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To date, Firefox OS has only had a presence in Europe. Now, it's now venturing overseas to Latin America with a launch on Movistar. Both Colombians and Venezuelans can buy the Alcatel OneTouch Fire and ZTE Open from the carrier today. Whether or not the phones represent bargains will depend on the country, however. Venezuelans wanting the OneTouch Fire and Open will have to buy them at steep respective prices of 1,739BEF ($277) and 1,159BEF ($184) on contract, while Colombians can buy either device for 199,900 pesos ($106) prepaid or 99,900 pesos ($53) on a one-year agreement. We're still months away from the release of Firefox OS phones in the US, but the Latin American launch at least gets us one step closer.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Telefonica, The Mozilla Blog
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a new smartphone from Xolo to India, HTC's crackdown on a custom ROM distributor and the UK's largest mobile spectrum auction to date. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of January 21st, 2013.
A new Android 4.0 smartphone known as the Xolo A500 became available within India this week, and from all appearances, it's entirely run of the mill. That said, with a price of ₹6,999 ($130), it may just turn a few heads. The Xolo A500 sports a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display, along with a dual-core 1GHz CPU (Snapdragon S4 Play) and dual-SIM functionality. You'll also find a 5-megapixel rear camera, along with a front-facing VGA shooter. The device includes a 1,500mAh battery, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and supports microSD cards up to 32GB in size. [Fone Arena]
The largest mobile spectrum auction to date in the UK began this week, which is set to nearly double the wireless resources available to Britons. In all, 28 lots of spectrum are available across the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands, which will add 250MHz of spectrum to the 333MHz in use today. Telefonica (O2), Vodafone, EE, Hutchison (Three), Niche Spectrum Ventures (BT), HKT and MLL are participants in the auction, which carries a total reserve price of £1.36 billion. According to UK regulator Ofcom, the auction will take place in several rounds over the coming weeks. [Android Central]
Verizon's Lowell McAdam now has some company. During this week's earnings call, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson revealed that AT&T is similarly monitoring T-Mobile's shift to drop the subsidized business model and instead provide customers the ability to finance their new smartphone purchase. While Stephenson may lack grace with his words, the intent is clear: "We expect there to be some dynamics in the marketplace that -- and we'll have to respond to some of it -- we find interesting, like the handset financing that they're doing." Curiously, Stephenson admitted that AT&T has considered the approach in the past, but like Verizon, much of how his company responds will depend on consumers' reception of T-Mobile's new approach. [FierceWireless]
US Cellular announced this week that it now supports carrier billing for online purchases. The system was launched in partnership with Boku, and subscribers may pay for goods at participating merchants by entering their mobile number at checkout and then confirming the purchase with a text message. From there, customers will find the total amount of the purchase added to their wireless bill. [PhoneScoop]
Data Sense is one of the more unique features of Windows Phone 8, which allows users to monitor their data usage and squeeze more from their data plan through the magic of server-side compression. Verizon is the only carrier to support the feature within the US, but that may soon change, as AT&T has revealed that it's "exploring Data Sense and how to optimize the experience" for its subscribers. About damn time, right? [FierceWireless]
A provider of many popular Sense-based ROMs is no more. This week, HTCRUU closed its doors and took its repositories offline in acquiescence to legal threats from HTC. Historically, HTC has taken an admirably lax approach to distribution of customized Sense ROMs, which are popular among enthusiasts of the company's smartphones. Naturally, many other sources exist for custom Sense blends, which raises the question of whether this move was but a one-off showing of legal force, or whether HTC will take a more active approach to ending the underground custom ROM community. Those interested can learn more of the situation on Reddit. [Android Police]
[Buy More Stuff photo credit: jbhthescots / Flickr]
[Mobile Miscellany photo credit: Thristian / Flickr]
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Those in the US can brag about having the range, indoor friendliness and other advantages of 700MHz LTE, but few other countries have that edge so far: Latin Americans who have any LTE at all usually have to contend with less tolerant 2.6GHz bands. Colombia isn't happy with that state of affairs, and its National Spectrum Agency is spearheading a rapidly growing 4G movement in the region by testing 700MHz LTE between the fall and winter. Its strategy echoes proposals from Brazil and Mexico that will use the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity band plan, providing more efficient airwaves as well as wider device and network coverage. It will take beyond early 2013 before Colombia and its neighbors are actively using 700MHz bands -- the digital TV transition is one of the bigger obstacles -- but there's desires for a fast-track spectrum handout that could bring blazing speeds to Bogota before too long.
[Image credit: Kinori, Wikipedia]
Colombia to start testing 700MHz LTE, joins a Latin American trend in 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Agencia Nacional del Espectro (translated) | Email this | Comments 
Google has expanded its Maps traffic coverage before, but rarely on a grand scale. The search giant isn't standing on tradition this time: it just flipped on live traffic data for at least the major roads in over 130 cities. Most of the coverage centers around smaller cities in the US, although Google is tipping its hat to Latin America with first-time support for Bogota, San Jose (in Costa Rica) and Panama City. Coverage has also been improved in a dozen other countries worldwide. While the widened reach still won't ease the burden of anyone already caught in a traffic jam, any democratization of smarter driving directions is good in our book.
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS
Google Maps adds live traffic for over 130 cities, boosts existing coverage originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The advent of movie support in iTunes for the Cloud was a boon to Apple TV owners as well as any iTunes user with a tendency to hop between devices -- within the US, that is. Apple today swung the doors open and let Australia, Canada, the UK as well as 32 other countries and regions around the world get access to their movies whenever they're signed in through iTunes or an iOS device. Not every studio is on the same page, as many American viewers will know all too well: it's more likely that you'll get re-download rights for a major studio title such as Lockout than an indie production, for example. Even with that limit in mind, there's no doubt more than a few movie mavens glad to avoid shuffling and re-syncing that copy of Scott Pilgrim to watch it through to the end.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
iTunes in the Cloud movies find their way to Australia, Canada, the UK and 32 more countries originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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