One week after dismissing Samsung’s first German patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, a German court has also rejected a second suit, reports Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents. Judge Andreas Voss of Germany’s Mannheim Regional Court on Friday addressed Samsung’s argument that certain 3G and UMTS technology in Apple’s iPhones infringes the South Korean company’s patents. The Judge dismissed these claims early Friday morning, however he did not immediately offer an explanation for ...

More than 50% of all phones sold this year will be capable of running on 4G or 3G data networks, according to a new report from ABI Research. “As the festive cheer of the holiday season dies away, the mood among handset vendors remains quietly confident regarding 2012,” Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting for ABI Research said. “The outlook will yield growth in the order of 8%, netting 1.67 billion handsets shipped worldwide by the end of 2012. Particularly notable is for the first time, 3G and...

Sprint, a carrier that often touts itself as the only carrier with “truly unlimited” data plans, actually throttles its heaviest data users. Speaking at an investor conference on Thursday, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse admitted that Sprint imposes limits the top 1% of data hogs. “For those that want to abuse it, we can knock them off,” Hesse said. The executive explained that Sprint needs to throttle — or slow down the data speeds — of its heaviest users in order to make room for the growin...

Verizon Wireless was the first major carrier to launch its super fast 4G LTE network in the United States. Being the first comes with its fair share of problems, however. Earlier this week Verizon’s 4G LTE network suffered its third major outage in the month of December. In an interview with GigaOM, Verizon Wireless vice president of Network Engineering Mike Haberman responded with:Being the pioneers, we’re going to experience some growing pains. These issues we’ve been experiencing are certainl...

Verizon Wireless users are once again suffering from a widespread 4G LTE and 3G EV-DO data outage. The outage is the third one of the month and only seems to be affecting users with 4G LTE devices. A recording on Verizon’s support line reveals that the company is aware of the issue and working to fix it, but no indication was given as far as when service might be restored. We have received reports stating that service is out across the country, with confirmed outages in parts of New York, New Jersey, No...

Deutsche Telekom recently detailed the breakup terms AT&T agreed to following the deterioration of its planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Deutsche Telekom will receive $3 billion in cash and T-Mobile USA will benefit from fresh AWS spectrum as well as a new 7-year 3G roaming deal with AT&T. “As part of the break-up fee, T-Mobile USA will receive a large package of AWS mobile spectrum in 128 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), including 12 of the top 20 markets (Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta,...

Want to share your iPhone’s 3G connection with your laptop for a one-time $15 fee? iTether recently launched for iOS devices and it allows you do just that, without any carrier involvement. We would use the software with caution, however. Several wireless providers such as AT&T can detect when subscribers are tethering an unauthorized device and they usually send a warning asking users to stop. iTether is available now for anyone looking for a quick tethering solution to get through the day but, ...

Sprint on Monday announced two new less expensive mobile broadband data plans that will replace the carrier’s existing plans. The changes apply to tablets, mobile hotspot devices, netbooks, notebooks and USB modems. Customers may choose between a $49.99 plan that provides 6GB of 3G or 4G data per month or a $79.99 plan that provides 12GB of data per month. Sprint’s plans offer an additional 1GB of data compared to Verizon Wireless’s competing plans, and it hopes that’s a draw for new c...

China Mobile has yet to convince Apple to partner on an iPhone that supports its proprietary TD-SCDMA 3G network, but that hasn’t stopped the carrier from attracting customers to the device. In fact, China Mobile added 5 million new iPhone users in just four months, and it now serves a total of 9.5 million iPhone users, Bloomberg said. Each of those customers can use text, voice and 2G data, and all of the iPhone models it sells are unsubsidized. That may sound like a turnoff, but China Mobile has in...

Samsung announced the Transform Ultra for Sprint on Monday, an Android 2.3-powered smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Transform Ultra is powered by a 1GHz processor and has a 3-megapixel camera, a secondary front-facing VGA camera for video chat, a 3.5-inch touchscreen display with an HVGA resolution, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of on-board storage, a 1,500 mAh battery and support for Sprint’s 3G network. Neither Sprint nor Samsung have announced pricing or a release date for the Transform Ultra, al...

AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint are all launching the iPhone 4S next Friday, but AT&T is doing its best to ensure consumers know that not all iPhones are created equal. The presence of HSPA 14.4 gives the iPhone 4S a theoretical download speed ceiling of 14.4Mbps, but only if you’re on an HSPA network. Here in the U.S., Verizon Wireless and Sprint both employ EV-DO 3G networks while AT&T customers will enjoy speeds over HSPA that are twice as fast, the company says. ”We can’t ...

Sony announced on Wednesday that its next-generation portable gaming console, the PlayStation Vita, will launch in Japan on December 17th. Sony also said it has teamed up with Japan-based wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo to provide 3G connectivity on the device. 20 hours of 3G service is priced at $13 while 100 hours will set customers back $65. The system will launch in tandem with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Square Enix promised to port Final Fantasy X as well. Sony expects to begin taking pre-orders for th...

Apple and Sprint are preparing to launch a new version of the iPad 2 at the same time or shortly after a Sprint-compatible iPhone 5 is unveiled this fall, a new report claims. 9to5 Mac states that Apple and Sprint have completed development of an iPad 2 that includes an embedded cellular radio compatible with Sprint’s data network. It is unclear which Sprint data network the tablet will support: the carrier’s older 3G network, its 4G WiMAX network or perhaps even both. No previous reports indica...

Samsung on Monday confirmed that it recently filed a new complaint against Apple in France, alleging that the Cupertino-based company’s iPad and iPhone devices infringe on three Samsung-owned patents. Unlike the case that recently saw a German judge ban sales of Samsung’s GALAXY Tab 10.1 tablet by the company’s local arm, Samsung’s complaint in France covers patents rather than the physical design of the devices in question. The suit targets Apple’s iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhon...