When news broke that ATT agreed to purchase T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion dollars, speculation began running rampant regarding what would happen with T-Mobile customers. The fourth largest carrier in the US, T-Mobile is known for its attractive pricing and hassle-free features and packages that it offers its customers, like mobile hotspots, tethering and Wi-Fi calling. However, most of us assumed that most of those features and perks would disappear especially those great pricing plans.

However, Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of ATT Mobility, told IntoMobile at CTIA 2011 that T-Mobile will get to keep its current pricing structure. It was unclear what he meant by that: is ATT going to keep T-Mobile as a separate arm, or will ATT change its entire pricing structure in order to match that of T-Mobile current plans? The latter is extremely unlikely, but we cannot imagine ATT keeping T-Mobile as a separate division, either.

Firefox 4 shot past 5 million downloads in under 24 hours and has already doubled the first daydownload numbers of Internet Explorer 9. There is still a little time left and you can help version 4 beat the 8 million downloads record set by Firefox 3.

Or you could just stare at the world map there is a flash of light on the map every time someone downloads Firefox 4. You can also view the number of downloads per minute, per country and all the way down to city level check it out.

The western hemisphere is mostly asleep at the moment but downloads in Europe are going full swing. As far as per-continent downloads go, Europe accounts for over half of all Firefox 4 downloads at the moment with North America coming in a distant second.

In a stance against phones "more" Yves Behar designed a phone for Danish manufacturer Aesir, which focuses on craftsmanship and audio experience. The result is pretty attractive but its price will still make you frown. Functionality-wise its nothing impressive but the edge-to-edge keypad does look interesting and there are custom ringtones and icons designed just for the phone.

The phone is called +YvesBehar and can be had in either stainless steel or 18K yellow gold. There is quad-band GSM connectivity and its sound chamber has been specially engineered to provide a better audio experience.

The +YvesBehar measures 114 x 49.8 x 11.9 mm and weighs 250g (gold version) or 210g (stainless steel version). The upper part of the phone is made of high-grade ceramics with ultra-glossy finish and the 2-inch TFT screen is covered by a scratch-resistant sapphire glass.

The +YvesBehar phone should hit Europe this Summer, expanding to the US, China and Hong Kong in the Fall. The stainless steel version costs €7,250, while the 18K gold version has a €42,000 asking price.

The tablet wars have just heated up immensely and we might be on the verge of an explosion right now, as Samsung has just revealed its two new weapons the refreshed Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Tab 8.9. We already told you what they are all about and now comes the time for the big question how do they compare to the new tablet blockbuster the iPad 2

A couple of weeks ago, Samsung CEO said that he feels the Galaxy Tab 10.1 felt inadequate to the newly released iPad 2 and that some changes needed to take place, one of which was the pricing. I can only say bravo to Samsung for making such radical of a changes in such a short period of time. They actually managed to make the new Tabs even thinner than the iPad 2, measuring at just 8.6mm thickness.

And here comes a head-to-head comparison of the two new Samsung slates and the Apple iPad 2 on some of their most important features.

Wi-Fi Alliance is working on an initiative to "transform the user experience in hotspots" to address authentication and provision of service for public Wi-Fi networks. As a result, at some point in the future, users would seamlessly connect on public hotspots without logging in with their SIM card automatically authenticating them. On the other side, carriers would benefit by offloading some of the traffic from their cellular networks.

The key benefits of the new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED testing program include:

• Network Discovery and Selection – Devices discover and automatically choose networks based upon user preferences, operator policies and network optimization.
• Streamlined Network Access – In many cases, devices will be automatically granted access to the network based upon the SIM card used.
• Immediate Account Provisioning – The process of establishing a new user account at the point of access will be streamlined, eliminating user steps.
• WPA2 Security – Over-the-air transmissions are encrypted using the latest-generation security technology

The planned launch of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED hotspot certification program is targeted for the first half of 2012.

 

 

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