusion: go with Sprint.

In a letter the board wrote to shareholders on Monday, Clearwire's directors urged their fellow shareholders to accept Sprint's merger deal with the company when they can vote on the transaction next week. In the letter, which was signed by Executive Chairman John Stanton, the board used the advice of analysts, its own evaluation of the deal, and help from an independent shareholder advising organization, called Institutional Shareholder Services, to make its … Read more

Android chief working on smoother updates, fine with Facebook Home

Android head Sundar Pichai might be new to the job of leading Google's mobile operating system, but he's already working at improving the update process for that software.

In a Wired interview published Monday, Pichai acknowledged that update paths to new versions of Android can be difficult, but that he and his team "are thinking about how to make Android handle updates better."

"We see ways we can do this," he told Wired. "It's early days. We're talking with our partners and working our way through it. We need time to … Read more

Zact touts lower phone bills

Why shell out extra bucks each month for a cellular service you don't benefit from? That's the question wireless newcomer Zact poses to customers. In a fresh twist on the MVNO model, today the company unveiled a radical way for people to buy and customize their phone plans on the fly.

Review: ProntoForms helps users with form creation

Form creation, for many companies, is a giant hassle. It requires hiring a lawyer or paying for a template to be customized to the needs of that company. For professional-looking forms, this can be quite costly, especially in certain service industries where forms are a vital part of the business. Pronto Forms has been providing a solution for this problem for years and now offers a mobile app version of their popular Web-based software for service providers to quickly generate and share forms with customers and leads.

Pronto Forms requires you to have an account with the service, so you'… Read more

Defense Department to let Apple devices onto Pentagon network

Pentagon employees may soon start using Apple mobile devices, like iPhones and iPads, on the U.S. Defense Department's secure network.

The department expects to clear the devices for use on its network early next week, Bloomberg reported Friday.

It's a space that's normally dominated by BlackBerry, but with other smartphone brands gaining popularity, the federal government is considering other options. Those options include Samsung, which officials cleared last week.

Approval means employees using government-issued iOS 6 devices can access military networks after the department builds a mobile-device management system to secure the phones and … Read more

Android dominated smart devices in Q1, says Canalys

Android dominated the global smart mobile device market in the first quarter, according to a new report from Canalys.

That market -- which combines smartphones, tablets, and notebooks -- hit 308.7 million units in the first quarter, representing year-on-year growth of 37.4 percent, according to Canalys, which released the report on Thursday.

By operating system market share, Android was on top with 59.5 percent of all smart mobile devices shipped. Apple was second with a 19.3 percent share, while had Microsoft had an 18.1 percent share.

Global tablet shipments grew 106.1 percent year-on-year to … Read more