SMS formerly has been a mobile-phone only club, but cloud-messaging provider Zipwhip has virtualized the SMS client, allowing you to send text messages from any wireline number — if not from an actual wired phone. Read more »
Qualcomm’s big MediaFLO flop hasn’t dissuaded it from pursuing mobile TV. It’s championing a new technology called LTE-broadcast that purportedly solves FLO’s many problems. Read more »
AT&T’s new deal offer gives international plan customers 1 GB free access over Boingo’s global hotspot network. That wouldn’t be a bad deal if AT&T weren’t already charging you $60-$120 for your data plan. Read more »
Why would Google be interested in WhatsApp when it already has a bevy of peer-to-peer messaging and communications apps at its disposal? For the same reason Facebook bought Instagram. Read more »
Fraunhofer is testing optical communications components that will turn an off-the-shelf LED into a broadband transmitter. Read more »
It may be a contrary opinion, but I think Facebook should build its own phone — not a smartphone, but a cheap feature phone. I wouldn’t buy it. You wouldn’t buy it. But millions of people would. Here’s why. Read more »
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam is watching T-Mobile’s new contract-free, subsidy-free mobile strategy closely. If consumers start biting, McAdam says Verizon is willing to shake up its own pricing and contract policies. Read more »
Braintree is ramping up its mobile presence thanks to its recent purchase of Venmo. Using the peer-to-peer payment technology, Braintree is creating an in-app customer identity network that can be used to buy goods across iOS apps. Read more »
The Weightless SIG claims the new standard will allow for ultra-low-power transmissions at long-range and at a cheap manufacturing cost. If true, that would make the technology ideal for M2M communications. Read more »
According to TMoNews, at the end of the week Apple will ship the over-the-air update necessary to make the current generation iPhone 5 work on T-Mobile’s new 4G network. Read more »
There’s a lot of HD-Voice activity in the U.S., but chances are you’ve never made an HD-Voice call. The reason is the same one that has always plagued the mobile industry: the lack of interoperability. Read more »
The $245 billion deal would be the single largest M&A transaction in history, according to the Financial Times. But just as with any rumor about Vodafone and Verzion’s joint venture, there are reasons to be skeptical. Read more »
Sometimes an April Fools’ fake news item is more than just a gag. Here are a few pranks we think hint at larger trends in the tech industry. Read more »
Nuance powers speech interfaces in phones, TVs, cars and websites. Now its creating advertising that will both listen to your questions and respond to them. Read more »
There’s a lot of confusing noise out there about whether you can bring an unlocked iPhone 5 over to T-Mo’s network and get it to work properly. Here’s the low-down on what the GSM iPhone 5 can and can’t do. Read more »
Sorry, you can’t buy a $580 iPhone 5 from T-Mobile and then sign up with another carrier — you have to give T-Mo at least once month of service. Read more »
Ever wanted a single app that check you into any airline or an app that could aggregate healthcare data from multiple doctors and insurance companies? Apigee’s new API Exchange aims to make those apps possible. Read more »
nTelos was one of the first small carriers to land the iPhone, and now its adding to its prestige by launching a new LTE network. Not bad for a little rural carrier. Read more »
Springpad takes in a lot of loose information from the web and organizes it, but that information stays on Springpad. With its new Embedded Notebooks tool, however, Springpad plans to expose that organized content back to the web. Read more »
T-Mobile’s new 4G service will keep pace with its competitors’ initially, but as the company fine tunes its deployment, its speeds will increase. Eventually T-Mo will field a network capable of supporting a theoretical 150 Mbps connection. Read more »
Locking phones down to a specific mobile operator is an unpopular practice, and T-Mobile is maintaining it but only for customers who make use of its device financing options. Read more »
It took nearly six years, but T-Mobile is officially an iPhone carrier. T-Mobile won’t be selling the device like any old carrier, though. The iPhone 5 will be unsubsidized, but available over some of the cheapest service plans in the mobile industry. Read more »
Hype over T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” event on Tuesday is building. There are no guarantees about what exactly T-Mo will announce tomorrow, but here’s what we expect — and hope — will come out of the NYC press extravaganza. Read more »
Oracle is loading up on telecom vendors that specialize in controlling and managing data and VoIP traffic as it traverses the network. Read more »
A new startup backed Turntable’s Seth Goldstein plans to make connected software without the car. Joyride is building a gaming and entertainment suite for the smartphone designed to be entirely hands-free. Read more »
After nearly four years as FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski is stepping down in “coming weeks”. President Obama will now get to appoint two new commission members in his second term. Read more »
Thanks to OpenSignal’s crowdsourced testing app, we’re getting an early preview of where T-Mobile’s LTE will go live: Denver, Kansas City, Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York City, San Diego, Seattle and the Bay Area. Read more »
The Democratic chairman is stepping down, according to the Wall Street Journal, just as a Republican commissioner is departing, preserving an administration-friendly majority on the commission. Read more »
Verizon just turned tablets and PCs into fully functioning SMS clients. It’s new Verizon Messaging service virtualizes its texting and MMS capabilities on the iPad, Android tablets and multiple web browsers. Read more »
Former Yahoo Chief Cloud Architect Todd Papaioannou said his difficulties building a consistent, stable Hadoop platform at Yahoo directly led him to found his startup Continuuity. Read more »
Harvard recently threw a tough genomics problem to TopCoder’s crowdsourced community and discovered the contest not only revealed a much broader field of investigation but provided a high level of motivation to get the problem solved. Read more »
Masabi is a U.K. startup specializing and cloud-based smartphone ticketing technologies for public transit, and it just landed a $2.8 million strategic investment led by Bill Ford’s Fontinalis Venutures. Read more »
As Punchfork gets ready to shut down its API post Pinterest acquisition, Yummly hopes to step into its shoes, proving recipe content to food sites and apps. Yummly’s semantic search technology, however, has a lot to offer. Read more »
Skype never dominated the mobile space the way it has dominated the PC, opening the door for numerous OTT communications rivals. TextMe believes it has combined the best features of Skype, WhatsApp and Pinger into a single mobile app. Read more »
Vasona develops traffic shaping technologies designed to ease the flow of mobile services over the airwaves. What sets the startup apart from the numerous competitors is where it does that shaping: at the cell site. Read more »
AT&T just dropped the price of mobile data on its shared plans considerably, but there’s a catch. The discounted plans are data only, meaning no smartphone users need apply. Read more »
Twilio wants to become the universal translator of communications protocols in the cloud. The new service acts as a bridge between the SIP-based world of enterprise PBX networks to any other type of calling technology. Read more »
The practice of locking phones is a symptom of a greater disease in the U.S.: device subsidies. If we can separate the hardware from the service, consumers will ultimately have greater choice and save money. Read more »
A GigaOM reader has recorded a sighting of T-Mobile’s elusive LTE network in Astoria, Queens. The network still appears to be deep in testing mode and it certainly wasn’t easy to find. Read more »
Mobile data MVNO FreedomPop is exploring the notion of a broadband piggy bank, which stores your unused data every month. It’s a concept ideal for the casual user of mobile broadband. Read more »
