The library of Congress has announced that for the next three years there will be a set of provision to allow the circumvention of copyrighted material. General usage will allow the circumvention of these works to assist those with disabilities to enjoy DVD's and E-Books. A more pertinent use of the new rules will allow you to unlock your phone to allow for the compatibility of different software. The rule also overturns a previous ruling that claims unlocking your phone to use it with another carrier. You will no longer be allowed to unlock your phones for use with another company. The phone now must be purchased from the network provider that it is intended to be used on. Unlocking of tablet devices will still be prohibited.
Via Ars Technica
Apple fell just short of annalists predictions for the Fourth quarter. Predictions were set for Apple to produce $8.3 Billion in profits for the fourth quarter. As expected their stock price dropped to $600 per share on the announcement. The demand for the iPhone 5 is promising to put Apple back on track for the first quarter, as the demand has been larger than expected, and they are having difficulty keeping up with production. Apple has also recently won their Patent Violation lawsuit against Samsung in the United States. The win should prove to put some distance between Apple and Samsung in the market place. Samsung is currently heavily relying on the Android operating system to fuel their smart phone sales. Putting one of the larger manufacturers are arms length can only serve to assist Apple in trying to increase their market share for IOS.
Via Wireless Week
Clearwire has announced plans to reduce the amount of TD-LTE sites it will deploy by the summer of 2013. The new number will be 2,000 sites. The halving of their plans comes as their retail sales are lackluster, and their wholesales channels are under-performing. Analysts have made not of their transition away from WiMAX. With reported losses of $320 Million Clearwire wants to realign their capital expenditures with the expected revenues it will receive from Sprint. Sprint just announced their off-beat subscriber growth yesterday. There will be no changes in Sprint's newly bolstered position in Clearwire. The subscriber reduction to one of Clearwire's largest wholesale channels is most likely largely responsible for this announcement.
Via Wireless Week
Sprint announced their third quarter results during a conference call this week. The results show that Sprint has lost 423,000 subscribers during this quarter. Sprints focus this quarter has been preparing the shut down the Nextel iDEN network. Sprint maintains that the benefits of the CDMA network vastly outweigh what they would gain by maintaining the antiquated iDEN network. This year 9,600 iDEN sites have already been taken offline, and a complete shut down is estimated to come in the middle of 2013. Sprint recently fortified their position in Clearwire by increasing the their stock position by $100 Million to provide 50.8% ownership of the available stock assets. Clearwire is planning to provide 5,800 TD-LTE sites by mid 2013, that Sprint will use to eschew data from their own network. CEO Dan Hesse did not provide much insight on the offer from Softbank to purchase 70% of the company, but made statements leading some to believe that Softbank may fund their spectrum acquisitions.
Via Fierce Wireless
As of October 21st Cricket will no longer be offering their daily PayGO plans for enrollment. The daily plans offered options between $1.50 and $2 a day. The plans were dropped in favor of monthly offerings that are available from the company. Customers that are currently using the daily plans will be allowed to remain on their current plans. I doubt many changes will be allowed to the plans, and you certainly will not be able to get it back if you change. Cricket recently made changes to their monthly rate plans in August, and now offers monthly subscriptions between $35 and $70 a month. Plans are available for standard handsets as well as advanced smart devices.
Via Fierce Wireless
Today in their community forums, Sprint announced a new software update that will be coming to the Samsung Galaxy SIII. The update coded L710VPLJ7 will include Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean. The bugs repaired in this software update will include: improvements to both LTE, and exchange systems, increase accuracy of face unlock, improvements to text message notifications, multiple enhancements to the calendar functionality, high resolution photo back up to Google accounts that are logged in, and voice typing without the requirement on an Internet connection. The updates began rolling out today, and are downloadable over the air (OTA).
via Sprint
Nuance has expanding the capabilities of their Go! Application, and is now providing users with enhanced voice activated features on their smart phones. Users can send social network messages, texts, calls, sets appointments, and access other information from the Internet all by voice. The software can be activated by waking it up by saying "Hi Dragon." The Dragon Mobile Assistant is available in Beta from Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0). More features are planned by the end of the year. You can download your copy in the Google Play Store.
Via Nuance
T-Mobile will begin bringing mobile security to their Android based devices with Lookout Security. The Lookout app is free, and will come loaded on most of their Android based devices starting in 2013. The security application will turn on with the device, and will actively scan the device from mobile threats. “As we rely more on our mobile devices, for everything from business to social to banking, it is increasingly important that we protect them from threats,” Says John Hering, CEO of Lookout.
Via T-Mobile
Via United States International Trade Commission
Photo Credit: US International Trade Commission Seal.
Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile release Isis enabled handsets. Isis is a mobile payment venture backed by At&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. Verizon’s first Isis enabled handset will be the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE. Verizon also expects to release the Razr HD and Razr MAXX HD with Isis in the near future. Users can activate Isis by logging into their account at Verizon Wireless.
T-Mobile users will be looking forward to the Galaxy S III, Galaxy S Relay 4G. Initially the service is only available within the trial markets of Austin and Salt Lake City as announced by Isis.
Isis
T-Mobile
Verizon Wireless
According to BGR, their sources at Apple have indicated they are currently testing viability of IOS 6.1 for US based carriers. The new update will include many miscellaneous bug fixes including problems with the camera flash not operating, cellular data not working, lock screen security fix, improved Wifi support, and a bug that caused horizontal lines to run across the screens. There is currently no official release date.
Via BRG
