CWA: AT&T / T-Mobile Merger will create 10k jobs

According to a Communication Workers of American Union analysis, the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile will create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. The CWA analysis was able to conclude that 96,000 additional jobs would be created along with the 5,000 outsourced customer service jobs AT&T has promised to bring back stateside.

The CWA went a step further by scolding opponents of the deal and stating that their concerns over any possible lost jobs were conceived by “sloppy research and the inability to distinguish between the change in the number of wireline and wireless jobs.” The CWA comments were a response to a study commissioned by Sprint and said Sprint’s arguments were “misguided and misleading.” The CWA emphasized that any deal between AT&T and T-Mobile would absolutely create more jobs than any potential deal between Sprint and T-Mobile.

HP looking to sell WebOS

HP is mulling over wether to sell webOS to a as of yet unknown buyer, according to Reuters. HP picked up webOS when it aquired Palm in July 2010 paying $1.2 billion for the company. HP has not been able to make money on the mobile software, and has discontinued the webOS devices. A possible suitor is Oracle, most likely interested in the patents, but not webOS itself.

Apple Store iOS app adds in-store shoplifting purchasing

The latest version of Apple’s Apple Store app will now let you walk into an Apple Store, select an item, scan the bar code using your iPhone’s camera, pay with the credit card linked to your iTunes account and walk out with the item in tow, without waving down the fruit-loving boys (or girls)  in blue.

This tool is currently limited to accessories so don’t expect to be able to walk out with a shiny new iThing. Furthermore, it is unclear how Apple will deter shoplifters seeing as how your phone can’t provide a bag or paid sticker.

Siri now ported to every iOS 5 device

With the recent port of Siri to the iPhone 3GS, Siri is able to run on any device with iOS 5 installed (iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad), and able to connect to Apple’s servers thanks to the efforts of developer Steven Troughton-Smith and the folks at 9to5 Mac. The port of the  voice assistant was accomplished by using the 4S Siri and Springboard files. This of course goes against the fact that Apple has said that only the iPhone 4S has enough power for Siri. Perhaps they are using Siri as a 4S selling point to an otherwise mundane upgrade to the iPhone 4?

Tegra 3 Quad-core HTC Edge next year?

While the world’s first quad core Android tablet should be released later this month by Asus, we’ll probably have to wait until next year to see the world’s first quad core Android smartphone. We obviously don’t know what company will introduce the first quad core smartphone, but it could be HTC, which reportedly works on a handset called HTC Edge (pictured above). According to PocketNow, the HTC Edge features a 1.5GHz quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, a 4.7 inch, 1280 x 720 pixels display, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, 8MP rear camera with 28-millimeter, f/2.2 lens, 32GB of internal memory, Beats Audio technology, and a case that’s slightly over 10 mm thin. 21Mbps HSPA is also present, but there’s no word about LTE (it’s probably there, too). By the looks of it, the HTC Edge is a smartphone born to run Android Ice Cream Sandwich. However, there’s no mention on what version of Android it will come with. Reportedly, the Edge will be launched next year in late Q1, or early Q2. We’ll bring more on this as soon as new details are available.

HTC Radar now Free-ish

If you were meaning to get a Windows Phone on contract, but have so far held off, now may be the time to actually take that step and move into Microsoft’s new mobile world. If you don’t mind T-Mobile as your carrier, there’s an unbeatable offer waiting for you if you’d like to have a brand new HTC Radar 4G.

The smartphone is currently being offered for free by the magenta carrier via a special deals site. There’s a $100 mail-in rebate involved though. But if you agree to trade-in an old phone in working condition, you’ll even receive $100. You’ll have to also send in proof of purchase for that old phone, but TMo accepts any phone from any carrier as long as it’s working. So in effect, after sending the mail-in rebate and an old device in, you’ll have a new smartphone, the HTC Radar 4G, and you’ll also be $100 richer. If this isn’t an amazing deal, we don’t know what is.

To order your free HTC Radar 4G, follow the instructions on this website. To trade-in an old phone for $100, go here and enter the code MSMango.

In case you were wondering, yes, the HTC Radar 4G runs Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. In fact it’s one of the new Windows Phones to come out of the Taiwanese handset maker. It has a 3.8-inch 480×800 touchscreen, a 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording, a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, 8 GB of built-in storage, 4G (HSPA), Wi- Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 1,520 mAh battery.

Galaxy Nexus rooted before launch

If you’re dying to get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and plan to start tinkering with it the second you turn it on, this is probably for you. One of the things that makes Android different from other mobile operating systems is that you can choose to use it as the manufacturer of your phone (and/or your carrier) intended, or you can gain root access and customize everything about it – throw in a custom ROM, change the boot animation, anything your heart desires. For those in the latter camp, which we like to call the tinkerers, we have some good news. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has already been rooted. Yes, before it even went on sale. That was fast, but it was also to be expected, since this is a Nexus device. Both its predecessors have been notoriously easy to root, and that was by design. The even better news is that this rooting method (using something called Superboot) is very easy to use. You won’t need to flash any partitions, mess with ADB, do stuff to your data partition, or alter the stock ROM in any way. You just boot the image, it auto-roots upon first run, and that’s it. Full instructions are available here at MoDaCo. Make sure you know them by heart before the Galaxy Nexus arrives at your doorstep!

HTC Vivid & GSII Skyrocket: AT&T’s LTE power couple

 

AT&T’s first pair of LTE-capable smartphones — the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and HTC Vivid — are available for purchase today for $149 and $99 respectively. While both phones will function fine on AT&T’s existing HSPA+ network, AT&T is just getting started with it LTE rollout, with more cities expected as time rolls on.

The Skyrocket pairs alongside the Galaxy S II already in AT&T’s stable, but it ups the Super AMOLED Plus display (at 480×800) to 4.5 inches. It’s also has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 8MP rear-facing camer with LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording, 16GB of on-board stoarge, and a microSD card slot. It’s also one of the thinnest LTE smartphones we’ve seen, coming in at a svelte 0.35″ thick.

The HTC Vivid has a 4.5-inch qHD display at 540×960 resolution. It’s has a 1.2 GHz processor, 8MP rear camera with 1080p video recording, 16GB of on-board storage and a microSD card slot. With its redesign, HTC also tweaked the battery cover to a slider reliving us of the fingernail-ripper of the HTC Inspire.

AT&T Piles on the Android Smartphones

First up we have the Motorola Atrix 2, the successor to the original Motorola Atrix. Specs wise, the Atrix 2 spots a dual-core 1GHz processor, 8 GB of internal storage, Android 2.3, a 4.3 qHD display with 960×540 resolution, a 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p HD recording, a front-facing camera, HSPA+ network connectivity, and 1GB of RAM. The Atrix 2 will also be compatible with the Motorola Lapdock 100. The Atrix 2 will be available for $99.99 on a two year contract starting Oct. 16th.

Second, we have the Samsung Captivate Glide. The Captivate Glide features a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, Android 2.3, a Tegra 2 dual- core processor, a sliding QWERTY keyboard, HSPA+ connectivity, a 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD recording, and a 1.3 megapixel front- facing camera.

The Samsung DoubleTime has a clamshell shape with two touch screens, one on the inside and one on the outside along with a full QWERTY keyboard in the inside. Despite the unique shape and dual screens, the DoubleTime’s insides are pretty weak: It runs Android 2.2 on a 600MHz Qualcomm CPU.

The Pantech Pocket has a very wide 4-inch display with 800 x 600 resolution. The pocket offers users midrange specs: Android 2.3, a 1GHz processor, and a 5 megapixel camera with HD recording. The pocket is expected to make its debut November 6th, although we do not have an exact price.

Lastly we have the AT&T Avail, a device manufactured by ZTE. The Avail features a 3.5- inch display, Android 2.3, 512 MB of RAM, and a 5 megapixel camera. The Avail will be part of AT&T’s pre-paid roster. Kudos to AT&T for revealing not only one, but 5 devices at one press conference. Besides the Pocket and Atrix 2, we don’t have any info on pricing or release dates. We will keep you updated on the status of these devices.