With the WSJ mention yesterday of Verizon [VZ] potentially picking up the Apple iPhone this year when a CDMA variant of the smartphone is built, this seems to have got AT&T [T] listening as they are now to be in the process of expanding their network capacity.

AT&T has received criticism over the last few years due to various network issues and it seems like the potential opening up of the phone to another network (ie, AT&T loosing exclusivity in the US) is pushing them to give the customer the best experience in terms of network coverage.

The fixes and extra capacity should enable iPhones to drop less calls and have faster browsing speeds if successful.

A 100 day plan has been created to built up the network in densely populated cities with work already being performed to increase the performance of what is already there. The main problems in building the network is getting all the towers built and having to discuss with landlords of buildings to get permission to fix them to roofs etc… [Read more…]

The Apple iPhone HD (or iPhone 4G) will more than likely be announced later this year. As usual when the June event happens we start to see some renderings of what people believe the next iteration of the iPhone will look like.

Some people call it the iPhone 4G although some are saying it will more than likely be the iPhone HD due to a higher res screen and not to confuse the 4G, as in forth generation, with 4G mobile phone networks.

The image above (and larger below) was created by Graham Bower of MacPredictions who appears to have been inspired by the black 3G bar found on the back of an Apple iPad. The mockup shows a large touchscreen with front facing camera and appears to have more defined edges than the iPhone 3G S and other models. [Read more…]

After a few weeks of uncertainty, Motorola have finally released Android 2.1 for the Motorola DROID.

The rollout is gradual, so if you haven’t received a notification just yet then just wait a little longer (possibly till the end of the week).

The update brings a number of features such as pinch-to-zoom on the Browser, gallery and Google Maps. Live Wallpapers are also included in the update allowing you to interact with the background on the phone. The full list of updated features can be found after the jump. [Read more…]

Samsung have announced that over 600,000 Samsung Omnia II’s have been sold since it’s launch a few months back. These numbers relate to sales in South Korea only.

Three versions of the Omnia II exist in S.Korea with three network operators slightly changing the hardware. The one on the left is the T*Omnia II on the SKT network, the SHOW Omnia for KT and OZ Omnia for LGT.

Sales for the device average out to 100,000 per month with reasons cited for the success of sales being due to aftersales service as well as how good the Omnia II is. [Read more…]

Just a few weeks back we reported that someone had managed to get Google [GOOG] Android running on a HTC Touch Pro2 smartphone. The Touch Pro2 incidentally is a Windows Mobile phone which hasn’t been designed to run the Android OS.

Following on in that vein, someone has also managed to get Android 2.1 running on a HTC Diamond2 smartphone. The previous phone (touch pro2) was running a Nexus One ROM. This time the HTC Touch Diamond2 is running the ROM from the HTC Legend which also brings the HTC Sense user interface to the phone. [Read more…]

Novarra is a name you might not be too familiar with in the mobile phone industry, yet their software powers many mobile phone browsers around the world.

The Novarra company has provided software to Palm, Motorola and Samsung as well as several other companies. Novarra’s main product is the Vision Mobile Browser that runs on both Java or BREW. This particular browser is used on the Sprint networks lineup of basic phones (their entry level devices).

Due to the sheer amount of phones that use this software, Nokia buying the company will create quite a stir in the industry. [Read more…]

WSJ are reporting that an Apple iPhone will be launched this year. In fact, they actually mention two iPhones are launching this year with one being a version specifically built to work on the Verizon [VZ] network. It is expected that both models will run the exact same features other than the compatibility of what networks they actually work on although the CDMA model for Verizon actually might be just an older 3G S version of the phone. This point isn’t clear just yet.

Although rumours have been around a while now about a new iPhone arriving from Apple [AAPL] this year, they have been based on the fact that Apple have launched a new iPhone every year since it’s initial launch. Now that WSJ say it’s happening we almost know for sure that this will happen.

The new iPhone is believed to be called the Apple iPhone HD rather than the iPhone 4G and focus on a larger resolution screen. John Gruber who often predicts upcoming Apple products says that the Apple iPhone HD will run an A4-class SoC and have a 960×640 pixel display. A front facing camera is also predicted and the OS is expected to be be the new Apple iPhone OS 4.0 which enables third party multitasking. [Read more…]

Orange, the UK mobile phone network, have confirmed that a special version of the HTC Desire will launch on their network towards the end of April. The new version is the Black Edition of the new HTC Desire phone.

It seems that Orange are snapping up a few exclusives recently with them also recently grabbing the exclusive of the White Sony Ericsson X10

From what we understand there are no hardware differences in terms of the main specifications of the phone, and the only difference is that it’s black instead. The phone it’s self runs a 1GHz Qualcomm SnapDragon processor, has a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen and has a 5 megapixel camera. [Read more…]

An XML file was found on the Nokia site that confirmed the existence of the Nokia N8 smartphone.

The N8 comes from the N-Series of mobile phones and due to the high single digit number, also confirms it will be quite an advanced device. From what we understand it will have a 12 megapixel camera on the back and it will run the Symbian^3 operating system.

The screen is estimated at being around 3.5 inches when seen in leaked pictures and it will have a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels from what we hear. The screen is also supposed to have a 24-bits per pixel setup allowing it to display 16 million colours. [Read more…]

The Apple iPhone 4G is just around the corner if rumours are to be believed (and if Apple [AAPL] follow their trend of releasing one phone per year). The latest video we came across just today shows what looks to be a 4th gen iPhone screen being unboxed.

The unboxing shows the screen (as in the whole front panel) and the screen it’s self encased on to the front panel. Clips are seen down the edges that appears to be in slightly different locations to previous models and a small circular cut out can be found right next to the speaker at the top for what we assume a front facing camera will be mounted.

Other noticeable changes include the front panel being slightly longer than the 3G S front panel although overall the front also looks to be slightly thinner in width. [Read more…]

Back in August 2009 the Apple [AAPL] iPhone web browser was streets ahead in terms of how many people used it to browse the internet. Just after that Google [GOOG] made a big push on Android by launching a number of high end phones and gradually Android has almost caught up in terms of how many people surf the web using it.

In August 2009 the iPhone OS was responsible for about 50% of all mobile traffic and just a few months before that around May 2009 it peaked at 70% market share. Windows Mobile and RIM have been on the decline all of last year and webOS that joined us in June last year started off relatively well, but is also declining too.

It’s certainly interesting to see how Google have made an impact on those figures especially with how well the iPhone has done since it’s first launch in 2007. [Read more…]

Vodafone [VOD] have uploaded the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Android phone and made it available for pre-order on their site.

Vodafone has set a delivery date of April 6 which is next Tuesday. The phone it’s self is an Android 1.6 based mobile phone and it happens to be the first that comes from Sony Ericsson. On the back is an 8 megapixel camera and the phone is packed with all the usual stuff we see on smartphones these days including GPS, WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth etc…

It has a large 4 inch capacitive touchscreen that’s not quite the 4.3 inches of the HTC HD2, although still classed as being a large screen. [Read more…]