The second device to be announced by Sprint at today's event at CTIA, the LG Optimus S is the first Optimus-branded device, featuring Android, to be showcased on a US-based carrier. And, while the feature set of the device may not be the reason that it gets more attention, the price and the fact that it's packing Android 2.2 should be enough to draw a few onlookers.
While Sprint's on stage, they're taking their time and making sure that all of their announcements sink in accordingly. While the Sprint ID Packs may be the focus for now, there's also the fact that Sprint is officially announcing three brand new devices joining the Sprint network. The first up is the Sanyo Zio, which spent some time on another regional carrier here in the States, but now it's on the Sprint network, with some major improvements.
Sprint's managed to grab some time over at the CTIA event happening today, and they've gone ahead and unveiled three brand new Android-based handsets. While the details are still going through the "unveiling" part, the main gist is that Sprint seems to be pushing Android, almost as much as Verizon, and they're even announcing a whole new way for users to enjoy their phones: Sprint ID. It's not only a way for customers to find applications in packs that are tailored to their tastes, but also a way to experience new themes.
Verizon's 4G plans were set to get unveiled today, and sure enough, Big Red's newly appointed President and COO, Lowell McAdam, has taken the stage at CTIA and dropped a pretty big bomb on those listening. Unlike the 30 cities we had heard in the month previous, it looks like Verizon has expanded to almost ten more cities. What's more, their push for LTE will hit hard in the smartphone market during the first half of 2011, as McAdam has announced that there will be plenty of handsets to choose from when the time comes.
I was at CTIA last week pitching various column ideas to SlashGear Editor Vincent Nguyen, and he shot them down, one by one. An analysis of the Kindle vs. iPad? No, SlashGear has covered that more than once, and we’ll all be writing hands-on reports next week. How the digital home environment has changed? New columnist Ben Bajarin just used that theme as his debut for SlashGear. How I lived on loaner laptops, cellphones and 3G modems last week when our town was out of power? Too close to Michael Gartenberg’s recent column on traveling with just a cellphone. Apparently, the big stuff is covered. So instead, I’m going to try to provide a look into how one analyst covers a trade show: a tech travelogue, of sorts.
You can tell we're knee deep in CTIA 2010 when we have announcement, after announcement to bring to your attention. This time around, we've got Verizon Wireless talking big about their Long Term Evolution (LTE) network improvements, and just what it is they're doing at this point in time. They're ahead of schedule when it comes to devices, with the middle of the year, 2011, pegged as the launch of their first LTE-based device. But, where's the network stand, with improvements of the towers and so forth? Verizon finally dished on the goods.
AT&T is busy announcing things like 3G MicroCells and subscription-based music services over at CTIA 2010, and we're quick to grasp all the juicy details. One thing of particular interest is the OpenPeak Tablet, which is AT&T's master plan at combining just about all your daily uses into one device. This is just more than simple tablet: it's designed to combine your communications, home management, and your entertainment all on one, easy to use, sleek device.
Having gone through a limited trial last year, AT&T's 3G Microcell is now set for a US-wide release come April 2010. The Y-shaped femtocell promises to improve both 3G data and voice coverage by routing each over a home or office broadband connection; in return AT&T are looking for a one-off fee of $149.99.
All eyes may be on WiMAX and the HTC EVO 4G for Sprint right now, but they won't have the 4G focus for long. MetroPCS have announced that they and Samsung will be rolling out the US' first commercially-availabile LTE network this year, with the first handset being the multimode CDMA/LTE Samsung SCH-r900.
We're already familiar with GPS and pseudo-GPS triangulation technologies, that use cellphone towers or known WiFi base stations to figure out roughly where you are, but InvisiTrack reckon they can use spectrum bands more commonly found carrying TV signals to pinpoint position down to under 3m indoors or 1m outdoors. Their InvisiTrack LS system relies on the fact that the 512 and 698 MHz bands can better penetrate through walls and other structures than higher-frequency bands like the 2.4GHz used for WiFi.
So, you're tempted by Sprint's HTC EVO 4G, and frankly who can blame you? If our all-too-brief hands-on play with the WiMAX-packing Android 2.1 smartphone taught us anything, it's that HTC have taken the best of the HD2, slapped on an arguably more alluring OS and created the sort of superphone we scoffed at Google for describing the Nexus One as. Plenty has been made of Sprint's 4G promises, but that got us wondering: exactly who will get to enjoy the HTC EVO 4G's WiMAX connectivity?
We shed some light on the Kyocera ZIO earlier today, and lucky for us we were able to get some hands on time with the device during CTIA 2010. The device is running Android 1.6, but there's talk that it could be updated to a level of 2.x some time in the near future. We were also able to get some whisperings about pricing. The device itself may go for somewhere between $170 and $220 before subsidy, so that means Cricket may be able to launch the Android-based device for basically nothing. And, let's face it, free is never a bad thing. Check after the break for our hands-on video of the device.