Earlier this year, Sprint began to accelerate the timeline for shutting down its iDEN-based Nextel network. A significant number of Nextel towers will be shut down this summer and its iDEN network will be turned off completely by 2013.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Much of the spectrum Clearwire owns is in the 2.5 GHz range and its owns a wide band. Clearwire CTO John Saw talked during CTIA about using carrier aggregation to lump this spectrum together and offer 4G broadband speeds that’ll put its competition to shame. Clearwire’s 40MHz wide band could deliver theoretical download speeds as high as 168 Mbps and that’s just the beginning. The company could double down and offer a 60 Mhz or 80 Mhz block, if needed in the future.

Though Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz spectrum doesn’t propagate as far as Verizon’s and AT&Ts 700 MHz band, the promise of 100 Mbps speeds is enticing, even if the short range limits it to urban locations. You can read more about Clearwire’s plans and the technology behind it at GigaOm’s website.

[Via GigaOM]

The news comes from a benchmark from Droid-Life and this indicates that the Verizon Galaxy S III will likely have a Qualcomm SnapDragon S4 dual-core chip instead of the Samsung quad-core Exynos chip that will ship in the international version. The main reason for this is probably 4G LTE, as Qualcomm’s chip is essentially the only one that can handle LTE at this point.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think this should dampen your excitement for the Galaxy S III because the S4 has proven to be an excellent processor. The next Samsung flagship phone is also shaping up to be a really cool phone with its “human-centric design” and new software tweaks. I’ve embedded a video below of the international version just to give you a taste of what you can expect.

Does a dual-core processor on the Galaxy S III bother you?

[Via Droid-Life]

Besides its snazzy interface, Spotify for the iPad also adds gapless playback, cross fading and a handful of bug fixes. Spotify for the iPad is available for free from the iOS App Store (iTunes link). To enjoy the full mobile experience, you will need a premium account which starts at $10 per month. The app will give you a 48-hour premium pass and you can activate  a 30-day free trial, if you need more time.

[Via Spotify]

This is quite an feat when you consider that the game was released about 50 days ago. It also shows how powerful the mobile app space can be for social games, as the Draw Something had been around for a while on Facebook but it didn’t take off until it landed on the iPhone. Six weeks later, it was bought by one of the largest gaming companies out there.

For those who don’t know, Draw Something is a modern take on Pictionary with some social elements built in. You choose which friends you want to play with, are given words to draw and then they have to guess what it is. It’s a very simple concept but it has been executed very well.

[Via Venturebeat]

This means that people in Ford cars around the world will soon have access to voice control of smart phone apps from the driver’s seat as part of their Sync service. Not only is this useful for keeping your hands on the road but many of these apps can be quite fun in the car.

“AppLink is an extremely useful and innovative addition to SYNC,” said Doug VanDagens, Ford’s global director of connected services, in a prepared statement. “We will work closely with leading developers around the world to develop apps which are compatible with SYNC AppLink and provide the best services for our customers.”

Currently, the AppLink system in Ford North American cars include apps like Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Pandora, Scout by TeleNav and more. With this global reach, I’d expect developers to be even more interested.

[Via Ford]

Tweetbot is a Twitter client that uses clean, useful designs and subtle sounds to make browsing Twitter an amazing experience. It’s very simple to read through you timelines, open links from tweets and even see the conversation history of tweets. Unlike the new Twitter apps, I believe Tweetbot packs both style and functionality in a neat little package.

The iPad app uses the tablet’s space well and you have all the usual actions and gestures that you’re used to if you have the iPhone version. If you’re a newbie, there are some quick instructions which make it simple to understand. The 2.0 version on the iPhone includes an updated timeline view, new thumbnails and more.

So, I now have my go-to Twitter app on my iPhone and the iPad but I’m still looking for some great solutions on Android and on PCs. What are some great Twitter apps that I should be using?

You can download the Tweetbot app for iPhone here or the iPad version here (iTunes link).

If you remember, Google tried to buy Yelp a while back but the deal fell through for some reason (some say Yelp wanted too much cash) and Google would up using some Yelp data for Places anyways. Yelp didn’t like this and Google moved toward other sources but, to be honest, this wasn’t really that good or useful.

With Zagat, Google’s location-based services should get a major boost. Just imagine how much better Google Maps or Places could be with stronger restaurant information. I know that when I’m traveling and looking for a bite to eat, I’ll whip out the Yelp app to find something good around me. I’ve never used Google products for this same purpose but that may change in the near future.

Even with the full weight of Zagat, I’m still inclined to use Yelp but I’ll definitely give Google’s products a chance once this is rolled out.

[Via Google Blog]