Droid Life

Tag: 4G LTE

  • Verizon Extends Free 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot Offer Through July 6th for Thunderbolt, Charge and Revolution

    We just received some pretty welcoming news from Verizon concerning the free 4G LTE mobile hotspot promotion that has been available to owners of the DROID Charge, HTC Thunderbolt and LG Revolution for the last couple of months.  According to our friends at Big Red, the promo has been granted an extension and will take users all the way through July 6.  We had already seen one extension that gave us all free hotspot usage through tomorrow, but we’ll gladly accept another month.

    Verizon Wireless has extended the Limited Time promotion for Mobile Hotspot and Mobile Broadband Connect on 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) Smartphones, ThunderBolt by HTC, DROID Charge by Samsung, and Revolution by LG. The following are the Unlimited Hotspot promotion details.

    Limited Time promotion available through 7/6/2011 which allows customers unlimited 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot and Mobile Broadband Connect usage until July 6, 2011 with the purchase of a ThunderBolt by HTC, a DROID Charge by Samsung, or a Revolution by LG, with a voice plan and a data package $29.99 or higher.

    The $20/GB (Gigabyte) plan will not be available on 4G LTE Smartphones. On July 6, 2011 a software update will remove the Mobile Hotspot offer. A message will be sent to the end user to contact their system administrator to subscribe to Mobile Hotspot.

    So be sure to live it up for another month!  You never know what sorts of prices we could see once July hits.  And props to Verizon for continuing to extend this out for additional months.  I can’t put into words how important this feature was to me at Google I/O this year with all of the spotty wifi hotspots floating around.  It definitely kept Droid Life afloat for those few days.

    Cheers ___!

  • Reminder: Verizon Turns On 19 New LTE Markets This Week

    Back in May, Verizon announced they would be flipping the 4G switch on even more cities by June 16th. Here’s a friendly reminder for everyone living in these regions that this Thursday, you should be seeing some 4G LTE love.

    Anyone in these cities already seeing 4G? And how about anyone not in these cities? We get a lot of reports of unannounced areas receiving 4G, so be sure to let us know in the comments if you are seeing it. Verizon is still on track to having their entire 3G network covered by 4G by the end of 2013. List of cities after the break.  (more…)

  • Monday Poll: DROID Bionic with LTE or Galaxy S II without?

    The battle of the summer phones on Verizon appears to have been narrowed down to just two as of today:  the DROID Bionic by Motorola and the Samsung Galaxy S II.  Both have out of this world specs like dual-core processors, 1GB of RAM and the latest version of Android, but there still could be a thing or two that would make you choose one over the other.

    The Bionic has been the most anticipated and talked about Verizon phone that we’ve seen in a while, but we can almost guarantee (unless something wild happens) that it will have a locked bootloader, not-so-hot PenTile screen, and MotoBlur.  The Galaxy S II on the other hand will have a slightly smaller yet much more vibrant screen along with an unlocked bootloader, but may not come with a 4G LTE radio.  We’re just wondering if LTE in this case would be a killer to you?  Is an unlocked device with an amazing screen worth passing up on just because it won’t run on Verizon’s LTE network?

    *Note – Most of the specs and bootloader/LTE talk in this poll are our guesses and opinions on what these phones will likely ship with.  There have been no official announcements as to whether or not these phones will be locked down or if the Galaxy S II will have LTE.

    [poll id=”85″]

  • Motorola Sends XOOM 4G Upgrade Email In Error

    Yesterday we posted a story about a consumer possibly receiving an email from Motorola asking that he send in his XOOM for the 4G LTE upgrade. Well we just got an e-mail from Motorola confirming our suspicions – It’s a mistake, folks!

    Statement from Motorola Mobility:

    A very small number of Motorola XOOM users recently received an email from Motorola regarding the 4G LTE upgrade process.  While we are very excited about being able to offer the upgrade this summer, and know our customers are equally excited about the benefits that 4G LTE speeds will bring to their Motorola XOOM, the email was sent in error.  We apologize for any confusion this may have caused, and look forward to being able to share more specifics on how — and when — users can take advantage of 4G LTE on their Motorola XOOM in the near future.

    Well that’s a bummer for everyone hoping for 4G on their XOOMs sooner than later. But not to worry, “near future” is always promising when it comes to these things.

     

  • NVIDIA Clears the Air on Compatibility Issues with LTE and Tegra Chips

    Been wondering what caused the delay of the original DROID Bionic and the 4G LTE upgrade on the Motorola XOOM?  Internet rumors would suggest that the Tegra 2 processor in each device has for some reason struggled to work with Verizon’s new super fast network, but the dual-core’s maker isn’t about to let that go down.  In fact, we just got off the phone with NVIDIA who wanted to squash this nonsense for good with the following statement:

    Tegra has no compatibility issues with LTE at all. The Tegra-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE tablet runs on Verizon’s LTE network and is a perfect example of Tegra working fine w/ 4G LTE. Tegra 2 interfaces with many types of modems via standard interfaces, including LTE. There is nothing inherently unique about LTE as far as Tegra 2 is concerned.

    Hard to argue with that point right there.  The newly announced Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 2) which will be out later this month (possibly June 23),  has zero issues running on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.  And not that we want to continue to hammer on Motorola, but their CEO Sanjay Jha did attempt to take the blame for these delays, so we’re not completely sure why or where this Tegra hating LTE stuff started.

    NVIDIA will continue to pump out their innovative mobile chipsets and Moto we hope, will some day figure out whatever issues they have been experiencing and deliver us the goods.  Everyone good?

  • Motorola Starting To Contact Owners For 4G LTE XOOM Upgrade?

    Been exhausting your resources trying to figure out when Motorola was planning on asking people to ship them their tablets for the 4G Upgrade? Well maybe it has finally started. An email was received by a tipster over at Phandroid from Motorola stating this:

    Thank you for submitting your Motorola Xoom for the 4G LTE upgrade. You should have recently received a package in the mail with instructions and materials for returning your device for the upgrade.

    Our records indicate that we have not yet received your Motorola Xoom. If you are still interested in upgrading your Motorola Xoom, this is a friendly reminder to please follow the instructions provided in your upgrade package and ship your device back for the upgrade.

    If you have already shipped your device back to us, please contact us at 1-800-734-5870 and one of our support specialists will assist you with tracking and completing your order.

    We have been under the impression that the update was postponed till August, but this is “so Moto”. We’ll also point out that the tipster didn’t actually receive any shipping supplies and also said he had missed a FedEx delivery which could be the package referred to in the email above. So what we want to know is, have any of you gotten a suspicious email, or heard any news from Motorola about the upgrade? We’ll keep you posted.

    Via: Phandroid

  • Tethering Complaint Filed Against Verizon with FCC by Free Press

    Oh baby.  The blocking of tethering apps by Verizon just got very real after a complaint was filed today through the FCC by Free Press which could potentially impact the future of LTE.  This has been one of those hot subjects around Droid Life over the last few weeks, so we couldn’t help but smile a little when we saw a group of this magnitude taking it straight to the top.

    As you may recall, we first reported news that tethering apps had either been removed or purposefully blocked from being viewed and downloaded to Verizon devices.  The move wasn’t necessarily a surprise since we know that Verizon likes to force you into purchasing an additional mobile hotspot service on top of your data plan, but the move was bold.  And then just last week we noticed that even if you had managed to load up a third party app from outside the market to tether, that Verizon was blocking you from doing so.

    People grew angry at this for a number of reasons – and the complaint filed today by Free Press pretty much touches on them all.   (more…)

  • More DROID Bionic Pictures Surface – 4.5″ qHD Screen, New 3D Blur, and Android 2.3.4

    The look of the new DROID Bionic is no longer a surprise after some pictures leaked out this morning, but we were still wanting to know more – specifically about the specs.  Well, we think we may have some after an extra set of pictures that looks like a continuation of the ones from earlier found its way onto another non-U.S. forum.

    That 3D animations tip we mentioned earlier appears to be confirmed with a good look at the device’s new Blur.  Also, how does a 4.5″ qHD screen sound?  There is a shot of the device’s docking software, the new Bionic Red Eye, and that hot new lock screen which was first spotted on the DROID3.  Oh, and did we mention Android 2.3.4?  Yep, when this phone is released, it should be running the newest version of Android available.    (more…)