What do you do after reporting “blow-out” earnings and instituting larger, pricier, data plans? If you’re ATT, why not go for the jugular by doubling upgrade fees? Per the above leaked memo, that’s exactly what Ma Bell plans to do come February 12th, upping the existing $18 fee to a new high of $36. That might sound familiar, as it’s much in the same vein as cross-town rival Sprint, who went through the same kerfuffle back in September. We’ve pinged ATT about the price hike and will update when we hear back.

Update: ATT sent us the following statement confirming the increase:

Wireless devices today are more sophisticated than ever before. And because of that, the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased and is reflected in our new upgrade fee. This fee isn’t unique to ATT and this is the first time we’re changing it in nearly 10 years.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

ATT doubling its upgrade fee to $36 on February 12th (update: confirmed) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/atandt-doubles-its-upgrade-fee-to-36-come-february-12th/

Speechless? We can’t blame you and, although this fashionable shooter might not be up your alley, we’re willing to bet your kids — or any other young member of the fam — would snatch her up in a heartbeat. Dubbed Barbie Photo Fashion, she might not be too computer savvy, but this stylish doll’s got traits of her own to flaunt. Photo Barbie’s carrying a 5-megapixel camera between her shoulder blades and a thumb-size LCD in her synthetic guts. She’s got 15 built-in effects to give your pics a little sweet spice too. Speaking of, the $50 Barbie holds up to 100 shots and is powered by a rechargeable battery that should give you enough juice to get you through a few sessions. When it’s time to charge up or unload your images, just jack into her tramp stamp mini USB port. Barbie was kind enough to join our photoshoot, so hit up the gallery below to check out the rest of the shots.

Gallery: Barbie gets a camera implant to snap photos in style, we go hands-on

Terrence O’Brien contributed to this report.

Barbie gets a camera implant to snap photos in style, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/barbie-gets-a-camera-implant-to-snap-photos-in-style-we-go-hand/

Hertz has been offering up electric vehicles amongst its fleet of rental cars, and now it’s getting ready to pull the plug. The company is teaming with Evatran to test out the those cool little Plugless Power discs, installing some at its corporate headquarters this month. Hertz, along with a number of other companies will be logging “feedback on daily usage routines, user interfaces, and any additional functionality needed.” No word on when such technology might see wider distribution.

Continue reading Hertz charges into EV Plugless Power pilot program, can’t say it three times fast

Hertz charges into EV Plugless Power pilot program, can’t say it three times fast originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/hertz-charges-into-ev-plugless-power-pilot-program-cant-say-it/

There are literally no words (at least no family-friendly ones) to describe the insanity that is the ongoing legal war between practically every player in the mobile scene. You can’t lay the blame entirely at Cupertino’s stoop either — Motorola, HTC and Samsung all deserve plenty of our ire as well. The tablet and smartphone industry appears to be trying to sue itself out of existence, and Apple’s filing today against Motorola Mobility in the US District Court of Southern California is just latest in a long line of legal ploys likely to inspire you to slam your head against a wall. The purveyors of all things “i” has accused Moto of breaching a licensing contract with Qualcomm by hitting Apple with four patent claims in Germany. That license covers wireless technology Qualcomm uses in its MDM6610 chip, and also purportedly covers Qualcomm’s customers who purchase and use said chips. Naturally, that bit of silicon is a component in the iPhone 4S, so Apple argues that it’s safe under the terms of the contract. Furthermore, Cupertino claims Motorola is barred from suing under the doctrine of exhaustion — meaning that once a patented item is sold (i.e. when Moto licensed its technology to Qualcomm), the patentee’s control over that item is exhausted and it can’t sue anyone else for infringement.

So, this new suit filed in San Diego seeks to prevent Motorola from enforcing its claims in Deutschland. It also seeks to prevent Motorola from suing Apple over its used of Qualcomm components using patents licensed from Moto anywhere else. Confused? We won’t lie, we are a little bit too, but all is revealed in the complaint found at the source link below.

Apple sues Motorola over Qualcomm license, makes us dream of a world without lawyers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/apple-sues-motorola-over-qualcomm-license-makes-us-dream-of-a-w/

Eurocom, like its chassis-brethren Maingear and Clevo, just lives to jam over-sized Sandy Bridge E hardware into mumpsy laptops. Find yourself in front of the Panther 4.0 and you’ll be staring into a 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 display (you can choose between matte, glossy and 3D) as you work or game away on a choice of GeForce GTX 580M, Quadro 5010M or Radeon HD 6990M graphics kit. There’s space for four terabytes of SATA 3.0 storage and 32GB of RAM. It’s weighing in at 12.1lbs, so a quick warning to anyone whose muscles have atrophied with excessive Ultrabook usage: it’s wise to do some reps down at the gym. When it arrives in March, it’ll cost you $2649 for the base model — from there, you can upgrade as far as your wallet / procurement budget will allow.

Gallery: Eurocom Panther 4.0 Press Images

Continue reading Eurocom Panther 4.0 is the mirror universe’s version of an Ultrabook

Eurocom Panther 4.0 is the mirror universe’s version of an Ultrabook originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/eurocom-panther-4.0/

Beethoven’s Fifth or Michelangelo’s Piet it’s not but, while Master Moves Mickey can’t stand as a cornerstone of civilization, it can certainly throw down on the dance floor. The b-boy bot has a speaker hidden under its garb that kicks out the jams while this mechanical mouse break dances its little Disney trademarked heart out. He’s got 15 different signature moves, carefully choreographed to eight different built-in tunes and loads of personality thanks to a collection of self-depreciating one-liners ready in case he loses his balance. And all this legendary performer needs to keep earning his urban cred is a six AA batteries, oh, and your money — $70 of it to be specific. Master Moves Mickey should be hitting shelves in August. Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading Master Moves Mickey hands-on: challenges Bieber and TOSY to dance-off (video)

Master Moves Mickey hands-on: challenges Bieber and TOSY to dance-off (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/master-moves-mickey-hands-on-challenges-bieber-and-tosy-to-danc/

Sometimes, you’re just so darn full of pride you can get lost in the moment. We assume that’s what Acer‘s done, having revealed possibly its trump handset weeks before the global mobile event, MWC, even starts. Its CloudMobile has won the iF design award for 2012, and the company just wanted everyone to know. So what can we expect to see later this month? Well, the phone will pack a 4.3-inch high-definition touchscreen, with a Dolby-branded speaker plate on the back, all wrapped in a sub-10mm “Sleeve DNA” contoured shell. Expect the device to be tightly integrated with Acer’s cloud technology — we grabbed a hands-on with this just last month — using peer-to-peer connectivity to sync pictures, music and other files, while also offering up printer functionality. Pocket-Lint believes we’ll see the device running Android 4.0 on arrival — it’s currently posited for a Q3 release. We’ll be scouring the show floor for it when Mobile World Congress kicks off in earnest.

Continue reading Acer CloudMobile phone wins design award, lets cat out of the bag

Acer CloudMobile phone wins design award, lets cat out of the bag originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/acer-cloudmobile-revealed/

You can now add one more case to the long list of disputes between Apple and Samsung. As PaidContent reports, Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung in the Northern District of California federal court on Tuesday, seeking a temporary injunction on the basis of two patents it obtained in December. One of those reportedly concerns the autocorrect feature found on iPhones and iPads, but details on the case otherwise remain a bit light as the complaint itself is still under seal. We’ll keep you posted as we get more information.

Update: Some additional details from the complaint have now come to light, and it turns out Apple is citing two additional patents in addition to the pair acquired in December (one of them related to the slide-to-unlock feature). What’s more, it’s also been revealed that Apple is targeting one specific device in this case: the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Given the patents, however, it’s pretty clear that Apple taking aim at the Android 4.0 operating system rather than the phone’s hardware, as it has in earlier cases against Samsung.

Apple seeks injunction against Samsung in California with newly acquired patents (update: Galaxy Nexus targeted) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/apple-seeks-injunction-against-samsung-in-california-with-newly/

You can now add one more case to the long list of disputes between Apple and Samsung. As PaidContent reports, Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung in the Northern District of California federal court on Tuesday, seeking a temporary injunction on the basis of two patents it obtained in December. One of those reportedly concerns the autocorrect feature found on iPhones and iPads, but details on the case otherwise remain a bit light as the complaint itself is still under seal. We’ll keep you posted as we get more information.

Apple seeks injunction against Samsung in California with newly acquired patents originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/apple-seeks-injunction-against-samsung-in-california-with-newly/

Baby monitors. If you’re in the market for one (er, congrats) and you run an Apple-flavored household, then this Withings device looks sufficiently over-specced for your needs. It’s been out in the UK for a couple of months already priced at 269 ($425), and judging from the FCC filing it’s coming to the US too, where it’ll face sibling rivalry from the likes of Samsung, Evoz and the Exmobaby bodysuit. The base station fixes to the side of the crib, hooks up over WiFi or Ethernet, and streams audio and three-megapixel video (with night-vision mode) over the web, so you can access it via the iOS app using 3G or any good internet connection — not only when you’re within range of your router. It’s even said that if you turn the mic’s sensitivity right up, you’ll hear the sounds of your old life, calling to you.

Withings Smart Baby Monitor drops through FCC’s chimney originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Article source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/withings-smart-baby-monitor-drops-through-fccs-chimney/