Tag Archive | "verizon wireless"

Super Bowl XLVI Streaming Live!


Super Bowl Streaming OnlineThis is exiting news for football fans on the go.  For the very first time ever the Super Bowl will be streaming online.  This means you can catch it on your laptop or your Verizon mobile phone if you are stuck away from a TV during the big game today.

Streaming of the Super Bowl is not new, illegal sports streaming sites have been doing it for years.  This year though NBC, NFL and Verizon will be allowing you to legally stream the game online.  Just last week 16 websites where shut down by the feds in New York for illegal sports streaming.  This seems like a just in time situation for NBC and the NFL to capitalize on the advertising dollars associated with the online streaming that would have been going to the illegal sites.

If you are a Verizon wireless customer, you can get the NFL Mobile application for your your phone.  Users with 4G LTE get the streaming action for free whereas users still on the “outdated” 3G devices will need to pony up ten dollars a month or three dollars per day for the new app service.  There are some strange terms to the app though.  Blackout of games will still be enforced by checking your location before you are able to watch a game.  If you are watching the game live in the stadium, you will not be able to stream the game on your phone.  My question is why would you want to do that anyway if you are live at the game?!?

Alas, Stupid restrictions like this are why the illegal streaming sites pop up in the first place.  The NFL are seeming to move in the right direction though by allowing the streaming in the first place.  Only time will tell if it will be enough to keep the illegal streaming at bay.

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Mobile Phones Can Now Be Used as a Debit Card


On Thursday, Google has unveiled a free smartphone application that converts your mobile phone to an electronic debit card.

The leading name in the Internet industry announced that the “Google Wallet” is currently tested and will be available to the market summer of this year. Google announced their latest innovation in a press conference held in its headquarters in New York with MasterCard, Citibank, First Data and Sprint.

The company said that the Google Wallet will be available only with the Nexus S 4G during the first few months of its release but will eventually cover more phones that have NFC technology. Google is partnering with the third largest wireless provider in the US – Sprint – in this project.

An NFC chip that has been initially embedded in a smart phone will allow a user to “tap-and-pay” at checkout registers that has a PayPass system from CitiMasterCard. The user must first enter his or her credit or debit card details in the software.

The vice president of Google for commerce and payments, Stephanie Tilenius, said that Google Wallet paves the way for a new generation of mobile commerce. The Google Wallet technology will be available in at least 124,000 merchants within the Unites States and more than 300,000 worldwide during its launch.

Mobile payments have already been tested in several countries like Japan and France. However, Google Wallet will be the first of its kind to be used in US shops. T-mobile, Verizon Wireless, and AT&T have already announced late last year that they are teaming up to build a network called “lsis”. The network is said to make mobile phones payment possible for their users.

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Apple iPhone 5 Release May Be Delayed


Reports say that the much anticipated release of the celebrated iPhone 5 will be pushed back. Apple’s regular schedule of releasing new gadgets at the beginning of summer may be upset by the release of iPhone 4 under Verizon Wireless February of this year.

The company is facing a possible production problem due to shortages in the parts and components Apple imports from Japan. Several industries have been affected by the series of earthquakes and the huge tsunami that struck Japan barely two months ago. Traditionally, new iPhones are announced during the Apple’s June Worldwide Developers Conference.

On Wednesday, MacRumors published a statement allegedly from an employee of AT&T saying that Apple has informed them that they are not planning to release the new iPhone in June but a new version should be expected soon. Unfortunately, AT&T, as supposedly mentioned by one of their employees, was not given a fixed date.

AT&T refused to deny and neither confirm this rumor. David Siegel, AT&T spokesperson, said that the company will not comment on the issue as Apples’s policies prohibit them from commenting on any issue regarding their upcoming products and release dates.

Reuters has already cited three people who have “direct knowledge” of Apple and said that the iPhone 5 release will be pushed back to September in time for the new operating system – iOS 5.

However, Craig Mathias of the Farpoint Group refuses to believe all these rumors. He also said that Apple has since been extremely consistent with their release dates and will only believe the rumors when it actually happened.

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Verizon Wireless Sells More iPhones Online


Verizon Wireless says it has more iPhone sales online than in its local store branches. The information disputes the apprehension that few people welcomed the in store debut, which pointed out low sales on the Apple Inc device.

The company started selling the phone on its website last February 3. Since then, the demand for the phone has been at top levels, Chief Executive Daniel Mead said during an interview with Reuters held at the company’s headquarters in New Jersey.

The phone hit the company’s store shelves on February 10, seven days after it launched on their website. Mead said the absence of longer lines outside Verizon Wireless stores on that day could be due to the fact that around 60 percent of their sales were made through its website.

Also, executive said the iPhone has helped greatly increase the pace at which customers changed to Verizon Wireless from its other rivals in United States. At peak times, the device brought its website up to 100 times more orders than the usual.

Mead reiterated the company’s notion that it would sell as many as 11 million iPhones this year. He informed that the company will report their sales figures specific to the iPhone when it releases earnings on the first-quarter.

The launch of Apple iPhones at Verizon ended the three-year exclusive rights deal with AT&T Inc to sell the device in United States. As a result of the added data traffic from its iPhone users, AT&T was overwhelmed with complaints about its performance. However, Verizon said its performance is doing well even with the additional data traffic received from the phone.

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Verizon to sell iPhone on Feb. 10


Verizon Wireless announced on Tuesday that they will be selling their version of the iPhone 4 starting February 10 of this year. This gives iPhone buyers in the United States a different choice of carrier for the first time after three and a half years.

The iPhone has been sold exclusively by the wireless carrier AT&T Inc since it was released to the U.S market in 2007.  Many people were frustrated by this lack of network choice.

The launch event held on Tuesday finally ended the monopoly on Apple Inc’s iPhone. Many people are already excited to get this phone in their hands through the Verizon network.

Tim Cook can not even tell the number of times he has been asked by his colleagues about when the iPhone will work for the Verizon Wirelss, the Apple chief operating officer said on the Tuesday’s event.

For existing Verizon customers, the pre-orders for iPhone will start on February 3. The given price will be $200 or $300 along with a two-year contract. That is about the same price and concurrence as the iPhone through AT&T.

With wider domestic network coverage than AT&T, Verizon is thought to offer better features particularly for the older “3G” wireless broadband. The carrier covers several areas within the country that AT&T does not.

In addition, iPhone service by AT&T in big cities can be spotty most likely because of crowding in the network.

However, it is still unclear as to how many people will shift from AT&T to Verizon. Verizon did not mention anything about their iPhone’s service plan along with pricing on Tuesday.

AT&T has sold about 11.1 million iPhones in a period of nine months in 2010. Analysts are expecting Verizon to sell about 5 to 13 million iPhones this year.

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Verizon Wireless Selling Apple’s iPad


Apple Inc. is reaching out to Verizon Wireless to assist in selling the iPad this Christmas, thus weakening their sturdy tie-up between AT&T Inc. The gadget will be available in both companies this Thursday, October 28.

The surprising news created a disturbance between the relationship of AT&T Inc. and Apple.  AT&T Inc. was the exclusive carrier of iPhone, and was primarily tapped as the network that will give the iPad’s mobile plan when this computer tablet was released last spring.

Apple’s iPad are priced equally by both companies. On the other hand, Verizon will be offering the gadget with a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot bundle that will work for their network.

Walter Piecyk, a BTIG analyst said that the decision of Apple to sell the iPad through Verizon is a simple one. He said that Apple wants to sell more products of these as possible and this decision will truly sell more items. Piecyk said that if Verizon’s network works better, then why not Apple sells the iPad tablets there.

He said that Verizon’s retail sales will help them be accustomed with the tablet’s software, as well as to prepare them from selling iPhone items. These two gadgets share the same operating system.

Verizon is pushing a high-speed connection by bundling the gadget to its portable hotspot. Prices start from $629 for the 16 Gigabyte iPad reaching to $829 for the 64 Gigabyte model.

Verizon Wireless has about 2,000 stores compared to AT&T’s 2,200. Their shares closed up to 0.7 percent while AT&T shares increased to 0.1 percent. Evidently, Apple climbed to 0.7 percent shares.

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