CTIA Wireless 2012: news, photos, videos, and more – The Verge

Is video the future of voice?

2012-05-14T11:46:03-04:00

HTC Evo 4G LTE HD voice test

Telephone voice quality has remained essentially unchanged for a century, seemingly immune to the advances in technology that have relentlessly occurred (and continue to occur) around it. Of course, there's more to the story than that - telephone lines have moved from analog to digital and audio codecs have become more efficient over time - but the goal has always been to reduce the amount of bandwidth required to transmit voice at roughly the same quality, not to improve it.

"There's not a great deal of objective data out there that indicates that people will pay more for that voice quality."

VoIP services - most famously Skype - would seem …

Read the full story at The Verge.

ZTE Nova V8000 coming to Cricket this summer with Android 4.0 (hands-on photos)

2012-05-10T15:03:16-04:00

Gallery Photo: ZTE Nova V8000 hands-on photos

Amidst a relative dearth of newly announced handsets here at CTIA wireless 2012, ZTE is showing off a low-end Android 4.0 handset that the company says is headed to Cricket. ZTE calls it the "Nova 4.0 V8000," but we would expect that when it launches Cricket will have some input on the final name. In any case, it has a 4-inch WVGA screen, 8-megapixel camera around back, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of ROM, and runs on a single-core Qualcomm S2 processor clocked at 1.4GHz. It's a relatively small handset overall, but the hefty 1900mAh battery puts it on the thick side - however you can probably assume that the combination of the processor, small screen, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

HTC Car StereoClip Bluetooth dongle (hands-on)

2012-05-09T18:29:55-04:00

Gallery Photo:

With new phones always come new accessories, and HTC's One series is no different. Today we got a chance to see one of the company's more interesting offerings, the Car StereoClip. The accessory is a USB flash drive-sized Bluetooth dongle that will receive wireless audio from your phone and pass it off to a speaker with its male 3.5mm headphone jack. What's different about the StereoClip is that it supports Bluetooth 4.0 and aptX, which means the audio quality from phones that support both those standards should be significantly better than what you might be used to on typical A2DP Bluetooth devices.

The StereoClip itself is an incredibly s …

Read the full story at The Verge.

AT&T’s Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD will not be released

2012-05-09T14:33:16-04:00

Samsung Skyrocket HD

In a conversation with Samsung's Ryan Bidan today, we learned that the company's Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD, announced at CES earlier this year, has been shelved. He explains that it simply didn't make sense in light of the Galaxy S III announcement, leaving the product "orphaned" in AT&T's lineup - it's hard to justify an updated 720p version of the existing Skyrocket with the S III on the horizon.

Is that an admission that the S III is on tap for AT&T, though? Bidan couldn't confirm what American carriers will be getting the phone, but he mentioned that it'll be coming to "the fastest HSPA+ and LTE networks" in the country - seemingly a refer …

Read the full story at The Verge.

iCache Geode hands-on: an iPhone case to replace your wallet

2012-05-09T12:42:22-04:00

Gallery Photo:

If you're unimpressed by NFC payment systems like Google Wallet but want to use your phone to carry your credit cards, you should take a long, hard look at the iCache Geode. It's an iPhone case with Kickstarter origins that equips your phone with all of your credit and loyalty cards. You've likely seen loyalty card apps for iOS and Android before, but what's different about the Geode is that it has a small E Ink display on the back of the case that any barcode reader can pick up. Additionally, the case has comes with a "GeoCard" that is a universal credit card - all you do is choose your credit card and loyalty card from the app and it'll re …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Sprint Direct Connect Now confirmed: Android app brings push-to-talk to regular smartphones

2012-05-09T10:53:09-04:00

Sprint Direct Connect Now

At an event in New Orleans today touting its so-called Network Vision infrastructure plan, Sprint spent time talking about its previously leaked Direct Connect Now product, an Android app that will bring push-to-talk interoperability to smartphones in the carrier's lineup. Though Sprint has (and will continue to have) hardware-enabled Direct Connect phones in its portfolio, the benefits of a pure software solution are obvious: users who need PTT functionality can select from a larger variety of devices and be assured of interoperability with coworkers who are using true PTT handsets. There's no word on a release date yet, but Sprint will be …

Read the full story at The Verge.

AT&T to start testing small, short-range cell sites this year to boost network coverage

2012-05-09T07:04:01-04:00

via assets.sbnation.com

AT&T is going to start testing small cells "later this year and into next year" to improve its network coverage and capacity, the company reiterated at CTIA. The miniature, short-range cell sites can be deployed at a fraction of the cost of a traditional tower. AT&T announced it was planning tests this year, and Cisco announced it was working with AT&T on developing small cells, at MWC in February. However, AT&T hasn't made clear the particular type of hardware (3G, 4G, etc.) it's planning to test. Small cells can be deployed in a wide variety of settings, like the sides of lamp posts, allowing telecoms to increase network coverage by fillin …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Cadillac to include iPad-based CUE training manuals with new XTS sedans

2012-05-09T00:01:01-04:00

Cadillac CUE

We've spent some time with Cadillac's CUE infotainment system before, and while we didn't find it terribly hard to use, GM has decided that it needs a more aggressive strategy to train its customers on the system's features once it launches this spring. The company's taking a few different approches to this - the first being that it's going to include an iPad with future purchases of the brand-new XTS full size sedan, which is launching in May. We don't think a free iPad will push the scales when it comes to purchasing a car that starts at $44,995, but the idea is that it'll help customers become familiar with the CUE system. The iPad will c …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Hillcrest Labs brings a better motion engine to phones (hands-on)

2012-05-08T22:43:51-04:00

Hillcrest Labs motion technology

Hillcrest Labs is all about motion control - the company's technology powers the PlayStation Move, the Angry Birds-playing Roku remote, and a handful of other devices that use your movements to control your gadgets. Now Hillcrest is bringing the same technology and expertise to smartphones and tablets, promising a vastly improved motion and gesture experience. The company's Freespace Mobile Engine takes data from a device's accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, and other sensors, synthesizes and optimizes that data and provides to developers an incredibly accurate system and API for determining where your device is in space. It's far more accur …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Hands-on with the Clarity Pal, a 25db feature phone

2012-05-08T21:16:54-04:00

Gallery Photo: Clarity Pal photos

Clarity is a division of Plantronics whose tagline is "Smart for seniors," and its latest product falls directly into that niche. Dubbed the Clarity Pal, its main feature is an audio "boost mode" that cranks up the volume to 25 decibels so that the hard of hearing can still use a phone. We gave it a shot here at CTIA on our (relatively well-functioning) ear drums and found it to be painfully loud - which means it was performing exactly to spec, we suppose. Clarity also has added in extra loud touchtones on the very large, rubbery buttons and a panic button on the back, which can be pre-programmed to any number.

Clarity was pushing the messa …

Read the full story at The Verge.