T-Mobile USA has announced today that it will double the speed of its HSPA+ 4G network in New York, Las Vegas and Orlando, bringing the theoretical speed to 42Mbps, lightyears ahead of LTE and WiMax connections from Verizon, Sprint and AT&T.

Long Island, parts of New Jersey and Chicago will get the expansion soon.

By the start of the Q3 this year, T-Mobile says 140 million Americans in 25 markets will have access to the boosted speeds.

The carrier will offer 25 HSPA+ capable smartphones and tablets this year.

Earlier in the week, AT&T announced it would be purchasing T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, barring any regulatory setbacks, making it the only GSM carrier in the United States.

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Opera has announced today that Opera Mobile 11 is now available for Android and Symbian/s60 smartphones.

Users can download the app from the Android Market or from m.opera.com.

The change log:

Features:

Heads up to current users: Tap to zoom has been changed from single-click to double-click. You can now click links and activate Flash content in overview mode, without having to zoom in first (yes, that's right, the Android version now supports Flash).

Modernized new user interface
New UI optimized for tablet devices
Faster framerates when panning and zooming
No checkerboard, ever
Text stays sharp during zooming
Improved text-wrap on zoom
Smart-tap, auto-zoom and highlights links if ambiguous link click
Incremental zooming for devices w/o multi-touch
Buttons for jumping to the top/bottom of the page
Haptic feedback (if supported in hardware)
Share URL on social networks, email etc
Improved Geolocation support
Session restore

Rendering
Presto 2.7.81
JIT for greatly improved Javascript performance (was supported in 10.1 on some Symbian devices)
Adobe Flash support (Android only, Flash player available separately in Android Market)
Click-to-play, load Flash content on demand only
Application Cache
WebStorage and WebDatabase
DOM touch and multi-touch events
HTML5 Audio/Video
Support for CSS @viewport
Improved support for meta viewport
Support for Web Open Font Format (WOFF)
Support for Arabic ligatures
Improved form fields skin

Android specific
Fixed startup problems on Archos devices and Motorola Atrix

Symbian specific
Support native clipboard on Symbian 5th ed and Symbian^3
Support for half-screen keyboard on Symbian^3 phones
Added Thai, Hebrew and Arabic fonts
Added localization for Malay language (APAC build)

Opera Mobile 11 is also available for Maemo, MeeGo and Windows tablets.

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According to tweets from Eldar Murtazin, Nokia is already testing up to four Windows Phone 7 devices, each of which will be aimed at different markets.

Says Murtazin (via Soft):

Nokia R&D - 4 Windows Phone 7 and 1 tablet (Win8 presumably). 2 phones used chassis 1, 2 based on chassis 2 - like HTC Ignate (middle end).

Perhaps the most notable piece of the tweet is the speculation that Nokia is working on a Windows 8 tablet.

Chassis 1 devices will likely run on 1GHz processors, have 8GB internal storage and a 5MP camera. Chassis 2 devices will be lower-end, running on 800MHz processors, like the HTC Ignite.

It is still unclear when the first Nokia WP7 devices will hit the market, and at what price.

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Starting with the launch of Apple's new flagship MacBook Pros in late February, there have been hundred of reports of "hard freezes," the device locking up when users are running multiple programs.

Despite Apple's attempt to cure the problem with an update to OS X 10.6, users are reporting the issue still occurring.

The issue is stemming from the 15 and 17-inch models, each of which feature Sandy Bridge Core i7 quad-core CPUs and AMD Radeo HD graphics processors.

A thread entitled "MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze" on the Apple discussion forum is nearing 70 pages, with most users complaining about the crashes whenever using multiple apps, especially video intensive ones like iMovie or gaming.

One user, dT explains, was able to pinpoint the problem:

The issue occurred when running CPU-heavy processes along with programs that caused graphics processing to shift from the new Sandy Bridge processor to the descrete AMD Radeon graphics processor.

The OS X 10.6.7 update included fixes for "graphics stability" but some users are still having issues.

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Samsung has unveiled the 'thinnest tablets ever' today, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1.

The tablets are just 8.6mm thin, slightly beating out the iPad 2 which sits at 8.8mm.

In regards to weight, the smaller tablet clocks in at 16.6 ounces and its larger brother is 20.9 ounces. The iPad weighs in at 21.28 ounces.

Each of the devices runs on the tablet-optimized Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and have Samsung's updated TouchWiz UI.

TouchWiz brings "live panels" which allow for content customization. The UI also adds an "app tray" with your most used applications. All widgets are resizable within TouchWiz, and the Wi-Fi app is improved, says Cnet.

At launch, however, the devices will have vanilla 3.0, as TouchWiz will be part of a later update.

Each of the tablets run on 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processors, have 3MP standard cameras, 2MP front-side cameras, 1280x800 resolution, and full 1080p playback. Flash 10.2 for tablets is coming soon, although the smartphone version works just fine.

In making sure the tablets are competitively priced, the 10.1 will start at $500 for the 16GB/Wi-Fi model and the 8.9 will start at $469 for the Wi-Fi/16GB model.

HSPA+, LTE and WiMax versions are all coming during the summer.

(Pics via Cnet Review)

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Mozilla has launched Firefox 4 today, after 12 betas, 2 RCs and a year of development.

The browser offers a streamlined, minimalist user interface, hardware acceleration, speed boost, and added support for WebM and HTML5.

Mozilla notes that the browser is available for Mac, Windows, Linux and soon for Android.

Most of the speed boosts come via JavaScript engine enhancements, and the company says the browser should be over 200 percent faster than Firefox 3.6.

The full change log + video:

What's New in Firefox 4:

Fastest Firefox Ever

Performance: Firefox is up to six times faster than the previous release. With improved start-up and page load times, speedy Web app performance and hardware accelerated graphics, Firefox is optimized for rich, interactive websites.

App Tabs: give a permanent home to frequently visited sites like Web mail, Twitter, Pandora, Flickr.

Switch to Tab: easily find and switch to any open tab from your Awesome Bar without opening duplicate tabs.

Panorama: drag and drop tabs into manageable groups to save time while navigating many open tabs.
Private and Secure Synchronization

Firefox Sync: access your Awesome Bar history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data across multiple computers and mobile devices.
Most Customizable

New Add-ons Manager: easily discover and install more than 200,000 add-ons to customize the features, functionality and look of Firefox.
Private and Secure

Do Not Track: Firefox is leading the Web towards a universal standard Do Not Track feature that allows users to opt-out of tracking used for behavioral advertising. Firefox puts privacy first, fixing flaws in some Web standards to prevent others from accessing your browser history.

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS): automatically establishes secure connections to stop "man in the middle" attacks and keep sensitive data safe from interception during the log-in process.

Content Security Policy (CSP): prevent cross-scripting attacks by allowing sites to explicitly tell the browser which content is legitimate.

Cutting Edge Tools for Web Developers:

The JavaScript engine incorporates the new JägerMonkey JIT compiler, along with enhancements to the existing TraceMonkey JIT and SpiderMonkey's interpreter for faster page-load speed and better performance of Web apps and games.

HTML5 support in Firefox includes hardware accelerated, high-definition video (WebM), 3D graphics, offline data storage, professional typography, touchscreen interfaces and the Mozilla Audio API to help create visual experiences for sound and more.

Firefox 4 also improves existing tools like CSS, Canvas and SVG to enable developers to make exciting Web pages.

Firefox provides uninterrupted browsing when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins. If one of these plugins crashes or freezes, it won't affect the rest of Firefox. Simply reload the page to restart the plugin.

Download Firefox 4 here: Mozilla Firefox 4 at AfterDawn

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Microsoft has sued Barnes & Noble and the large manufacturers Foxconn and Iventec this week, alleging each of the companies violates patents relating to the Android mobile operating system.

The suit revolves around the B&N Nook e-reader, which uses Android 2.1.

Says Microsoft CVP and deputy general counsel for intellectual property & licensing Horacio Gutierrez:

The Android platform infringes a number of Microsoft's patents, and companies manufacturing and shipping Android devices must respect our intellectual property rights. To facilitate that, we have established an industry-wide patent licensing program for Android device manufacturers.

We have tried for over a year to reach licensing agreements [with B&N, Foxconn, Iventec]. Their refusals to take licenses leave us no choice but to bring legal action to defend our innovations.

The patents seem very broad and include "natural ways of interacting with devices by tabbing through various screens," and "interacting with documents and e-books," says eW.

Microsoft has been filing similar lawsuits for over a year, but mainly with smartphone manufacturers, like Motorola, HTC and others. In April of last year, HTC settled and agreed to pay royalties.

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RIM has announced today that the long-awaited BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will go on sale on April 19th at 20,000 retail stores in the U.S and Canada.

Matching the iPad 2's base price, the PlayBook will also sell for as low as $500.

The tablet will be available in Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, Telus, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Bell, Rogers, Staples and Future Shop stores.

Similar to its competition, the PlayBook will have 3 Wi-Fi-only models, 16/32/64GB, priced at $499/599/699, respectively.

RIM's PlayBook will have a 7-inch LCD screen with 1024x600 resolution, a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5MP standard camera and a 3MP front-facing camera and run on a new QNX-based operating system.

Outside of the Wi-Fi-only models, WiMax 4G, LTE and HSPA+ models will be available, as well, but those do not have a set time table for release.

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ZDnet has posted a portfolio image from designer Ben Patterson which says "collaboration with Microsoft's IEB Design group investigating future user experiences and hardware for 2015."

The picture has since been taken down, but not before speculation has run rampant that Microsoft is starting development on the next-generation Xbox, due for release in 2015.

Furthermore, Microsoft is still openly hiring for a few openings on the Xbox Console Architecture Team, with responsibilities including "defining and delivering next generation console architectures."

In 2009, Xbox Games boss Shane Kim said the Xbox 360 would have a decade-long life cycle, so the 2015 date seems very reasonable.

(Article mockup via SFGate)

Pic found by ZD:

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