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AT&T to Beat Google in Offering Gigabit Fiber in North Carolina

How fast is 1 GBPS?Competition is good. Even the threat of competition from companies like Google is spurring more traditional carriers and ISP’s to step up their game. Pricing is getting better in “threat” areas, and speeds are starting to improve. Google doesn’t even need their own Fiber service to be profitable for this experiment to be successful, so long as potential Google customers have access to the next generation of web, media, and advertising services.

Case in point, AT&T is already putting out rumblings of offering their GigaPower Fiber to another community outside of Texas. Residents in North Carolina might soon their broadband increase to 1Gbps over the next two years. This investment should also improve their LTE and WiFi hotspot offerings in the area.

Coming on the heels of Google’s announcement that they were examining expanding Fiber to 33 new cities over the coming years, traditional ISP’s are starting to take the threat seriously. It’s no longer a passing oddity, and are starting to proactively respond. Consumers only stand to benefit so long as competition is increased.

Full AT&T PR below.

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App Review: Battery Performance by Dev-Software

Screenshot_4Have you ever wondered how your phone is handling  it’s battery life? The folks over at Dev-Software may just have the answer you are looking for.  Battery Performance has a wonderful app that you should check out!

Battery Performance has a really slick UI that is both eye pleasing and functional. This app is all about the visual performance of your phone’s battery, showcasing a number of ways to see what your battery is up to such as live tiles, logs, statistics, life cycle and much more. Once the app is downloaded to your Windows Phone it will take a few seconds to gather your data. I was pretty impressed with this app’s straightforward delivery of information and fluid UI.

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Professional Broadcast Streaming Video Coming From Skype TX

Four years ago, on an entirely different blog, I lobbied Skype for a professional grade audio/video service. That day might be arriving soon…

Unveiled two days ago, Skype took the wraps off of their new broadcast-grade service dubbed “Skype TX”. Built on their acquisition of Cat and Mouse technology, they’ve developed a hardware and software combo which should deliver high quality video calling globally. Adding to a suite of tools already available to help producers integrate video content into their programs, Skype TX should be available later this year.

Me from four years ago would be very excited. Full PR below with more details on the service. Continue reading “Professional Broadcast Streaming Video Coming From Skype TX”

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Habitat for Humanity and AT&T Digitial Life Revitalize U.S. Communities

AT&T Digital Life Helps Revitalize Atlanta with Habitat for HumaKicking off at an event on April 10th, AT&T Digital Life employees will work alongside a Habitat for Humanity homeowner family to build a new home in Atlanta.

As part of a $150,000 donation from Digital Life, this will be the first of several future events in cities like LA, New York, and Seattle as part of a community revitalization collaboration with Habitat.

“We’re all about giving homeowners peace of mind. As a result, we’re compelled to work with Habitat for Humanity to help those who need the security that owning a home can provide,” said Kevin
Petersen, senior vice president, Digital Life, Inc. “Giving back through home builds across the country and in our hometown of Atlanta feels right.”

Full PR below for more info on the partnership.

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OverThought.org Publishes Comprehensive Guide to Improving iOS Battery LIfe

apple iphone 5s gold speakers headphone jack audio quality review somegadgetguyBattery life is voodoo.

No seriously, everyone “knows” what’s good for your battery. Charging it at night, during the day, disabling radios, fully depleting, never letting the battery get too low, turning on/off WiFi/BT/LTE/NFC. The tips and tricks are vast and often contradictory in what will result in better battery life for your mission critical communication gadget.

OverThought.org has written up a fairly comprehensive list of best practices for those of you wanting to hyper-mile your iPhone or iPad. Best of all it’s not just a trite list of useless suggestions like “use your phone less”, instead targeting specific usage scenarios and apps which can be notorious battery hogs.

From Multi-Tasking and App Quitting to turning off battery percentage, the article does a great job of examining commonly held notions about battery life, and delivers a number of great tips on how to get the most out of your mobile.

Even if you rock an Android or a Windows Phone, there are a couple good behaviors on this list which can help you out too. I’d highly recommend giving it a read.

The Ultimate Guide to Solving iOS Battery Drain

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Select AT&T Phones Now Supporting Google Wallet Tap & Pay, But Is It Too Late For NFC?

Google wallet on ATT LG G2The saga of mobile payments continues.

I woke up this morning to find my LG G2 had an update ready to install. I couldn’t find any changelog for what was being updated or what bug fixes were included, but I went ahead and ran it. Immediately following the procedure my phone had a new notification from Google Wallet.

Tap & Pay functionality is now supported on my LG G2.

Google tried to shake up mobile payments almost two years ago introducing the idea of NFC backed mobile payments. The first devices supporting it were the Nexus line, for me personally, the Nexus 7 tablet. I tried it out exactly once, as trying to pay at CVS with a mini-tablet tethered to my phone’s data connection was cumbersome to say the least.

Since then we’ve seen something of a feud over mobile transactions between Google and various carriers. Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T worked together on creating the ISIS platform, which is slowly starting to find support on the phones sold by those companies. Over this time period they largely blocked any momentum for Tap & Pay by banning Google Wallet on the devices they sold.

Is it too late for NFC?

Almost two years where consumers could have been getting used to the idea and building an infrastructure were essentially lost.

Recently it was announced that Best Buy and 7-Eleven would be getting rid of their NFC supported mobile payment machines. Credit card terminals which are more expensive to install, require more cashier training, and often can result in higher fees from banks.

More competition in this space is looming  from the Merchant Consumer Exchange. Like Best Buy and 7-Eleven, other companies such as Target, CVS, and Sears are a part of the MCX and are considering their own payment protocol based on barcodes like the ones used at Starbucks. A system like this could gain traction quickly as NFC payments require a special radio which the iPhone lacks, but barcodes only need to display on your screen.

The knowledge of this outside competition might be just the pressure needed to ease some of the entrenched cold war between Google and the carriers, but their squabble has cost them a considerable lead.

Are you currently using an NFC payment system like ISIS or Wallet? Are you more likely to try one in the future? Leave us a comment below!

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Sprint Offers up to $650 for Customers Switching to a Framily Plan

sprint framily plan bad commercialNo longer pushing unlimited plans, Sprint looks to be creating the 21st century equivalent of the party line with their new Framily plans. Get a group of people together to sign up for service and everyone pays less per line.

Now, if you’re porting your number over and recycling your current phone Sprint will offer up $300 in credit and also hand you a Visa pre-paid card worth up to $350. It’s the same experiment tried at T-Mobile and AT&T to varying levels of success. Sprint’s been a little quieter about their plans and deals, but their new slate of Framily plan commercials are quirky even if they don’t tell you as much about the service as they showcase talking hamsters.

Get it? Talking hamsters? Because you talk on your phone? And you’re probably not a hamster? Random!

The deal is good through May 8th, so if you were thinking of signing up you and your favorite eclectic mix of friends and family to Lil’ Yellow, the full PR is below with more details on the Switching Bonus.

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Qualcomm: Quickcharge 2.0 Phones and Tablets on the Way

Qualcomm-Snapdragon-410 lte worldOne important aspect of battery life is how quickly you can get back up and running when you’re out of juice.

Qualcomm took the wraps off of their Quickcharge 2.0 tech, which will be built into new phones and tablets sporting the Snapdragon 800 chipset. Quickcharge 1.0 delivered 10 watts, 2.0 will deliver 60 watts. Quickcharge 2.0 will rely on a combination of the power management gear in the phone and the charger plugged into the wall, though 2.0 and 1.0 devices will be cross compatible for legacy support and future proofing.

The power efficient radio management should keep you out in the field longer, and when you do need to juice up, you shouldn’t have to stay tethered for long.

Full PR below with more info on specs and compatibility.

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