Wireless | featured news

AT&T, facing a marketing challenge by competitors' 4G wireless service claims, accelerated its own network upgrade plans and said it would release devices for its own fourth-generation network.

Swype's technology lets users of touch-screen keyboards type -- if you can call it that -- by using their fingers to connect the dots between letters in a word. Users don't have to lift a finger from the screen to type a word or worry if their aim is a little shaky, because Swype's software can smartly and accurately figure out what they meant to say.

Ultrafast smartphones, tablets galore (and a Verizon iPad, maybe?), and the death of 3D TV among trends to watch at 2011 Consumer Electronics Show.

While Android surges among new smartphone buyers, Apple iOS continues to hold on to the overall marketshare lead, though still within spitting distance of a fading BlackBerry OS and a hard-charging Android OS, according to the latest figures from the Nielsen Company.

AT&T Inc. is expanding Wi-Fi access for its subscribers in New York and introducing it in San Francisco, adding data capacity in two cities with heavy wireless network use from the iPhone and other devices....

Qualcomm is offering to refund customers who bought its portable TV sets, ahead of shutting down the broadcasts on March 27. Qualcomm's FLO TV service is the only subscription-based broadcast TV service in the U.S. designed for portable gadgets. It's been live since 2007, but has never garnered much interest from customers.

When Sprint Nextel introduced its first tablet in November, some were disappointed that the device was only compatible with 3G instead of the faster “4G” flavor of mobile broadband. After all, Sprint has offered 4G service since 2008 and devotes much of its marketing to linking its brand to 4G and the superior service it can provide.

Consumer Reports, the influential product review publication, says AT&T remains the country's worst-rated cellular provider, a blow to the carrier's effort to rehabilitate its network and reputation.

If you think cellphone bills are complicated now, just wait. Within weeks, some of the biggest wireless companies will offer super-fast Internet connections for cellphones that rival the speeds delivered to desktop computers. As competitors follow suit with their own juiced-up networks geared for the Web, consumers can expect a cornucopia of new services - along with new charges.

Verizon executives are exploring ways to charge consumers based on the speed of their wireless data connection in addition to the amount of data they use.