ASUS ZenPad Z8 tablet for Verizon has six-core CPU, dual front speakers, USB-C, and Android M
Android tablets are rather boring and uneventful nowadays. While the Nexus 9 was great, the 2013 Nexus 7 remains the best such tablet ever. This is a very sad state of affairs for the Android community. Google and manufacturers have just never been able to produce the elusive "iPad killer". Apple's line of tablets remain the best after all these years.
Today, ASUS announces a tablet that actually has me excited. Seriously, I haven't felt this way about an Android tablet in a while. The 7.9 inch LTE-enabled ZenPad Z8 -- which is a Verizon exclusive -- has a hexacore processor, USB Type-C, expandable storage, and Android M. While it may not be the Android tablet that "kills" Apple's tablet, the specs are quite impressive, and the price is amazingly low.
Goodbye, Yahoo!
My oldest Internet ID, three letters, is vintage 1996. Yahoo's impending demise, which could be to Verizon, almost certainly will mark the end of our long relationship. We mutually will abandon one another. I'm sorry that it comes to this.
Yahoo sealed its fate when cutting the deal to outsource search to Microsoft during summer 2009. The disaster I predicted then will soon end the iconic brand, what little remains of it. Many people will blame CEO Marissa Mayer, but she was but steward of the sinking ship. Doom was a certainty after Yahoo surrendered crown jewel search. That the company limped along for another 7 years is testimony to the brand and to the services infrastructure built around it.
Can you hear me now? 36,000 Verizon workers go on strike
Is your phone working? The reason I ask is this morning at 6am EDT 36,000 Verizon workers walked off the job in protest of outsourcing of work to countries such the Philippines, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The carrier is closing call centers in favor of overseas help. The union also makes accusations of sending workers out of state for extended periods of time.
"Verizon's corporate greed isn't just harming workers' families, it's hurting customers as well," the CWA (Communications Workers of America) says in a statement to CNN.
Internet of Things is now mainstream, Verizon says
According to a new report released by Verizon, the Internet of Things is now mainstream. The report, titled State of the Market: Internet of Things (IoT), used the company’s customer usage data, research from Oxford Economics, customer case studies, and third party data to come to its conclusion in regard to the future of IoT.
Verizon’s experts see the combination of five macrotrends as the catalyst behind the IoT finally being embraced by consumers and businesses.
Netflix admits throttling Verizon and AT&T customers
Despite accusation to the contrary, AT&T and Verizon have not been throttling the connections of Netflix customers -- but Netflix has. The streaming video service has admitted that it has limited the video quality that can be accessed by AT&T and Verizon customers for over five years.
In an astonishing revelation to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix -- a long-standing and vocal supporter of net neutrality -- fessed up to limiting mobile streams for some users to just 600 kbps. The reason provided for this is that the throttling prevents users from exceeding their monthly data limits... but the same throttling is not applied to Sprint and T-Mobile.
Verizon will have to pay $1.35m fine over 'supercookie' tracking
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it has found Verizon Wireless to have deliberately violated the privacy of its users.
Verizon Wireless is the largest US carrier with over 100m subscribers, but failed to disclose the practice of using supercookies in order to violate their users privacy from late 2012 until 2014, violating a 2010 FCC regulation on Internet transparency.
Verizon has the best cellular network in US
Each carrier would like you to believe that its network is better than those of its rivals. It may be touted as the most reliable or the fastest but, at least in one regard, it definitely takes the cake. Such claims can be hard to believe though when they come directly from the horse's mouth. After all, it is easy to lead the pack when you decide exactly what the rules are.
RootMetrics has conducted its own tests to find out which major US carrier has the best cellular network and, based on its findings, Verizon comes out as the clear winner, well ahead of AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.
Samsung bringing Gear S2 classic 3G/4G smartwatch to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile
Modern smartwatches are hardly must-have devices. Most are simply extensions of smartphones, serving as nothing more than expensive accessories. In other words, many smartwatches aren't very useful on their own.
Some of these watches, however, have cellular radios, making them useful as a standalone experience. Heck, they could even replace smartphones for those with limited needs. Today, Samsung announces that it is bringing its standalone-ready Gear S2 classic 3G/4G smartwatch to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
Comcast to launch MVNO using Verizon's network
Comcast has just invoked a three years old agreement with Verizon which allows it to use its network. According to Comcast’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts, the network will be used to test a wireless service.
Roberts said during the earnings call on Tuesday that his company plans to "trial and test some things".
Verizon launches NETGEAR Jetpack AC791L -- the carrier's first 4G LTE-A mobile hotspot
With the loss of unlimited mobile data, consumers need to be more mindful of their behaviors. With that said, the one decent byproduct of data caps is that sharing the data can be both easy and affordable. Often, for a minimal monthly fee, you can add a tablet, or hotspot device to access your data pool.
While portable hotspots are a dime a dozen, many of them are unreliable and flaky. Not to mention, you can typically tether directly from your phone. Using your phone, however, can quickly drain the battery -- a separate unit is preferable. Today, Verizon announces the NETGEAR Jetpack AC791L. This is Verizon's first-ever 4G LTE Advanced (LTE-A) Mobile Hotspot. Not only is it fast, but it has other goodies too. Not to mention, NETGEAR's reliability.
Samsung Gear S2 is a beautifully circular Tizen-powered smartwatch
The wearable market is not very mature. We are only starting to scratch the surface of what the future holds. For the time being, however, we pretty much have alerts and fitness tracking. Let's be honest, many computer and gadget nerds don't bother with exercise (prove me wrong, people), making the wearables a glorified alert screen. In other words, as fun as Apple Watch and Android Wear can be, they are very much version 1.0 of smartwatches.
While Samsung embraces Android Wear, its Tizen-based models, such as Samsung Gear S, have more functionality. Today, the company officially announces the beautiful successor -- the Gear S2. Users can even opt for a 3G model so they do not need Wi-Fi or to be tethered to a phone. Android Wear and Apple Watch can't do that...yet.
Verizon stops throttling unlimited 3G data
If you are a Verizon Wireless subscriber and use its 3G data plan, there's some good news for you. You know how Verizon Wireless loves to throttle speed on its 3G data plans. Well, the subsidiary of Verizon Communications, has stopped doing it. And it has actually been a while.
The company quietly updated its “video optimization” page to note the following: "Beginning in 2011", it notes, "to optimize our network, we managed data connection speeds for a small subset of customers — those who are in the top 5% of data users and have 3G devices on unlimited data plans — and only in places and at times when the network was experiencing high demand. We discontinued this practice in June, 2015".
Verizon kills contracts and announces reasonable new mobile data plans
I am a strong believer that all mobile data plans should be unlimited and not throttled. The smartphone revolution was dealt a serious blow when cell phone carriers started limiting the data a customer could use -- developers shouldn't have to be concerned with how much data their apps use.
Today, Verizon announces that new data plans will roll out on August 13th. While they are still not unlimited, they look pretty reasonable. More importantly, however, the company is doing away with contracts altogether. In other words, it might be a great time to make the jump to the carrier that many people -- myself included -- consider to be the best in the USA.
T-Mobile has the fastest mobile network in US
T-Mobile has received some great news this week. The magenta carrier has finally overtaken Sprint, becoming the third-largest carrier in US. And its mobile network is said to be the fastest in the country, a title which will undoubtedly find its place in many comparisons against more popular rivals AT&T and Verizon.
Sprint's latest earnings report is what has actually confirmed T-Mobile as the third-largest mobile carrier in US, revealing 57.7 million subscribers to the latter's 58.9 million subscribers. The speed title comes from Ookla, the company behind renowned Internet speed testing app, and website, Speedtest.net, which has posted results for the four-largest carriers in US.
Microsoft Lumia 735 now available to buy in Verizon Wireless stores
The Lumia 735 was added to Verizon Wireless’s line up last month, but was only available to purchase online. Today, that changes and you can now pick up the smartphone from any of Big Red’s brick and mortar stores.
If you’ve had your eye on the phone for a while, there are some incentives being offered to help push you into making the move.
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