Samsung recently announced the new Samsung Galaxy Appeal slider phone. This handset is exclusively available for the AT&T GoPhone subscribers in the US. The Samsung Galaxy Appeal is a prepaid Android smartphone, which will be first available in Walmart stores, followed by AT&T retail outlets. It runs on the old Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System. This handset is not expected to get the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update in the future.

The Samsung Galaxy Appeal is the first smartphone offered with AT&T’s GoPhone service that features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Samsung Galaxy Appeal’s plastic parts are made of 80-percent recycled material and the phone ships with reduced packaging material compared to other Samsung devices. Check out the complete specs below.

Samsung Galaxy Appeal Specifications:

• 3.2 inch touchscreen display
• 480 x 320 pixels resolution
• 800 MHz ARM Cortex A5 processor
• 3 megapixel rear-facing camera
• Video recording capabilities
• 512 MB RAM
• 1.8 GB ROM
• MicroSD card slot
• 32GB expandable memory
• Up to 7 hours of talk-time
• Up to 300 hours of stand-by time
• 1300 mAh Li-ION battery
• GSM Quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
• UMTS Tri-band: 850/1900/2100MHz
• Dimensions: 4.41” (H) x 2.27” (W) x 0.56” (D)
• Weight: 4.3 oz

Samsung Appeal owners can get 5 GB, 10 GB and 15 GB of data for just $5, $15 and $25 per month respectively. All data packages are available on the $50 Unlimited Talk and Text nationwide plan for GoPhone smartphones. This handset will be available at Walmart from June 5, followed by all other AT&T GoPhone distribution channels from July 15.

Earlier this month, Samsung unveiled the Windows Phone powered Samsung Focus 2 smartphone. This handset is exclusively available for the AT&T subscribers in the US. Samsung Focus 2 is the successor of the popular Samsung Focus smartphone. It runs on the Windows Phone 7.5 Operating System.

Samsung Focus 2 is the company’s first 4G LTE Windows Phone. This handset is finally available for purchase at AT&T. If you are planning to buy one, then check out the complete specs after the break.

Samsung Focus 2 features a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, sporting a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Operating System, 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon single-core processor, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE Connectivity, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, HD (720p) video recording and playback and much more.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, MicroUSB 2.0, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, 8 GB internal storage, Bing Maps, AT&T U-verse Mobile, NavigatorSM, Microsoft Office, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, up to 10.4 days of stand-by time, up to 6 hrs of talk-time and a 1750 mAh battery. This handset measures 121.7 x 62.7 x 11 mm and weighs just 122 gms.

Samsung Focus 2 is currently available in pure white color at AT&T for just $49.99 with a 2 year service agreement and a $39.99 monthly voice plan. To get this handset, head over to this page at AT&T.

This afternoon, I noticed that my Nokia Lumia 800 prompted me for a voicemail password out of nowhere. Thinking that there was some connectivity glitch, I entered the password and guess what, it took me to a visual voicemail screen! I have not seen that screen on my Lumia before, and as I was made to understand, Visual Voicemail for Windows Phone was only available if you added a 4G LTE plan with AT&T.

Before everyone gets excited, I should provide a few disclaimers: I am on my company’s corporate plan, so I don’t know what plan I am on. However, knowing that my plan is actually an “iPhone data” plan, I know it could not be a 4G LTE plan, since there is no such plan. The other thing is that the screen stays at “syncing voicemail” and does not actually show me my voicemails. At some point this afternoon, I did get a message that it was not able to connect and that I could call the traditional voicemail. I restarted the phone to see if this disappeared, and it has not, so I suppose this functionality may actually be rolling out slowly. I sure hope so.

Could this be another move by Nokia (and AT&T) to further the Windows Phone cause? We have seen that Nokia has been able to get a few exclusives and are making quite a splash in bringing the Windows Phone platform on par with iOS and Android. Could this be another move in that plan?

I am unable to confirm if this is true with other non-Lumia or non-LTE devices. If anyone has a Windows Phone (Lumia or otherwise) and is with AT&T but *not* on a 4G LTE plan, let me know. Let’s hope things are changing at AT&T with regard to their love of Windows Phone.

Update: I never saw it on my AT&T Samsung Focus, but here’s a response I saw on twitter:

@TheRomit I dont think so. I’ve had this on my Focus for over a month ever since I forced the 8107 update. It’s stuck on ‘syncing voicemail’

— karelj (@karelj) May 11, 2012

 

More, from twitter:

@TheRomit @wpcentral @wmpoweruser Samsung Focus here, no go.

— Brett Lemoine (@bremic9188) May 11, 2012

Back at CES 2012, Samsung and AT&T announced a new handset for the carrier’s 4G LTE network – the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD. Apart from its unusually long name, the Skyrocket HD, the handset was going to pack in a 4.5-inch 720p Super-AMOLED screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB of RAM. Except for the 720p Super AMOLED HD screen, the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD is similar to the Skyrocket.

Now, that more than 4 months have passed by since Samsung and AT&T first announced the handset, both the companies have decided to cancel the launch of the product. While AT&T and Samsung have not yet confirmed that the Galaxy S III will be coming to AT&T’s network, the carrier definitely fits Samsung’s statement of the largest and fastest LTE network in the United States. Thus, the decision to cancel the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD from AT&T and Samsung  is definitely a good decision.

Hopefully, the AT&T version of the Galaxy S III will not come with an absurdly long name like the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III Quad HD LTE.

Via – The Verge

Up until now, it was a known fact that Android updates for a majority of the Android handsets in the United States was intentionally delayed by the carriers. While Google has not publicly mentioned this, one of the key AOSP Android engineer had clearly mentioned this in a post on Google+.

Now, it looks like AT&T’s CEO wants to completely change the blame game and has blamed Google for the delay in the release of Ice Cream Sandwich update for some the handsets. Here is the official statement from AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson -:

Google determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. A lot of times, that’s a negotiated arrangement and that’s something we work at hard. We know that’s important to our customers. That’s kind of an ambiguous answer because I can’t give you a direct answer in this setting.

This new certainly put a lot of bloggers and Android fanboys confused. Was Google really behind the delay in Android OS updates? Thankfully, before this news went viral, Google released a statement that it is not sure about what AT&T’s CEO means -:

Mr. Stephenson’s carefully worded quote caught our attention and frankly we don’t understand what he is referring to. Google does not have any agreements in place that require a negotiation before a handset launches.  Google has always made the latest release of Android available as open source at source.android.com as soon as the first device based on it has launched. This way, we know the software runs error-free on hardware that has been accepted and approved by manufacturers, operators and regulatory agencies such as the FCC. We then release it to the world.

I am kind of shocked how AT&T’s CEO publicly blamed Google for the delay in Android OS updates, while Google has been pretty transparent about the whole process. It is the ‘ software testing’ from the U.S. carriers that take up more than a month or so to finish, before any OTA update is rolled out to Android handset in their network.

Via – 9to5Google

Samsung recently announced the Windows Phone powered Focus 2 smartphone. This handset is the successor of the Samsung Focus S smartphone. It runs on the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Operating System. Samsung Focus 2 is the company’s first 4G LTE Windows Phone. This handset will be exclusively available for the AT&T customers in the US.

Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Mobile, said,
“Samsung is the unmatched leader in offering smartphones across a variety of platforms and the Focus 2 is a powerful example of our continued commitment to Windows Phone. As our first 4G LTE Windows Phone, the Focus 2 is a fast and versatile device for productivity, entertainment and social networking.”

Samsung Focus 2 features a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, sporting a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Operating System, 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon single-core processor, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE Connectivity, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, HD (720p) video recording and playback, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, 3.5mm audio jack, 8 GB internal storage and a 1750 mAh battery.

This handset measures 121.7 x 62.7 x 11 mm and weighs just 122 gms. Samsung Focus 2 will be available for purchase in pure white color from May 20 for just $49.99 with a 2 year service agreement and a $39.99 monthly voice plan. Are you planning to buy this handset or you would go for the Nokia Lumia 900? Let us know your views in the comments section below.

The HTC One X is one of the most powerful Android smartphone. This handset was announced and showcased at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 in Barcelona. The HTC One X runs on the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Operating System. This handset is already available in most of the European and Asian countries. However, the launch of this handset was delayed in the US.

The HTC One X is exclusively available for the AT&T subscribers in the US. Last month, AT&T announced the price and availability of this device. Now, the HTC One X is finally available for purchase in the US. You can not only get this device from AT&T, but you can also get it from Amazon. Check out the complete specs below.

HTC One X features a 4.7 inch Super LCD HD display, sporting a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, Corning Gorilla Glass, 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, HTC Sense 4, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS, 8 megapixel camera, Full HD (1080p) video recording, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and more.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, DLNA connectivity, microUSB 2.0, 1 GB RAM, 32 GB internal memory, 25 GB DropBox cloud storage, Internal GPS Antenna, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE Connectivity, NFC (Near Field Communication), HDMI, HTC Watch, Beats audio and a 1800 mAh battery.

AT&T is currently selling this device for $199.99 with a 2 year service agreement. On the other hand, you can purchase this device from Amazon at a much lower price of $149.99. To get the powerful HTC One X, head over to AT&T or Amazon.

HTC had a disastrous 2011 thanks to its non-competitive handsets and its new policy of locking down bootloaders on is handsets. The poor sales and its dwindling profit made the company realize its mistake, and the company finally realized a competitive line-up of product – the One series – along with allowing users to unlock bootloaders of nearly 25+ various handsets from HTC.

Sadly, it looks like HTC has once again changed its policy on the bootloader unlocking front. While the bootloader of the European variant of the HTC One X can be unlocked via the company’s bootloader unlocking tool, it is the AT&T’s variant of the One X whose bootloader cannot be unlocked. This news is certainly not going to go down well with existing owners of the AT&T’s variant of the One X.

Below is HTC’s official statement on this -:

HTC is committed to listening to users and delivering customer satisfaction. Since announcing our commitment to unlockable bootloaders, HTC has worked to enable our customers to unlock the bootloader on more than 45 devices over the past six months. In some cases, however, restrictions prevent certain devices from participating in our bootloader unlocking program. Rest assured, HTC is committed to assisting developers in unlocking bootloaders for HTC devices and we’ll continue to unlock additional devices in the future.”

HTC had allowed unlocking the bootloaders of nearly all its handsets then why suddenly why did the company suddenly go back on its word? As it is, the unlock tool from the company does not provide true S-OFF that hampers the development of its handsets. More than HTC, it is AT&T who is to be blamed here. This move from HTC and AT&T is definitely going to hamper the sales of the One X and its development in the Android modding community.

Today morning, AT&T reported its quarterly results for Q1 2012. The carrier revealed that it sold 5.5 million smartphones last quarter, and 4.3 million of those activations were iPhones. 21 percent out of the 4.3 million iPhones were new activations. Also, the total 5.5 million AT&T sold last quarter was a new record for the company.

In fact, sales of Apple’s iPhone accounted for over 78 percent of smartphones sold on AT&T. AT&T said that iPhone sales were “helped by AT&T’s 4G network, which lets iPhone 4S download three-times faster than other U.S. carriers’ networks.” The carrier’s results compare to 3.2 million iPhones on its rival carrier Verizon.

AT&T also said that about 30 percent of its existing postpaid smartphone subscribers are on 4G-capable devices. In iOS 5.1, the iPhone 4S began to tell users that they are on “4G” when utilizing AT&T high-speed HSDPA network.

The carrier also reported revenues of $31.8 billion, up $575 million, or 1.8 percent, compared to the same period a year ago. Notice how carriers only disclose sales numbers for iPhone and no other phone. Android’s still “winning” though!

AT&T recently announced the price and availability of the powerful HTC One X smartphone. This handset was originally announced and showcased earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 in Barcelona. The HTC One X comes with a 4.7 inch Super LCD HD display as well as a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor. It runs on the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Operating System. This handset will be exclusively available for the AT&T subscribers in the US from next month.

HTC One X is AT&T’s first smartphone with Beats by Dr.Dre Audio built-in to the hardware and software. It is also the carrier’s first smartphone to launch with the latest version of the Android Operating System. HTC Watch on One X allows the user to access thousands of Hollywood blockbusters and offers companion content to find out more about the film.

HTC One X features a 4.7 inch Super LCD HD display, sporting a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, Corning Gorilla Glass, 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS, HTC Sense 4, 8 megapixel camera, Full HD (1080p) video recording, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and more.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE Connectivity, NFC (Near Field Communication), HDMI, DLNA connectivity, microUSB 2.0, 1 GB RAM, 32 GB internal memory, 25 GB DropBox cloud storage, Internal GPS Antenna, HTC Watch, Beats audio and a 1800 mAh battery.

The HTC One X will be available for purchase from May 6. However, this device will be available for pre-order starting from April 22. The HTC One X comes with a price-tag of $199.99 with a 2 year service agreement and a $39.99 minimum monthly voice plan.