Facebook redesigns mobile News Feed, triples size of photos

Facebook today launched an improved design for posts in the News Feed across its iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android apps, as well as on its mobile website (m.facebook.com). As part of the update, photos are now up to three times larger. Furthermore, all posts will now fill the screen from edge to edge. Last but not least, multiple photos from an event or album are displayed within the News Feed.

Here’s what Facebook had to say about the redesign:

Starting today, we’re rolling out an improved design for posts in news feed on your mobile phone. Now photos are up to 3x larger, and all posts will fill your mobile screen from edge to edge. The new design will be available on iOS, Android and m.facebook.com.

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LG Optimus Elite brings Google Wallet to Virgin Mobile

Following in Sprint's footsteps, Virgin Mobile is getting Google Wallet thanks to the LG Optimus Elite, which first came out on Sprint on April 20.

The Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone is Virgin Mobile's first phone with support for Google Wallet and NFC, or near field communication, a short-range communication protocol similar in concept to Bluetooth.

The silver LG Optimus Elite, which also features a 3.5-inch touch screen, 5-megapixel camera, and a 800MHz processor, goes on sale May 15 for $149.99, but preorders begin today.

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Virgin Mobile and Boost’s Not-Quite-New 4G Android Phones Make Prepaid More Palatable

When you think about it, it shouldn’t matter that much whether you pay for your wireless service after you’ve received it — as most of us do — or before you use it, as you do if you have a prepaid carrier such as Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile, both of which are owned by Sprint. Either way, you’re paying for service once a month. And prepaid services are high on bang for the buck and low on gotchas — Virgin, for instance, has a plan that offers unlimited voice minutes and data for just $55 a month, no contract required.

But prepaid carriers don’t subsidize their handsets, and few of their customers would pay full price — $500 and up — for one of the newest smartphones. As a result, available phones have often been pretty so-so.

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T-Mobile: iPhone Will Be Network-Ready by End of 2012

T-Mobile is promising to bring all its unlocked iPhone subscribers 3G and 4G LTE service as part of its ongoing network overhaul.

While T-Mobile USA doesn't sell the iPhone itself, last summer it claimed to have more than one million subscribers wielding unlocked iPhones on its network. But those subscribers have been limited to sluggish 2G speeds, a problem the company's CTO Neville Ray says it is working on; the company plans to shift some of its spectrum, allowing iPhones to run at full 3G speeds.

Part of the problem for T-Mobile’s iPhone users involves the carrier's AWS frequency band, or Advanced Wireless Services, which operates at less common frequency ranges. A report last December suggested that the company was refarming parts of its spectrum to bolster its next-gen HSPA+ network, running in the much more common 1900MHz spectrum, which allows unlocked iPhones to connect at 3G speeds.

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Smartphones help boost Everything Everywhere

• 71% of contract customers own smartphones
• Nearly 500,000 pre-pay customers defect in Q1
• ... but 151,000 contract customers sign up
• 90% of new customers take broadband too

Everything Everywhere, the UK's largest mobile phone operator, has turned the rise in smartphone owners to its advantage by curbing the revenue falls suffered at the end of 2011.

Of all contract customers, 71% now own a smartphone, while 90% of new customers are opting to buy one. Internet services now account for 27% of the average revenue per user compared with 17% a year ago. Most smartphone users sign up for contracts rather than pre-pay deals, which is helping to rebalance revenues as contract subscribers tend to be higher spenders.

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Zillow Launches First Mobile App for Rentals

Zillow, Inc., the leading real estate information marketplace, today announced the launch of Zillow® Rentals for Android(TM) App, the company's first dedicated rentals app, optimized for renters who need to make decisions quickly.

The Zillow Rentals for Android App is the only rentals app that allows users to access Rent Zestimates® - Zillow's estimated rent prices on more than 100 million U.S. homes and apartments. Additionally, the app allows rental shoppers to:

Compare and contrast favorite homes on a side-by-side list, a rental app feature exclusive to Zillow.

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T-Mobile fires back at Verizon on spectrum deal

T-Mobile says Verizon and its SpectrumCo cable partners are “throwing up a smokescreen” in the face of opposition to a proposed spectrum agreement. 

Verizon is seeking to purchase airwaves from SpectrumCo, a consortium of cable companies that includes Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. As part of the deal, Verizon would engage in cross-marketing agreements with the cable companies, who would in turn sell Verizon's wireless service. Verizon has pledged to offer a different block of spectrum for sale should the Federal Communications Commission approve the deal.

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T-Mobile branded Galaxy Note captured on camera

It’s looking like a certainty that T-Mobile will carry the Galaxy Note: Two hints from earlier this week tipped us off and now a picture of a Samsung Galaxy Note with T-Mobile branding confirms the rumor. There’s no official word from T-Mobile, but the evidence is adding up for T-Mobile customers to get their own version of Samsung’s 5.3-inch Android smartphone with stylus.

The T-Mo News site had earlier evidence of the Note: A product number that was close to the AT&T Galaxy Note as well as alleged screenshots from the device. At the time, the site didn’t see what I did in two of the three pictures that was a dead giveaway. An icon for the T-Mobile Name ID service and app appeared in the status bar on a pair of screencaps.

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The hidden ways mobile sites and free games are killing your battery

You think you know how mobile browsing and games are killing your battery, but it's actually a bunch of unseen inefficiencies.

You know about some of the things that are putting such a hurt on your mobile battery that you can’t hit 4 p.m. without a warning. Streaming music over 3G, for example, or keeping the screen on for long camera sessions. But mobile web sites and certain free apps might be killing your phone’s juice in sneaky ways, according to some recent studies.

At the World Wide Web 2012 conference in Lyon, France, this week, Stanford researchers plan to present “Who Killed My Battery?: Analyzing Mobile Browser Energy Consumption” (PDF link), a study of how much power is consumed by mobile browsers on popular websites. They hooked up an Android phone and its battery to a rather geeky-looking monitor, and started surfing the mobile web. Even among those sites that offer mobile-optimized versions, there were some serious battery killers in the crowd: Wikipedia, Tumblr, IMDB, and Blogger, among others.

Verizon Revenue up on Mobile, Broadband Growth

Verizon Communications posted revenue and net income gains for the first quarter of 2012, with mobile and broadband customer additions driving the numbers.

Verizon on Thursday reported revenue of US$28.2 billion for the first quarter, up 4.6 percent from the first quarter of 2011. Net income was $3.9 billion, up 19.7 percent, with $1.7 billion of the net income attributable to Verizon, and the rest to Verizon Wireless partner Vodafone. Net income attributable to Verizon was up 17.2 percent from a year ago.

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