Miscellaneous

Sprint Nextel's hot new phones are helping boost the number of subscribers for the first time in a long time. Even so, the company's second-quarter results were down.

For the quarter ended June 30, the wireless carrier reported a net loss of $760 million, compared with a loss of $384 million in the year-ago quarter. Sales dipped to $8.025 billion, a 1.4 percent decline from last year's $8.141 billlion.

On the plus side, Sprint added 111,000 new wireless subscribers for the quarter, its first signs of growth in three years and a welcome … Read more

Though Comcast showed improvement in both sales and subscribers, costs related to its pending buyout of NBC Universal took a bite out of earnings for the second quarter.

On Wednesday, the cable company reported a net profit of $884 million for the quarter ended June 30, an 8.6 percent drop from the $967 million earned in the year-ago quarter. Comcast attributed the decline to the $22 million in operating expenses and the $37 million in financing costs it incurred over the NBC Universal deal, resulting in $59 million in total transaction costs for the quarter.

But sales rose 6 … Read more

Shoppers perusing Wal-Mart for a cell phone will soon have double the options--that is, a choice of purchasing a prepaid phone on two carriers instead of just one.

Wal-Mart's Straight Talk wireless service, which has previously run only on Verizon's networks, is expanding to AT&T. StraightTalk is a brand made by TracFone, and is sold exclusively in Wal-Mart stores.

AT&T confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Monday that StraightTalk phones will work on the network. Wal-Mart would not comment on the impetus behind building out the service to include AT&T.

The … Read more

In 2006, Spyglass Consulting Group released a report, Trends in Mobile Communications, finding that 59 percent of physicians interviewed were using smartphones. Today, according to the firm's latest report, that figure has jumped to 94 percent.

"Physician smartphone adoption is occurring more rapidly than with members of the general public," said Gregg Malkary, managing director at Spyglass. Moreover, Malkary added, "Physicians are showing a clear preference [almost double] for using the Apple iPhone (44 percent) over the RIM BlackBerry (25 percent)."

A note of caution: the study's sample size is small. The "Point … Read more

The U.S. Army is developing snakelike robots for battlefield action that could include search and rescue missions, opening doors, and handling improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in a bid to keep troops out of harm's way.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory's prototype Robotic Tentacle Manipulator is an array of three snake robots on a circular base. The snake bots form a hand of sorts.

While it doesn't look like much now, the Army says the device is scalable and could be deployed in various sizes and configurations, giving it maximum flexibility. It could be installed on … Read more

Following a challenging several months after a string of plant suicides, manufacturing company Foxconn is poised to capture more than half of the market share in its industry.

Foxconn, which makes the iPhone and iPad among other devices, can thank the phenomenal growth of Apple for helping to boost its revenue and market share, according to a report released Tuesday by iSuppli.

The Taiwan manufacturer, part of Hon Hai Precision Industries, is set to capture more than 50 percent of the global sales in the EMS (electronics manufacturing services) market by 2011, up from 44.2 percent last year. EMS … Read more

AT&T has confirmed that it's working on a fix for the software glitch in its Alcatel-Lucent equipment. Reuters reported earlier today that the wireless carrier will issues the fix in the next two to three weeks.

The fix, which AT&T says is relevant for less than two percent of its customers, is expected to significantly boost upload speeds from as low as 100Kbps to as high as 1.7Mbps. Download speeds, which were not affected by the glitch, should not change.

AT&T first admitted the problem on July 7 after customers in select … Read more

Though only a month old, Apple's new iOS 4 has found its way onto 50 percent of a sample 9 million iPhones tracked by ad network Chitika, according to stats released Monday.

Among 9 million iPhone impressions seen across Chitika's network, iOS 4 holds a slight lead over iOS 3, which was found on 49 percent of the phone's traffic. The overwhelming majority of devices included in the sampling were iPhones, according to Chitika, while a handful (just under half a percent) were iPod Touch devices.

On a more granular level, the initial July 21 release of iOS 4.0 … Read more

FARNBOROUGH, U.K.--Most trade shows will fit inside any old convention center big enough to accommodate the vendor booths, sales reps, and keynote speeches. But the Farnborough International Airshow needs a runway, too.

This weeklong show west of London is where the aviation industry goes to buy and sell airplanes, helicopters, and everything needed to build them. By Thursday, $47 billion worth of business had taken place as airlines placed orders for dozens of expensive jets. That may not match 2008's record level of $88.7 billion, but it's nothing to sneeze at.

The show itself, which … Read more