Daily News Courier

The Future of American Manufacturing

The president’s proposed initiatives are a good start in helping to revitalize manufacturing, but they don’t go nearly far enough.

In his State of the Union remarks, President Obama rightly linked domestic manufacturing to overall competitiveness and highlighted how far we still need to go to spur our industrial recovery. As we at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation have noted, the U.S. lost 5.6 million manufacturing jobs in the 2000s. But most importantly, President Obama laid out an agenda for renewal that focused on government support of innovation, R&D, and productivity.

HTC One rumored to launch on March 22 with AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile

If you are an HTC enthusiast, or even Android enthusiast, then chances are you are pretty excited for HTC’s upcoming event.  It is all but guaranteed that HTC will use the event as a chance to announce its latest flagship Android device.  HTC is adopting a page from Samsung’s playbook by launching its flagship device on more than one carrier on the same day.

According to a rumored report, the HTC One (M7) will see light of day in America through three carriers: AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.  Notably missing from the party is Verizon Wireless, which makes sense once you consider the fact that the DROID DNA was launched only a few months ago.  Pricing for the 32GB model is expected to be $199 on contract with the 64GB model commanding a $299 price tag.  At this point, I would like to remind our readers that this report is still a rumor and, therefore, subject to change.

We’re less than four days away from the anticipated event, hopefully HTC has something great planned for us!

[HTC Source]

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Why Obama’s Cyber Defense Order Won’t Amount to Much

The president’s executive order falls short of meeting the severity of the cyberattack threat.

There’s been a lot of rhetoric recently about the threat that cyberattacks pose to national infrastructure, but President Obama’s new executive order—with its focus on voluntary standards and information sharing—is unlikely to provide much protection. The executive order requires that new information-sharing, standards-setting, and R&D plans get up and running over the next few months to two years.

AT&T Brings Online Ad Targeting Tactics to TV Commercials

Experiments suggest that monitoring viewer behavior via set-top boxes could help make TV commercials much more effective.

Few cable subscribers realize it, but each time they switch channels, their TV provider makes a note of it. Today, that data is primarily used for internal research and to inform ratings. But newly published work from researchers at AT&T shows how it could also be used to make TV advertising more compelling.

T-Mobile MVNOs confirm prepaid LTE as soon as network is live

Two different T-Mobile MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) carriers have confirmed that they will be offering prepaid LTE service as soon as the network goes live, according to statements obtained by FierceWireless. Both Solavei and Ready SIM executives have indicated that they intend to offer LTE on T-Mobile's network to its existing customers as soon as possible. Ultra Mobile, another T-Mo MVNO, has hinted as to its LTE prepaid options as well.

This is great news for users who have decided to go with the prepaid route to have a more affordable wireless bill every month. Until this point it was unclear whether or not T-Mobile would hold its LTE network for its own postpaid customers, and MVNOs operating on AT&T's network have yet to receive access to LTE. Although there is no confirmation at this point, this likely means that T-Mobile's self-branded prepaid offerings — called "Monthly4G" — will be offering LTE as well.

This is going to be an exciting time for both T-Mobile and its prepaid MVNO partners when the LTE network finally goes live later this year. Previously leaked device roadmaps seem to suggest that March 27th may be the date for the network launch.

Source: FierceWireless

AT&T turns on LTE in 5 more markets, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach

AT&T announced this morning that it has flipped the switch for LTE in more cities. The high speed 4G network is now available in:

• Northwest, Georgia
• Albany, Georgia
• Cecil County, Maryland
• Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
• Norfolk, parts of Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, VA

Great news for everybody in these locales who can now experience the faster speeds.

AT&T U-Verse Live TV changes names, improves video quality over LTE

AT&T is rebranding its U-Verse Live TV service today to a much less confusing "Mobile TV" name, and including several improvements to the app at the same time. Branding aside, video quality on Mobile TV will now improve when you're watching on LTE, which seems like a natural progression. The package will also now be a flat $9.99 per month charge regardless of platform, and customers can bill the service straight to their monthly AT&T phone bill rather than a separate account.

Mobile TV will also start offering three add-on packages — Urban Zone, Playground TV and Paquete en español móvil — for and additional $4.99 each. The rest of the improvements can be found immediately in its Android app, which can be found at the Play Store link above.

Source: AT&T

Carbon for Twitter can now be downloaded through the Play Store

If the current Twitter client isn’t exactly meeting your needs and expectations, then you may want to look into Carbon for Twitter.  This Android app was announced with much hype as it was heralded to be a tremendous third party Twitter app designed around aesthetics and user experience.  As of today, the Carbon for Twitter app is finally available for download through the Google Play Store.

There are a couple of caveats associated with the recently published Android app.  For instance, there is no support for Android tablets at this time, but I imagine the developer is currently working on a fix.  Secondly, it requires Android 4.0 and higher, so the sizable population of Gingerbread users are left in the dark.

Dots & lines (the developer of Carbon for Twitter) mentions there may be bugs with the build, but they are quickly working to solve any lingering issues.  For now, feel free to download and install the app and let us know your thoughts.  I will likely install the app on my Nexus 4 and see how it runs.

[Google Play Store]

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HTC and Playstation Mobile offer free games for Sense 4+ phones

If you have an HTC Sense 4+ phone, HTC and Playstation Mobile want to give you a free game every week through the end of February. Much like the offer for free games on Sony devices, there are no hoops to jump through, just download the Playstation Mobile for Android app, set up your Sony Entertainment Network account, then use your Sense 4+ phone to download your free games. Supported models include:

• HTC One V
• HTC One S
• HTC One X
• HTC One XL
• HTC One EVO 4G LTE
• HTC One X+

There is one sticking point — your phone must be running Android 4.1 and Sense 4+ or higher, which leaves folks on AT&T and T-Mobile out in the cold unless they've rooted and ROM'd. Feel free to express your distaste in the comments. 

This week's free game is Cubixx, and HTC reminds us all to check every week for a new game. See the source link for the full details.

Source: HTC; via +HTC

Live Updates from RIM’s BlackBerry 10 Launch Event

Can RIM come back from the brink with a new operating system and two new devices?

11:13 a.m. The new devices will be available in the U.S. on Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile in March. Pricing will vary but it’ll be $149.99. Not too shabby. What does the market think of all this? Earlier this morning, RIMM was up 4 percent. Now it’s down 4 percent.