The Android developer/hacker community loves a good challenge so when they found out the AT&T Galaxy Note supported T-Mobile’s HSPA+ frequencies, they immediately went to work. Over at XDA they even had a running bounty for the first person to successfully get the AT&T Galaxy Note running on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. It didn’t take that long before user tomin.fhl found a way to get it working and he’s been kind enough to post the instructions for any brave soul willing to take the plunge.
Today the International Data Corporation raised its 2012 tablet forecast to 106.1 million units, up from its previous forecast of 87.7 million units thanks to a stronger-than-expected 2011 finish. According to IDC, tablet shipments rose 155%, leading to a full-year 2011 total of 68.7 million units shipped. The IDC credits Amazon for raising consumers’ awareness of the tablet category in 2011 thanks to their popular $199 Kindle Fire.
Today T-Mobile announced a slew of new markets now able to take advantage of their 4G HSPA+ speeds while also highlighting their plans for the future. While T-Mobile admits their priority now lies in the preparation of their future LTE network, they will continue to improve their HSPA+ network with the possibility of eventually having 84Mbps theoretical download speeds. Since no one can predict the future, we’ll stick to what’s going on right now and that is the eight new cities with HSPA+:
Vic Gundotra took to Google+ today to announce the registration date for this year’s Google I/O. The developer conference — which has been extended to a 3-day event — will be open for registration on March 27 at 7 a.m. PDT. Registration is first-come first-serve and this year’s ticket prices will have you running to your nearest pawn shop. Tickets have doubled in price from $450 to $900! This should trim down all the johns attending the event in hopes of scoring a free device, or simply trying to scalp their tickets on Ebay, but still… ouch!
An unhappy Motorola DROID X2 customer decided to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau over their locked bootloader policy and lackluster update practice. Motorola eventually responded to the complaint, passing the bootlocker blame onto the carriers and then informing the customer that the DROID X2 was not on their list of devices to receive Ice Cream Sandwich. This information is very disheartening to DROID X2 owners whose device is less than a year old. I find this to be unacceptable and completely goes against the pledge Motorola (and other manufacturers) made as part of the Google Update Alliance back in May of 2011. The alliance was formed to ensure timely updates would be provided to consumers for at least 18 months after the launch of a new device and this BBB response isn’t a good sign of Motorola’s commitment to that pledge.
