Nintendo is reportedly considering changing the name of its upcoming game console, the Wii U. The reason for this internal mulling, CVG heard, is supposedly due to the confusion with the 3D and 3DS, which Nintendo found to be too similar in the public eye. It supposedly fears the same would happen with the Wii U and its existing Wii.
Verizon may be on the edge of replacing a large swath of its device line if a rumor floated on New Year's Day is an indicator. Among other withdrawals, a lone source for The Verge had Verizon stopping shipments of the Motorola Droid 3 in January. The exit would likely be in prep for the delayed Droid 4 launch the following month.
Verizon Wireless has just brought out holiday pricing and a number of new devices in time for Thanksgiving and the Black Friday holiday rish. It will get a new, red HTC Droid Incredible 2 and offer Motorola's 4G LTE-equipped Motorola Xoom tablet for $200 on contract. Both will be available online on November 24, 25, and 28, and in-store on November 25 only. The phone will be free with a new two-year contract, but only after a $50 mail-in rebate. The Xoom LTE will require a two-year contract with at least a $30 monthly plan for 2GB of data.
LG's sighting in Verizon's internal system has shown Droid-Life a device called the Spectrum. Not much is known about it from Verizon's own details other than its inclusion of 4G on LTE.
Verizon Wireless is now pushing out the Android 2.3 update for the LG Revolution. The over-the-air update is available both automatically in the next few days or by checking manually. All handsets should get the 87.8MB update by November 2.
LG quickly confirmed leaks by launching the Optimus LTE as its new flagship. Apart from its 4G, the phone's focus is on its display: the 4.5-inch, 720p (1280x720) output matches that of the Galaxy S II LTE but uses an IPS-based LCD instead of AMOLED. LG claims better color accuracy and sharpness.
A handset being called the LG VS920 has shown up undergoing testing at the FCC. The handset is expected to be the successor to the LG Revolution, also known as the VS910. The new handset has also been seen in a Verizon roadmap.
The upcoming HTC Vigor will be the first to sport Beats technology in phones, Droid-Life learned from its sources. The Beats by Dr. Dre device should be identified as such by a logo that appears during the boot-up sequence. Otherwise, the source claims the device will indeed sport a 4.3-inch touchscreen with a very high 1280x720 resolution and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.
HTC's rumored Vigor handset has appeared in yet another leak alongside several other upcoming handsets expected from Verizon. A screenshot posted by Droid-Life is claimed to show a memo related to minimum advertised pricing (MAP) for the Vigor, which is said to use the model number ADR 6425.
Verizon on Friday revealed that iPhone demand was actually up in spring despite a full push from Android. The carrier activated 2.3 million iPhone 4s in spring, up from 2.2 million in winter. The company added 2.2 million total cellphone customers, including 1.3 million of the retail subscribers core to the iPhone and 3G iPads; Apple's support meant Verizon had the best subscriber growth in 2.5 years.
Verizon ended one of the longer waits for its 4G smartphones by committing to a launch date for the LG Revolution. True to leaks, the Android LTE phone will ship May 26 for $250. The production version will also be the first phone to ship with Netflix for Android preloaded for movie viewing.
Verizon CTO Tony Melone in a speech at the TIA conference said Verizon would be using Wi-Fi to help offset heavy cellular demand. He was adamant that it wouldn't "cover up flaws and capacity limitations," a slam against AT&T's public hotspots often going up in areas where its 3G network is poor, but admitted it would be used to bolster performance. Rollouts would primarily center around homes using routers as well as at stadiums, where even the best networks can struggle coping with tens of thousands of simultaneous users in a small area.
Verizon's production-grade LG Revolution has been spotted on Tuesday and confirmed early details. The finished version sheds the silver we tried at CES for a matte black. Where the January version was running plain Android, the complete version seen by Droid-Life ships with the same custom interface as most of LG's other newer smartphones, like the Optimus Black.
A new leak shows LG's Revolution smartphone is due to arrive on May 26 at Verizon, making it the third 4G LTE-capable device at the carrier. That same Thursday should also see the launch of the Droid X2 and Xperia Play. The images below brought to us by Droid-Life also show some changes compared to the version of the handset seen last.
Verizon's edition of the HTC Trophy has popped up in leaked press photos for the first time. The shots confirm its cosmetic similarity as well as the apps Verizon plans to preload, including Slacker Radio and My Verizon Mobile. PocketNow got little new information, though the official shots virtually confirm the Windows Phone 7 hardware is getting close.
Verizon could make May 12 one of the biggest phone launches in the carrier's non-iPhone history after a scoop showed three major phones all arriving at the same time. The Droid X 2, LG Revolution, and HTC Trophy have all reportedly been scheduled for the same date. Droid-Life's source was also told that last minute prep was under way as the original Droid X was being cleared out.
A publicly posted online guide from Verizon has shown at least two devices talked about for its network but so far never confirmed or even put into doubt. The BlackBerry PlayBook has shown up in its Wi-Fi form with a "coming soon" badge. Its mention is unusual given Verizon's sudden indecisiveness on the tablet in April even after RIM promised a Verizon model in March.
Beliefs that the LG Revolution will get Netflix were validated late Thursday after a Verizon guide gave away the plans. Along with showing just-shipping phones, it mentioned the Revolution would have "high-quality video streaming by Netflix" as a core feature. The Android Central forum poster's example omitted the date and price save for a "coming soon" promise, but it's already been narrowed through leaks to a May release for $250.
IDC in a roundup of final phone market share saw Apple move faster than its rivals. Its 18.65 million iPhones shipped in the winter nearly doubled its market share form year to year to give it five percent of the total cellphone market. The growth was enough to push it past ZTE, which even with fast growth from low-end Android phones in China was overtaken at 15.1 million phones and 4.1 percent share.
A newly leaked pricing sheet for a few upcoming smartphones at provider Verizon has shown up thanks to PhoneArena. Dates are also revealed, though they are the prices' effective dates and not release dates for the handsets. The sheet revealed that the 4G-capable Samsung Droid Charge will cost $300, for which buyers will get a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU, and an eight-megapixel rear camera capable of recording 1080p video.
The LG Revolution that showed up at CES is said to now be arriving for testing, indicating the release is close. A slip from AndroidCentral is believed to be welcome news to those who want to access Verizon's 4G data network on an alternative HTC Thunderbolt.
Fulton Innovation had a surprisingly deep presence at the just-wrapping CTIA show this week and showed off some new technology using the universal Qi wireless power standard. This included not just LG's new wireless charging station but a rumored similar back for the Thunderbolt. Read on for a first-hand look as well as a check on Fulton's unique light-up, Qi-powered product boxes.
