AT&T shared a little bit of what goes into a portable network cells they put up at special events where bandwidth needs will be extraordinary. Remember, AT&T’s network is about 80% iPhones so this is important stuff. The setup above was what they used to cover a recent Los Angeles festival (read: Coachella).

This isn’t a test network; AT&T’s been honing their skills since they got caught with their pants down at SXSW in 2010 (back when AT&T was the only US iPhone carrier). Since then, with their mobile response team, they’ve been able to keep their network up and running at huge events with the addition of these ‘kits’ above.

The  network performance stats for this setup – some of which are staggering:

• Carried approximately 83 GB of data traffic during the peak hour on our in-event network
• Carried a combined 6,054 GB (or more than 6 terabytes) of data on our in-event network during the two weekends of the music festival (24-hour traffic totals, Friday-Sunday for two weekends).
• About 50 engineers were involved in planning, construction or onsite 24/7 monitoring.

Both the super multi-beam antenna and five-beam antenna are AT&T innovations that were conceptualized by L.A.-based AT&T engineers Bob Mathews and Gary Chow who discuss their work in the videos below:

Shown in this photo is AT&T’s super multi-beam antenna (mounted to a mast on the far left). The super multi-beam antenna has two rows with nine beams each – 18-beams total – and can handle as much as 18 times the network traffic capacity of a traditional single-beam antenna. Below the super multi-beam antenna is a five-beam antenna – which can handle as much as five times the network traffic capacity of a traditional single-beam antenna – and a single-beam antenna. The far left COW has a set of five-beam antennas mounted to it as well as a single-beam antenna. The far left COW, along with the middle COW and the right COW provide the radios needed to support coverage at the event. The vehicle next to the right COW (center right overall) supports the microwave dish that is used to bring increased backhaul to the event. The vehicle to the far right is an AT&T Mobile Command Post, where engineers on-site can meet to discuss network traffic movement and implement solutions at the event.

This post was written by Rob Shuster from 9to5Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

Virgin Mobile has slashed 15% off both the 8GB iPhone 4 and the 16GB iPhone 4S on one of its prepaid Beyond Talk Unlimited data plans. The deal will get you a new iPhone — without a contract commitment — for less than $300.

That’s for the 8GB iPhone 4, of course, which is priced at $297.49 after the 15%. That’s not a bad price for a very capable smartphone — you would typically pay that for some midrange Android-powered devices.

If you’re happy to spend a little more for a newer model, then the 16GB iPhone 4S is $382.49 with the 15% discount.

Virgin isn’t the only provider offering some great iPhone deals at the moment. If you don’t mind signing a contract, then you can currently get an iPhone 5 for just $99 on Verizon (if you currently own an old feature-phone), and AT&T will give you one for free if you trade in your old iPhone 4S.

These deals come just months before Apple is expected to launch its next-generation iPhone 5S, which, according to recent rumors, could bring a better camera, a faster processor, and fingerprint scanning technology.

Source: Virgin Mobile

This post was written by Killian Bell from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

People love to sue Apple whenever they can, and now a Florida woman is seeking $5+ million in damages because her iPhone 4′s power button doesn’t work. The class action lawsuit is intended to fight for the iPhone 4 users who have reported defective on/off buttons over the past several years.

GigaOm reports:

In a class action suit filed in San Jose, California, Debra Hilton claims that Apple knew about a defect in a flex cable that controls the on-off button, but chose to stay quiet about it so as to sell more phones.

As evidence, she points to Apple discussion forums viewed by hundreds of thousands of visitors on which users complain of “wiggly” power buttons. Hilton also points to a fix-it video on YouTube and comments by a self-described iPhone repairman who says the power button defect is prevalent on the iPhone 4 which went on sale in 2010.

The Apple support thread mentioned above has over 400 posts and 800,000 views, so this has obviously been an issue for quite a few iPhone 4 owners.

Apple just recently started sending out $15 settlement checks to those affected by Antennagate, so no telling how long this new lawsuit will take to resolve.

Source: GigaOm

This post was written by Alex Heath from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, has long been Apple’s biggest manufacturing partner, with around 60-70% of its revenue coming from the Cupertino company. But local rival Pegatron is hoping to change that.

By offering Apple more competitive prices and sacrificing its profit margins, Pegatron appears to be securing iPhone and iPad assembly orders that would have normally gone straight to Foxconn.

What’s more, it’s though that Pegatron will play a big part in manufacturing Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone after the company announced it will increase its number of workers in China by up to 40% in the second half of 2013.

“Pegatron posts a long-term risk to Hon Hai because as it catches up on margins by supplying more components, it can provide more aggressive pricing,” Daiwa Capital analyst Birdy Lu told Reuters. “Hon Hai’s margin uptrend is not a guarantee.”

According to analyst averages, Foxconn will post a net profit of T$18.76 billion ($638.24 million) for the first quarter of this year, which is 26% higher than the net profit it saw during the same period last year. However, it’s only half of the record T$36.97 billion Foxconn saw in the previous quarter.

Some of that decline has been blamed on decreasing demand for the iPhone, which Foxconn has come to rely on following its tremendous success in recent years. The device has recently seen increasing competition — particularly from Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones, which continue to be big sellers.

The fact that Apple hasn’t launched a new product since last fall also doesn’t help its manufacturing partners.

Pegatron is already an Apple partner, and it’s mainly tasked with assembling older devices, such as the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S. But the company is involved with iPad mini production.

Pegatron’s revenue grew 29% during the first quarter of this year — compared with the same period last year — while its net profit rocketed 81% to T$2.31 billion ($78.59 million). Foxconn, on the other hand, saw revenue slide 19.2%.

“Hon Hai would see a flat revenue this year at best… while Pegatron has great growth potentials because it is going from nothing to something,” HSBC analyst Jenny Lai told Reuters. “But Hon Hai’s margins would improve, benefitting from getting more component orders.

Foxconn is said to be betting on Apple’s rumored television. It recently purchased a 37.6% stake in Sharp for $840 million to secure large LCD panels, which it will be hoping will one day make their way into the “iTV” — if Apple ever makes one.

Source: Reuters

This post was written by Killian Bell from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

Mother’s Day is in just a few days, and if your way of saying “I love you” is gadgetry, then T-Mobile thinks they have the perfect gift for you by heavily promoting its deal to get an iPhone for $0 down.

The deal has been running since April 12th, when the carrier rebranded itself as “The Uncarrier”. T-Mobile will ramp up the promotion by displaying prominent ads Mother’s Day iPhone 5 ads in the top 20 markets, along with 3 National ads in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times.

T-Mobile’s Trade-In promotion allows customers to purchase an iPhone 5 with $0 down, by trading in an older iPhone. New and existing customers can trade in an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S and get some cash back to help lower the cost of the iPhone 5 so that you have a $0 down payment. You also get your monthly payment decreased from 20 bucks down to 15.

To get your trade-in value for the iPhone 4 or 4S your device must power on, not have a cracked screen, and there can be no other liquid damage or physical damage. They’ll even take Verizon CDMA iPhones along with GSM iPhones.

If you’ve got an older iPhone that’s in decent shape and you’ve been thinking of switching carriers or upgrading, T-Mobile wouldn’t be a bad choice. You can get the offer at any company owned T-Mobile store until June 16th.

Source: TmoNews

This post was written by Buster Heine from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.