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Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

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Posts by Marin Perez

Is that BlackBerry 10′s keyboard on an iPhone?

One of the most interesting things Research In Motion showed off about BlackBerry 10 was the next-generation keyboard which promises to take virtual keyboards to the next level. Well, an enterprising developer has made a similar product for the iPhone but it will only work on jailbroken devices. The product is dubbed Octopus Keyboard and it’s being developed by Mario Hros. While it is still in the alpha stages, you can see from the video below that it offers a super-fast form of predictive text. I haven’t had a chance Read more

President Clinton says wireless can transform the world

President Bill Clinton delivered the closing keynote speech of CTIA 2012 and he said that the wireless industry has the potential to change the world for good in a variety of ways. The former president mixed in a few of his political philosophies but he mainly focused on how communication networks can enable collaboration, which allows governments and the private industries to attack major problems. Clinton cited a U.N. report which stated that for every 10 percent of mobile penetration in poor countries, the GDP can rise by 1 percent Read more

Sprint HTC EVO 4G LTE hands-on

The HTC EVO 4G LTE will be coming to Sprint later this month and the handset promises to be quite a powerful device. We got our hands on a review unit at CTIA 2012, so let’s take a quick look before our official review. Think of the EVO 4G LTE as the Sprint version of the One X internally but its design is all its own. I actually expected to not like it because the backing seems to be made of three different materials: a glossy top, metalic red band Read more

Toshiba Excite 13 hands-on from CTIA 2012

So, we knew about the Excite 13 Android tablet from Toshiba but when you see this thing in person, it’s quite a trip. The Excite 13 is a very, very large tablet. Toshiba knows that it’s not going to be for a wide audience and it widely expects the Excite 13 to be used at home – probably because it’s so damn big that lugging it around is a chore. To be fair, it’s still really thin and it packs some decent specs including a 1600 x 900 display, Tegra Read more

Sprint Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi hotspot has 3G, WiMax LTE

Fresh off its chat about its 4G LTE plans, Sprint has released a Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi hotspot that can handle CDMA 3G, WiMax 4G and 4G LTE. It looks like it’s a triple threat. Sprint said it will be able to intelligently shift between the three technologies for a seamless customer experience and other than the novelty of having WiMax and LTE, it’s like your average hotspot. It can create a personal Internet cloud for up to 8 WiFi devices, has a screen for battery life and signal strength, supports Read more

Angry Birds downloaded more than 1 billion times

Stefan was pretty incredulous that Rovio supposedly turned down $2 billion from Zynga but it may have been the smart move as the company today revealed that the Angry Birds game has been downloaded more than 1 billion times. Rovio made a short video below to thank everyone for the remarkable achievement and I’m sure that the latest version helped. Angry Birds Space was downloaded more than 50 million times in 35 days but the billion-dollar figure takes into account the entire series. One of the reasons I’ve been impressed Read more

Sprint: Even with 4G LTE, CDMA isn’t going anywhere

During a “Network Vision” event at CTIA 2012, Sprint reiterated its plans to roll out 4G LTE but the company is insistant that its CDMA 3G technology won’t be going away any time soon. Sprint’s SVP Bob Azzi said the network rollout is meant to improve the company’s 3G network, as well as deploy 4G LTE in the 1900 MHz and 800 Mhz bands (the last one is pending FCC approval). T-Mobile will also be rolling out its 4G LTE and it took some not-so-subtle shots at Sprint while at Read more

Visa: Mobile payments could explode in 24 months

We’ve been talking about mobile payments for years now and even though some think it may be about four to six years away from the tipping point, a Visa executive said we could see some interesting developments within two years. During an interview at CTIA 2012, Brad Greene, senior business leader mobile, said that Visa has been paving the way for this transition for years and we’re seeing the fruits of that labor with things like V.Me. While it wants to be your destination for digital money, it will also Read more

CTIA: HTC booth tour

We’re live from New Orleans for CTIA 2012 and we just had to pop by the HTC booth. The company did announce the Droid Incredible 4G but its booth was definitely focused on its One lineup. That’s a good thing. If you’ve read our review of the One X, you know that it’s a fabulous phone. HTC is showing off many of its elements including the stellar camera and how easy it is to share content with the HTC Media Link. There’s a dedicated sound room to show off the Read more

Qualcomm: We’re not losing sleep over Intel in mobile

Intel has always been the sword of Damocles in the mobile industry because many figured that once it actually hopped into mobile in a big way, it may be able to replicate its desktop dominance. Qualcomm is not convinced that it will be that easy, it told us at CTIA 2012. Qualcomm Senior Vice President of Software Strategy Rob Chandhok said the company is not discounting Intel but he believes that its experience will give it a decided advantage. While Intel’s Atom chip has produced some nice benchmarks, it will Read more

CTIA: AT&T home automation demonstration [Video]

One of the things that really makes it seem like we’re living in the future is being able to control all of your appliances from a smartphone or tablet and during CTIA 2012, AT&T gave us a glimpse of that future with its home automation demo. It’s pretty cool. The home automation demonstration was done with an iPad that could control lamps, alarms and the thermostat via a combination of WiFi and 3G. You have to hook up appliances to a connected adapter which then connects to a 3G enabled Read more