April 2, 2012: a great day to officially wash your hands of unprofitable business ventures. On the heels of Philips marking its exit from the TV biz, Fujitsu announced it has bought out Toshiba’s stake in Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications (just like we knew it would). Fujitsu already had a controlling 80.1 percent interest in the company, so this doesn’t exactly mark a seismic change in management. Still, with that final 19.9 percent it’s now a fully-owned subsidiary of the Fujitsu Group, and has been rechristened Fujitsu Mobile Communications. We’ve got the full PR below, but unless you want to know how much capital the division has (450 million yen, to be exact), we think we’ve got you covered on the facts.

Article originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:43:00 EDT.

We’re always looking for the best price we can find on a new T-Mobile handset and Costco has certainly gotten our attention with a $69.99 price point on the Galaxy S Blaze 4G. Good for new customers, upgrade eligible customers and add-a-lines with a two-year contract extension, the Costco price is the best offer we’ve seen thus far from a brick and mortar place. Given that T-Mobile’s $149.99 price comes after a $50 mail-in rebate, Costco is looking better and better. If you’re looking to pick up the Blaze 4G in the coming days, it looks like a trip to Costco is the right move.

So, did Sprint try to set up a network sharing agreement with T-Mobile USA through talks with T-Mobile USA parent Deutsche Telekom? According to a new Wall Street Journal report, the answer is yes. The report indicates the talks went nowhere but considering the whispers and rumors of such a scenario taking place in the aftermath of the failed AT&T deal, we aren’t surprised.

Unfortunately, the revelation that talks actually took place comes amid speculation the Sprint board is unhappy with current CEO Dan Hesse. Combining failed talks with T-Mobile along with the board’s rejection of a proposed takeover of MetroPCS and Hesse looks to be in trouble.

Two potential Sprint deals have already foundered this year, according to people familiar with the matter: An acquisition of prepaid-carrier MetroPCS CommunicationsInc. was shot down by the board, and talks with Deutsche Telekom AG about network sharing with its T-Mobile USA went nowhere.

Rumors for a potential hookup with Sprint have floated around for a long long time but this is the first bit of information that has surfaced post-AT&T tying Sprint and T-Mobile together. Sprint was a loud opponent of AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile and with both carriers in a distant third and fourth place, a hookup of sorts does make sense. It just doesn’t look like it will ever happen.

Wall Street Journal

In a confirmation of intel we received late last week, T-Mobile USA Senior Vice President Andrew Sherrad confirmed to The Verge that T-Mobile would leap-frog HSPA+ 84Mbps in favor of LTE. Sherrad emphasized that T-Mobile would continue its rollout of HSPA+ 42Mbps that is set to support upcoming devices like the HTC One S and Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G.

It was back in January at CES, that T-Mobile acknowledged a future move to 84Mbps, however, T-Mobile’s recently announced “challenger strategy” has seemingly reversed the earlier mindset from January. Sherrard noted that T-Mobile would no longer sell any handsets that doesn’t support 3G, which means the total load on the 2G network will reduce over time.

Given that T-Mobile would have needed to refarm their 1900MHz spectrum to deploy HSPA+ 84 anyway, the logical move is to skip that step and proceed straight to LTE.

On a separate note, T-Mobile is not looking at VoLTE (voice over LTE) as a calling option for its LTE 4G network, instead transitioning its voice services to the IMS-based Wi-Fi calling feature already available on most T-Mobile smartphones. Speaking to PhoneScoop at Mobile World Congress, Sherrard told PhoneScoop that the company is working with hardware partners to make sure the IMS-based Wi-Fi client will be available on many of its smartphones.

Unlike T-Mobile’s earlier UMA service, IMS-based technology is not currently capable of handing off calls from the Wi-Fi network to the cellular network, which leads to a dropped call. Fortunately, this is not a problem with LTE 4G, which supports IMS-based calls. T-Mobile will continue to add IMS-based calling clients to all its devices as it prepares to transition from HSPA+ to LTE over the next few years. T-Mobile believes that IMS-based calls will be its preferred technology of choice for voice calls over its upcoming LTE 4G network.

The Verge, PhoneScoop

Anonymous sources have told Pocket-lint that Sony will be allowing rival smartphone maker HTC to have PlayStation Certification for its devices. An official announcement is expected at MWC at the end of the month, with devices able to play PSOne games and access to the Android-flavor of the Sony Entertainment Network. Former SCE Chairman (now company president) Kaz Hirai introduced the program open to non-Sony devices at AsiaD last year, possibly to the raised eyebrows of those in the company’s revamped mobile division.

Originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:21:00 EDT.

T-Mobile’s Valentine’s Day sale is officially on today and today only so let’s rewind for just a minute and highlight what today is all about: “For one day only, Saturday February 11th, new and existing customers can purchase any phone on any of T-Mobile’s Unlimited Classic or Value Plans and receive a Mail-in Rebate, bringing the 2YC (year-contract) subsidy price to FREE or the net device down-payment to $0.00.”

T-Mobile retail, retail partner stores (authorized dealers) and customer care are all getting in on the sale fun today. Standard upgrade rules and migration fees apply. If you have any questions on today’s offer, we’d first suggest re-reading T-Mobile’s original press release, after that, take a look at the two images below detailing today’s pricing options for both Classic and Value plan purchases. Happy Valentine’s Day Sale!

Don’t forget to check out T-Mobile’s website for additional info!

This above is the first glimpse of Android 4.0 running on the Nokia N9. Yes, it looks like Ice Cream Sandwich is in being ported to the company’s iconic handset by no other than Alexey Roslyakov and team NITDroid — the folks who previously put Android on the Nokia N900. The project, which is still in its early stages, made significant progress after recently overcoming a framebuffer driver/HAL hurdle, allowing ICS to be displayed on the phone. In addition, a dual-boot solution is in the works letting Meego and Android 4.0 coexist on the device. We certainly can’t wait to experience using Ice Cream Sandwich on some of the hottest white hardware around. Can you?

Article originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:37:00 EDT.

Looking to get yourself a White Samsung Galaxy S II from a brick and mortar location rather than T-Mobile’s website? Well now you can, or at least you can in two days from your local Target Store, which will stock the White Galaxy S II beginning Thursday, February 9th. Target will make the Galaxy S II available to both new and existing customers for… Read more

Today’s been all about the white phones, and Nokia’s new Lumia matches that glossy finish we saw on its near-identical twin, the white N9. Here, opposing the matte goodness of the rest of Lumia 800 family, the unibody shell has an almost-enamel feel on what is still largely the same polycarbonate material (Nokia tells us that each “batch” has to be tweaked for each color). From our brief play with the device, it’s looking to be a pretty pervasive color choice to go alongside that pitch-black AMOLED screen. We know the phone is set to arrive later this month, blessing fans of blanc in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and another handful of European countries. See how its good looks stack up against the rest of the Lumia rainbow in our hands-on gallery below.

White Nokia Lumia 800 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments