| MacUpdate Weekend Sale | :This weekend MacUpdate has slashed prices on Painter 12 and Painter Lite. Painter 12 retails for $429, but has been reduced by 54% to $199. Painter Lite has seen a 58% price cut from $69 to $29. Hurry, because these deals are only available until May 19th 2013. |
Canadian wireless carrier Bell appears to have established an Android 4.0 update timetable for several of its handsets. A alleged internal memo posted by Mobilesyrup suggests the carrier has set June as a target for Samsung's Galaxy Tab 8.9 and HTC's Sensation and Raider smartphones.
HTC has expanded on its Android 4.0 upgrade plans to include more of its North American lineup, most of all Verizon's hardware. It had already included the Rezound in its plans, but it now intended as of Friday to include the Droid Incredible 2, Rhyme, and Thunderbolt among the upgrades. The exact timetable wasn't outlined.
Vodaphone will soon launch Europe's first smartphone to support both Android and LTE in the continent's first real adoption of 4G. The carrier has confirmed that it will soon begin shipping the HTC Velocity in Germany, with other countries arriving soon afterwards. It represents a white colored variant of the HTC Vivid being sold in the US by AT&T, and elsewhere as the Raider.
HTC stated Wednesday that it had no plans to further drop its low fall outlook. In spite of a steep November drop, which was down 30 percent month-to-month and 20 percent year-over-year, it still saw revenue down 23 percent from earlier estimates, or roughly the same as a year ago. The company's share price has plunged 40 percent in just over a month over jitters that HTC had stopped growing.
HTC has been on a relentless tear through 2011, releasing new, faster (or bigger) phones seemingly every month, but it has never truly cracked AT&T: even phones like the Inspire 4G are outsold by the cheapest iPhones. With that in mind, the Vivid (known as the Raider elsewhere) is theoretically a powerhouse: 4G LTE, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, and a massive 4.5-inch screen. But are sheer numbers enough to dislodge Apple and give AT&T a reputation as an Android carrier? With our HTC Vivid review, we'll not only look into whether it's worth getting over an iPhone but whether the Samsung Galaxy Nexus threatens to undo HTC's hard work.
We just received our review unit for the HTC Raider, better known to Americans as the Vivid. With HTC just passing Apple in the US smartphone market based on its successes at Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, it's this phone that's expected to take the crown at AT&T. But with LTE-based 4G and a giant 4.5-inch screen, is it enough to finally give Android the edge at the iPhone's main carrier? We'll give a quick opinion in a hands-on below.
Verizon on Sunday spoiled HTC's November 3 event by posting ads for the Rezound. While they don't show more than a product shot, they do confirm the Beats Audio connection, including the signature red-corded headphones and red light-up navigation keys. The ads hint the phone might be ready to go soon after the event.
Preempting the US event for the Rezound next week, HTC on Thursday planned to bring its international equivalent, the Raider, to North America first through Canada. Both Bell and Rogers are getting the LTE-based 4G version of the phone and can stream HD videos or otherwise get online faster still than either carrier's regular HSPA+ network. Accordingly, either version can tap into HTC's Watch movie store or use the 4G for a hotspot, although low LTE bandwidth caps may discourage using either feature often.
HTC in an update Friday gave an early sign of its plans to upgrade phones to Android 4.0. While vague, it set out to upgrade "as many HTC devices as possible". More details would come in the weeks ahead, the company wrote.
Corroborating earlier rumors, HTC's Raider 4G smartphone appears to have passed through the FCC on its way to AT&T. The Commission tested a device that matches the Raider, also known as the HTC Holiday in other markets. The test documents suggest the handset will be supported by AT&T's 4G LTE and 3G HSPA+ networks.
The HTC Holiday has made an appearance at Telstra's 4g launch event. Although Telstra has branded it as the HTC 4G, photos posted by CNET show it to indeed be the Holiday under the hood. Telstra has been using 4G to describe its new LTE network and the phones that will run on it.
HTC in a Korean launch confirmed a new flagship that's likely bound for the US. The Raider 4G is the production version of the Holiday and carries its predicted giant 4.5-inch, 540x960 screen. It's HTC's first truly new model to carry LTE and, when the network allows, can hit up to 100Mbps down or 50Mbps up on a 4G network.
