AT&T just posted its earnings for Q2 2012, revealing total quarterly revenue of $31.6 billion and wireless revenue of $16.4 billion — a 4.6 percent rise. In total the company made $3.9 billion profit over the quarter. Postpaid wireless subscriptions were up considerably on analysts'...
Above analyst expectations
The European Commission is launching an EU-wide consultation period to gauge public opinion on net neutrality. To collect responses the EC has created a questionnaire that any European citizen can complete, which poses questions such as:
"Please...
USB cables may soon deliver up to 100 watts of power to devices including laptops and external hard drives, after the publication of a new USB Power Delivery specification. Announced by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, which includes companies such as Microsoft, Intel and Hewlett-Packard (HP), the specification relies on specially-certified cables for full 100-watt performance. A system for...
Vizio has started to take pre-orders for its $99 Google TV. Dubbed the Co-Star, the tiny set top box, which includes two HDMI ports, an ethernet jack, and a USB socket, sits between a television and cable box to overlay Google TV onto video content. Vizio's Co-Star also features Netflix, YouTube, and OnLive apps — with Vizio spending "months and months" to fine tune the streaming game service to its first Google TV device.
Pre-orders are estimated to ship on August 14th and Vizio is offering free shipping for a limited amount of time. Check out our hands-on from Google I/O to get a good look at Vizio's Co-Star UI.
Will a $99 Google TV catch on?
The European Commission has contacted 13 optical drive manufacturers suspected of being involved in a five-year bid-rigging cartel, informing them of an investigation into what the Commission terms "one of the most serious breaches of EU antitrust rules." According to the EC statement, the manufacturers may have deliberately coordinated their bids in auctions for contracts with two major PC...
Suppliers in a spin over antitrust allegations
More than six months after making its debut at CES, Lenovo's IdeaTab S2110 has now gone on sale for $343. Originally announced as the S2, the S2110 comes with an optional keyboard dock reminiscent of the Transformer Prime, and features a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 IPS display. Powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, the tablet also runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and includes a...
On The Verge is back! Our next show returns Thursday, July 26th, 2012, and we've got some goodies in store for you. For starters, Nilay Patel ventured down to our nation's seat of power — Washington DC in case you've forgotten — to chat with Senator Al Franken about security and facial recognition technology. Then in the studio we're excited to have veteran journalist Mary Jo Foley with us to discuss the future of Microsoft (and technology in general).
Josh, Nilay, and Paul will of course be together again to talk about about the biggest stories of the month, and as always, you'll be privy to a selection of entertaining segments, the...
By Sam Byford
By T.C. Sottek
We all know the feeling. You're sleepless in the sad hours of the night or stumbling around early on a hazy weekend morning in need of something to read, and that pile of unread books just isn't cutting it. Why not take a break from the fire hose of Twitter and RSS and check out our weekly roundup of essential writing from around the web about technology, culture, media, and the future? Sure, it's one more thing you can feel guilty about...
Calm the din of Twitter and RSS
As the 2012 presidential election draws near, both Facebook and Google are ramping up their lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. As Reuters reports, Google spent $3.9 million on federal lobbying during the second quarter of this year, marking a 90 percent increase over its spending in Q2 2011....
The Xperia U is the final piece of Sony’s NXT series puzzle. In March came the flagship Xperia S, a good device that shipped with outdated software. It’s only just been updated to Android 4.0. Our verdict? It’s not thinner, faster, stronger, or in any other way better than the pack. Next up...
Life Technologies, a California-based biotech company, has become the first entrant for the $10 million Archon X Prize, which aims to sequence the DNA of 100 centenarians to produce the world's first "medical grade" human genome, according to a p...
Google's Camping commercial for the Nexus 7 has just hit YouTube, bringing with it all manner of schmaltz. Watch as a bearded gentleman and (we're assuming) his son strengthen their bond through the glory of camping, Google apps, and an unusually strong outdoor Wi-Fi signal....
The existence of knockoff consoles from China isn't exactly big news at this point, but we just came across this one and thought it went a little further than most. The excellently-named Droid X360, from Shenzhen Xunlong, essentially amounts to a PlayStation Vita running Android 4.0. While the...
Evidence that Microsoft is working on an iOS version of its Office suite is mounting. Job postings on the company’s website from July 14th, originally discovered by 9to5Mac, indicate it’s looking for experienced OS X developers to be part of its PowerPoint and Outlook test teams. While Office has been around on the Mac for nearly 20 years, the job descriptions contain the phrase "new feature work to be part of...
The long-awaited 4G spectrum auction in the UK will get under way by the end of this year, according to the local regulatory body, Ofcom. Oft-delayed and extensively disputed in advance of even taking place, this auction is a major step toward...
You've waited, you've watched, you've sent angry letters to our homes and offices — and now the day is finally here. Yes, The Verge has been unleashed in the App and Play Stores, and you can go and download version 1.0 of our mobile apps right this moment. We've been working hard to bring core...
Microsoft is reportedly planning to lift Windows RT licensing restrictions in January, opening up the new operating system to additional OEMs for...
The first images from the Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona are touching down, nearly a decade since the partnership was formed, and two decades since the...
You've probably never heard the name Bob Feldstein, but Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft surely have. He was the vice president of strategic development at AMD, and according to our sources, he...
We're rapidly approaching the start of the Northern California trial between Apple and Samsung, and in preparation the legal teams for both companies have dropped the number of claims they'll be...
There's no shortage of automated trash collectors on the market today, but Japanese modder FRP has taken a slightly different approach with the Smart Trashbox — a Kinect-controlled waste basket...
iRobot is taking its Ava robot platform and bringing it into the healthcare space, partnering with InTouch to announce the RP-VITA, which as you'd...
The official explanation for why Beats bought back controlling interest from HTC was "more flexibility for global expansion." The unofficial explanation is reportedly that the phone maker did not meet "all of the financial commitments it has made to Beats," according to CNet. If true, it could have been a side effect of the rocky road HTC has been traveling lately, capped most recently by a t...
Google promised back at I/O that Android 4.1 would be coming to the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and Motorola Xoom this month, but while we've seen Jelly Bean updates for both phones the Xoom has so far been left out. That could change soon, though, as Motorola has apparently been trialling an...
