Verizon Wireless - Engadget Mobile

AT&T loses request for injunction against Verizon's Map for That ads

by Nilay Patel posted Nov 18th 2009 at 6:07PM

Looks like AT&T's not getting its holiday wish after all -- a federal judge just ruled against Ma Bell's request to have Verizon's Map For That ads pulled off the air. That doesn't mean that this whole thing is over, though: the judge called the ads "sneaky" and said that it was possible people might misunderstand them because "most people who are watching TV are semi-catatonic." Whether or not that's enough to support a legal conclusion that the ads are misleading is a fight for another day -- specifically December 16th, when AT&T will have a second chance to argue its case. Still, this is a big win for Verizon -- everyone ready to be inundated with these ads for the next month?

Motorola Droid camera autofocus fixed in secrecy? (Update: it's a date-related self-correction)

by Vladislav Savov posted Nov 17th 2009 at 3:02PM

While we were busy looking into external speaker problems on the Droid, it would seem Moto was itself hard at work remedying a separate issue with the device. A number of users on support forums have complained of the Droid's camera failing to focus and giving them "red corners" when attempting to take pictures, but now -- suddenly and without warning -- their ailment has gone away as if touched by the hand of an omnipotent being (or, alternatively, a silent firmware update). This particular autofocus problem was mentioned in Verizon's 5-page treatise on known issues with the Droid, though the planned resolution was an official update by December 11. The fix seems to have been delivered early, as green corners are sprouting up all around, but this silent update conduit sounds a bit nefarious, no?

Update: Sure enough, we can confirm from testing one of our own Droids that the issue has been resolved. The endless quest for the green focus box is over, and you can now finally begin scanning all your discount cards into Key Ring.

Update II: And things have turned surreal. Dan Morrill, from Google's Android team, has confirmed that there's a date-related bug in the Droid's camera software that leads to it having cycles of good and bad focus that depend on the date. Our own testing confirmed this, as backdating to the 11th of November returned those red bars of failure. Apparently, the cycles last 24.5 days, meaning that you'll have good focus all the way to December 11, when the real fix is expected to drop. So breathe easy, Gotham, there are no phantom updates, just an oddly date-sentient camera.

[Thanks, AlexL and Kaiser]

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Verizon responds to AT&T's Map For That lawsuit: 'the truth hurts'

by Nilay Patel posted Nov 16th 2009 at 9:28PM

Sure, Verizon's doubled down on the 3G map ads in response to AT&T's false advertising lawsuit, but eventually the company's lawyers had to file a response and, well, ain't nobody backing down in this one. Here's the freaking introduction:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon's "There's A Map For That" advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon's ads are true and the truth hurts.

Yeah. It's gonna be like that. Verizon goes on to argue that even AT&T concedes the maps are accurate, and that pulling any of the ads off the air without proof that they're misleading consumers would be unfair, and that at the very least both parties need time to investigate further. Honestly? We've read it over a couple times now and while the legal arguments are certainly interesting, it's hard not to get the impression that Verizon drafted this response with publication in mind -- check out this quote:

In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon's side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T's confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly.

See what we mean? Now, we still think there's some merit to the idea that Verizon's ads improperly conflate 3G coverage area with 3G service quality, but that's really not what AT&T's arguing -- hell, it's busy pimping EDGE. We'll see if these two can solve their differences and get back to work, but we've got the feeling this thing ain't over yet.

Update: Here's the PDF, in case you're interested.

Gallery: Verizon's response to AT&T: 'the truth hurts'

Don't shop drunk: Verizon's $350 ETF is now live

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 15th 2009 at 2:44PM

Just a word of caution to anyone out there with an itchy credit card finger: signing up for a contract with Verizon just became a considerably more binding affair thanks to a big boost of its contract early termination fee from $175 to $350. Rumored for a few days now, the change became official as of yesterday, which means that anyone who bought an "advanced device" prior to the 14th is in the clear. The advanced device list can be found on Verizon's site, and as you might expect, it's a little broad and ridiculous -- winners like the Versa, Exilim, and Glyde are on there, so they're obviously not just referring to smartphones. They throw you a bone by reducing the ETF by a stout $10 for every month of the contract you successfully hurdle, but that still leaves you with a $120 ETF 23 months into a 24-month deal... so yeah, just be careful out there and don't do anything rash, alright?

AT&T responds to Verizon's 3G ad campaign -- by bragging about EDGE

by Nilay Patel posted Nov 12th 2009 at 7:17PM

My iPhone 3GS, in downtown Chicago, as I wrote this post.

Verizon certainly seems to be getting under AT&T's skin with its ads focused on comparing 3G coverage -- not only is Ma Bell suing over 'em, it's now issuing PR to clarify what it sees as the inaccuracies of the entire campaign. If you'll recall, AT&T thinks Verizon's 1:1 comparison of 3G coverage maps makes it looks like AT&T doesn't have any coverage at all across most of the country -- which means that our nation's largest wireless carrier is now in the sad position of pimping its gigantic EDGE network in response. Let's all gloss over the absolutely huge difference in 3G versus EDGE together, shall we?

With both 3G and EDGE coverage, customers can access the Internet, send e-mail, surf the Web, stream music, download videos, send photos, text, talk and more. The only difference – with some data applications, 3G is faster than EDGE.

Right, right -- the only difference. That must be why Apple named it the iPhone EDGE Slightly Faster.

Now, AT&T has a valid point when it says that its 3G map covers 75 percent of the nation's population, and that Verizon's conflation of total 3G coverage with actual network quality is slightly misleading. But you know what? We watch our iPhones drop from 3G to EDGE and even to GPRS all day long in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and that has nothing to do with the damn map, and everything to do with AT&T's actual network quality. Let's put it this way: Verizon's ad campaign would be totally ineffective if it didn't ring so true, and the best way for AT&T to counter these ads is to build a rock-solid network, not filing lawsuits and issuing press releases bragging about freaking EDGE. We all clear on this? Good.

BlackBerry Storm2 hands-on and impressions

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 12th 2009 at 3:00PM

For a company with the most starched, buttoned-up roots of any major wireless manufacturer, RIM's venture out of its enterprise comfort zone to the consumer space went amazingly smoothly thanks to the introduction of the original Pearl, a phone that's still sold in a variety of colors, configurations, and carriers to this day. At some point, though, it became clear that the industry was moving toward touch -- a space RIM had never dabbled in -- and the trend gave birth to the Storm, a product that had obviously been rushed to market with countless software bugs and a dodgy SurePress concept that caused more problems than it solved. With prototypes floating around in the wild mere months after its predecessor's release, RIM's message was loud and clear earlier this year: "we need to fix the Storm, and we need to do it quickly." Ultimately, it's ended up taking the company just about a year to get the Storm2 to market, a product that attempts to tweak Waterloo's touchscreen strategy just enough to undo a few mistakes and send it down the right path. Mission accomplished? Read on.

AT&T adds Verizon's Island of Misfit Toys holiday ads to lawsuit, demands they be yanked off the air

by Nilay Patel posted Nov 12th 2009 at 2:03PM

Well, you knew this was coming -- AT&T's amended its advertising lawsuit against Verizon to include Big Red's new holiday ads, including that oh-so-cute Island of Misfit Toys spot, and demanded that they be taken off the air. At question is the same map of AT&T's 3G coverage used in the other commercial, which Ma Bell says misleads customers into thinking it has no service at all in large swaths of the country. Best part? AT&T's lawyers had to describe the ad in their new filing, leading to passages like this:

The spotted elephant, in a surprised manner, asks the iPhone "What are you doing here? You can download apps and browse the web!" and a Dolly for Sue asserts that "Yeah. People will love you [the iPhone]."

Happy holidays, folks.

Read - Digital Daily
Read - AT&T's amended complaint [PDF]

Motorola Droid torn down despite desperate cries of 'no disassemble'

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 11th 2009 at 5:32PM

If you were thinking of tearing apart your own Droid, let us direct you first to this quote straight from the folks at phoneWreck: "no easy task." It seems that even finding some of the screws involved in holding the mess together was a problem, but at the end of the day, good old-fashioned human ingenuity prevailed over... well, other human ingenuity, and the phone fell asunder into the 16 pieces you see here. As you might imagine, there's a bit of industrial magic involved in fitting a full QWERTY slide into a package this tight -- but just as Moto was up to the challenge of putting it together, some dude with a little time on his hands was up to the challenge of asploding it. Needless to say, we won't be doing this to ours.

Saygus VPhone video hands-on

by Paul Miller posted Nov 11th 2009 at 12:49PM

Want to see that new Saygus VPhone in action? Can't get enough QWERTY in your Android? Enjoy videos shot amongst a crowd of screaming trade show attendees? Boy are you in luck. Check out our video hands-on of the handset after the break, and please excuse the noise.

Continue reading Saygus VPhone video hands-on

Saygus VPhone to bring video calls and a bit of chub to Android and Verizon

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 10th 2009 at 6:42PM

If you know that your personal happiness lies somewhere in the Verizon / Android abyss but neither the Droid nor the Droid Eris are hitting the spot, you might consider trying something completely out of left field. How "left field" are we talking here? Well, for starters, odds are good that you've never heard of a company called Saygus, and its shiny new QWERTY slider, the VPhone, won't be offered directly from Verizon -- it's a product of the carrier's Open Development initiative. Sure enough, that handset we spied a few days back is real, and the specs are all panning out: 624MHz PXA310 XScale core, 512MB of Flash on board coupled with 256MB of RAM, 3.5-inch capacitive WVGA touchscreen, WiFi, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, front-facing VGA camera and -- of course -- EV-DO Rev. A support. The current incarnation is running Android 1.6, but it should be running 2.0 by the time of its launch next year, along with getting some Google-certification to let it run the Google apps. Saygus' real thrust here is apparently two-way video calling (good thing they picked Verizon, huh?), though they aren't showing it off just yet. The hardware itself is rather chubby, but it leaves room for an oversized QWERTY keyboard that could very well solve your Droid woes. No word on price or a firm release date.

Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend

by Darren Murph posted Nov 10th 2009 at 9:12AM

The lines may have been subdued, but one way or another, it sounds as if Motorola managed to sell quite a few DROIDs over the weekend. According to analyst Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech, the outfit managed to move around 100,000 of 'em during the opening weekend, with most stores moving at least half of their original shipments. He also estimated that Moto would sell one million Android-based phones in Q4 2009 alone (which includes the CLIQ, obviously), and that he viewed the first few days as "encouraging." It's been a long, long while since we've been able to say this, but hey -- nice job, Motorola.

Verizon already prepping DROID and DROID Eris firmware updates?

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 10th 2009 at 4:08AM

The last thing you want to hear about a few short days after a product's launch is a litany of issues plaguing devices in the field, but that's not quite what's going on here -- instead, this looks to be an extension of Verizon's well-known policy of testing the crap out of devices until manufacturers are practically crying uncle. The carrier has already generated long internal lists of issues on both the DROID and DROID Eris, it seems, with the leaked documents revealing some five pages for the Motorola product and seven -- yes, seven -- for the HTC one; the good news is that they're all slated to be fixed in one of two firmware updates slated for December and January windows. Again, knowing Verizon, these firmware updates could very well get stuck in the testing lab for another six years, but we'll keep our hopes skyward.

Read - DROID
Read - DROID Eris

New DROID ads show off Android, will make a man out of you

by Paul Miller posted Nov 9th 2009 at 1:23PM

"A robot is a thing that does..." Verizon / Google / Motorola are taking their ad onslaught to new heights and in a new direction, with three new ads (which will hit "soon," according to our tipster), two of which actually show off Android functionality. It's a bold new vision for a hyperbole-filled, guytastic campaign which shows no sign of letting up, and seems more than anything to be the complete antithesis to Palm's coma-inducing spots instead of an antidote for Apple's everyhipster sensibilities. Check out the three new DROID ads after the break.

[Thanks, DroidDoesItAll]

Continue reading New DROID ads show off Android, will make a man out of you

Verizon takes another swing at AT&T, puts iPhone on the Island of Misfit Toys

by Nilay Patel posted Nov 8th 2009 at 1:57PM

AT&T might be suing Verizon for misrepresenting its network in ads, but that doesn't seem to have dissuaded Big Red from using that same map image in this new spot, which casts the iPhone away to the Island of Misfit Toys. Hard to argue with the premise, but here's the real question: why not just sack up use a real iPhone, instead of this KIRF piece? Check the ad after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Verizon takes another swing at AT&T, puts iPhone on the Island of Misfit Toys

HTC Hero / Eris mega faceoff on video

by Paul Miller posted Nov 6th 2009 at 5:45PM

Now that we've got the DROID ERIS in the mix, we're up to our ears in HTC Hero-derivative devices. We decided to sit the whole crew (GSM, Sprint and Verizon editions) down for a little modeling session, and we're finding ourselves reticent to pick a favorite. There are really plusses and minuses to each of them, but any way you lean it's a pretty good handset with some perhaps overly bulky software, a wonderful pricepoint (on Verizon, anyway) and probably a limited time in the sun with upcoming Android 2.0 devices, faster processors and wild new screens rolling on in. Check the video out after the break and you can make up your own mind.

Continue reading HTC Hero / Eris mega faceoff on video