The World Is A Better Place Now That AT&T’s T-Mobile Takeover Failed. (Really.)

Earlier tonight some of the best news we’ve heard in a long time popped up in our mailbox: AT&T’s bid to scoop up T-Mobile U.S.A had officially ended with the nation’s #1 GSM carrier formally withdrawing their takeover request.

The move comes after months of harsh courtroom and PR fighting by AT&T that, as we look back over the last half a year, didn’t really do anything to advance their position. From the get go consumer criticisms were high, though it took government bodies a few weeks to fall into line and condemn the merger themselves.

Now that AT&T and T-Mobile’s unholy union is officially dead, T-Mobile can walk home $4 billion richer while AT&T walks away empty handed and with a seemingly bruised ego. But it’s not exactly the end of AT&T + T-Mobile partnerships. While AT&T is no longer pursuing an actual T-Mobile purchase and takeover, it is believed the two will now form some sort of agreement that will see both parties sharing spectrum and resources more readily in the future. For now, however, we celebrate.

AT&T is unsurprisingly not too happy with the outcome as is evident by their official statement regarding the failed merger deal:

“The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.”

As touched on above, future “partnerships” between AT&T and T-Mobile are likely, though what’s already towards the forefront of peoples’ minds is what exactly T-Mobile will do. Sure, they’ve now got $4 billion more in the bank, but such change is a mere pittance in the modern world of data gobbling smartphones sucking down profits left and right. T-Mobile hasn’t had much luck fending off the likes of AT&T, Verizon, and even Sprint over the last couple of years. Can they continue to go it alone?

Next Gen AMD 7770 GPU Caught On Camera.

While bleeding edge, high-end graphics cards are the things that really fill the dreams of custom PC builders, there’s no doubt a huge draw to more mid-range fodder, especially for those with lesser limits on their bank accounts. On that front, AMD’s upcoming 7xxx line of graphics cards promises to continue the Nvidia vs. AMD war, though instead of starting with the high-end and working down as is usually customary, AMD is starting out squarely in the middle with the 7770.

From what we can see based off of the couple of leaked images we’re looking at a single CrossFireX port for some dual-card action as well as a guestimation of power consumption being somewhere between 100-150W.

The upcoming mid-range card was spied over at VR-Zone packing the new 28-nm Cape Verde hardware which promises increased efficiency and performance over the outgoing 6xxx series as well as the first major upgrade to the underlying GPU platform in the last couple of years. With that said, the 7770 is the lowest end card that will make use of the new Cape Verde architecture with the even more wallet friendly 7xxx offerings being more or less 6xxx re-brands.

The 7770 is currently rumored for release sometime in February. Hop past the break for a nice little peak at the 7770′s backside.

Verizon Working On Fix For Galaxy Nexus 3G/4G Signal Problem.

@doyleJack The signal strength issue is currently being investigated. We don’t have an ETA, but a software update is being developed. ^MS

— VZW Support (@VZWSupport) December 19, 2011

Have you had any issues with your Verizon Wireless Galaxy Nexus, specifically on the 3G/4G reception front? While we’re still waiting for our review unit (late to the party, we know) we haven’t really seen or heard too much in the way of user complaints about any kind of reception issues — certainly nothing like there was with the iPhone 4 during the “antennagate” drama. Despite that fact, there’s apparently something amiss because Verizon’s official support Twitter account (@VZWSupport) tweeted the following:

“The signal strength issue is currently being investigated. We don’t have an ETA, but a software update is being developed. ^MS”

So there’s a software fix in route. What needs to be fixed hasn’t yet been discovered. With that said, they could do the same thing Apple did with atennagate — recalibrate the signal bars and how they report cell signal strength in coverage. The only problem: it’s not really a fix. Then again, such scenarios such as the iPhone 4/atennagate and apparent Galaxy Nexus reception issues merely highlight the simple fact that signal bars are borderline useless in determining actual coverage strength and/or quality.

So we’ve gotta ask: Have you had any reception issues on your VZW Galaxy Nexus?

Google’s Latest Trick: “Let It Snow”

One of the coolest things about Google is the ever changing search logo. Whether it be a serious, important highlight of world history or something as simple as a nerdy little inside joke, Google is always keeps it fresh.

Even cooler than a simple logo change, however, are the “search tricks” (no, not those tricks) whereby typing a simple phrase into the search bar causes the browser to do something. The last time we encountered such a trick it was the nifty “do a barrel roll” phrase that caused the window to spin, but this latest trick is a bit more festive.

Typing “let it snow” in the Google search bar will reward you with slowly falling snow flakes across your browser window. It’s nothing big or meaningful, sure. But it’s still awesome that Google, despite their sheer size and endless supply for full plates still finds the time to add in nifty little browser tricks such as this.

Protip: Disable the instant search feature so you stay on the simpler search page, and in turn, see the effect a bit better.

FX Photo Studio: Christmas Competition and Sale

As you may have noticed, we have a special place in our hearts for pretty much everything that comes out of the MacPhun laboratories. We find the apps they develop wonderful and fun to use. If you can recall we reviewed FX Photo Studio for iOS earlier this year and we haven’t stopped using it since. In the past 10 months we’ve seen a couple updates that have made the app so much more than it was.

MacPhun has just recently released Snapheal for Mac and we were lucky enough to receive an advance copy for review. To celebrate the Snapheal release, as well as the iPhoneography show in NYC, MacPhun LLC has dropped the price of FX Photo Studio to $.99! At that price there is no reason your Home Screen should not have the attached logo draped across it!

To sweeten the pot, if you retweet the following:

Christmas competition: get FX Photo Studio for iPhone for just 0,99$ http://bit.ly/6fbPVX, retweet and win #Snapheal for Mac for free.

This is a great deal on an amazing app and great chance to get yourself a free copy of Snapheal.

Pick up FX PhotoStudio from the AppStore now!

Good luck!

Rumor: AT&T Set To Release Flagship Windows Phone 7, Android LTE Devices In Early February And April.

AT&T has a couple of decent options for Windows Phone lovers. What they don’t have, however, is any solution for Windows Phone + LTE junkies. That will change come February 5th according to a BGR source. Said source claims the first AT&T LTE Windows Phone device will be similar to the HTC Titan: 4.5+ display, dual-core processor and a decent chunk of RAM.

On top of the flagship LTE Windows Phone device, HTC will change up their usual phone release schedule. Instead of dropping phones like RIM drops deadlines (too much?) they are instead going to scale back new device launches for at least the first quarter of 2012 and focus on a few key WP7 and Android devices.

On that note, BGR is also reporting that Android users will also receive some love from AT&T. During the 1H of 2012, a flagship (Android) phone with the “HTC Elite” moniker (possibly launched as HTC Congressional) will be released with Beats Audio as well as Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The release date for the HTC Elite is rumored to be in “early April”.

While news of new Android devices to lust over is always welcome, we’re especially excited to hear of the new AT&T LTE Windows Phone device as it’ll be the carrier’s first such phone. Not only that, AT&T’s selection of Windows Phone device is, in our opinion, a bit small. Here’s to hoping we’re wowed on both fronts.

[Update] iPhone 4S, Meet Untethered Jailbreak. Now Cache Nicely, You Hear?

Yes folks, pod2g has blogged an update on the 4S untether. We’re close to having it complete, but some processor cache issues are standing in the way. We’ve been following the blog and Twitter account closely lately as he has been giving us updates constantly on the status of the highly anticipated untether jailbreak. With all A4 device complete, we’re just waiting on the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.

The untether fails right now because I’m having processor cache issues.

I’m close, but I can’t figure out what happens. It certainly has something to do with the Cortex-A9 cache management.

I could sort it out quick, it’s a matter of chance.

It seems like this might be the only thing that is getting in our way. Once he solves this, and tests and finishes the code, the Chronic Dev Team might just be my personal Santa this year!

We’ll keep you up to date on any new developments.

Update

pod2g has released on update on the A5 untether — the caching issues discussed above are no longer an issue meaning we’re this much closer to a public release for an A5 untether. Hit up pod2g’s blog post for more.