Verizon enjoys a rush of new tablet users as smartphone plans stagnate

Verizon’s money machine continues to plow on, but much of its wireless growth this quarter came from tablets, not smartphones — a trend that started last quarter. Big Red added some 1.4 million net retail connections, of whom a whopping 1.15 million used LTE-equipped slates. Most of those additions were likely Verizon customers already, who had taken advantage of the More Everything plan to add a tablet to their existing phone plan for $10. Though those folks technically count as new connections, Verizon only added 304,000 net phone customers, compared to 940,000 this time a year ago. That means that despite selling a million or so smartphone connections, the company dumped about 700,000 — a considerable slowdown compared to T-Mobile. Still, Verizon saw 7.5 percent more wireless revenue ($21.5 billion) and a similar bump in operating profits.

On the broadband side, Verizon added 139,000 connections to its high-speed FiOS internet plans, with 100,000 new FiOS video connections. That makes 6.3 million FiOS internet customers total, figures that won’t be hurt by the addition of faster upload speeds. Of course, what a lot of customers want (especially Netflix users) is faster download speeds — Verizon said that it switched 70,000 customers from copper to fiber over the last quarter, which definitely won’t hurt.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Internet, Mobile, Verizon

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Source: Verizon

Comcast’s customer losses are slowing, which is no surprise since it’s so hard to leave

Even as cable giant Comcast tries to get bigger by absorbing Time Warner Cable, its own revenue grew in the last quarter to $16.8 billion, up 3.5 percent from last year, and net income hit $1.99 billion. The most important number for a subscription business though is how many customers it has, and through a traditionally slow quarter, it managed to slow the loss of total “customer relationships” to 25,000 from 66,000 for the same period last year — although my friend Ryan Block recently found out how difficult ending that relationship can be. More of the customers that remain are picking up internet and phone services, as it has over 21 million high speed internet subscribers alone. You can check out the numbers yourself right here, I’ll be tuning in for the earnings call in a few minutes to find out if it has any new response to the recent customer service controversy, net neutrality and its battle with Netflix, or an update on the $45 billion TWC acquisition.

[Image credit: Associated Press]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Comcast

Give your OnePlus One a bamboo back for $49

The OnePlus One’s a handsome little devil as is, but there’s always room to accessorize. Though you’re probably still waiting on the actual handset to turn up, OnePlus has announced the phone’s first “SwapStyle” cover will arrive at the end of August, and it’s made from bamboo (the material’s all the rage, you know). The standard white and black polycarbonate shells that come with different variants of the phone will also be available online soon for $29, €25 or around £20, while the flashier bamboo version will retail for $49, €39 or £32. Other SwapStyle covers should cost about the same, though we could be persuaded to pay a little more for the one that makes double-denim acceptable again. We wouldn’t say a bamboo phone cover needs its own two-minute promo video, but who are we to kill OnePlus’ buzz?

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile

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Source: OnePlus (1), (2)

Researchers fully ‘delete’ HIV from human cells for the first time

So far, HIV has eluded a cure because it installs its genome into human DNA so insidiously that it’s impossible for our immune system to clear it out. While current treatments are effective, a lifetime of toxic drugs are required to prevent its recurrence. But researchers from Temple University may have figured out a way to permanently excise it using a highly-engineered HIV “editor.” Here’s how it works: the team analyzed a part of our immune system that fights infection and built a “guide RNA” strand consisting of 20 nucleotides (RNA building blocks). Those strands were then injected into cells typically infected with HIV, like T-cells. There, they targeted the end parts of the virus’s gene and snipped out all 9,709 nucleotides that made up its genome. Since the guide RNA strand contained no human DNA sequences, it left the host cell intact — but free from HIV.

Though scientists eliminated the virus from cultured cells, there’s still a lot of hurdles to clear before such therapy is ready for human trials. The virus’s highly mutative nature means that there are numerous variants that the treatment would have to remove. The other challenge is to deliver the treatment to every infected cell, since complete removal of the virus is required to cure AIDS. However, Temple researcher Kamel Khalili said that “We are working on a number of strategies so we can take the construct into preclinical studies… we want to eradicate every single copy of HIV-1 from the patent. That will cure AIDS.”

[Image credit: AP/NIAID]

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Motherboard

Source: Temple University

Xiaomi’s $13 fitness band can also unlock your phone

The “one more thing” at the Xiaomi Mi 4 launch was the Mi Band, the Chinese company’s first smart wearable, and it’s obviously aggressively priced: Just CN¥79 or about $13! Like many of its competitors, the Mi Band tracks your movement (walking or running) plus sleeping pattern, and you can also use it as a smart vibrating alarm to wake up feeling better. Interestingly, a single charge on this waterproof device will last up to 30 days, which easily beats its competitors that tend to last for a week or less. Better yet, the band doubles as a security token that automatically unlocks your phone — likely just Xiaomi’s for now — when within proximity. There’s no word on availability just yet, but as always, Xiaomi should be debuting this in China where it’ll instantly sell out. We’ve got a couple more product shots — one of which shows the more stylish bands — after the break.

Filed under: Wearables

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Via: Engadget Chinese

Source: Xiaomi (Sina Weibo)