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Cricket Wireless adds ZTE Engage to Android roster

Scott Webster
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Cricket Wireless today announced that they will soon be offering their second Android 4.0 smartphone in the form of the ZTE Engage. Set to arrive on October 2, the handset features a 4.0-inch display, 1.4GHz processor, 8-megapixel camera, and mircoSD expansion. Priced at $249.99 without a contract, the ZTE Engage also comes with MUVE Music support, a 4GB microSD card with music, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 1900mAh battery.

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ZTE Engage Smartphone to be Exclusively Available at Cricket

~ Second Android 4.0 – Ice Cream Sandwich Handset in Cricket’s Smartphone Lineup ~

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 27, 2012  /PRNewswire/ — Cricket Communications, Inc. and ZTE, today announced the upcoming availability of the ZTE Engage. The Engage will be available at Cricket company-owned stores, dealers and www.mycricket.com beginning Tuesday, October 2, 2012.

The ZTE Engage is a full-featured, multimedia powerhouse based on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), equipped with a 4.0″ capacitive touchscreen, a 1.4GHz CPU and an 8.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. With Android 4.0, Cricket customers will benefit from a range of improved features that offer an exceptional, interactive experience – from multitasking, customizable home screens to Swype predictive text. The ZTE Engage also features Cricket’s innovative Muve Music service.  Muve Music subscribers have access to unlimited downloads of their favorite music and access to exclusive artist commentary, music and video through Muve Music’s Muve First and Muve Headliner featured artist programs. With millions of songs at their fingertips, customers will never pay per song and no contracts are required.

“The ZTE Engage is an exciting smartphone with enhanced functionality from Android 4.0 OS and will be available with Cricket’s new value-rich no-contract smartphone service plans,” said Matt Stoiber, senior vice president of devices for Cricket. “Impressive at any price, the ZTE Engage will be a WOW device for Cricket customers and is a great new addition to the higher-end smartphone line-up that Cricket is turning on this year.”

The ZTE Engage features:

  • 4.0″ WVGA TFT capacitive touchscreen
  • Qualcomm MSM8655T Scorpion – 1.4GHz
  • Dual-Facing Cameras: Rear (8.0MP) w/LED Flash & Front (VGA)
  • MUVE Music Ready with 4GB Muve Music SD Card included
  • Removable MicroSD Memory Card (up to 32GB)
  • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
  • Lithium Ion 1900 mAh battery

Pricing and Availability:

The ZTE Engage will be available at Cricket company-owned stores, dealers and at www.mycricket.combeginning Tuesday, October 2, 2012 for $249.99 (MSRP). Customers can choose from three Cricket no-contract smartphone plans for the ZTE Engage. The rate plans start at $50 for unlimited talk, text and 3G data plus 1GB of full-speed data per month. The $60 smartphone plan contains 2.5GB of full-speed data per month and the $70 smartphone plan offers 5GB of full-speed data per month. Both the $60 and $70 plans include the ability for customers to tether their device to power additional wireless devices.

For more information about Cricket’s dynamic service and newest device lineup, visit www.mycricket.com. To follow Cricket’s recent news and updates online, visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/cricketwireless and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cricketnation.

About Cricket

Cricket is the pioneer and leader in delivering innovative value-rich prepaid wireless services with no long-term contracts serving approximately 6 million customers. Cricket offers nationwide wireless voice and mobile data services over high-quality, all-digital wireless networks. Cricket’s innovative products and services, including the award-winning Muve Music® – the first music service designed for a wireless phone, are available nationwide at Cricket branded retail stores, dealers, national retailers and at www.mycricket.com. For more information about Cricket, please visit www.mycricket.com.

About ZTE USA

ZTE USA is a subsidiary of ZTE Corporation (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions. ZTE USA is dedicated to making quality communications technology accessible to all. The company draws on more than 25 years of experience and research investment to deliver smart, affordable, quality choices for infrastructure and mobile data device customers nationwide. For more information, visit www.zteusa.com and follow @ZTE_USA.

About ZTE

ZTE is a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions with the most comprehensive product range covering virtually every telecommunications sector, including wireless, access & bearer, VAS, terminals and professional services. The company delivers innovative, custom-made products and services to over 500 operators in more than 140 countries, helping them to meet the changing needs of their customers while growing revenue. In 2011, ZTE’s revenue increased by 29 per cent to USD13.7 billion. Its overseas operating revenue grew 30 per cent to USD 7.4 billion during the period, accounting for 54.2 per cent of overall operating revenue. ZTE commits 10 per cent of its annual revenue to research and development and has leadership roles in several international bodies devoted to developing telecommunications industry standards. ZTE is committed to corporate social responsibility and is a member of the UN Global Compact. The company is China’s only listed telecom manufacturer that is publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ). For more information, please visit www.zte.com.cn.

SOURCE Cricket Communications

For further information: Greg Lund, Cricket Communications, +1-858-882-9238, glund@cricketcommunications.com; Karin Xie, ZTE USA, +1-212-880-5294, Karin.Xie@ogilvy.com

B&N announce Nook HD, Nook HD+ for late October

Scott Webster
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Barnes & Noble early this morning introduced a pair of new tablet/ereaders in the Nook HD and Nook HD+. Expected to ship in late October, the Nook HD is a a 7-inch model that starts at $199 while the Nook HD+ is a 9-inch variant that runs only $269.

The 7-inch Nook HD touted as the world’s highest resolution ever for a 7-inch tablet and is quite nice at 1440×900 pixels at a rate of 243 pixel per inch. Additional features include microSD expansion, HDMI output, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a battery that promises 10.5 hours reading or 9 hours video. The processor is listed as a dual-core TI OMAP4470 (1.3GHz) and the memory is pegged at 1GB RAM. It’s not listed anywhere in the official details, however word on the street is that this runs a modified version of Android 4.0.

Check out the Nook HD Gallery

The 9-inch Nook HD+ is not only larger, but it brings a faster processor at dual-core 1.5GHz, and a 1920×1280 resolution display. Also featuring the same output options as its sibling, this one is super light at only 18.2 ounces (515 grams).

Check out the Nook HD+ Gallery

Of course these things will not be sold on the merit of the hardware alone. No, Barnes & Noble, like Amazon, understands that the real value comes in the software, services, and experiences. That’s why both the Nook HD and Nook HD+ features such as Nook Profiles (multi-user), access to the new Nook Video, a new NewStand (magazines), Nook Scrapbook, Nook Catalog, newspapers, and UltraViolet support.  In other words, these are the perfect devices for consuming all your media needs.

The Nook HD comes in two colors (White, Slate) and two storage capacities while the Nook HD+ comes in Slate.

  • Nook HD 8GB – $199
  • Nook HD 16GB – $229
  • Nook HD+ 16GB – $269
  • Nook HD+ 32GB  – $299

Barnes & Noble Launches NOOK® HD and NOOK HD+,

Lightest and Highest-Resolution 7-Inch HD Tablet and World’s Lightest Full HD Tablet

 Incredible Reading and Entertainment Like Never Seen Before on 7- and 9-Inch Tablets

 Designed for Both Personal Use and the Whole Family to Share – Like Having Multiple Devices in One

NOOK HD Offers World’s Highest Resolution Display Ever on a 7-Inch Media Tablet Starting at Only $199

 NOOK HD+ is Lightest, Lowest-Priced Full HD Tablet Ever Starting at Only $269

Unbeatable Values for Top Quality Tablets and No Distracting Ads

Coming to the US and UK This Fall; Pre-Order Starting Today at NOOK.com and Barnes & Noble Stores

New York, New York – September 26, 2012 –Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today introduced NOOK HD and NOOK HD+, the lightest HD and full HD tablets. The super-fast and lightweight 7-inch NOOK HD and 9-inch NOOK HD+ feature must-see displays for superior reading and entertainment and an instantly personalized tablet experience for each family member. In fact, NOOK HD boasts the world’s highest-resolution ever on a 7-inch tablet and NOOK HD+ rivals the industry-leading tablet’s display. Starting at the low prices of $199 for NOOK HD and $269 for NOOK HD+,  nearly half the cost of the leading large-format tablet, both products deliver an amazing value for customers, with no annoying ads. With more than three million books, a large selection of magazines and apps, and now with newly launched NOOK Video™ and NOOK Catalog™ content, NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ offer virtually endless reading and entertainment at customers’ fingertips. Both are available for pre-order at www.nook.com and Barnes & Noble stores for customers to enjoy beginning in early November.

The fantastic new 7-inch NOOK HD and 9-inch NOOK HD+ are packed with favorite tablet features that the whole family will love:

A Personalized Tablet Experience for Both Individuals and Families

According to research by Barnes & Noble, more than 50 percent of tablet owners share their devices with others in their family every day. Half also say they would never let their child handle their device unattended. Not surprising, given that more than a third of tablet owners report having content on their devices they don’t want anyone else to see. NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ are designed precisely to provide a personalized experience for individuals and their family members, allowing children to freely enjoy all the content they love without happening upon all that mom and dad would rather they didn’t see. New NOOK Profiles™ instantly transform the device in hand to any family member’s very own tablet. With a quick tap on a profile at the top of the screen, the entire experience magically changes into that family member’s personal tablet as their own content – and personalized recommendations – appear on the display. Now mom’s NOOK becomes Billy’s NOOK, becomes dad’s NOOK and so on. In a blink, one device is like four, five or six. Adults can use their personal passwords to easily access their books, magazines, videos, apps and more. Children can dive into their collection of digital picture books, learning apps and kid-friendly videos, while tweens and teens can access their chapter books, magazines, games and favorite TV shows. Enhanced controls with simple settings and password features empower parents to easily manage their children’s access to the Web, content and shopping.

Must-Have Tablet Features

The new NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ are optimized to deliver unparalleled experiences in the areas that company research showed NOOK tablet owners use most: reading, Web, video and email. The reading experience is unmatched, offering beautifully rendered text, magazines in spectacular HD and lightning fast page turns. Thanks to top-end processors, the newly designed Web browser in NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ is super-fast, making it simple and smooth to surf favorite sites with a tap, pinch and zoom. New to the Web, ArticleView™ allows you to customize your online reading experience. Both NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ offer access to a collection of popular movies and TV shows through new NOOK Video. And an all-new built-in email app offers new features in an easy-to-use, clean format that supports a host of popular personal and work-related email services including Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync.

NOOK HD – The Most Exceptional Reading and Entertainment Experience in a 7-Inch Tablet

Best 7-Inch Display: NOOK HD includes a newly invented, brilliant display that delivers the highest quality text, graphics and video experience in a 7-inch media tablet. Packed with pixels, every book read, every movie watched, every game played is rendered in a digital quality never before seen. NOOK HD offers the highest-resolution display ever on a 7-inch tablet at 1440 x 900, with an unprecedented 243 pixels per inch and HD video playback of up to 720p. It’s ultra-sharp with 25 percent more pixels than Kindle Fire HD for a better overall viewing experience. Building on the highly advanced laminated displays first seen in the 7-inch category on previous NOOK LCD products, NOOK HD features the most advanced IPS display coupled with world-class optical bonding technology with no air gap to deliver low-glare and a wide viewing angle for sharing.

Super-Light and a Joy to Hold: Weight matters, and no other leading 7-inch HD tablet is lighter than NOOK HD.  By developing a breakthrough design that integrates the display into the device itself, Barnes & Noble eliminated many components to keep NOOK HD super-light, yet durable. At only 11.1 ounces (315 grams) and just 5-inches wide, it’s more than 20 percent lighter and nearly a half-inch narrower than Kindle Fire HD. So, it fits the hand beautifully and is finished with soft-touch paint that makes it comfortable for even a young child to hold. NOOK HD is ergonomically contoured for comfort and slips easily into a men’s suit coat, a woman’s handbag or a child’s backpack.

Lightning Fast: Armed with a dual-core 1.3GHz high-speed processor, NOOK HD is lightning fast, highly responsive and smooth. With its more powerful processor, it’s not surprising that NOOK HD is faster than Kindle Fire HD for a nimble overall experience and 80 percent faster when it comes to graphics processing for smoother, faster animations, renderings, apps experience and more. The 1GB of RAM allows customers to easily zip from one app to another and play movies.

More Choices: The world’s most exceptional 7-inch reading and entertainment tablet is now available for pre-order in two colors, “Snow” and “Smoke.” Starting at just $199 for an 8GB model and only $229 for a 16GB version – both featuring expandable microSD memory storage – customers can pre-order at www.nook.com and at Barnes & Noble stores.

NOOK HD+ – The Lightest and Lowest-Priced Full HD Tablet Ever

Spectacular Full HD Display: For those who want to enjoy reading and entertainment on a larger scale, NOOK HD+ offers a must-see full HD 9-inch display with resolution of 1920 x 1280 and 256 pixels per inch for up to 1080p for movies, magazines and more. The fully laminated display reduces glare and provides excellent viewing angles, perfect for personal or shared viewing.  This amazing display rivals the “resolutionary” screen of the leading high-resolution large-format tablet, but is offered in a device that’s more than 20 percent less weight and nearly half the price.

Incredibly Light Yet Powerful: Weighing in at only 18.2 ounces (515 grams), NOOK HD+ is big on display, yet lightweight, easy to hold and take anywhere. It is the lightest full HD tablet ever invented. NOOK HD+ is power-packed by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM for a fast, smooth customer experience, whether browsing the Web, reading books and magazines, watching videos, enjoying apps or checking email.

Best Price Ever for Full HD Tablet: The beautifully designed NOOK HD+, offered in the color “Slate,” features expandable memory for even more storage with options of 16GB for $269 and 32GB for $299 – two astoundingly low prices for a brilliant, super-light 9-inch reading and entertainment tablet.

Both NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ will ship in late October and be available in stores in early November.

“With the combination of the highest resolution screen, lightest weight and expansive access to content rendered in a digital quality never before seen, NOOK HD is the world’s best 7-inch media tablet,” said William J. Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “We designed our larger format tablet NOOK HD+ because we think there’s big demand from customers for a super-light, extremely high quality 9-inch tablet, at half the price of the iPad. Both our 7-inch NOOK HD and 9-inch NOOK HD+ deliver an exceptional customer experience and we enthusiastically encourage customers to go to nook.com and learn more about them.”

Announcing Even More NOOK Content and Services to Enjoy

As part of the launch of NOOK HD and NOOK HD+, Barnes & Noble also announced significant new additions and advancements to the NOOK content ecosystem:

A Growing and Diverse Digital Catalog: The NOOK Store™ now offers more than 3 million books including bestselling books, new releases, classics and enhanced titles with special content; the world’s largest collection of nearly 3,500 best-loved English-language children’s interactive picture books; a growing collection of comic books and graphic novels; and picture-perfect art, photography, travel guides and cookbook titles.

New – NOOK Video: Launching concurrently with the shipment of the new products in late October, NOOK Video offers customers their favorite standard and HD movies and TV shows for streaming and download to enjoy in spectacular color and stunning definition on NOOK HD and NOOK HD+. From major studios, networks and companies like HBO®, STARZ, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros.Entertainment, the NOOK Video catalog offers something for everyone in the family to enjoy. Customers will find TV favorites such as Game of Thrones®, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead to movie favorites like Disney-Pixar’s Brave, The Dark Knight and Harry Potter movies. Both devices are designed with an HDMI compatible port to allow customers to easily connect to their TVs to watch movies and shows in up to full 1080p. Videos streamed and downloaded from the NOOK Store are stored safely and securely in the NOOK Cloud™, so NOOK Video content can also be viewed on NOOK devices, TVs, smartphones and tablets via a suite of new free NOOK Video apps. Like free NOOK Reading apps, all-new NOOK Video apps automatically sync so customers can pick up watching right where they left off on the compatible device of their choosing.

UltraViolet™ Support: NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ are the first UltraViolet-enabled tablets, so right out of the box they seamlessly integrate a customer’s compatible physical DVD and Blu-ray Disc™ purchases and digital video collection across their devices. Customers will be able to easily link their UltraViolet accounts to the NOOK Cloud allowing them to view their previously and newly purchased UltraViolet-enabled movies and TV shows across NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ devices, NOOK Video apps and third-party applications. In addition to purchasing a digital version via NOOK Video, customers can shop for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs with the UltraViolet logo in Barnes & Noble and other retail stores, add them to their digital collection, and instantly watch compatible titles from the NOOK Cloud to enjoy wherever they go and however they choose.

Magazine 2.0: NOOK Newsstand™ has the largest digital collection of the top 100 bestselling magazines available for both digital subscriptions and single copy sale. With NOOK HD and NOOK HD+, the industry-leading magazine experience just got even better. A new visual table of contents lets customers view thumbnails of the entire magazine and simply tap the article they want to read first. Magazines feature a super-fast, 3D-like page turn and include built-in hot spots for readers to quickly jump to specific articles and go deeper on a subject or story through audio, video and Web linking.  NOOK’s innovative ArticleView lets the reader focus only on the text, customized to their needs. The company also introduced a breakthrough NOOK Scrapbook™, where magazine readers can virtually clip pages of interest and save them in customized digital scrapbooks.

All-New Newspaper Experience: Extra! Extra! NOOK Newspapers have an all-new design on NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ that make it even easier and more fun to read newspapers digitally. Customers can view and choose each of the paper’s sections on the left column to tap and read in a snap. The large selection of daily and weekly newspapers are available through subscription or single copies and are automatically downloaded via Wi-Fi® to the device when available for reading with morning coffee, on the commute home or anywhere in between.

New – NOOK Catalog: NOOK Catalog offers a convenient browsing and shopping experience through a selection of colorful, complimentary catalogs from leading retailers including Pottery Barn, L.L.Bean, Frontgate, Garnet Hill and Harry & David – with 100 top catalogs available this holiday. Customers’ catalogs are delivered magically to their devices when published so they can virtually flip through the pages to explore, tap on a product of interest for more information from the retailer’s Web site and make a purchase. The new NOOK Scrapbook feature can also be used to rip and save select pages in a personalized collection along with other chosen pages saved from catalogs and magazines.

Top Apps: The global developer community has quickly been innovating and adding to the catalog of high-quality NOOK Apps™. The number of NOOK Apps has grown 10x in the last year and 100x since launching and includes all the most popular and bestselling top 100 app titles for tablets available anywhere. NOOK Apps features a wide range of titles for the whole family, including the hottest games, as well as lifestyle, productivity, news, entertainment and reading apps. In fact, only the NOOK Store provides helpful age recommendations for parents and lets customers browse by subject area to find the perfect app for their child among the broadest and the most curated app collection of kids’ educational apps on any Android store. With games and activities focused on language, math, puzzles, reading, art and more, NOOK provides families with hours of playful learning that helps kids make the most of their “screen time.”

Newly Revamped NOOK Store – A Better Way to Shop & Find Content: NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ bring a new level of personal shopping service to the device experience. Customers can tap on the Your NOOK Today™ icon on the home screen to reveal fresh content and personalized recommendations each day. This includes their latest newsstand subscriptions delivered virtually, plus cool apps and new titles matched to their profile.

And just like a great bookshop, the revamped NOOK Store is a place of continuous discovery. The new store experience allows customers to easily shop by department or explore new NOOK Channels™, a pioneering recommendation system that combines the unrivaled knowledge of Barnes & Noble booksellers with advanced algorithmic technology to create an unparalleled, curated browsing experience. Targeted by interest and sensibility, each NOOK Channel programs a rich stream of reading – and soon movies and apps – that includes the latest releases as well as backlist gems, bestsellers as well as offbeat treasures. Customers can browse and shop Channels that will expand their passions for the authors and subjects they love, from Paranormal Romance, War Stories, and Books to Talk About to Jane Austen & Heirs, The New Classics, History by Plot and Books Every Kid Should Know.

NOOK Cloud: All NOOK content is delivered via Wi-Fi and safely stored through NOOK Cloud, making NOOK Books, videos, apps and other content accessible across NOOK, personal computing and mobile devices using free NOOK Reading and NOOK Video apps.

Additional NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ Highlights

  • Battery Life that Lasts: Both devices feature extra-long battery life optimized for extended use.  NOOK HD offers up to 10.5 hours of continuous reading and up to 9 hours of video watching, while NOOK HD+ boasts up to 10 hours and up to 9 hours for reading and video, respectively, all with Wi-Fi off.
  • Expandable Storage: In addition to generous onboard storage, NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ also feature expandable memory using a separate microSD card (up to 64GB) – another feature not offered on Amazon’s tablets. NOOK gives customers an economical and flexible way to carry their personal content, PDFs, music, videos and more anywhere.
  • A Better Value, Ad-Free:  NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ offer brilliant displays so customers can enjoy their favorite content and personal photos, not annoying ads as with Amazon’s tablets. And with low prices starting at $199 and $269 respectively, always ad-free NOOK tablets are a better value than Amazon’s, which charges customers an additional $15 for freedom from advertising offers on their tablet home page.
  • Ready for Power:  Barnes & Noble also knows that customers prefer to charge their tablets quickly with an AC adapter, every new NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ has one included at no extra cost. Amazon charges $20 for their tablets’ adapters sold separately.
  • Superb Sound:  To deliver excellent audio, NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ are designed with customized speakers and utilize SRS TruMedia™* to create a wide sound field, deep bass, clear vocals and strong midrange performance. Whether listening through the device’s speakers, a pair of headphones or on a Bluetooth-enabled speaker, customers will enjoy a rich audio experience watching videos, listening to music, reading children’s picture books or playing games.
  • A NOOK of One’s Own: Gallery has never been so personal with instant access to cherished memories from popular photo sharing and social networking sites. Customers can add even more photos to the Gallery from their computer or emails. NOOK becomes each family member’s very own when they pick a favorite photo for the home screen and screensaver for each individual profile – instead of annoying ads. NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ also make it easy to share photos via email or in person, by connecting NOOK to a TV.
  • Easy to Use New Interface: Both new tablets feature an all-new beautiful “paper-like” user interface that gets customers right into the content they want, and allows quick access into core applications: Home, Library, Shop and Web. The new experience is intended to make NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ the easiest tablets on the market to use, empowering customers to take advantage of its extensive functionality and enjoy a reading experience that far surpasses that of any other tablets.
  • Stay Connected More Easily:  The all-new email app on NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ lets customers stay connected with what’s happening at the office through support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Customers can check business email and sync calendar and contacts, too.  NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ also support email, calendar and contacts syncing for popular services like Gmail, Hotmail and Outlook.com, as well other popular POP3/IMAP email services like Yahoo!, AOL and more.

Experience the entire NOOK family of products at www.nook.com or at the NOOK Digital Shops and displays in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores and other leading retailers including Best Buy, Target and Walmart, which will soon take pre-orders, and many others. Barnes & Noble offers Always Free NOOK Support in all of its neighborhood bookstores, with more than 40,000 NOOKsellers across the country ready to assist customers with setting up their NOOK devices or choosing their next great read.

Pre-orders for NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ will begin next month for customers in the United Kingdom, as the products will be available there through leading retailers and www.nook.co.uk in late November.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, operates 689 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 667 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States.  Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than 3 million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK®product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK apps. Barnes & Noble is proud to be named a J.D. Power and Associated 2012 Customer Service Champion and is only one of 50 U.S. companies so named.  Barnes & Noble.com is ranked the number one online retailer in customer satisfaction in the book, music and video category and a Top 10 online retailer overall in customer satisfaction according to ForeSee E-Retail Satisfaction Index (Spring Top 100 Edition).

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

NOOK®, NOOK Tablet™, NOOK Simple Touch™ with GlowLight™, NOOK Simple Touch™, NOOK Color™, Reader’s Tablet™, Best-Text™ Technology, VividView™, PagePerfect™, NOOK Store™, NOOK Bookstore™, NOOK Book™, NOOK Newsstand™, NOOK Magazine™, NOOK Newspaper™, NOOK Video™, NOOK Catalog™, NOOK Apps™, FREE NOOK Reading Apps™, NOOK Video Apps™, NOOK Profiles™, NOOK Channels™, Your NOOK Today™, NOOK Kids™, NOOK Digital Shop™, NOOK Cloud™, NOOK® for Web, Read In Store™, NOOK Library™, Lifetime Library™ and Read What You Love. Anywhere You Like™ are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Other trademarks referenced in this release are the property of their respective owners.

Follow Barnes & Noble on Twitter (www.bn.com/twitter), Facebook (www.facebook.com/barnesandnoble) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/bnstudio).

About NOOK® from Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble’s NOOK reading and entertainment products make it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like™ with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Store™ of more than 3 million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through free NOOK Reading Apps™ and NOOK Video apps, available at www.nook.com/freenookapps. Barnes & Noble offers NOOK owners Always Free NOOK Support in any of its nearly 700 bookstores. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.nook.com, as well as leading retailers including Best Buy, Walmart, Target and many others. NOOK products will also soon be available in the United Kingdom through www.nook.co.uk and leading retailers.

For more information on NOOK, follow us on www.twitter.com/nookBN or www.twitter.com/nook_UK and www.facebook.com/nook.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements (within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) and information relating to Barnes & Noble that are based on the beliefs of the management of Barnes & Noble as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the management of Barnes & Noble.  When used in this communication, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will”,  “coming to” and similar expressions, as they relate to Barnes & Noble or the management of Barnes & Noble, identify forward-looking statements.

Such statements reflect the current views of Barnes & Noble with respect to future events, the outcome of which is subject to certain risks, including, among others, the general economic environment and consumer spending patterns, decreased consumer demand for Barnes & Noble’s products, low growth or declining sales and net income due to various factors, risk that international expansion will not be successfully achieved or may be achieved later than expected, possible disruptions in Barnes & Noble’s computer systems, telephone systems or supply chain, possible risks associated with data privacy, information security and intellectual property, possible work stoppages or increases in labor costs, possible increases in shipping rates or interruptions in shipping service, effects of competition, possible risks that inventory in channels of distribution may be larger than able to be sold, possible risk that returns from consumers or channels of distribution may be greater than estimated, the risk that the expected sales lift from Borders’ store closures is not achieved in whole or part, the risk that digital sales growth is less than expectations and the risk that it does not exceed the rate of investment spend, higher-than-anticipated store closing or relocation costs, higher interest rates, the performance of Barnes & Noble’s online, digital and other initiatives, the performance and successful integration of acquired businesses, the success of Barnes & Noble’s strategic investments, unanticipated increases in merchandise, component or occupancy costs, unanticipated adverse litigation results or effects,  product and component shortages, the potential adverse impact on the business resulting from the review of a potential separation of the NOOK digital business, the risk that the transactions contemplated by the partnership with Microsoft to form Newco, including with respect to any spin-off, split-off or other disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in Newco, are not able to be implemented on the terms contemplated or at all, the risk that the transactions do not achieve the expected benefits for the parties including the risk that Newco’s applications are not commercially successful or that the expected distribution of those applications is not achieved, the risk that the separation of the NOOK digital and College businesses or any subsequent spin-off, split-off or other disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in Newco results in adverse impacts on Company or Newco (including as a result of termination of agreements and other adverse impacts), the potential impact on Barnes & Noble’s retail business of the separation,  the potential tax consequences for Barnes & Noble and its shareholders of a subsequent spin-off, split-off or other disposition by Barnes & Noble of its interest in Newco, the risk that the domestic and international expansion contemplated by the relationship or otherwise is not successful or is delayed, including the potential delay in distribution of devices and/or digital content, the risk that Newco is not able to perform its obligations under the commercial agreement, including with respect to the development of applications and international expansion, and the consequences thereof,  the costs and disruptions arising out of any such separation of the NOOK digital and College businesses, the risk that Barnes & Noble may not recoup its investments in the NOOK digital business as part of any separation transaction, the risks, difficulties, and uncertainties  that may result from the separation of businesses that were previously co-mingled including necessary ongoing relationships, and potential for adverse customer impacts and other factors which may be outside of Barnes & Noble’s control, including those factors discussed in detail in Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” in Barnes & Noble’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and Form 10-K/A, and in Barnes & Noble’s other filings made hereafter from time to time with the SEC. Our forward looking statements relating to international expansion are also subject to the following risks, among others that may affect the introduction, success and timing of the NOOK e-reader and content in countries outside the United States:  we may not be successful in reaching agreements with international companies, the terms of agreements that we reach may not be advantageous to us, our NOOK device may require technological changes to comply with applicable laws, and marketplace acceptance and other companies have already entered the marketplace with products that have achieved some customer acceptance.

 

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those described as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned.  Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Barnes & Noble or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph.

 

Barnes & Noble undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this communication.

*TruMedia is a trademark of DTS, Inc. through its acquisition of SRS Labs, Inc. in July 2012.

Phiaton PS 20 NC earphones review

Scott Webster
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First, let me preface this with a disclaimer: I love reviewing headphones and Bluetooth accessories for Android devices.  Were I not in this position, I would have no idea just how good (or bad) some of these products are that I pass in retail stores or see online.  I’m amazed at all of the high quality stuff that comes through the office, and really get a tickle out of discovering new brands.  Such is the case with Phiaton and their earphones.  I recently reviewed a pair of their Bluetooth headphones that I really enjoyed and would definitely recommend them to anyone looking to cut a cord.  That said, here’s a review for a pair of noise-cancelling headphones from the same company

You know that feeling of when your ears pop from an airplane and all of a sudden there’s a rushing of sound and everything else in the background just disappears?  That’s the best way I can describe the noise cancellation of the Phiaton PS 20 NC headphones.  It’s amazing stuff and something that might even take a little getting used to as it feels strange the first few times.  It doesn’t hurt or do anything to your ear when it happens, but it simply isolates you from the world.

Phiaton’s “Half In Ear” design is quite comfortable and feels great , I suspect, to even those who don’t like to put things in their ears.  As something that sits just inside the ear, the earphones are a quality build with a sound that rivals anything else I’ve tested.   Thus far, everything I have seen out of the Korean manufacturer has been stylish, comfortable, and of high performance.

The PS 20 NC comes with four sizes of tips for your ears (XS, S, M, L) and fit just about anyone’s ear.  Like the Bluetooth brethren I reviewed, the tips are soft, pliable silicon and feel ultra-comfortable. Also like their wireless counterpart, they come with a closeable (magnet) suede carrying case for travel and are available in black or white.
I tested the PS 20 NC earphones like I do for most headphones, on my phone, computer, and with my handsets.  Yes, I gave them the old lawn-mowing litmus as well.  Overall, these performed more than admirably and have a very balanced sound.  Highs are nice and crisp and the bass was deep on hip hop, electronic,  and dubstep tracks.  Voice sounds wonderful here and podcasts really shine on Phiaton headphones/earphones.  Think of the way you want music or audio to sound in a room with optimal spacing and layout and that’s how these performed.
It’s worth noting that you do not need to enable the noise cancellation and that it actually employs the use of a AAA battery.  Depending on your environment, it’s just fine to leave that feature off.  For what it’s worth, in the month or so that I have used these earphones, I have yet to run low on juice. The same part of the earphones that house the battery also features a clip so that you can fasten to your shirt or sleeve.  There’s plenty of length here and I actually found it better to clip to the underside of a t-shirt when walking or doing moderate activities.

Specs and Details

  • High quality dynamic speakers
  • Frequency range: 15 Hz ~ 22,000 Hz
  • Impedance: 26 Ohm
  • THD: Less than 1% at 1 kHz
  • Sensitivity: 101dB at 1 kHz
  • Maximum input power: 30 mW
  • Weight: 1.15 oz / 32.5 g (with battery)
  • Cord Length: 1.5 m

What is in the box?

  • PS 20 NC Earphones
  • 4 sizes of silicon ear tips (XS, S, M, L)
  • Carrying case
  • 1 AAA Battery
  • Airplane Adaptor
  • Owner’s Guide(Including 1-year warranty)
  • Product Registration

What we liked

  • The “half in ear” design is very comfortable and works across every ear size.
  • Very balanced sound with clear highs and rich bass.
  • Stylish look and excellent build quality

What could be improved

  • The cord is almost too long and could afford to spare 6″ or so
  • We’d love to see a ribbon-like cord to help with tangles

Where to buy?

Phiaton sells them through a number of online retail partners, listing them with a suggested $129.99 price tag.

T-Mobile USA names John Legere as new CEO

Scott Webster
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T-Mobile has named John Legere as the new Chief Executive Officer for T-Mobile USA, announcing that he takes over effective September 22.  With 32 years experience in the telecommunications and tech field, he brings quite a bit to the table.  According to René Obermann, (CEO of Deutsche Telekom), John will help focus on expanding its network coverage and initiating LTE service.

As most of you know, T-Mobile has long been the #4 player in the United Sates, and recently introduced Unlimited 4G data plans.  Will Legere and the new challenger strategy be enough to unseat Sprint for third place?

John Legere Named as Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile USA

Bellevue, Wash. — Sep. 19, 2012 Deutsche Telekom (OTCQX: DTEGY), one of Europe’s leading telecommunications and information technology service companies and the parent company of T-Mobile USA, today announced that John Legere, a 32-year veteran of the U.S. and global telecommunications and technology industries, has been named Chief Executive Officer of its T-Mobile business unit, effective September 22. He succeeds Jim Alling, who has served as interim CEO since June and will return to his position as T-Mobile’s Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Legere, 54, is the former CEO of Global Crossing, where he successfully transformed the company to become a leading provider of IP services worldwide. Under his direction, the company completed the world’s first integrated global IP-based network, achieved near-perfect network operations and significantly improved customer satisfaction.

“John is a talented and proven executive who brings a successful track record of leading and operating consumer- and business-focused telecommunications and technology companies,” said René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. “As T-Mobile moves forward with its strategic initiatives to improve its market position, including expanding its network coverage and initiating LTE service, John has obviously the right skillset to lead the business into the future. John’s experience in the telecommunication and technology industries at Global Crossing and Dell will enhance T-Mobile’s ability to deliver superior mobile experiences for our customers as the Company continues to strengthen its business. I am delighted to welcome John to T-Mobile and look forward to working with him to make T-Mobile a stronger competitor.”

“I am thrilled to join T-Mobile and lead the Company at such a pivotal time,” said Mr. Legere. “T-Mobile is taking a number of significant steps to revitalize the business and I look forward to leading our team and partners to accelerate these efforts to become a force in our industry.”

Prior to joining Global Crossing, Mr. Legere was CEO of Asia Global Crossing, a Microsoft, Softbank and Global Crossing joint venture. Before that, Mr. Legere served as Senior Vice President of Dell Computer Corporation, where he was President of the Company’s operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. From 1983 to 1998, Mr. Legere worked at AT&T, where he served in a number of senior positions, including President of AT&T Asia, President of AT&T Solutions Outsourcing and head of global corporate strategy and business development. He began his career at New England Telephone in 1980.

A Massachusetts native, Mr. Legere received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts. He earned a master’s degree in science as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additionally, he received his Master of Business Administration degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) and completed Harvard Business School’s Management Development Program in 1989.

Mr. Legere is a competitive runner and marathoner and uses his running as a means to support various charitable causes. He has raised more than $1.2 million in eight recent Boston Marathon runs for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute where he is also a Board Trustee. Mr. Legere is on the Board of the New York Road Runners and NYC Marathon, Achilles International and Shoe4Africa.

“On behalf of Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile, I want to thank Jim for his effective leadership during his term as interim CEO. Jim is an instrumental member of our team and will continue to play a key role in guiding our strategic direction. We are pleased that T-Mobile will continue to benefit from his leadership and experience as he resumes his position as COO,” continued Mr. Obermann.

Galaxy Note II announced for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular

Scott Webster
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Samsung today announced that the Galaxy Note II will, in fact, be coming to the United States to all four major carriers.  That means you’ll soon see the 5.5-inch phone and tablet hybrid device at AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.  What’s more, U.S. Cellular is already getting in on the love, promising the quad-core beast on their network.  Pricing and exact timing has yet to be finalized however we should hear more from each respective carrier before too long.  If we were to wager a guess, it should be around October 21-ish…

In the meanwhile, why not check out the Samsung Galaxy Note II gallery?

Samsung Mobile Introducing Galaxy Note® II in Time for the Holidays with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular

Redesigned S Pen and apps, sharing capabilities and quad-core Exynos™ processor enhances productivity, creativity and performance

DALLAS — September 19, 2012 — Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC (Samsung Mobile) – the No.1 mobile phone provider in the United States1 – will launch the Galaxy Note® II in the U.S. with five major carriers by mid-November. Exact pricing and retail availability will be announced by each of the carriers.

Optimized for the fastest 4G LTE* and HSPA+ 42 networks, the Galaxy Note II combines some of the best capabilities of the Galaxy S® III with an enhanced S Pen and new S Pen apps, the processing power to multitask like a PC, with a larger screen yet in a thinner, lighter form factor. The Galaxy Note II enables consumers that want a larger format device to create, collaborate and now share original content faster and easier than before.

“The original Galaxy Note® created a new category of smartphones by combining the best of a smartphone with the best of a tablet. In less than a year, Samsung sold more than 10 million globally demonstrating the category is taking hold,” said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America. “The new Galaxy Note II is a significant leap forward for the category.”

Power & Performance

Galaxy Note II marks the U.S. debut of Samsung’s Exynos™ 1.6 GHz quad-core processor optimized for LTE networks. It has 2GB of internal RAM; and comes with 16 GB of onboard file storage and supports up to 64GB of additional memory with a microSD® card. Collectively, these deliver easy multitasking, lightning fast screen transitions, powerful browser performance and minimal app load time.

The Galaxy Note II is the first Samsung smartphone to launch with Android™ 4.1 Jelly Bean, which brings stunning graphical capabilities and an upgraded Google Now service, including new features such as contextual search. It is also a SAFE-designated device, which means it has additional security features to safe-guard sensitive data and communications.

The Galaxy Note II has a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED™ touchscreen with 16:9 aspect ratio, the standard for true HD video viewing, and comes with a 3,100 mAh battery, which is 24 percent larger than the original Galaxy Note.

Despite the much larger battery, the device weighs slightly less than the original Galaxy Note. As a result of a narrower bezel on all four sides of the screen, the screen is larger but the overall device is narrower. The Galaxy Note II is available in Marble White and Titanium Gray color options.

Create & Collaborate

At the heart of the Galaxy Note II and the ability to create and collaborate is the S Pen™, which has been ergonomically redesigned to provide a more precise and natural writing and drawingexperience. The new S Pen can sense 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, four times more than the original S Pen.

When the new S Pen is removed from the Galaxy Note II, it automatically launches the S Pen menu, which opens a new home screen that allows one-touch access to most used S-Pen applications. Keeping track of the S Pen is simple now too because a visual and audible alarm appears if the user forgets to put the S Pen back inside the device.

The S Pen’s advanced features provide the ability to capture ideas, inspiration and information instantly, and to combine handwriting with any digital content directly on the screen, such as adding new calendar appointments by writing the event details directly on the day of the week, signing or adding handwritten notes to an email.

Selecting and cropping text, images or other content on the Galaxy Note II with the S Pen is very similar to a traditional “click-mouse” experience. When the S Pen’s side button is pressed down, the S Pen recognizes that users want to clip or edit the selected content on the screen. Users can draw precise lines around the content to be cropped out, highlighted or copied into another application.

Key applications of the S Pen include:

  • Easy Clip feature allows users to instantly outline and crop any content on the screen in any shape to save, share or paste. Once done cropping the image, users can freely edit the cropped content through coloring, shading, or their own personal handwriting.
  • Quick Command uses the S Pen to quickly activate applications and services people use most often. The command pad appears with one upward swipe on the screen with the S Pen button pressed down. Users can send an email, make a call or search a location with pre-registered and customized S Pen stroke marks made on the command pad.
  • Photo Notes allows users to create handwritten notes on the back of digital photos.
  • Air View allows users to hover with the S Pen over an email, calendar entry, image gallery or video to preview the content without having to open it or wait for screen transitions. This feature also enables users to preview Web site content without opening the full site. Air View provides a title description for unrecognizable icons in various applications.
  • Idea Sketch allows users to easily add illustrations by handwriting keywords on the S Note. It provides illustration images that match the handwritten keywords. It’s a fancy illustration match function that will allow users to express, organize and visualize ideas in a more innovative and creative way. Users can even customize and add in their own illustrations library.

Multitask & Share

The Galaxy Note II takes multitasking to the next level by enabling consumers to launch multiple windows on one screen, including high definition video. Multitasking features include:

  • Popup Note lets users open an S Note instantly as a pop-up window to jot down a quick note during a phone call, checking email or watching a video.
  • Popup Video extends the concept of ‘Popup Play.’ While watching a video, with the touch of a button, the video will become a floating window on the display. The video will continue to play and it can be re-sized or repositioned to any part of the GALAXY Note II’s screen. This versatility means that users are free to load other applications beneath it to browse online or work in other apps such as email, calendar or text messaging.
  • Popup Browser launches a new browser window when a user clicks on a link embedded in an email.

The Galaxy Note II contains many of the popular, real-life content sharing features introduced in June on the Samsung Galaxy S™ III including:

  • S Beam – Tap back of Galaxy Note II against another S-Beam-enabled device to share large video files, documents or S Notes in seconds without using data service.
  • Share Shot – Seamlessly share pictures taken with Galaxy Note II’s 8 megapixel camera to other phones from up to 200 feet away.
  • Burst Shot/Best Shot – Capture rapid-fire still pictures with zero shutter lag; choose picture with optimal colors, lighting and clarity from Best Shot image recommendations.
  • AllShare Cast™ and GroupCast™ have been expanded on the Galaxy Note II. Share premium video content, mobile games and movies and TV shows from Samsung Media Hub wirelessly with Samsung Smart TVs, laptops, tablets and other consumer electronics.

Customize & Accessorize

  • Protective Flip Cover – Samsung’s unique flip cover enhances the look of the Galaxy Note II with a premium leather front and glossy backing, while providing privacy and protection. The Protective Flip Cover comes in seven vibrant colors to customize the Galaxy Note II, including Titanium Gray, Marble White, Blue, Pink, Mint, Lime Green, and Orange.
  • S Pen with Eraser – This ergonomic, full-featured S Pen features a button for gestures and an eraser tip for easy corrections. This updated version of Samsung’s original S Pen truly mimics the feel of a pen or pencil.

Sprint announces $99 Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE for September 16

Scott Webster
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Sprint today announced its next Android handset, the “powerful yet affordable” Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE.  Priced at $99 (after $50 mail-in rebate) with a two-year service agreement, the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich handset features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4-inch display, and 4G LTE support.  Additional details for the Galaxy Victory include a 5-megapixel rear camera, front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera, and NFC.

As is the case with most other Sprint devices, the Samsung handset comes with Google Wallet, Sprint ID, and the full suite of Google apps.

 

Powerful Yet Affordable 4G LTE Android Smartphone, Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE from Sprint, Available Beginning Sept. 16 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Sept. 13, 2012 – Sprint (NYSE:S), the only national carrier with Truly Unlimited℠ 4G LTE data, text and calling to any mobile, will offer the feature-packed Samsung Galaxy Victory™ 4G LTE at a price that makes it an easy choice for customers who are ready to step up to their first Android™-powered smartphone. At less than $100, Galaxy Victory gives Sprint customers the benefit of Sprint 4G LTE at a very accessible price.

Galaxy Victory will be available beginning on Sunday, Sept. 16, for just $99.99 with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement, after a $50 mail-in rebate via reward card1 (excludes taxes and surcharges), at Sprint Stores, Sprint Business Sales, Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) and Web Sales (www.sprint.com).

Manufactured by Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S. and the No. 1 smartphone provider worldwide2, Galaxy Victory is powered by Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4-inch touchscreen display and access to the Sprint 4G LTE network. This allows the smartphone to effortlessly switch between applications and enables a rich web browsing experience with true multitasking.

“Price is often a barrier for customers who are ready to transition from a feature phone to a smartphone; Samsung Galaxy Victory brings Sprint 4G LTE to the mass market with the high-end features and capabilities of a premium Android smartphone,” said David Owens, vice president – Product Development, Sprint. “Priced under $100 and paired with Truly Unlimited data from Sprint, our customers will appreciate the functionality of this device without worrying about costly monthly rate plans or surprises on their wireless bill.”

Galaxy Victory customers enjoy a Truly Unlimited experience with Sprint Everything Data plans. Sprint’s Everything Data plan with Any Mobile, AnytimeSM includes unlimited web, texting and calling to and from any mobile in America while on the Sprint Network, starting at just $79.99 per month for smartphones – a savings of $20 per month versus Verizon’s comparable plan with unlimited talk, text and 2GB web (excludes taxes and surcharges). Customers value Truly Unlimited data, because it’s simple and straightforward – no metering, no throttling and no overages, all while on the Sprint network.

Fully Loaded with Features

As a Sprint ID smartphone, Galaxy Victory provides the ability to cut through the clutter of the more than 600,000 additional apps in Google Play™. Sprint ID offers an innovative way to personalize Android smartphones with apps, widgets, wallpapers, ringtones and more and ID packs deliver a complete mobile experience – based on consumers’, students’ or businesses’ interests or favorite brands. Customers can download and switch among five self-selected ID packs tailored to an individual’s lifestyle and interests with a few simple clicks.

Additional features on Galaxy Victory include:

  • 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and video capture, ideal for documenting important moments as they happen
  • 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera that can be used for video chat
  • Google Wallet™, turning the smartphone into a wallet using Near Field Communication (NFC) to make safe purchases at more than 100,000 participating retailers

The search function on Galaxy Victory is fast and simple with S Voice™, an advanced natural language user interface that enables search and basic device-user communication. It can be used to turn the volume up or down on the music player, answer or reject incoming calls, shut off or choose to snooze the alarm clock or take a picture by saying “smile” or “cheese.”

Galaxy Victory also makes it fast and easy to share pictures, videos and presentations between devices or with friends and groups of people:

  • S Beam expands on Android Beam™ to enhance device-to-device sharing through NFC technology by adding the ability to share photos, videos, documents and other DRM-free content to Android Beam. This allows a 1GB file to be shared within minutes and a 10MB file within seconds by simply touching another S Beam enabled phone.
  • AllShare® Play allows users to wirelessly connect Galaxy Victory to their PC, tablet or television to immediately share files, stream music, user-generated videos, photos and other DRM-free content to AllShare-enabled devices using Wi-Fi®. It also allows the user to remotely access files on up to six Samsung devices.
  • AllShare Group Cast lets the user share a presentation or photo album in real time with multiple friends on the same Wi-Fi network.

Continuing its aggressive momentum in delivering an all new 3G and 4G LTE network experience for customers, Sprint announced on Monday that 4G LTE construction has begun in more than 100 more cities within its existing nationwide 3G footprint. Major metropolitan areas in which Sprint 4G LTE is expected to be available in the coming months include Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Memphis, Tenn.; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C.

During the pre-launch phase, customers with 4G LTE devices may begin to see 4G LTE coverage in these areas and are welcome to use the network even before it officially launches. Sprint plans to announce commercial availability of 4G LTE in these cities in the coming months, at which point we expect coverage, performance and reliability to get even better. The markets will fill in until coverage largely matches the existing nationwide 3G footprint.

Sprint 4G LTE is now available in 19 cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City and San Antonio. Sprint’s Network Vision project also includes significant improvement in customers’ 3G network experience, including expanded coverage, improved network reliability, better voice quality, and faster 3G data speeds. For the most up-to-date details on Sprint’s 4G LTE rollout, visit www.sprint.com/4GLTE.

Sprint will host the 12th annual Open Solutions Conference on Oct. 24-25 at the San Jose, Calif., Convention Center offering developers, ecosystem partners and executive attendees an up-close view into the latest app developing tools and capabilities, keynote presentations from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and other industry leaders, breakout sessions, coding sessions, event sponsor exhibits, and business-critical networking opportunities. Registration is open at http://developer.sprint.com/OSC2012.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 56 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2012 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint No. 1 among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 industries, during the last four years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

About Samsung Mobile

Samsung Mobile (Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC), a Dallas-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., researches, develops and markets wireless handsets and telecommunications products throughout North America. For more information, please visit www.samsungwireless.com.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion. Employing approximately 206,000 people in 197 offices across 72 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LED. Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world’s most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

 

Samsung Galaxy S III review (Sponsored Post)

Scott Webster
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What we liked: The Samsung Galaxy S III is heavy on hardware, but even heavier on experience. The leading-edge specs easily put it at the top of the Android mountain, however its the personal touches that will see this phone selling like hotcakes.

Room for improvement: A little slipperier than we’d like, the phone backside is also quick to pick up smudges.  And, even though it’s more narrow than other large display handsets, it’s still not easy to operate with one hand. Some of the front-facing camera features could be more accurate.

Review at a glance: Putting the fanboy-imposed expectations aside and looking at the phone from a general consumer standpoint, the Galaxy S III is an all-around winner.  The Android 4.0 experience only gets better with Samsung’s custom features.  Sharing is the name of the game here and mobile users will be sharing their love of the Galaxy S III this summer

Sponsored by Sprint

Before we go any further

As one of the most anticipated samrtphones of all time, the Galaxy S III has a lot to live up to.  In case you missed it, rumors and speculation were rampant this spring over what hardware was going to be for Samsung’s flagship device.  When it was announced, it featured pretty much all of the upper-tier stuff we expected, and the masses were sufficiently pleased.  Yet, despite its top of the line hardware, all the dual-core this, 2GB that, and other hardware won’t be what gets people chatting.  For the first time since the G1, it’s what this phone does that makes me show it off.

I love to take review phones out in the wild to see what friends and family say about them and the Galaxy S III was no different.  Would people see its white design and massive screen and ask me about it? Yes.  Would I end up talking about its 2GB RAM and 8-megapixel camera?  Only to show off burst mode, best shot, and other cool tricks.  It’s not that the hardware was embarrassing or second-rate, it’s just that’s not what average users care about.  Because of that, this review will largely focus on the “stuff” that Samsung did with this phone that separates it from other higher end smartphones.

A bit on the hardware

What’s not to love here?  The dual-core 1.5GHz CPU is quicker than anything your typical consumer needs and it shines when doing your mundane stuff like downloading apps, playing games, checking calendar, and playing with media.  Paired with 2GB RAM, the Galaxy S III is ultra-fast and more than able to handle whatever you throw it at.

The 4.8-inch 1280×720 display is downright gorgeous and will grab the attention of anyone within range.  Surrounded by its white shell, the handset looks clean, classy, and sophisticated. The screen is is protected by Gorilla Glass so I know it’s going to handle pockets and purses just fine.  We sincerely missed the Gorilla Glass tech on the Galaxy Nexus and were only too pleased to learn it made the trip.

Colors are more natural than in previous Super AMOLED models and the clarity cannot be overstated.  Sure, there’s IPS stuff out there on other models but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn’t appreciate the Galaxy S III display.

Even with its 2100mAh battery inside, the Galaxy S III feels light, yet never cheap.  Yes, you can bend that battery cover in all sorts of taco shapes, but it’s pretty strong and resilient stuff.  Feeling like a shinier, more expensive version of last year’s Galaxy S II, the handset is taller and slimmer than its predecessor.  Speaking of  battery, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up over the course of a day. It’s not a Droid Razr Maxx, but we expected less time with the 4.8-inch display and all the goofing around.  Off the charger, we were able to go all day long, five days straight.  The first two days were weekend and the times we really installed our apps, took a chunk of photos and video, and more.  A normal workday?  Should be more than fine, if not as good as your current smartphone.

The 8-megapixel camera marries the tech from the Galaxy Nexus with the higher resolution stuff from other Samsung models.  What’s more, the addition of new features makes sure that it’s not just pixel count that folks worry about.

The experience that matters

Staying with the camera, we really love the near-zero shutter lag, 8 picture burst mode, and Best Shot.  We tested the various features over the weekend with kids playing in the pool and were impressed with the single shots around the water.  Switched to Best Shot and Burst Shot, we grabbed dozens of candid shots of children jumping off diving boards, playing with squirt guns, and going down the slide.  It was perhaps the camera features alone that had friends and family asking to see what we were doing.  Handing the phone off to demo for a moment, the general reaction when giving it back was, “That’s my next phone!”

Resized from 3264×2448 but not edited or retouched.

There are also other features in the camera and its app that we really dig, including the smile detection, panoramic mode, HDR, and Buddy Photo Share face tagging. Upon taking a photo of various people, the phone will ask if you’d like to identify the person(s) in the photo.  Once you tell it who is in the picture, the Galaxy S III will automatically tag and sort images around them.  Similarly, it’s easy to access all of those specific photos in your gallery and share them with contacts.  The front-facing 1.9-megapixel camera was great for self-portrait shots and video chat, however we didn’t spend too much time on this front.

The Samsung Galaxy S III has a terrific feature called Smart Stay, which utilizes the front-facing camera to keep a watch on your eyes while browsing the internet, read documents, and other apps.  Designed to keep your phone from falling asleep on you, it ensures you don’t have to tap the screen to keep it awake while you try to figure out what OMGWTFBBQKTXBAI means.  Results varied here however the brighter environments always worked better than dimly light bedrooms or living rooms.

 

Much will be said about the “wannabe-Siri” in S Voice and how it’s almost as good of an experience.  I loved it and think the average user will be pleased with the way it handles voice requests and commands.  There’s a sizable list of things that can be done here, including checking weather, Google searches, countdowns, timers, alarm clocks, appointments, phone settings, navigation, messages, emails, and more.  No, you can’t ask if the Red Sox are winning right now, but it’s more handy than anything else you’ve used so far.  We found the feature able to recognize commands and questions in ways that we were comfortable.  In other words, we didn’t have to learn how to ask it questions with particular phrasing or pacing.

NFC and other sharing features

With so many devices coming with NFC support, it was not a surprise to learn that the Galaxy S III had an NFC chip inside.  What pleased us, however, was how Samsung was able to take the tech beyond mobile payments and the narrow perception it carries.  With TecTiles, users can program these postage-stamp sized stickers with whatever commands or tasks they’d like.  Put one on your nightstand and tap it before you go to sleep to turn off the ringer and Wi-Fi.  Stick one in the car and enable driving mode with the a simple bump.  Parents should set one of these in the house and program it to send off a “I’m home and safe” message for kids getting home from school. There’s a seemingly endless number of things you could make TecTiles do and at $14.99 for 5-pack, it’s a cheap way to smarten things up.

Introduced as Android Beam with Android 4.0, Samsung takes the sharing option to another level with S Beam. Paired with Wi-Fi Direct connection, this lets users share all kinds of content to other devices with a simple tap.  Once paired, it’s a breeze to share pictures, video, web content, contact info, and more.

Along those same lines, AllShare gives users the ability to share movies, photos, music, and more with Samsung Smart TV’s, DLNA-capable devices, and other options. Watching a movie on your phone?  Why not push it out to the projector or television?  The same goes for files you’ve got store in the cloud, or outside of your home.  Just look for the logo in the corner and share it!

Bottom line

Hype confirmed.  This handset is everything we’d expect out of Samsung’s flagship device on just about every front imaginable.  Thanks to a unified branding and singular form factor, across multiple providers, there will be no mistaking one of these as better than the other.  And, since it’s so widely available, the Galaxy S III stands as good a chance as any to knock the iPhone down another notch.  With Samsung’s new smartphone you’ll come for the gorgeous and stay for the experience.  Yes, some of the features can be found in third party apps or on other devices, however it’s presented in a total package with which we’ve fallen fast in love.

Look for the Galaxy S III at AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, U.S. Cellular, and C Spire Wireless.

Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE review

Justin Marden
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When Android first broke onto the main scene with the G1, QWERTY keyboards were all the rage. Device after device was released with a physical keyboard for several years, some good and some bad (cough Moto Backflip cough). We’ve seen a trend over the last year or two, in which QWERTY keyboards were abandoned, in favor of slimmer devices with larger screens to compensate for the lack of said keyboard. Just a quick glance at the devices of today shows this: the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, and even Motorola’s latest powerhouse, the Razr HD. All these, and countless other devices lack a physical keyboard. Occasionally we hear cries to OEMs to start making those QWERTY-packing devices again, but those cries are rarely answered. Even when a QWERTY slider does break through, it’s typically mid- to low-end in terms of specs and software.

Motorola and Sprint have apparently heard these pleas, and are attempting to satisfy them with the Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE. While the name is longer than it should be (as with most recent Sprint devices), the Photon Q is sure to satisfy most users looking for that QWERTY fix. As with any device, it has its highs and lows. But after a week of usage, I found that the highs far outweigh the lows.

Upon receiving the Photon Q, nearly everyone that I spoke with had no idea what it was. Obviously Sprint hasn’t done a ton of marketing with this device, probably because it’s busy with touting the Galaxy S3 and other top shelf models. It came as no surprise to me that the Photon Q wasn’t a well-known device. but after using it for over a week, I have to say that Sprint should put more effort into advertising this thing. It surprised me in several fields, from the keyboard to Motorola’s slimmed down UI. But enough rambling, let’s get into the specs of this bad boy. The Photon Q isn’t going to compete with the top devices on the market, but it’s definitely not low-end.

  • 4.3-inch 540 x 960 TFT display
  • Android 4.0.4
  • 1.5GHz dual-core processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8GB internal storage with a microSD card slot for memory expansion
  • 8MP rear camera with an LED flash and 1080p HD video capture
  • 1.3MP front-facing camera
  • NFC and DLNA capabilities
  • 1,785 mAh nonremovable battery
  • 5-row QWERTY keyboard

The Positives

  • Screen is a good size for the average user
  • Build quality is very good
  • Keyboard is fantastic, bottom line
  • Motorola’s UI doesn’t hinder the device
  • Very small amount of bloatware, as compared to other Motorola devices as of late
  • Preloaded with ICS, with an update to Jelly Bean coming soon
  • LTE support, which will pay off in the long run
  • Camera button. Need I say more?

The Not-so-Positives

  • Camera is very buggy, good shots rarely come on the first try
  • The rounded corners made sliding the screen somewhat awkward, which lead to several fumbles with the device

As mentioned, the pros dominate the cons of the Photon Q. Obviously for the user that doesn’t want a physical keyboard, this device isn’t even on the table. But for those keyboard junkies like myself, the Photon Q is definitely something to consider. Why? We’re about to find out.

Hardware

The build quality of the Photon Q is well above average. The soft-touch trim, texturized backing, and rounded corners make for a device that just fits well in the hand. Of course with the added weight of the keyboard, the device is a bit hefty, and thicker as well. A small price to pay for the nostalgic feeling one gets from using a QWERTY once again.

Beyond the initial look and feel of the device, Motorola has done a few things that just tie it all together. The power button, volume rocker, and camera button (yes, the Photon Q has a camera button), are all chrome-d  out. They don’t stick when pressed, and there’s a clear clicking, so the user knows the button has been pressed. It’s the little things like this that complete the aesthetics of the device.

Display

Gone are the days of smaller, 3.5-inch displays, replaced by the huge 4.7-inchers. Lots of Android users are jumping to these larger screens, but there are still quite a few that just want a smaller display without all the bells and whistles. The Photon Q delivers this perfectly with a responsive, capacitive 4.3-inch screen. It’s not spectacular, and it by no means is a direct competitor to the top displays of today. But colors are vivid, corners are sharp, and it gets the job done.

Camera

Over the past week, I’ve developed a love/hate relationship with the Photon Q’s 8MP camera. While I’ve been able to produce some very good photos, the camera app itself is buggy, and crashes at random. Furthermore, upon opening the app, I’m greeting with colored flashes, as if the camera is constantly changing filters from aqua to sepia and back to normal. This is even more evident when moving from a location with abundant light to a darker location. It’s unclear if this is an issue with the physical camera, or a software issue that Motorola needs to amend. Either way, the Photon Q’s camera isn’t a big selling point.

The LED flash isn’t the best, and really just adds more glare than light to a photo. As if that wasn’t enough, there is no way to disable the camera’s shutter sound. Even after turning down every volume under the sounds settings, that shutter sound is always there, and always loud.

On a brighter note, I can say that it’s genuinely nice to have a physical camera button on the device. I’ve found myself using the button almost every time I launch the camera. It’s easy, saves time, and alright, it does give me a little jolt of nostalgia. Sue me. The front-facing camera performs as well as can be expected from a 1.3MP shooter. Of course, it’s primarily used for self portraits and video chatting, so HD quality isn’t exactly a necessity.

Keyboard

It’s finally time to get into the goods of the Photon Q: that gorgeous, back-lit 5-row keyboard. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve used a physical keyboard on an Android device, so it took quite a few botched sentences for me to get back into the swing of things. But once I had adjusted to the keyboard, I can honestly say that I have never been happier with a QWERTY device. At first, the keyboard seemed somewhat cramped, with the four arrow keys and “OK” button in the bottom right corner. But after hammering out a few emails, I was addicted. There were several reasons for this, each with its own level of joy.

I’ll start with the keys themselves. The Photon Q’s keyboard is reminiscent of the T-Mobile G2, which just so happens to be the last QWERTY device I used. The keys are island-style, and not arranged to a grid, which speaks volumes to the usability of the keyboard. Motorola threw in a nice space bar that’s 4 keys wide, and centered nicely. Travel is magnificent, and I even found myself abandoning the virtual keyboard altogether, just to get more use out of the QWERTY. The keys feel solid, but still have a certain clickability that should appeal to keyboard lovers everywhere.

On top of that, the keyboard itself is somewhat raised from the body of the phone. Of course the keys themselves are raised, but it’s almost as if the keyboard is on a small platform. It’s more obvious when viewing the phone from the side, as pictured above. This brings the keyboard closer to the user’s thumbs, which just improves accuracy even more.

Motorola not only hit a home run with the keys, they went above and beyond in their attempt to make this keyboard usable. Every key is individually back-lit, so those late night Google+ updates can be made in the dark. The backlight can be turned off, although I expect most users will leave it on “Automatic,” which uses the light sensor on the front of the device to adjust the backlight brightness. This is functional on so many levels. Admittedly, I found myself playing with the backlight brightness like a kid with a new toy.

I was also impressed with the smoothness of the sliding mechanism. Motorola’s history with sticky, springless sliders (original Droid and Droid 2, anyone?) made me a bit apprehensive about a Motorola QWERTY device, but I was happy to be proven wrong. The slider feels solid, although it’s a bit awkward to slide open the keyboard. That brings me to one of the very few negatives of the Photon Q. When holding the phone, I noticed how rounded the corners are.

Rounded corners are very popular with Android devices (much to Apple’s dismay), so it only seemed natural that they would be present here. But the first time I slid the keyboard open, I nearly dropped the phone. The corners are rounded so much that they’re tapered toward the back of the device. So when trying to press the display upward to reveal the keyboard, my fingers slipped off the back, and I fumbled with the device. At first it was quite irritating, but after some experimenting, I found that the best way to slide the keyboard out is to place my fingers on the camera button and volume rockers, instead of the severely rounded corners. It’s not a huge deal, just a tad bit irksome.

Performance

The Photon Q boasts a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor that doesn’t disappoint. I was expecting Motorola’s UI to slow down the device, as it has with past iterations of Android, but the processor actually handles it quite well. Quadrant results hovered around 4500, putting the Photon Q right up there with the HTC One X.

After some testing, I can vouch for every point of that score. Games rendered perfectly, with no lag whatsoever, and apps opened without any hesitation. Every transition was smooth and fluid, even with dozens of apps running simultaneously. I was blown away by the speed of this device. Upon further use, I noticed that Motorola has cut their UI down to the basics, which probably contributed to the performance boost.

It is called the Photon Q 4G LTE, so naturally the LTE radio will have some place in a review. Sadly, Sprint does not yet have 4G LTE service in the Birmingham area, so I was stuck with 3G. As disappointed as I was, I know that Sprint is growing its network as much and as quickly as possible, so it’s only a matter of time before more people are able to enjoy 4G speeds with a device like this. I can’t wait to see Sprint reach new markets with LTE, because we’ve certainly heard enough from Verizon about their coverage.

Battery life

The 1,785 mAh battery on the Photon Q actually served me very well this past week. I found that with what I consider to be average use (sending several emails, checking social networks, making a few phone calls), the device easily lasted a full day before needing to be plugged in.

Of course, this was all on a 3G connection. When Sprint launches LTE, battery life is sure to take a hit. I don’t foresee things changing much for average users of this device, but power users might want to explore other options.

Software

The Photon Q is running on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, with a light Motorola skin on top. It may bother some that the device isn’t running the latest version of Android, but Motorola has promised Jelly Bean for all devices released within the last year. It’s only a matter of time before the Photon Q gets some 4.1 love. But honestly, the average user should be more than satisfied with ICS on this device. It’s fast enough, usability is great, and Motorola has left large chunks of the OS untouched.

As close to stock Android as it gets…

So it’s not 100% vanilla Android, but clearly Motorola has gone a long way in making their UI unique without sacrificing speed or putting tons of ugly colors into the OS. Motorola added some pizzazz to the lockscreen, and put some grey and black tones into a few apps, but left a large amount of ICS alone. This is something that other OEMs should aspire to do, short of using stock Android to begin with. There are ways to make a device different from the rest without completely bogging down performance, and Motorola has found this balance with the Photon Q.

There are only a few Motorola widgets preloaded, more evidence that the UI isn’t invasive. One of these widgets is simply called “Circles,” and it’s actually quite useful. Three circles display the time, weather, and battery percentage. The widget is even interactive, as users can switch between analog and digital clocks, and even get weather for multiple cities.

Bloatware (or lack thereof)

I was very happy to find that the bloatware on this device is very minuscule. Out of the box, there are only seven applications not found in stock ICS. However, several of them are actually useful, and not just memory wasters that will never be opened. Motorola included a Help Center app (above), for those new to Android, as well as their Emergency Alerts service, which warns users about impending severe weather. Of course there’s also a file manager, which is always nice to have.

Beyond these apps, we have QuickOffice, Smart Actions, Sprint iD, and Sprint Zone. Personally, I can’t see myself using any of these apps, but they’re preloaded nevertheless. So when we look at the number of apps that won’t be used, there are really only four, at least in my case. This is much better than the amount of bloatware found on other devices and carriers (I’m looking at you, Big Red).

Wrap-up

So after a week with the Photon Q, there’s very little that I don’t like. Aside from the camera bugs and the awkwardness of the rounded corners, this is one of the best devices I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing in quite some time. It’s fast, has a fantastic QWERTY keyboard, and carries the promise of Sprint LTE. On top of all that, Jelly Bean could be right around the corner, courtesy of Motorola. What more could you ask for in a $199 device?

Amazon announces Kindle Fire HD family

Scott Webster
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[singlepic id=109 w=320 h=240 float=center]Amazon today confirmed that they Kindle Fire HD is a reality and it’s coming soon as the successor to last year’s Kindle Fire. The 7-inch 16GB Kindle Fire HD retails for $199 and ships on September 14 while a larger 8.9-inch model will run $299 and ship in November.

The specifications for the Kindle Fire HD are certainly an improvement over the predecessor and include a TI OMAP4470 processor, 16GB internal storage, and front-facing camera.  Not bad when you look at what the same money purchased just a few weeks back. Additional details include HDMI output, Bluetooth connectivity, stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus, and dual-antenna 5GHz band for Wi-Fi.

Check out the Kindle Fire HD Gallery!

And for those who really like the original model, you can grab one today at a newly slashed price of $159.  The new Kindle Fire 2 also includes a faster processor, double the RAM, 40% faster performance, and improved battery life. Shipping begins on September 14.

Not a fan of Wi-Fi only?

Amazon has today introduced a 4G LTE variant of the Kindle Fire HD which provides access to AT&T’s growing network.  The cost of the data plan is only $50 per year and the user gets 250MB data per month.  Crazy attractive price, but not much data.  The device is the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with 32GB internal storage, runs $499 and ships on November 20.

But wait, there’s more!

Amazon has also introduces a new Whispersync capability for audiobooks and ereaders which lets one pick up directly where they leave off, regardless of whether it was text or audio.  Perfect for those who read at home and want to listen to the rest of the story in the car.

Another great feature introduced today is X-Ray for Movies, which lets you dig deeper into a film.  Want to see what that guy’s name is in the background?  Thanks to a partnership with IMDB, it’s now possible.

Whispersync for games is also a reality, and allows game players to pick up right where they left off, even if on another device.

How does setting a time limit sound for your kids?  Kindle FreeTime is a feature that enables parents to predetermine how long another user may be able to use the Kindle Fire HD. Speaking of which, this apparently marks the introduction of multiple user accounts for one device.

Ring, ring, ring?

As for the rumored Kindle Phone?  Well, Bezos and Co. never even mentioned it.

Amazon Takes on the High-End—Introducing the New Kindle Fire HD Family

$199 now gets you the world’s most-advanced 7” tablet, with a stunning custom HD display, the fastest Wi-Fi, exclusive Dolby audio, powerful processor and graphics engine, and 16 GB of storage—all backed by the world’s best content ecosystem, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best customer service  

$299 now gets you all the same advanced technology on a stunning 8.9” large-screen 1920×1200 HD display with 254 ppi and a powerful OMAP4 4470 processor and graphics engine 

$499 now gets you the same high-end large-screen HD tablet, 32 GB of storage, plus ultra-fast 4G LTE wireless powered by the latest generation 4G chipset, and Amazon’s groundbreaking $49.99 one year 4G LTE data package—customers save hundreds of dollars in the first year compared to other 4G tablets 

New inventions exclusively on the new family of Kindle Fire devices—X-Ray for Movies, X-Ray for Textbooks, Immersion Reading, Whispersync for Voice, Whispersync for Games, and Kindle FreeTime 

SEATTLE—September 6, 2012—(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Less than one year ago, Amazon introduced Kindle Fire—combining 15 years of innovation into a fully-integrated, end-to-end service for customers.  Kindle Fire quickly became the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon.com, earning over 10,000 5-star customer reviews, remaining the #1 best-selling product across the millions of items available on Amazon since its introduction, and capturing 22% of U.S. tablet sales in just nine months.  Today, Amazon is excited to announce that it’s taking on the high-end with Kindle Fire HD—the next generation of Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire HD family—the most-advanced tablets:

  • Ultra-fast 4G LTE wireless, powered by the latest generation 4G chipset, support for all 10 4G bands, and Amazon’s breakthrough 4G LTE data package—customers save hundreds of dollars in the first year compared to other 4G tablets.
  • Stunning custom HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter and custom laminated touch sensor for 25% less glare with rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle.
  • Fastest Wi-Fi of any tablet—dual antenna, dual-band, and MIMO—40% faster downloads and streaming compared to the next fastest tablet.
  • High-performance processor and graphics engine for snappy and smooth performance.
  • Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio—the standard in high-end audio—available for the first time on a tablet.
  • Kindle Fire HD starts with 16 GB of local storage, enough to accommodate the larger file sizes of HD content.
  • Exceptional battery life—7” Kindle Fire HD gets 11 hours of battery life.
  • Front-facing HD camera with custom Skype application for video calling from anywhere in the world.
  • New Amazon-exclusive features like X-Ray for Movies, X-Ray for Textbooks, Immersion Reading, Whispersync for Voice, Whispersync for Games, and Kindle FreeTime.
  • World’s best content ecosystem—over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines.
  • Best cross-platform interoperability, with Amazon apps available on the largest number of devices and platforms so customers can access content anytime, anywhere.
  • Amazon’s top-rated, world-class customer service.

Amazon is also introducing an all-new upgraded version of the best-selling standard definition Kindle Fire with a faster processor, twice the memory and longer battery life—all for an even lower breakthrough price—only $159.  Meet the all-new Kindle Fire family at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd.

“We’re taking on the most popular price point for a tablet, $499, but doubling the storage and incredibly, adding ultra-fast 4G LTE wireless,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO.  “Kindle Fire HD is not only the most-advanced hardware, it’s also a service.  When combined with our enormous content ecosystem, unmatched cross-platform interoperability and standard-setting customer service, we hope people will agree that Kindle Fire HD is the best high-end tablet anywhere, at any price.”

The Best Hardware

Stunning Custom HD Display

The 8.9” display on Kindle Fire HD features an incredible 254 pixels per inch with a resolution of 1920×1200, with pixels that are indistinguishable to the human eye.  The 7” Kindle Fire HD features a stunning HD display with 1280×800 resolution that delivers deep, detailed contrast and rich, natural color.  Kindle Fire HD also uses Gorilla Glass to provide superior strength and reliability.  Kindle Fire HD starts with excellent resolution, but that is only the beginning—Amazon also added custom features that reduce glare and improve color saturation at any viewing angle.

Most tablet displays are made up of two pieces of glass—an LCD on the bottom and a touch sensor on the top, separated by an air gap. This air gap allows light to come through the touch sensor and reflect off the LCD, which causes added glare for the user.  Fire HD solves this air gap problem by laminating the touch sensor and the LCD together into a single layer of glass, creating a display that is easy to view even in overhead light, and reducing glare by 25% relative to the latest generation iPad.

Like many tablets, Kindle Fire HD uses in-plane switching (IPS) to improve color reproduction. But displays that only use IPS still appear washed out at various angles, such as laid sideways in bed, flat on a table, or propped up in a case. Fire HD features an Advanced True Wide polarizing filter that is applied directly to the LCD panel.  This results in a display that shows the same deep contrast and rich, detailed color from any angle.

High-End Laptop-Quality Wi-Fi—40% Faster Downloads and High-Speed Streaming

HD content has much larger file sizes than standard definition content—for example, Marvel’s The Avengers in standard definition is 785 MB, but in HD, The Avengers is 2.97 GB.  Files of this size require the very latest in Wi-Fi technology to download or stream the HD content quickly and reliably—anything else results in buffering, slow downloads and dropped connections.  Many Wi-Fi enabled devices only use the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency.  This frequency is crowded since it is used by everything from other tablets to microwave ovens, baby monitors, Bluetooth devices, not to mention the neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks.  Kindle Fire HD circumvents this congestion with state-of-the-art dual-band Wi-Fi.  Kindle Fire HD can automatically switch between the 2.4 GHz network and the newer, less crowded  5 GHz network, resulting in better range and less interference.  In addition, dual antennas and Multiple In/Multiple Out (MIMO) allow for higher bandwidth and longer range.  The new Kindle Fire HD is the first tablet to market with all three of these latest generation Wi-Fi technologies—dual-band support, dual antennas, and MIMO.  This is the first time this state-of-the-art Wi-Fi technology has been offered in a tablet, resulting in 40% faster throughput compared to the latest generation iPad.

Latest Generation 4G LTE Wireless

The large-screen Kindle Fire HD is also available with ultra-fast 4G LTE, with download speeds as fast as Wi-Fi.  To keep the 4G Kindle Fire HD just 8.8 mm thin, Amazon custom-designed its 4G wireless modem to be just 2.2 mm.  Some 4G devices don’t support all of the non-4G bands—Kindle Fire HD includes support for 10-bands, so even if a customer doesn’t have perfect 4G coverage, the Kindle will fall back to the fastest available 3G speeds.

Amazon’s Breakthrough 4G LTE Data Package

The 4G Kindle Fire HD comes with the most affordable 4G tablet data package.  Customers will have access to a 12-month data plan with 250MB per month, 20GB of Amazon Cloud storage, and a $10 credit in the Amazon Appstore for a one-time cost of $49.99. In fact, when you combine the cost of the device and the data plan, customers who purchase the Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE will pay over $400 less than latest generation iPad owners in the first year of ownership. Customers can also choose to upgrade to 3 GB or 5 GB data plans from AT&T directly from the device.

8 GB of Storage is Not Enough for an HD Tablet

Customers want to enjoy HD content if they have an HD tablet—and 8 GB of on-device storage isn’t enough for the larger HD file sizes.  The 7” Kindle Fire HD is available with 16 GB or 32 GB of on-device storage, and the large screen Kindle Fire is available with 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB of on-device storage.  This large on-device storage capacity is in addition to the free storage Amazon provides for Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud.  Amazon digital content is automatically backed up for free in the Amazon Cloud’s Worry-Free Archive where it’s available anytime.

Powerful World-Class Processor—Snappy and Smooth

An HD display and HD content must be driven by a powerful processor and optimized software.  The Kindle Fire HD family features world-class processors and the new Imagination Technologies graphics engine for lightning-fast HD graphics and excellent fluidity.  The 8.9” Kindle Fire HD is powered by the latest generation OMAP4 4470 processor and Imagination SGX544 graphics engine capable of over 12 billion floating point operations per second—50 percent more than Tegra 3, and both Kindle Fire HD 7” and 8.9” come with higher memory bandwidth than Tegra 3.  Combining the latest generation processors with significant customization of the Kindle Fire software by Amazon engineers results in a snappy and smooth experience for the user.

Dual Stereo Speakers and Exclusive Dolby Audio—The New Standard for Tablet Audio

Customers shouldn’t need to wear headphones while watching a movie on a tablet to get excellent sound.  Kindle Fire HD solves this by combining dual stereo speakers with the next generation Dolby Digital Plus audio platform—the standard in high performance audio—to offer a world-class audio experience.  Dolby’s audio suite for Kindle Fire HD includes technology used to adjust volume and deliver easier-to-understand dialogue in movies and TV shows.  Kindle Fire HD automatically optimizes the audio profile based on what a customer is doing, such as watching a movie, listening to music, using third party apps like Pandora and Netflix, and also optimizes for headphones versus speakers.  All of these pieces combine to create an exceptional audio experience that results in clearer, crisper and balanced sound quality.

11 Hours of Battery Life

The 7” Kindle Fire HD is optimized to deliver high performance without sacrificing battery life, delivering over 11 hours of battery life.

Thin and Light

Even with a custom display, a powerful processor, extra speakers and dual-band/dual-antenna Wi-Fi, the new Kindle Fire HD is extremely light and thin.  In fact, Kindle Fire HD 8.9” weighs only 20 ounces and is just 8.8 mm thin.  Kindle Fire HD 7” is small enough to take everywhere and light enough to hold easily and comfortably in one hand.

Connect with Bluetooth and HDMI

Kindle Fire HD supports Bluetooth, enabling customers to connect their wireless Bluetooth headphones or Bluetooth speakers to listen to songs, videos or audiobooks.  With Bluetooth connectivity, customers can also easily connect to a wide range of Bluetooth-enabled keyboards.  HDMI out makes it easy for customers to connect the Kindle Fire HD to their big-screen TV to enjoy their favorite HD videos and photos.

Stay in Touch with Front-Facing HD Camera

The new Kindle Fire HD features a front-facing HD camera.  Skype created a customized app tailored for Kindle Fire HD that is ready to use out of the box for free HD video calls at home and abroad.  Kindle Fire HD makes it easy for the over 500 million customers already using Skype to get in touch with friends and family.

Beautiful Leather Covers

Covers for Kindle Fire HD feature a premium textured leather exterior in a variety of colors and a subtle woven nylon interior to provide the lightest and thinnest form of protection. The integrated magnetic clasp ensures the cover remains securely closed while in a backpack, purse, or briefcase. The cover automatically wakes Kindle Fire HD upon opening and puts it to sleep when closed, making it easy to dive right back into whatever content a customer is enjoying.

All-New Features Only Amazon Can Offer

X-Ray for Books

One year ago, Amazon introduced X-Ray on Kindle Touch, and customers loved it.  Amazon is extending X-Ray to books on Kindle Fire, making it easier than ever for customers to learn more about the content they love by exploring the “bones of the book.”  With a single tap, readers can see all the passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics that interest them, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari, Amazon’s community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers.

X-Ray for Movies

“X-Ray for Movies” is a new feature that revolutionizes the movie experience by bringing the power of IMDb directly to movies on Kindle Fire HD, accessible with a simple tap.  Without ever leaving the movie, customers can look up any actor in the scene or movie, see what other movies they have been in, and view photos, biographies and more.  X-Ray is offered only by Amazon and is exclusive to the Amazon ecosystem.  IMDb, an Amazon company for 14 years, is the #1 movie website in the world with more than 160 million monthly unique visitors worldwide.

X-Ray for Textbooks

Glossaries in print textbooks contain the most important information for students, but they’re placed inconveniently in the back of the book.  And glossaries don’t always contain enough information for students working to understand new concepts.  X-Ray for Textbooks solves these problems by integrating the glossary directly into each textbook page and by algorithmically assembling related data from Wikipedia and YouTube.

Immersion Reading

Research supports that readers can benefit from listening while reading.  Together, Amazon and Audible invented “Immersion Reading,” allowing customers to fuse together printed text and professionally-narrated audiobooks, giving readers the ability to experience their reading with two senses—sight and sound.  As the reader views the text of their book on Kindle Fire, text is highlighted as it is professionally-narrated, creating a more immersive experience, as well as deeper learning and comprehension.

Whispersync for Voice

Whispersync for Voice allows customers to synchronize their Kindle books with professionally-narrated audiobooks—customers can start reading a book on Kindle Fire and seamlessly switch to listening to the companion audiobook, picking up exactly where they left off.  With Whispersync for Voice, customers can continue enjoying books during commutes or any other time their eyes are busy.  When they get in the car, customers can effortlessly pick up the story right where they left off reading by listening to the professionally-narrated audiobook using Bluetooth on Kindle Fire HD or with any Audible app on their smartphone.

Ideal for Gaming

Amazon has worked with leading developers to offer new Android games exclusively on Kindle Fire HD, including Activision’s popular Skylanders Cloud Patrol franchise and Crytek’s Fibble.  In Skylanders Cloud Patrol, gamers will discover a new feature—the ability to purchase physical toys from within a game.  Customers will be able to purchase a unique Skylanders character with a single click, and Amazon.com will deliver it to their doorstep. In addition to hardware that’s perfect for gaming like stunning custom HD displays, fast Wi-Fi and large on-device storage, the Kindle Fire HD family also offers HD Games, gyroscope and accelerometer for full tilt and turn controls, as well as social gaming features including group leaderboards and achievements.

Whispersync for Games

One of the biggest frustrations of mobile gaming is that when customers switch devices or delete and re-install the game on the same device, they have to start a level over or go back to the beginning of the game.  To solve this problem, Amazon extended its Whispersync technology to gaming with Whispersync for Games.  Whispersync for Games syncs a customer’s place in the game and saves unlocked levels, so even if they get a new device, the progress is backed up in the cloud.

Kindle FreeTime

Amazon today reinvented parental controls with Kindle FreeTime.  FreeTime gives parents easy-to-use tools to personalize their children’s digital media experience.   With FreeTime, parents never have to worry what content their kids will access—parents select all of the content their kids can see and kids can’t exit FreeTime without a password.  FreeTime also lets parents limit their kids’ screen time by content type—they may choose to limit videos and games, for example, but make reading time unlimited.  Kindle FreeTime will be available for free on all of the new Kindle Fire devices starting in the coming weeks.

Cloud-Accelerated Silk Browser

The new Kindle Fire family uses a new version of Amazon Silk with the unique “split browser” architecture that leverages the computing speed and power of Amazon Web Services to deliver content faster.  The new Amazon Silk browser features an updated core rendering engine and a reengineered transport layer that contribute to faster page loads.  Customers can experience full-screen browsing, reading view, and improved browsing with most-visited, trending and recommended sites all available from a single screen.

All-New Email and Calendar

The new Kindle Fire family features world-class Microsoft Exchange integration, with fine-tuned performance on many of the most critical e-mail functions.  For example, typical Exchange accounts sync with the oldest emails first, ending with the most recent emails—Kindle Fire instead syncs with newer emails first, then with older emails, getting customers faster access to the most recent emails they are looking for.  Kindle Fire also features a new calendar app, making it easy for customers to stay connected and keep track of their schedules.  The new e-mail client offers support for the world’s most popular email providers—including Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Hotmail and more.

Photos Brought to Life

Photos come alive in stunning high-resolution on Kindle Fire HD.  Fire’s mosaic view arranges personal photos beautifully, and customers will be delighted to see their best shots on their TV with HDMI out.  Kindle Fire lets customers easily import their photos from Facebook and because their photos are securely stored in Amazon Cloud Drive, they never have to worry about losing their favorite pictures.

New Latest Generation Kindle Fire—Only $159

Kindle Fire, the #1 best-selling product on Amazon for the past year, is now even better, with all the features customers love about the original Kindle Fire—all the content, seamless integration with the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync, and a brilliant 7” touchscreen—now with a faster processor for 40% faster performance, twice the memory and longer battery life.  The new Kindle Fire also offers all of the new features that are exclusive to the Kindle Fire family—including X-Ray for Movies, X-Ray for Books, Immersion Reading, Whispersync for Voice, Kindle FreeTime and more.

Backed by the World’s Best Content Ecosystem, Cross-Platform Interoperability and Customer Service

All the Content—Over 22 Million Movies, TV Shows, Songs, Apps, Games, Books, Audiobooks and Magazines

Kindle Fire offers customers the largest selection of digital content, including thousands of exclusives:

  • Over 120,000 movies and TV episodes, including the most popular titles and the biggest new releases.  Customers can stream or download, purchase or rent.  Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, commercial-free streaming of over 25,000 popular movies and TV episodes at no additional cost with Prime Instant Video.  Customers who are new to Prime get one free month of Amazon Prime when they purchase Kindle Fire.
  • Instant access to the most popular apps and games, including Where’s My Perry?, Pinterest, NBA JAM, HBO GO, Hulu Plus and Asphalt 7—each one optimized for Kindle Fire HD.
  • Millions of songs from over 3 million artists.  Customers can stream purchases from the cloud, download playlists for offline listening, and store their personal collection in the cloud for access anytime, anywhere.
  • Millions of books, including over 180,000 titles that are exclusive to the Kindle Store.  Over 650,000 books are priced at $4.99 or less; over 1.2 million are $9.99 or less.  Amazon Prime members can choose from over 180,000 titles, including all 7 Harry Potter books and over 100 current and former New York Times best sellers, to borrow for free as part of Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, as frequently as a book a month with no waiting and no due dates.
  • Hundreds of magazines and newspapers—including Vogue, Esquire, National Geographic and Better Homes and Gardens—with glossy full-color layouts, HD photography, and beautifully detailed illustrations. Customers can try more than 50 free single issues available in the Kindle Newsstand, including Cosmopolitan, Maxim, O, The Oprah Magazine, ESPN The Magazine, Elle andMartha Stewart Living.
  • Over 100,000 professionally-narrated audiobook titles available, with free samples to listen to before buying.

Best Cross-Platform Interoperability with “Buy Once, Enjoy Everywhere”

With apps available on the largest number of devices and platforms, Kindle makes it easier than ever to access content anytime, anywhere.  Customers can read and sync their Kindle books across iPad, iPhone, PC, Mac, Android phones and tablets, BlackBerry, Windows Phones and in their web browsers with Kindle Cloud Reader.  Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video are available to watch on iPad, PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation 3, Blue-Ray, Roku and hundreds of compatible TVs, and because of Amazon’s Whispersync technology, customers never have to worry about losing their place in a movie or TV show.  Amazon MP3s are available on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Sonos and web browsers with Cloud Player.  Apps from the Amazon Appstore for Android are available on all Android phones and tablets.  No other company offers customers this level of flexibility with their content.

Free Month of Amazon Prime

Amazon continues to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to bring Prime members new movies, TV shows and books to enjoy at no additional cost.  Amazon customers enjoy unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of over 25,000 movies and TV episodes with Prime Instant Video; over 180,000 books from Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to borrow for free, as frequently as a book a month, with no waiting and no due dates; and receive the convenience of Free Two-Day Shipping on over 15 million items from Amazon.com.  Even with all this investment and continually growing selection, Prime remains at the same low price it launched with seven years ago—just $79.  Customers who are new to Prime get one free month of Amazon Prime when they purchase Kindle Fire.

Arrives Pre-Registered

Kindle Fire comes automatically pre-registered so customers can immediately start enjoying their digital content purchased from Amazon or shop for new content.

Top-Rated, World-Class Customer Service

When a customer shops on Amazon.com, buys a Kindle Fire, or buys Kindle content, they know that with that they are also getting Amazon’s world-class customer service.  Amazon scored 86—the top score—on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), and 89 on the ForeSee customer satisfaction survey—the highest ever attained by a retailer.  Amazon has been rated #1 in the National Retail Federation Customers’ Choice Awards, has been awarded the top spot in the MSN Money Customer Service Hall of Fame three years in a row, and is a JD Power and Associates 2012 Customer Service Champion.  Customers have been shopping on Amazon for over 15 years, and they continue to do so because of the unparalleled end-to-end customer experience.

Special Offers

The new Kindle Fire family comes with special offers that appear on the lock screen.  Examples of special money-saving offers that customers will enjoy include a $5 credit in the Amazon MP3 Store and a $5 credit for select titles in the Amazon Instant Video Store.  Customers will also receive special offers and screensavers from brands like AT&T, Discover and Intel, such as a special offer of a $10 Amazon.com Gift Card when a customer uses their Discover card to purchase a digital product on Amazon.

Best Tablets at Any Price

The all-new Kindle Fire HD 7”—with a stunning HD display, the fastest Wi-Fi, exclusive HD audio with two stereo speakers and Dolby Digital Plus, 16 or 32 GB of storage and a powerful world-class processor—all backed by the world’s best content ecosystem, best cross-platform interoperability and best customer service is $199.  Kindle Fire HD 7” is available for preorder starting today at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd7 and will begin shipping on September 14.

Kindle Fire HD 8.9”, with all of these features plus an ultra-high definition 8.9” screen, and 16 or 32 GB of storage, starts at $299 and is available for preorder starting today atwww.amazon.com/kindlefirehd, and will begin shipping on November 20.

Kindle Fire HD 8.9” 4G, with the most affordable 4G data plan in the world, and 32 or 64 GB of storage, starts at $499 and is available for preorder starting today atwww.amazon.com/kindlefirehd4G, and will begin shipping on November 20.

The new latest generation Kindle Fire with a faster processor for 40% faster performance, twice the memory and all the new features is only $159, and pre-order to reserve their page in line atwww.amazon.com/kindlefire and will begin shipping on September 14.

 

Motorola officially debuts the Droid Razr HD, Droid Razr Maxx HD

Scott Webster
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Motorola is in New York today where they have officially announced the next generation of Droid Razr models.  Things get started with the Droid Razr HD, an Android 4.0 smartphone for Verizon. Details are pretty much what you would expect out of the two and include a 4.7-inch HD display, dual-core processor, 2500mAh battery, and 4G LTE support. The browser of choice for the Droid Razr HD is Chrome, even though the phone does not run 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Lest you thought we were getting just one phone, Motorola has also dropped the Droid Razr Maxx HD, and a Droid Razr M.  All three models are Ice Cream Sandwich-powered and are equipped for 4G LTE, but only one arrives in September. The Droid Razr HD and Droid Razr Maxx HD are expected in store before holidays, however the Droid Razr M hits Verizon on September 13.

 

VERIZON WIRELESS AND MOTOROLA ADD THREE NEW AND EXCLUSIVE 4G LTE DROID RAZR™ SMARTPHONES

All the Power, Battery Life and Cool Design of DROID RAZR™ with the Speed of 4G LTE Three Times Over

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Verizon Wireless and Motorola Mobility today announced that they are adding three new and exclusive smartphones, DROID RAZR™ M, DROID RAZR™ HD and DROID RAZR™ MAXX™ HD, to the DROID RAZR™ by Motorola family on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.

All three devices offer the power and reliability that customers have come to expect from Motorola and Verizon Wireless.  DROID devices give customers speed, power and revolutionary technology, while the RAZR design delivers a thin, compact device built with strong, top-of-the-line materials and long-lasting battery life.  The new smartphones are powered by the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network, giving customers the capability to simultaneously talk and browse the Web and also access the blazingly fast speeds that cover more than 75 percent of the U.S. population.  With three brand new options, this lineup has something for everyone.

DROID RAZR M: The Full-Screen Phone

DROID RAZR M is an unbelievably compact smartphone that puts the world in the palm of your hand with an edge-to-edge 4.3-inch Super AMOLED™ Advanced display.  Customers will be amazed with the DROID RAZR M’s design, which is significantly shorter and narrower than the original DROID RAZR, yet includes the same size display, making it the most compact 4.3-inch 4G LTE smartphone.

DROID RAZR M also features powerful Web browsing capabilities by combining Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network with the speeds of Chrome™ for Android™ mobile browser for an unrivaled mobile Web experience.

The DROID RAZR M’s SMARTACTIONS™ feature maximizes battery efficiency with every charge, allowing customers to browse the Web and watch videos without worrying about draining their device’s battery.

DROID RAZR HD: Performance and Power

Building on the DROID RAZR legacy, the new DROID RAZR HD expands the innovation with a new 4.7-inch Super AMOLED HD display that allows movies, photos, magazines and even websites to appear with vivid clarity.  DROID RAZR HD provides customers with 78 percent more pixels for a more vibrant display and features 40 percent greater battery capacity than the original DROID RAZR.

The viewdini app is at its best with the HD display and 4G LTE speeds to watch movies, television shows and other video content.  Viewdini brings the power of Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network to the screen by streamlining access to videos from a wide range of content providers, including cable operators, websites and other popular video sources.  The viewdini app can be downloaded from Google Play.

DROID RAZR MAXX HD: Long Live the Battery

Packed with the same leading features as DROID RAZR HD, the DROID RAZR MAXX HD raises the industry standard for battery life with 32 hours of normal use.  The DROID RAZR MAXX HD is remarkably thin, yet packs sufficient battery power for 13 hours of straight video playback, enough to watch a movie trilogy without needing a charge.  Customers also have enough battery life to talk the day away with up to 21 hours of continuous talk time or browse the Web on 4G LTE for up to a full eight hours.

A Trilogy of Premium Design, Speed and Features:

  • 4G LTE – customers can expect fast download speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G LTE coverage areas.
  • Interactive Circles Widget allows quick access to notifications, weather, time and more
  • Quick Settings can be accessed directly from the home screen so customers can easily manage their volume profile, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, GPS and more
  • Enhanced Help Guides provide interactive tutorials, help topics and tips to become a DROID RAZR expert
  • Global Ready so customers can have voice and data service in more than 205 countries
  • Business ready with enterprise grade security and data encryption, remote wipe, complex password support, IPsec multi-headed VPN client and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync® support
  • 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB RAM
  • Mobile Hotspot – Share a 4G LTE connection with up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices
  • 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p HD recording
  • Front-facing camera for video chatting
  • NFC-enabled so customers can send contacts, links, maps and more directly to compatible phones with Android Beam™
  • Corning® Gorilla® Glass display, DuPont™ KEVLAR® fiber and water-repellent nanocoating
  • microSD™ card slot with support for up to 32 GB

The new DROID RAZRs run Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (upgradeable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean by end of 2012) and come with the best of Google Mobile Services, including:

  • Chrome™  for Android™, giving a personalized Web experience
  • Google Play™, apps and games, millions of books and songs, thousands of movies and TV shows
  • Google Maps™ for Android (Beta) for voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions
  • Voice Actions for Android™, letting customers control their phones with their voice
  • Google+™, which can automatically upload photos to a private album online
  • YouTube™, watch videos in stunning HD, Preload subscribed channels or individual videos and the YouTube app will automatically download videos over Wi-Fi while the phone is charging – making them ready to watch in an instant

Pricing and Availability:

  • DROID RAZR M will be available for pre-order starting today, September 5th, at 5 p.m. ET at http://www.verizonwireless.com/droidrazrm and will be available on September 13th in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at http://www.verizonwireless.com for the introductory price of $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.  Customers receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. The DROID RAZR M will be available in either Black or White.
  • DROID RAZR HD and DROID RAZR MAXX HD will be available before the holidays. The DROID RAZR HD will be available in either Black or White and the DROID RAZR MAXX HD will be available in Black.
  • Customers who purchase a DROID RAZR M, DROID RAZR HD or DROID RAZR MAXX HD will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless data plan. Share Everything Plans allow customers to add smartphones to their account for $40 monthly access. For additional information, customers should go to http://www.verizonwireless.com/shareeverything

 

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