Google's Motorola Mobility has upgraded its lineup of Droid smartphones, announcing three new models including the flagship Droid Ultra. The new phones will be available through Verizon Wireless. …read more
Tag Archives: Verizon Wireless
New Droid smartphones launched by Google, Verizon
Google’s Motorola Mobility has upgraded its lineup of Droid smartphones, announcing three new models including the flagship Droid Ultra. The new phones will be available through Verizon Wireless.
The Droid Ultra has a 5-inch screen and at 7.18mm, is the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone available, said Rick Osterloh, senior vice president at Motorola Mobility. The Ultra offers 24 hours of battery life.
Also announced at a New York Verizon event was Droid Maxx, which has a 5-inch screen and 48 hours battery life, significantly more than the 32 hours of battery life offered by its predecessor Razr Maxx. The Maxx is also 9 percent thinner than the Razr Maxx.
Motorola also announced the Droid Mini, which has a ultracompact design with a 4.3-inch screen. The Mini offers 24 hours of battery life on mixed usage. The device weighs 132 grams, and is for those who like small, highly portable devices.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Verizon Edge Offers Smartphone Upgrades Every Six Months
Tired of your aging Verizon smartphone, but still a long way from upgrade eligibility? Next month, Verizon Wireless is planning to make things a little simpler with its new Edge program. The carrier has announced (via Android Central) Verizon Edge will allow current and future customers to upgrade their devices every six months.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Tech
Femtocell hackers from iSEC hear, see smartphone content
(Phys.org) —While all thoughts are on how government agencies can abuse surveillance technologies to ruin people’s lives, an unassuming group of backyard neighbors in summer clogs and shorts can leisurely lean back in their chairs and snoop to read an SMS that a victim has just sent from her smartphone, listen in on her phone calls, and see all the pictures she is sending off by intercepting the data connection. Better still, they can plant themselves in the financial district and snoop on people talking about accounts, business mergers, or anything else ripe for exploit. Welcome to iSEC’s kind of exploit, the talk of the security crowd this week and no doubt the talk of companies that depend on red flags for potential security holes. The security consultants, iSEC Partners Tom Ritter and Doug DePerry, managed to hack a Verizon Wireless device and turn it into a mobile spy. “This is not about how the NSA would attack ordinary people. This is about how ordinary people would attack ordinary people,” said Tom Ritter, a senior consultant with the security firm iSEC Partners. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Media Digest (4/29/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Filed under: Investing
The form of taxation that is applied to a Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) buyout of the 45% of Verizon Wireless that Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) owns may decide the deal. (Reuters)
The global economy continues to rely on central bank aide to prop up gross domestic product. (Reuters)
China’s move to 4G will give some equipment suppliers huge contracts. (Reuters)
Tough European sales may start to badly damage U.S. corporate earnings. (WSJ)
The government blocks cash payouts to some General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) executives. (WSJ)
The number of people in the U.S. looking for jobs fell to its lowest level since 1979 because of retiring baby boomers. (WSJ)
Fred Hassan leaves as the chairman of Avon Product Inc.’s (NYSE: AVP) board. (WSJ)
A move to dividend-paying stocks may be causing their prices to move too high. (WSJ)
More Republican members of Congress will support a tax on online sales. (NYT)
Cable firm AXS TV will start to run programming from AOL Inc.’s (NYSE: AOL) HuffPo Live. (NYT)
Passengers may well shy away from flying the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) 787, which recently fixed battery problems. (NYT)
Chat applications will continue to hurt revenue from texts, which have helped telecom earnings. (FT)
More Europeans may modify their positions on the value of austerity. (Bloomberg)
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) ups its commitment to $20 phones as it loses market share to smartphones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung. (Bloomberg)
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Press Digest Tagged: AAPL, AOL, AVP, BA, GM, NOK, VOD, VZ
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Is T-Mobile Running a Scam?
By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
No. 4 domestic carrier T-Mobile is making a big push, rebranding itself as the “Un-Carrier” and deriding its larger rivals for their subsidizing ways. The company finally got its magenta hands on Apple‘s iPhone, filling the biggest historical gap in its device portfolio.
CEO John Legere is full of fighting words. Not only was his presentation last month laced with expletives, but he also added:
These bold moves serve notice that T-Mobile is canceling its membership in the out-of-touch wireless club. This is an industry filled with ridiculously confusing contracts, limits on how much data you can use or when you can upgrade, and monthly bills that make little sense. As America’s Un-Carrier, we are changing all of that and bringing common sense to wireless.
At the same time, T-Mobile’s new plans simply replace confusion with even more possible confusion. Are T-Mobile’s new initiatives a scam?
Still tied down
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson thinks so. He calls T-Mobile’s new campaign “deceptive” and wants to prevent Washingtonians from getting “duped.” Ferguson doesn’t believe that T-Mobile has been properly disclosing the full limitations of its new plans and warns that customers are still being effectively tethered to a two-year commitment in an underhanded way.
T-Mobile has been focusing on pitching its service plans as having “no annual contract,” which is true. However, for consumers who are buying a phone on the new two-year installment plans (i.e., the vast majority of consumers), they’re still effectively locked in during the term.
Not only has T-Mobile not killed smartphone subsidies entirely, which is evidenced by its iPhone pricing, but devices still being paid off through installments are locked to T-Mobile’s network. The only way to have T-Mobile graciously unlock a device is to pay it off in full — which can easily cost more than early termination fees that other carriers impose.
For example, Verizon Wireless charges a $350 early termination fee for smartphones (which declines $10 per month satisfied). Theoretically, a consumer could buy a subsidized iPhone for $200, immediately cancel service, and pay the fee for a total device cost of $550. That’s less than the $650 retail price that Apple charges, as well as the $580 total required to pay off a T-Mobile iPhone. Interestingly enough, Verizon launched its own installment plans shortly after T-Mobile.
Assuming that most consumers want to avoid such a hefty upfront payment, a safe assumption, T-Mobile consumers are still locked in to a “two-year sentence” — just of a different nature.
T-Mobile has cooperated with the state and agreed to “adequately disclose” the terms to customers, while offering a grace period that covers the past month allowing purchasers to back out.
On top of that, even though T-Mobile is billing its plans as offering “unlimited” data, the fine print shows that only 500 MB of “high-speed data” is included. After hitting that cap, data speeds will be throttled to embarrassingly slow 2G speeds. Want
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Verizon posts gains on mobile, Fios growth
Verizon Communications reported an increase in revenue and a double-digit spike in net income for the first quarter of 2013, compared to a year earlier, driven largely by gains in mobile customers and in revenue from its Fios service.
Verizon on Thursday reported revenue of US $29.4 billion for the first quarter of this year, up 4.2 percent from the first quarter of 2012, and net income was up 24.3 percent, to $4.9 billion. Net income attributable to Verizon was nearly $2 billion, up 15.8 percent. U.K. mobile provider Vodafone has a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless.
Earnings per share were $0.68, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.66.
Verizon Wireless added 720,000 retail customers during the first quarter, bringing its total number of retail connections to 98.9 million. Mobile revenue was $19.5 billion for the quarter, up 6.8 percent from a year ago.
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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2035666/verizon-posts-gains-on-mobile-fios-growth.html#tk.rss_all
ACLU complains to FTC that mobile carriers leave Android phones unsecured
Smartphones with custom versions of Android offered by large mobile operators in the U.S. are not getting security updates as regularly as phones from Google, or smartphones from other vendors like Microsoft, according to a complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union to the Federal Trade Commission.
“Android smartphones that do not receive regular, prompt security updates are defective and unreasonably dangerous,” ACLU said in the complaint on Tuesday.
The complaint against AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA states that “all of the major wireless carriers have failed to deliver regular, prompt updates to Android phones which they have sold to their customers,” citing results from a survey in December last year by technology news site Ars Technica.
The sale of mobile computing devices such as smartphones and the software updates to the devices are not part of common carrier activities, and are hence subject to FTC authority, according to the complaint, a copy of which is on the ACLU website.
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Don't Plan on Upgrading Your New Verizon iPhone Anytime Soon
By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
No. 1 domestic wireless carrier Verizon Wireless recently announced it was tightening upgrade policies, extending the time frame that consumers have to wait to a full 24 months. Carriers have also been trying to reduce subsidies via platform competition. That’s an incremental negative for Apple , since the company still relies heavily on subsidies to boost iPhone prices, but not as bad as if AT&T had made the move (it sells more iPhones).
In the video below, Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, explains how this might affect Apple investors.
There’s no doubt that Apple is at the center of technology’s largest revolution ever, and that longtime shareholders have been handsomely rewarded with over 1,000% gains. However, there is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool’s senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple, and what opportunities are left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.
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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/17/dont-plan-on-upgrading-your-new-verizon-iphone-any/
Boston cell networks stay online after blasts
Cellular networks in Boston were still operating on Monday evening following the explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, contrary to earlier reports that they had been shut down to prevent remote bomb detonations.
Mobile networks were straining under heavy voice and data use following the blasts, which occurred amid a massive annual event for which carriers had added network capacity. But despite reports quoting law enforcement as saying networks had been ordered shut down, services kept operating, according to sources and at least one mobile operator.
“Verizon Wireless has not been asked by any government agency to turn down its wireless service. Any reports to that effect are inaccurate,” Verizon spokesman Tom Pica said in an email message late Monday.
The reports had said service had been shut off in the Boston area to prevent remote detonation of additional explosives after the two initial blasts. Cellphones have been used to set off bombs in the past, as in attacks on trains in Madrid in 2004.
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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034698/boston-cell-networks-stay-online-after-blasts.html#tk.rss_all
Report: Verizon wants to buy Clearwire spectrum
Verizon Wireless reportedly has offered US$1 billion to $1.5 billion for some of Clearwire’s spectrum leases, possibly complicating Sprint Nextel‘s attempt to buy out the company in conjunction with its acquisition by Softbank.
Clearwire is struggling financially but owns broad swaths of spectrum, the lifeblood of wireless networks. The April 8 bid from “Party J,” which Clearwire disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, is the latest in a series of offers for its spectrum licenses. Unnamed people familiar with the matter identified “Party J” as Verizon Wireless, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Clearwire is a key part of a complicated set of possible transactions that could make a much stronger competitor out of Sprint, the country’s third-largest mobile operator. Sprint already owns roughly half of Clearwire and is bidding about $2.2 billion to buy the rest of its stock. That deal depends on Softbank’s planned $20.1 billion offer for 70 percent of Sprint, which is still undergoing regulatory review.
Dish Network has also offered to buy Clearwire, and on Monday, Dish made an unsolicited $25.5 billion bid for Sprint that would include Clearwire.
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The Monster Merger Deal to Watch For
By Dan Radovsky, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
There have been a number of huge merger deals in the not-too-distant past whose buyout numbers reached into low orbit. The most notorious — and most scoffed at — must be when AOL met Time Warner: $182 billion exchanged hands in 2000 before eventually vaporizing (most of it, anyway) along with the supposed synergies the transaction was supposed to generate.
But that was at right at the peak of the dot-com madness. No company would ever fall for that kind of hysterical dealmaking again, right? Maybe not. Never underestimate the appeal of financial madness, especially to those who should be minding the asylum.
The latest deal to end all deals — by quite a lot — is rumored to be brewing in the telecom world, this one between Verizon and Vodafone , partners in the joint venture called Verizon Wireless. Oh, and one other company, which I’ll get to later.
Verizon Wireless has been very good to the partners, and they have been able to split sizable profits from the deal over the past couple of years. Last year, Vodafone received $8 billion in dividend payments for its 45% share of the venture.
However, Verizon, which holds the other 55%, can choose to withhold those payments if it wants to use the money for acquisitions or capital expenditures. That makes Vodafone a bit nervous, especially as Verizon Wireless has been, as Australian hedge fund Bronte Capital‘s chief investment officer John Hempton wrote on his company’s blog last month, the only bright spot over the last 10 years in Vodafone’s “collection of modest success and abject failures.”
So instead of thinking about shooting its golden goose, Hempton had another suggestion:
“Any deal where Vodafone sells its Verizon Wireless stake rather than selling itself … would be insane, … The best outcome would be the sale of the whole of Vodafone at a good price.”
An astronomical price
And that price would be $245 billion, the enterprise value of Vodafone according to sources who spoke to the Financial Times earlier this month. And, still according to those unnamed sources, Barclays USA will put together a three-way deal which would divvy up Vodafone between Verizon and AT&T . Verizon would assume full control of Verizon Wireless, and AT&T would acquire Vodafone’s many overseas assets.
Verizon’s interest should be obvious — the whole slice of the pie — but why would AT&T want to get a piece of Vodafone? That answer has to do with AT&T’s being essentially blocked from acquiring much more of substance in the United States. The FCC’s and Department of Justice’s nixing of the company’s bid to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in 2011 has caused AT&T to look elsewhere for expansion.
Verizon isn’t talking … much. Ten days ago it filed an 8-K current report with the SEC to say this:
Verizon Communications (‘Verizon’) notes the recent press speculation regarding a potential merger with or purchase by Verizon of Vodafone.
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/can-verizon-pull-off-the-biggest-deal-in-us-hist/
Will GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC Holdings, and Vodafone Group Push the FTSE 100 to Record Highs?
By David O’Hara, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
LONDON — Shares of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline have performed well in the last month. While the FTSE 100 is down 1.5%, Glaxo is up 4.5%. Since the beginning of the year, Glaxo shares are up 16.3%. That’s a stonking performance for such a large company.
According to analyst forecasts, the shares are expected to pay 77.6 pence of dividends for the year. At today’s price, that equates to a yield of 5%.
The average FTSE 100 company trades on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio around 15.2 times forecast earnings. Sitting on a P/E today of 13.3, Glaxo is trading at a significant discount. That seems unfair for such a successful and reliable company.
HSBC
At current prices, HSBC makes up 7.8% of the FTSE 100. It shares have the most influence on the FTSE 100.
The banking giant currently trades on just 10.7 times consensus forecasts for 2013. Considering the resilience that HSBC has demonstrated during an industry crisis, that’s pretty mean.
There is no escaping the fact that bank shares remain very unpopular. However, I am beginning to see signs that politicians are tiring of banker bashing. The media is also starting to move on, as writers run out of new angles on old stories.
HSBC is forecast to grow earnings next year, putting the shares on a 2014 P/E of 9.4, with a prospective yield of 5.3%.
Vodafone
Recent speculation over the future of Vodafone‘s U.S. mobile investment in Verizon Wireless has pushed the shares to their highest level since 2007.
Making up almost 6% of the FTSE 100 by itself, the market‘s recent setback would have been more painful for index investors without the telecom giant’s recent rally.
While Vodafone is not likely to push the FTSE 100 to a 10-year high by itself, a new high for 2013 could be achieved. A sale of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless, or a takeover approach for Vodafone, could push the shares as high as 250 pence. A 25% rise in Vodafone’s share price would see the FTSE 100 rise beyond 6,500.
In the absence of a takeover, shareholders will be comforted by a reliable dividend stream. Vodafone is expected to pay 10.7 pence in the current calendar year, a 5.6% yield at today’s price.
These three big blue-chips may hold a dominant position in their markets today but are they safe to tuck away for the long term? Analysts here at The Motley Fool have prepared a new report “5 Shares to Retire On” with the lowdown on their five top income stocks to own for the years ahead. Just click here to get your free copy of this report today.
The article Will GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC Holdings, and Vodafone Group Push the FTSE 100 to Record Highs? originally appeared on Fool.com.
David owns shares in Vodafone but none of the other companies mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends GlaxoSmithKline and Vodafone Group.
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/12/will-glaxosmithkline-hsbc-holdings-and-vodafone-gr/
Verizon Stretching Phone Subsidy Waiting Period to Two Full Years
In what appears to be a grab for higher profits, Verizon Wireless is stretching the time between subsidized phone upgrades from 20 to 24 months. In a blog post, company spokesperson Brena Raney wrote “This change aligns the upgrade date with the contract end date and is consistent with how the majority of customers purchase new phones today.” She added that the first customers effected by the change will be those who’s contracts expire in January, 2014.
How Verizon Talked Steve Jobs Into an LTE iPhone
By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
The first 4G LTE-enabled smartphone that Verizon Wireless launched was the HTC Thunderbolt, which was released back in March 2011. Over the next year and a half, the rest of the Google Android army would follow suit with a slew of LTE devices for Big Red‘s network. While the technology promised incredibly fast speeds, battery life dampened popularity since early LTE phones were prone to running out of juice prematurely.
It wouldn’t be until September 2012 that Apple would launch the iPhone 5, its first LTE smartphone. Many questioned Apple’s competitive prospects in early 2012, saying the iPhone 4S couldn’t compete with newer Android flagships due to the lack of LTE. In technologies where Apple isn’t the first mover, its strategy is to perfect it. In the case of LTE, Apple’s advances in battery engineering allowed the iPhone 5 to maintain respectable battery life.
Speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters conference recently, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam provided some insight into how he was able to talk Steve Jobs into launching an LTE iPhone, even though the device wouldn’t be released until a year after Jobs’ death.
You had me at hello
McAdam notes that video content now comprises roughly 50% of all wireless traffic served up over Big Red‘s network. Verizon estimates that by 2017, that figure will climb to nearly 66%. With such overwhelming consumer demand for video streaming, 3G technologies were bottlenecking the experience since most video clips would need to buffer before properly playing back. With 4G LTE, streaming video could be viable.
The executive recalled how he convinced Jobs:
I was really trying to sell him and he sat there without any reaction. Finally, he said, “Enough. You had me at 10 Mbps. I know you can stream video at 10 Mbps.” And Apple’s next phone was LTE.
Naturally, knowing how important video streaming is played a factor in Verizon’s partnership with Coinstar to launch Redbox Instant to challenge Netflix. Redbox Instant still isn’t a match for the dominant video streamer, but it’s a start.
There is a debate raging as to whether Apple remains a buy. The Motley Fool’s senior technology analyst and managing bureau chief, Eric Bleeker, is prepared to fill you in on both reasons to buy and reasons to sell Apple, and what opportunities are left for the company (and your portfolio) going forward. To get instant access to his latest thinking on Apple, simply click here now.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
T-Mobile offers iPhone 5 at no upfront payment in trade-in deal
T-Mobile USA is trying to boost the number of iPhone users on its network by offering the iPhone 5 without down payment to people who bring in their iPhone 4 and 4S smartphones for a trade-in which could also earn them up to US$120 in credits.
The iPhone 5 will be available nationwide on Friday at T-Mobile owned retail stores as well as its online store. The carrier announced in March that customers could get an iPhone 5 for $100 down payment, plus monthly payments of $20 for 24 months. The new trade-in deal hence knocks of the about $100 down payment for the device, though the monthly payments continue.
The trade-in offer, which runs through Father’s Day on June 16, also provides customers on the Simple Choice Plan with up to $120 in credits, which will depend on the trade-in value of the device, and can be used toward “monthly payments, an existing T-Mobile bill, or the purchase of accessories or another device,” the operator said on Wednesday.
The U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom, which is offering the iPhone for the first time in the U.S., has been trying to woo customers from its competitors like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel by offering the iPhone 5 without usual annual contracts.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Not Even Facebook Can Save This Smartphone Maker
By Evan Niu, CFA, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
It’s been a rough couple of years for Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC. Once upon a time, it was the cream of the Android crop. Nowadays, South Korean rival Samsung has supplanted the company, primarily with advantages in distribution and marketing. With marketing being one of its biggest weaknesses, the company has realized that the whole “Quietly Brilliant” motto wasn’t working so well, promising to take a louder approach going forward.
HTC is also partnering with Facebook to launch the HTC First, which will be the first device to feature Facebook Home. Pairing up with the social network will certainly appeal to avid Facebookers looking to get their hands on the first real Facebook Phone, but ultimately the First is a mid-range device that won’t be able to turn the tables. That job is up to the HTC One.
Unfortunately for HTC, suppliers no longer consider it a “tier-one” smartphone maker, so it has been having trouble getting all the ingredients it needs. Cameras, in particular, are bottlenecking production, and HTC was forced to delay the global launch of its One device. The One delays have contributed to HTC posting its lowest profits on record.
HTC‘s bottom line in the first quarter was just $2.8 million. Revenue was down 37% to $1.4 billion, below even the low end of its guidance. In February, HTC guided to first-quarter sales of $1.7 billion to $2 billion.
A recent Chipworks teardown showed that HTC is sourcing cameras from STMicroelectronics and OmniVision . STMicroelectronics is providing the primary rear camera, which is a 4-megapixel shooter that HTC is hoping will dispel the megapixel myth in the smartphone camera wars. OmniVision is supplying the front-facing 2-megapixel sensor.
The primary sensor is the first backside-illuminated sensor that Chipworks has seen from STMicroelectronics, a technology in which OmniVision used to enjoy first-mover advantage. That’s notable because OmniVIsion offers a sensor with identical specs, yet STM was still able to score the design win. However, it’s also possible that HTC is dual sourcing (Chipworks only tore down one unit), but that implied commoditization isn’t necessarily a good thing, either. It’s not clear which of these companies is the supply chain culprit that’s holding back the One.
Everything is quite literally riding on the One. The flagship launches domestically this month, barely beating Samsung’s Galaxy S4 to market. Still, Samsung’s same advantages will still apply. For example, the Galaxy S4 will be available on all four major U.S. carriers, while HTC said the One won’t reach Verizon Wireless (the biggest of the four). AllThingsD reports that the One will indeed make its way to Big Red‘s network eventually, so perhaps HTC was playing coy.
For HTC, the One will make or break the company in 2013.
It’s incredible to think just how much of our digital and technological lives are almost entirely shaped and molded by just a handful of companies. Find out “Who Will …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Hampstead Academy Students Win National Mobile App Design Competition; Will Work With Massachusetts
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Hampstead Academy Students Win National Mobile App Design Competition; Will Work With Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab to Develop Apps
Verizon’s National Innovative App Challenge Aimed at Boosting Students’ Interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
HAMPSTEAD, N.H.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– A team of eighth grade students from Hampstead Academy are winners of a national competition to develop mobile applications that address a need or problem in their school and community. Their Chow Checker app concept is one of 10 winning designs. The app will help people with food allergies avoid foods and ingredients they are allergic to – such as milk, eggs, peanuts and shellfish.
The Verizon Innovative App Challenge was created by the Verizon Foundation in partnership with the Technology Student Association to help boost student engagement and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The students were asked to use their STEM skills to design app concepts that provided real-world solutions for issues in their communities or schools.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab will continue to work with the Hampstead Academy “Chow Checker” team to refine their project. Verizon will provide the teams with professional support and training to help bring their concepts to market. The final products will be made available for download from Google’s Play Store. In addition, Hampstead Academy will receive a $10,000 Verizon Foundation grant to advance STEM education at their school, and each team member will receive the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, courtesy of Samsung Mobile.
“The Hampstead Academy students’ work on the App Challenge is further proof that innovative ideas can be found and fostered everywhere, and at any age,” commented Christine Berberich, regional president for Verizon Wireless. “We’ve all seen examples of young inventors and entrepreneurs turning their ideas into life-changing solutions, and the ‘Chow Checker‘ team has thought of a way to help those living with food allergies. We look forward to following the student’s progress as they leverage mobile technology to bring their concept to fruition.”
“The Verizon Innovative App Challenge demonstrated how STEM can be utilized in a classroom setting with all students, not just those who may have an aptitude for science and math,” stated Chris Sousa, Grade 8 faculty advisor for the winning Chow Checker app at Hampstead Academy. “The Challenge completely engaged our diverse …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Official: Verizon's Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi now on sale for $250
Filed under:
Partnering with Verizon Wireless, Delphi Automotive has released its Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi product that allows drivers to to locate, track, secure, access and monitor their vehicle using a smartphone, computer or tablet. Touted as a first-in-class product, it works with most vehicles newer than the 1996 model year.
Customers will need to purchase a Delphi adapter ($250 plus a $35 activation fee) to be plugged into their vehicle’s OBD-II port, most often easily accessible within the passenger compartment. The cost of the adapter covers two years of service, with customers paying a non-contracted $5/month after that period. The science behind the device is rather sophisticated, but all consumers need to know is that the adapter sends encrypted data between the vehicle and the user operating a device running Apple iOS 5.0 and later, Android 2.2 and later, or a variety of popular web browsers.
Vehicle Diagnostics does more than just monitor and report vehicle health and maintenance issues, as it may be used to set up “geo-fences” to monitor entry and exit to a certain part of town, summarize driving trips and receive e-mail alerts. Some vehicles with Bluetooth capabilities, will also allow connectivity for key fob commands (e.g., door locks, truck activation and remote start).
Before you sign on the dotted line, be sure to check compatibility as not all vehicles will offer the full suite of features. Scroll down below for all the details.
Continue reading Verizon’s Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi now on sale for $250
Verizon’s Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi now on sale for $250 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
CORRECTING and REPLACING Verizon Wireless Announces Educational Empowerment Program with Local High
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
CORRECTING and REPLACING Verizon Wireless Announces Educational Empowerment Program with Local High Schools
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Program designed to empower high school students for college, career success
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Verizon Wireless providing free service on Samsung Galaxy Tab devices during four-month program, using Edmodo Android app, an online social learning network
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First-place winning team (3 students) to receive $5,000 scholarships, Verizon Wireless internships and Samsung Galaxy Tabs
WILMINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The paragraph titled About Edmodo in the release dated March 25, 2013 has been removed.
The corrected release reads:
VERIZON WIRELESS ANNOUNCES EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM WITH LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS
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Program designed to empower high school students for college, career success
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Verizon Wireless providing free service on Samsung Galaxy Tab devices during four-month program, using Edmodo Android app, an online social learning network
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First-place winning team (3 students) to receive $5,000 …read moreSource: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance