BREAKING
U.S. government sues to block AT&T, T-Mobile merger [updated]
The United States government has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, saying that such a deal would “substantially lessen competition” in the U.S. wireless market. Bloomberg reports that the complaint was filed by the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday, and the government is asking for a declaration that the proposed merger would violate U.S. antitrust laws. The complaint seeks to have the deal blocked as a result. “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the U.S. said in its filing. AT&T has argued that it needs T-Mobile’s spectrum in order to improve service quality and cover the majority of the U.S. population with 4G LTE service.
UPDATE: AT&T has issued a statement in response to the DOJ lawsuit. The FCC has issued a statement as well, as has Sprint.
GGM
Good for the US government, that's what they should've done in Canada with Virgin and Fido when purchased by Bell and Rogers. If the big 3 want budget subdivision carriers they should be forced to start them from scratch instead of buy an existing one and reduce competition.
E2EK1EL
^^^
Chatr was created to battle Wind, Wind cried about it.
Our carriers should have not be able to buy, merge, create sub carriers or team up to do their business.
Fido & Virgin buyouts were unfair, Bellus team up for the HSPA+ was unfair also. Our telecoms in Canada are crooks and thieves.
GGM
Absolutely... Funny they'll block bank merger attempt after bank merger attempt (as they should) to the point the banks don't even try doing it any more, but when it comes to telecoms and cable they don't care at all.
Orko
quote:
Originally posted by GGM
Good for the US government, that's what they should've done in Canada with Virgin and Fido when purchased by Bell and Rogers. If the big 3 want budget subdivision carriers they should be forced to start them from scratch instead of buy an existing one and reduce competition.
Virgin never owned a network, so its buyout is a bit different. They were renting Bell's network to begin with, and were partially owned by Bell. Virgin just decided it wasn't worth it and jumped ship, and licensed the name.
E2EK1EL
Here we go again: Apple apparently loses another iPhone prototype – at a bar, too!
Back in July, someone sent in this photo of an Apple employee operating an unknown device on his way from work in San Francisco
We find it hard to believe Apple would be foolish enough to lose another iPhone prototype – and at a bar, too – but this comes from CNET so we thought you should know. The phone allegedly went missing last month in Cava22, a San Francisco Mission District. CNET has learned that the errant phone:
sparked a scramble by Apple security to recover the device over the next few days, according to a source familiar with the investigation. A day or two after the phone was lost at San Francisco’s Cava 22, which describes itself as a “tequila lounge” that also serves lime-marinated shrimp ceviche, Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police, saying the device was priceless and the company was desperate to secure its safe return, the source said. Still unclear are details about the device, what version of the iOS operating system it was running, and what it looks like.
Could this story have anything to do with a photo 9to5Mac obtained from a tipster back in July. Pictured above, it shows what looks like an Apple employee hunched over an iPhone-like device. The tipster claimed he took the shot as the employee was on his way home from work in San Francisco.
But let’s step back for a moment and consider other scenarios that could be at play here. First, a sane person like our writer Jordan Kahn would ask who could possibly be CNET’s source for this story if not Apple? If it were police, CNET would have hinted that police confirmed that the phone was lost and there would be paper trail. It surely wasn’t the guy who reportedly found the phone. Of course, we’ve been through all this before…
E2EK1EL
iOS5 Beta 7
Beta 7??? Wifi only, no problem mon.
White IP4 broadcast the personal hotspot to the Black IP4.
grey'ed out search bar whil deleting.
REMEMBER TO SWITCH "FIND MY IPHONE" OFF & ON FOR BETA 7
iCloud needs some type of refreshing and activation for this service.
Originally posted by Orko
Virgin never owned a network, so its buyout is a bit different. They were renting Bell's network to begin with, and were partially owned by Bell. Virgin just decided it wasn't worth it and jumped ship, and licensed the name.
This is true, Bell before the full purchase owned close to half of Virgin as part of the agreement to let them piggyback their network. It was just one example of a large telecom company buying competition that would've been nice if blocked, but other ones such as Fido are much worse.
E2EK1EL
Angry Birds Seasons - Chinese Moon Festival
Insanely hard, first Angry Birds update I didn't finish in 2 hrs. This took me about 6.5 hrs off and on to complete.
Look at my global ranking, I'm usually 20,000 out of 2 million players after completing an update. I NEED A BEER!
urban_legend
quote:
Originally posted by E2EK1EL
Angry Birds Seasons - Chinese Moon Festival
Insanely hard, first Angry Birds update I didn't finish in 2 hrs. This took me about 6.5 hrs off and on to complete.
Look at my global ranking, I'm usually 20,000 out of 2 million players after completing an update. I NEED A BEER!
No you need a life :D
E2EK1EL
Videotron to release a data sharing plan between Home Internet, Smartphones and Internet Sticks
Data sharing between devices is not new in Canada, it’s been around for a bit but the service is somewhat limited and comes at a high price. Carrier data sharing plans give users the ability to share a certain amount of data from their monthly smartphone voice and data plan with a tablet. What if there was another way to share data?
Quebec-based Videotron offers home internet, mobile phones with data and internet sticks. We’ve been informed that Videotron is planning to launch one massive data block. We’re not sure what it will be called, nor how it’ll show up on the monthly bill, but here’s what we know so far: in the coming months Videotron will allow their customers to combine their data between all 3 services – the ultimate internet bundle. So let’s say there’s a 50GB plan, this will allow the user to pay one monthly price and use data on their smartphone, home internet and internet stick, basically giving them the security of not going over their monthly limit while their “on the go”.
This will cause even more competition in Quebec and most likely will force all the carriers to follow. When Videotron launched their 3G, now 4G, network they also came out with an Infinite plan that ended the talk time restrictions that were previously in the province. Other carriers like Rogers, Bell, TELUS, Virgin and Koodo followed with their own “Unlimited Quebec” offering.
(Too bad I can't do that here with my grandfathered Unlimited Sympatico account)
E2EK1EL
Samsung will ‘never’ buy webOS, CEO says
During the IFA trade show in Berlin on Friday, Samsung Electronics CEO Choi Gee Sung addressed rumors and speculation that Samsung was considering purchasing webOS from HP. Choi said Samsung would “never” make the purchase, according to Bloomberg. “It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” he said. Samsung Mobile already has its own mobile operating system called bada and just released version 2.0. It also sells smartphones running Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. HP, which recently announced that it is ostensibly killing off the mobile operating system, has been working with other technology firms to license webOS. While Samsung may not buy webOS outright, the Korean-based company has held talks to license webOS for new smartphones, Bloomberg said, but it is still unclear how those discussions turned out. Considering the success Samsung is currently enjoying with Android and bada, however, we’re not sure HP will be able to convince Samsung that there is any real value in adopting an OS that it couldn’t even sell to users itself.
Google’s Schmidt: “I was on the Apple board until I couldn’t stand it anymore”
Salesforce.com’s rock concert style Dreamforce 2011 conference has attracted industry heavy-weights, such as Google chairman Eric Schmidt who openly lauded Apple chairman Steve Jobs’s industry-defining achievements. In a chat with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on stage at San Francisco’s Moscone West center, Apple’s preferred venue for product launches, Schmidt said this of Apple’s former chief executive:
What Steve has done at Apple is certainly the best performance of a CEO for over fifty years, maybe a hundred years. But not only did he do it once, he did it twice. We’ve all benefited from the tremendous innovation at Apple. And I say this as a very proud former board member at Apple.
Of course, the comment earned Schmidt an instant applaud from the audience. He then addressed the question of his stay on Apple’s board at a time when Apple had already been deeply involved with the development of the original iPhone. He said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:
I was on the board until I couldn’t stand the board anymore.
He wouldn’t elaborate, but it’s worth remembering that Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board of directors on August 3, 2009, years after Apple had finished the original iPhone development and well into the third-generation of the iconic handset. Steve Jobs was quoted in Apple’s official statement explaining Schmidt’s exit:
Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.
Of course, Jobs wouldn’t shy away from touching on the subject in later public appearances. For example, he made it clear it was Google who decided to compete with Apple, not the other way round. He told the Walt Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg at D8 conference last year that “we didn’t enter the search business”.
Nexus S updated to OS 2.3.6, finally brings fix for Voice Search bug
Some Nexus S owners over the past few months experienced the Voice Search feature to occasionally activate on its own, which at times made the device impossible to use. A fix has been in the works since May and earlier this Google promised an update. Well, today is a day that these frustrated owners will celebrate.
Paul, from Google, noted on the huge thread on the support forum that “An over-the-air update is now starting to roll out that includes a fix for this issue. As with previous updates, it will take a few days to send to everyone”. Nexus owners on Bell, Rogers, TELUS are reporting this has already been pushed through to them. Check your Nexus for the update, it’s Android 2.3.6, Baseband I9020AUCKF1, Build Number GRK39C.
(Every update this Nexus S gets, another major bug pops up and it takes forever for Google to fix it.
Be very greatful Apple is so aggressive with bug fixes and also, pushing the updates that are depolys to everyone all at once.)
