WASHINGTON — The last time Tiger Woods set foot on the grounds at Congressional Country Club, he stood on the 18th green of the Blue Course and raised both hands in the air, then awarded himself the trophy that indicated he was both the host of the ATT National and the tournament’s champion. Those happy, heady times were nearly three years ago.

“That was a tough one,” Woods said. “It was a hard-earned win.”

Monday, Woods returned to the Bethesda club — initially donning a golf shirt and shoes for a chipping contest against a few select fans, then a suit and dress shirt for a news conference — to reintroduce Washington not as much to his golf game, but to his tournament and his foundation. The ATT National, which spent 2010 and ’11 in suburban Philadelphia while Congressional underwent renovations and then hosted the U.S. Open, comes back to its original site next month.

Woods used his event Monday to promote the tournament’s beneficiary, the Tiger Woods Foundation. Since Woods helped save PGA Tour golf in Washington in 2007, foundation officials say they have spent $14 million in grants and other endeavors in the District and surrounding area.

“The event is bigger than what I do on the golf course,” Woods said.

To that end, Woods spent the hours before his appearance at Congressional at a fundraising luncheon in Georgetown. He invited a recipient of a college scholarship named for Woods’s late father Earl to speak at Monday’s event. And he generally tried to draw distinctions between his play on the course, spotty for the past two years, and what he considers important work off it.

“For me as a player, that’s a separate designation,” he said. “Me as a player, I want to win the event. But I think me as a person — as a whole, as part of the foundation — it’s bigger than hitting a golf shot.”

Fairly or not, the golf shots are scrutinized more intensely. Woods followed his 2009 victory here with three more on the PGA Tour that season, then another in Australia. Winning still seemed second nature, and was assumed.

But beginning with a sex scandal in late 2009 that eventually led to his divorce, then a three-month absence in 2011 to deal with left leg injuries — injuries that cost him an appearance at last year’s Open — it has become clear that the Woods who held off Hunter Mahan at the 2009 ATT National is in the process of being replaced by a different version. His win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March was his first official PGA Tour victory in more than 21/2 years. But because he tied for 40th at the Masters, then missed the cut in Charlotte and tied for 40th again at the Players Championship — saying all along that swing changes begun two years ago aren’t yet ingrained — he likely will arrive at Congressional as a much-watched work in progress.

“I think that I’m headed in the right direction,” Woods said. “You have to understand: Even when I’ve had some really good years — whether it was in the early 2000s or mid-2000s — even if I was winning golf tournaments, I still thought I could improve. I could still get better each and every day. I never looked at it as like: ‘Oh wow, that’s my peak. I can’t do any better.’ If that’s the case, I’d rather walk.”

The field Woods will compete against at Congressional, which will hold the ATT National through 2014 and has an option to re-up for three more years, is still taking shape. Officials announced Monday that defending champ Nick Watney, who won last year when the tournament was held at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia, will play, joining former ATT National champs K.J. Choi, Justin Rose and Woods. (Anthony Kim, the 2008 winner, is sitting out much of the PGA Tour season because of injuries.)

Tournament director Greg McLaughlin said the event also has commitments from Mahan, ranked sixth in the world, one spot ahead of Woods; 2010 British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen, who lost this year’s Masters in a playoff; and Dustin Johnson, the young American star who hasn’t played since March because of injuries, among others.

But Monday, Woods didn’t care much about his own play, or the field against whom he would compete.

“They don’t really need me winning golf tournaments,” Woods said. “They don’t need me participating on a golf course, period. This is about education. This is about kids making something of themselves, and then obviously giving back and becoming mentors themselves.”

bc-golf-tiger

Article source: http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/woods-att-national-return-to-congressional-country-club-washn/cba81e99fec6968599d865df312a14a8

Less than 2% of mobile carriers’ subscribers “Like” them on Facebook despite the millions of dollars they collectively spend in an effort to promote their services on the world’s most popular social network. Facebook made its initial public offering on Friday and while the company’s stock price dipped below the IPO price of $38 on Monday and continued to slide on Tuesday, Facebook’s offering was the biggest Internet IPO of all time by nearly 10 times. There is no denying that Facebook and the 900 million people who use the social network are of tremendous value to businesses looking to promote their services, but mobile carriers have seemingly not found success thus far as they attempt to bolster Facebook fan counts.

According to a recent report from market research firm Strand Consult, mobile carriers are wasting millions trying to promote their services on Facebook. Following discussions with a number of carriers around the world as well as an extensive study, the firm found that an average of less than 2% of carriers’ customers are fans of them on Facebook despite substantial resource investments.

Internationally, Strand found that no network operator covered in its study was liked by more than 4% of its subscriber base. In the United States, the firm looked at Verizon Wireless, ATT and Sprint, and found that none of the nation’s top-3 carriers even broke the 3% mark.

“We were especially surprised when we looked at the American operators, Verizon, ATT and Sprint, operators that spend millions of dollars in marketing and have internal and external teams working on Facebook,” Strand analysts wrote in a research note discussing the study. “For all their work, they can’t budge much above 2%. Such small results hardly seem worth the effort.”

Strand Consult clarified that it does not believe wireless service providers should forgo a Facebook presence, but it says the benefits of companies’ efforts on Facebook are not yet clear. Companies focus on likes because results are easily measured, but true return may lie elsewhere.

“Indeed, we have seen solid evidence from around the world that social media—operators’ own support websites, Facebook, Twitter, and other user-driven tools, can help reduce support costs,” Strand wrote. “For those tasks, we recommend social media. But we have yet to see Facebook as a solid driver for leads and sales.”

Tags: Advertising, facebook

Zach Epstein

Article source: http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/22/facebook-campaigns-mobile-carriers-att-verizon-sprint/

“I love this golf course,” Woods told USA Today Sports during a promotional tour in the Washington, D.C., area for the June 28-July 1 ATT National, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. “I think it’s a fantastic tee-to-green golf course. You have to drive the ball well to get into some of these flags, but once you get on the greens, there’s a lot of pitch to these greens, a lot of movement, usually from back to front.

• MORE: News and notes on the Tour’s top 20

• PHOTOS: Tiger Woods’ career in pictures

“And placing the ball in the correct spots is vital to give yourself a chance, because a couple of the holes, if you put it above the hole, you’re not going to make the putt and more likely you’re probably going to end up three-putting unless you make a 6- or 10-footer.”

His 7,500-yard buddy, however, took a beating last year during the U.S. Open. With rains saturating the grounds before and during the second major of the season, the course never could play fast and firm. As a result, Rory McIlroy set records en route to an eight-shot romp, finishing what is annually the toughest test in golf at 16-under-par 268. Nineteen other players broke par.

Woods, the only active player with three U.S. Opens on his résumé, said he hopes the weather cooperates this year for the ATT National.

As in warm weather.

“I would like to see it difficult. I always want to have this golf course difficult or any venue that we host the tournament at,” said Woods, who will return to the PGA Tour at the Memorial Tournament next week in Dublin, Ohio. “Unfortunately, because I’m playing the event, I can’t influence (the setup) that much — that much. Trust me, I always voice my opinion of how I like the golf course to be, but ultimately it’s up to the rules staff and how they want to set it up.”

As for his golf game, Woods, ranked No. 7 in the world, said he took a few days off after his most recent tournament and has just started cranking up his workouts on the range and in the gym. Since winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Woods finished in a tie for 40th at the Masters, missed the cut in the Wells Fargo Championship (just the eighth missed cut of his career) and wound up in another tie for 40th in The Players Championship this month.

“I’m headed in the right direction,” Woods said of his season to date. “You have to understand, even when I’ve had some really good years, whether it was in the early 2000s or mid-2000s, whatever it was, even if I was winning golf tournaments, I still felt like I could improve and I could still get better each and every day. I never looked at it and said, ‘Wow, that’s my peak. I can’t get better.’ If that was the case, I would have walked.

“Like anybody who plays this game, I think we can get a little bit better. I’m just going to continue to try and improve, incremental steps and every facet of my game, and make every facet of my game more efficient.”

He’ll do so in front of the critical eye of the news media and fans. When he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the consensus was that Woods was back to his pre-scandal form. After three lackluster starts in succession, the talk now centers on when Woods will be back. Like his golf game of recent vintage, the talk has been up and down.

“I’ve been through this before,” Woods said. “I remember I had a pretty good year in 2000. And I didn’t win for a couple months. And the word ‘slump’ came about. And that’s basically the same thing that just happened here. I just played three events, and “When are you back?” Well, I just won a tournament (four) tournaments ago.

“I think that’s the nature of the new media business. You’ve got to be able to stand out somehow to get eyes going to your site or to your medium, and I think that’s one of the reasons why there’s the criticism that there is.”

While his swing is a work in progress, Woods said his mental game — once the best in the business by miles — is still strong.

“I think that one of the things that I am proud of is the fact that I do grind it out,” he said. “If I would have packed it in over the course of my career, I would have missed a lot more cuts over my career, especially of late when I have not been playing well. But I fight. I grind it out.

“It’s just that, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to equate that into W’s, because it’s one shot here and there. Sean (Foley) was telling me the other day, if I had improved my final rounds by two shots, I would have had four wins this year. That’s something if I look at it, at things like that, I’m close and just got to keep going.”

Article source: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/story/2012-05-21/att-national-congressional-tiger-woods/55118636/1

“We are particularly concerned that there should be more attention paid to the Joint Operating Entity set up by the companies to create new technologies that could well set new and anticompetitive standards that would hurt consumers and restrict innovation,” said Harold Feld, legal director for the group.

Public Knowledge is especially concerned about the secrecy surrounding the Verizon Cable deal, and has asked the FCC to release the full contents of the redacted documents that Verizon supplied in response to questions from the FCC. As it happens, sources familiar with the documents submitted to the FCC say that some of what was supplied to the FCC was redacted so that even the FCC itself couldn’t view the answers.

The wireless phone companies are also concerned about the amount of wireless spectrum that Verizon would gain if the purchase goes through. A T-Mobile spokesperson told eWEEK that Verizon’s plan is against the public interest. In addition, filings from T-Mobile to the FCC have said that Verizon already holds far more spectrum than it uses and is the least spectrum-efficient carrier in the United States.

“It will result in excessive concentration of this especially important spectrum for LTE in the hands of the nation’s largest wireless carrier, who has been sitting on spectrum in this very band for years without making the slightest effort to put it to use,” the T-Mobile spokesman said.

“The end result will be to foreclose competition and harm consumers. Additionally, Verizon’s simplistic claim of being the most efficient user of spectrum falls apart upon closer examination of the facts–as outlined in T-Mobile’s filings at the FCC, when properly measured, Verizon is the least-efficient user of spectrum among the nationwide wireless carriers,” the spokesman said.

Sprint also worries about the spectrum use by Verizon, but is particularly concerned about the damage to broadband and wireless competition. In a prepared statement, a Sprint spokesperson told eWEEK, “The cooperative arrangements between these companies encompass wired and wireless technologies, voice, video, and data services: the full complement of 21st century electronic communications services and have the potential to touch each consumer and every government, business, health care and educational institution in the United States. Sprint urges the FCC to closely examine whether the collaboration of these telecommunications and cable giants upends competition between these historical industry rivals, resulting in reduced choices and increased prices for consumers.”

While none of the companies would use the word “Cartel” in their statements, it’s pretty clear from their descriptions that it’s exactly what they view it as. It’s worth noting that Public Knowledge does use the word “cartel” in other descriptions of Verizon’s deal with the cable companies.

Cartels, as defined by U.S. antitrust law, are illegal. Maybe this is why Verizon and the cable companies were hoping this would proposal would somehow fly under the FCC’s radar. But the noisy protests expressed by multiple diverse interests have ensured that this deal is very prominent on the FCC’s proverbial radar scope.

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Article source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/VerizonCable-Spectrum-Proposal-Draws-Strong-Resistance-in-Washington-241816/1/

BURLINGTON, Vt.–(business WIRE)–

Verizon Wireless announced today it will introduce the nation’s largest
4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Burlington, and more than 30
additional communities throughout Northern Vermont, on May 17.

Verizon Wireless customers with compatible 4G LTE smartphones, modems,
tablets and mobile hotspots will be able to wirelessly share music and
photos, surf the Web, and download files up to 10 times faster than
customers on 3G networks.

Verizon Wireless’ new 4G LTE network initially will be available in the
following cities and towns across the Green Mountain State:

• Barnet
• Barre
• Brookfield
• Burlington
• Cambridge
• Colchester
• Coventry
• Ely
• Essex
• Fairfax
• Ferrisburg
• Georgia
• Jeffersonville
• Jericho
• Lyndon
• Lyndonville
• Middlebury
• Middlesex
• Milton
• Montpelier
• Morrisville
• Newport
• Randolph
• Saint Albans
• Saint Johnsbury
• Shelburne
• Smugglers Notch
• South Burlington
• Stowe
• Thetford
• Underhill
• Vergennes
• Williston

“Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network will offer tremendous opportunity to
Northern Vermont residents and businesses to better connect and
innovate,” said Christine Berberich, New England Region President for
Verizon Wireless. “As New England’s wireless leader, we continue to
invest in and expand our 4G LTE coverage across the region and look
forward to bringing these communities on board next week.”

4G LTE Devices and Plans

Verizon Wireless customers can purchase a variety of 4G LTE-enabled
devices including netbooks, hotspots, modems, smartphones and tablets,
to connect to the largest 4G LTE network in the nation. Details on
devices can be found at www.verizonwireless.com/4GLTE
and information on plans and pricing is available at www.verizonwireless.com/plans.

4G LTE Coverage and Speed

As of April 19, Verizon‘s 4G LTE network covers more than two-thirds of
the U.S. population – allowing consumers in 230 markets to take
advantage of blazingly fast speeds with six times more coverage than
ATT (coverage
claim based on square miles covered with 4G LTE;
see www.vzw.com).
By the end of 2012, the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network will be in more
than 400 markets, and available to more than 260 million people in the
United States.

In real-world, fully loaded network environments, Verizon Wireless’ 4G
LTE customers should experience average data rates of 5 to 12 megabits
per second (Mbps) on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink.

When customers travel outside of a 4G LTE coverage area, 4G LTE devices
automatically connect to Verizon Wireless’ 3G network, enabling
customers to stay connected from coast to coast. Verizon Wireless’ 3G
network is the most reliable high-speed data network in the country and
allows customers in 3G coverage areas who purchase 4G LTE devices today
to take advantage of 4G LTE speeds when the faster network becomes
available in their city, or when they travel to an area already covered
by 4G LTE.

Visit www.verizonwireless.com/lte
for more information about the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network and a
list of current markets.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s largest 4G LTE network and
largest, most reliable 3G network. The company serves 93.0 million
retail customers, including 88.0 million retail postpaid customers.
Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 80,000 employees nationwide,
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE,
NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com.
To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and
high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the
Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/verizon-wireless-bring-power-4g-130000539.html

The Motorola Droid Razr is among four phones getting a SGM roaming update from Verizon.

(Credit:
Verizon)

Verizon Wireless wants to be sure its customers pack one of its phones when they travel abroad this summer.

The carrier confirmed today that four of its
Android-powered smartphones will soon get a software update that will allow them to operate on GSM networks — the dominant global wireless technology and the standard in Europe. Verizon said GSM roaming would be activated on the Droid Razr, Droid
Razr Maxx, Droid 4, and
HTC Rezound.

“Customers will see a notification on their device when the software update is available for their device,” the carrier said in a statement. “After the software update, customers will be able to take their smartphone overseas and use voice service in more than 220 countries and receive data in more than 205 countries.”

All of the phones targeted for upgrade are 4G LTE capable and thus have SIM cards. That combination should also allow Verizon customers traveling overseas to swap out their U.S. SIM cards with local SIM cards for less expensive service than what Verizon will likely charge for international roaming.

It’s a big step for Verizon. For years, the carrier’s customers were unable to use their cell phones while traveling in many parts of the world because Verizon’s technology was incompatible with most of the world’s wireless carriers.

The company eventually started offering a handful of “world phones” that allowed Verizon subscribers to roam onto most carrier networks overseas. But as the carrier pushed its new and existing customers to sign up for 4G LTE service, Verizon is once again handicapped its customers by not offering an option for global roaming.

Article source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57438841-94/verizon-to-add-gsm-roaming-to-four-android-smartphones/

A hacker who claims to hate both Anonymous and notorious BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay (TPB) has claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack that TPB has been suffering under for the last 24 hours.

The user, who goes by the Twitter handle @AnonNyre, has been riling up members of the hacktivist group and supporters of TPB with a series of angry posts on Twitter, to the extent that Anonymous supporters are now demanding to get in contact with him over the social network.

AnonNyre also later posted on Pastebin, claiming that he works for the FBI and wants to take TPB website down because it is “a press-release website for Anonymous“.

Although PirateBay.se was still accessible from the UK during the DDoS attack, TPB claimed that it was under attack on its official Facebook page and TorrentFreak confirmed that users around the world were having difficulty accessing the website.

Today The Pirate Bay informed its fans through Facebook that it was back online.

In a message posted at about 9:45 GMT, The Pirate Bay wrote: “We’re back in full effect! Show your support by adding this badge to your profile picture!”

This is not the first DDoS attack to be linked with The Pirate Bay. UK ISP Virgin Media suffered a DDoS attack on 9 May, a week after complying with a high court order to block users’ access to the file-sharing website.

The Pirate Bay condemned the action att he time, stating: “We do NOT encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internets, where anyone can express their views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us.

“So don’t fight them using ugly methods. DDoS and blocks are both forms of censorship.”

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Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/255844/anonymoushater_claims_responsibility_for_pirate_bay_ddos_attack.html

Computer scientists have identified a vulnerability in the network of ATT and at least 47 other cellular carriers that allows attackers to surreptitiously hijack the Internet connections of smartphone users and inject malicious content into the traffic passing between them and trusted websites.

The attack, which doesn’t require an adversary to have any man-in-the-middle capability over the network, can be used to lace unencrypted Facebook and Twitter pages with code that causes victims to take unintended actions, such as post messages or follow new users. It can also be used to direct people to fraudulent banking websites and to inject fraudulent messages into chat sessions in some Windows Live Messenger apps. Ironically, the vulnerability is introduced by a class of firewalls cellular carriers use. While intended to make the networks safer, these firewall middleboxes allow hackers to infer TCP sequence numbers of data packets appended to each data packet, a disclosure that can be used to tamper with Internet connections.

“The TCP sequence number inference attack opens up a whole new set of attack venues,” the researchers from the University of Michigan’s Computer Science and Engineering Department wrote in a research paper scheduled to be presented at this week’s IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. “It breaks the common assumption that communication is relatively safe on encrypted/protected WiFi or cellular networks that encrypt the wireless traffic. In fact, since our attack does not rely on sniffing traffic, it works regardless of the access technology as long as no application-layer protection is enabled.”

The researchers tested their attack on Android-powered smartphones manufactured by HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. When the devices were connected to a “nation-wide carrier” that used sequence number-checking, the researchers were able to able to hijack connections to online services including Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and the AdMob advertising network. They could also spoof traffic from four unidentified banks and an unnamed Android app that gives real-time stock quotes. Zhiyun Qian, a recent PhD recipient and one of the coauthors of the paper, told Ars the attack will also work against computers connected to networks using cellular cards or smartphone tethers. He said there’s no reason to believe iOS devices from Apple can’t be hijacked as well.

This week’s paper reports that of 150 worldwide carriers tested, 48 were found to use firewalls that allowed the researchers to deduce the TCP sequence numbers needed to hijack end-user connections. Using an Android app the researchers released, Ars was able to identify ATT as the US carrier referred to in the paper. Company representatives issued a statement that read, “The report does not provide enough detail for us to confirm a conclusion but we plan to take a look at the issues it raises.”

Playing outside of the sandbox

Qian and fellow co-author Professor Z. Morley Mao have devised a buffet of possible attacks depending on which required elements are satisfied in a given exploit scenario. They labeled the most potent of the attacks on-site TCP hijacking. It relies on a lightweight piece of malware that must first be installed on a victim’s phone that has Internet access as its sole privilege. With help from the malicious app, the attacker queries firewalls ATT and other carriers use to drop all data packets that contain sequence numbers out of a range considered to be valid for a current connection. By testing which packets are permitted to go through and which ones are blocked, attackers can quickly deduce an acceptable number and append it to the malicious data to camouflage its fraudulent source.

“What that means is that we’re able to completely hijack the connection, so that the original server, say the Facebook server, will be completely cut off from the communication, and we can inject whatever malicious content we want,” Qian told Ars. While Android apps are contained in a security sandbox that prevents them from accessing code and data used by other apps, he said the circuitous route taken by the lightweight malware effectively breaks out of this barrier, allowing the attackers to tamper with the phone’s Web browser and other protected apps.

Another variant of the attack relies on intermediate routers that help funnel data through a carrier network. The monotonically incrementing 16-bit headers known as IPIDs act as side channels for inferring how many packets a target system has sent. By examining the values in the headers before and after sending spoofed probing packets, attackers can deduce sequence numbers by inferring if they successfully passed through the firewall.

Still another variation of the attack doesn’t rely on any malware at all. An off-site TCP injection/hijacking exploit, for instance, relies on a technique known as URL phishing, which lures a user to a malicious intermediate webpage before sending him to what appears to be a legitimate target website. When certain conditions are met, the attack can replace the content of the site with arbitrary traffic, or if the user is logged in to the targeted site, can inject JavaScript into the pages that steals authentication cookies or performs actions on behalf of the victim.

The required ingredient

The required ingredient in all the attacks is a firewall on the carrier network that keeps track of sequence numbers for connections the end user has made with other address on the Internet. Firewalls that drop sequence numbers are manufactured by a variety of companies, including Cisco Systems, Juniper, and Check Point.

“They all build on top of the sequence number inference,” Qian said of the attacks. “Without the sequence number, all of these attacks would not be possible, so you can think of sequence number inference as a building block for all of these attacks.”

TCP sequence numbers were designed to help computers to reassemble packets that arrive out-of-sequence into their proper order. As researchers devised attacks in the late 1990s that used sequence numbers to hijack connections, the scheme was revised to give the numbers pseudo-random characteristics so they’d be hard for attackers to predict. Qian and Mao said they are the first known researchers to devise a TCP sequence number inference attack using the state kept on middleboxes.

Qian said online services can go a long way towards repelling the attacks by encrypting sessions using the secure sockets layer (SSL) or transport layer security (TLS) protocols, since almost all of the exploits he and Mao devised work against pages and apps that transmit content in plaintext. But even when Web traffic is encrypted, sequence number inference can be used to mount denial-of-service attacks. Of course, the attacks could be more effectively prevented if carriers removed sequence number-checking functions from the firewalls they use. Qian said he’s not sure that move is feasible because the carriers rely on the features to conserve resources by summarily dropping arbitrarily packets that enter their networks.

‘In my opinion, they should be turned off,” Qian said of the sequence number checks. “However, the carriers may have their own reasons not to.”

Updated to add ATT comment.

Article source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/05/smartphone-hijacking-on-att-47-other-carriers/

Samsung has already confirmed that they will be promoting and selling the Samsung Galaxy S III in the United States.  We are starting to get proof which carriers will offer the next big superphone.

Devices that appear to be Samsung Galaxy S III models are being approved by various agencies.  The Bluetooth SIG approved  the SGH–I747  and SGH–T999V, both which appear to be the Samsung Galaxy S III. The  t model is T-Mobile and the other should be ATT according to previous naming schemes.

The FCC has approved model SGH–T999  that supports 1700MHz, 850MHz and 1900MHz, all T-Mobile bandwidth. FCC approval is usually a good sign with release dates following within a few months after approval in many cases.  However in previous years, Samsung Galaxy releases were months after European releases.

The release date for the Samsung Galaxy S III is expected in the summer, provided there are no delays, like the last year. The manual for the Samsung Galaxy S III in the UK is now available.

Many believe that the Samsung Galaxy S III will also come from Verizon Wireless and Sprint. You will be able to buy many accessories for it including a Galaxy Note-like S-Pen.

Initial reviews for the Samsung Galaxy S III have been positive, some reviewers don’t like the plastic case while others raved about the software.

The latest commercial has been released and there are rumors that none other than George Clooney  will star in the American commercial.

Article source: http://wirelessandmobilenews.com/2012/05/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-t-mo-att-release.html

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. Five minutes to kickoff, but the man cave is vacant. The nachos aren’t noshed. The beer stays in the fridge.

Instead, you cram into a bar with the other refugees, forced outside into the January day by — a blank TV screen.

Now Verizon cable’s winter woes — a January retransmission dispute that blocked a Baltimore Ravens playoff game from local home televisions and a software glitch that darkened screens in March — might face new scrutiny.

The 31 midstate municipalities with franchise agreements through the Capital Region Council of Governments are considering a review of Verizon Pennsylvania’s compliance with cable delivery and service promises: part due diligence, part policing in light of past wrongs.

Pittsburgh-based Cohen Law Group, which negotiated the 2008 agreements that brought Verizon FiOS to the region, proposed the review in April. The review would examine Verizon’s accurate payment of franchise fees to municipalities, compliance with customer service standards and service interruption requirements, progress in building out the cable system throughout Verizon’s telephone service areas, service to government and schools, and other matters.

Dan Cohen of Cohen Law Group said he normally recommends compliance reviews every four years. One reason is that franchise fees paid to municipalities are based on complicated equations of 20 revenue sources, subject to clerical errors or mistakes in assigning subscribers to the correct municipality, Cohen said.

But this winter’s blank screens also “caused consternation for Verizon customers,” and the COG has received complaints recently of poor customer service, including technicians missing appointments and long wait times on the phone, according to Cohen Law Group’s proposal for the review.

“We’d like to look into the real cause of the interruptions and whether the customers should have gotten credits on their bills, and what steps can be taken to try to ensure that it won’t happen in the future,” Cohen said.

Compliance reviews are written into franchise agreements, and Verizon will comply fully, spokesman Lee Gierczynski said.

“Verizon’s FiOS TV service continues to receive high marks from customers,” Gierczynski said. “The American Customer Satisfaction Index survey that came out earlier this week rated FiOS TV No. 1 in customer satisfaction, value and reliability for three years in a row.”

The January issue that kept the Baltimore Ravens out of midstate homes was a common retransmission dispute — similar to a DirecTV tussle that threatened a NASCAR race and other Fox Network programs in March — not subject to regulations regarding service interruptions, Gierczynski said.

Customers were not refunded for the lost channels in January, but those who complained about the March interruption — it was not a blanket problem affecting all subscribers — received a $20 to $25 credit, he said.

Cumberland County Commissioner Jim Hertzler, the commissioners’ liaison to the COG, said he is in favor of the compliance review.

This year, Hertzler said he complained to the Federal Communications Commission that “Verizon FiOS provided inadequate notice to customers and the franchise authorities and did not meet its obligations to carry local broadcast stations.”

“There’s a lot to be desired here with respect to what occurred,” Hertzler said. “Hopefully, it won’t happen again, but we have no guarantee of that.”

Calls to a sampling of midstate municipalities found three that have agreed to join the review: Mechanicsburg and Upper Allen and Susquehanna townships.

The Hampden Twp. commissioners might vote at a future meeting, said Keith Metts, township manager.

The Lower Paxton Twp. supervisors haven’t voted, but seem to have a “general consensus” to participate for due-diligence reasons “if that’s the direction chosen by the COG,” said George Wolfe, township manager.

Cohen Law Group’s fees would range from $1,900 to $3,900 per municipality, depending on population. The discounted group rates depend on 25 of the 31 municipalities belonging to the 2008 Verizon franchise agreements joining the review. Cohen imposed a May 31 deadline but said it could be extended if municipalities need more time to consider.

Capital Region COG Executive Director Ann Simonetti said she will know after a COG meeting on Monday how many municipalities have signed on so far. The COG oversaw a compliance review of Comcast cable services in 2008, but a repeat review has not been proposed, she said.

Municipalities in the Capital Region Council of Government’s 2008 Verizon franchising agreement include:
   

• Cumberland County: Camp Hill, Lemoyne, Mechanicsburg, New Cumberland, Shiremanstown and Wormleysburg boroughs; East Pennsboro, Hampden, Lower Allen, North Middleton, Silver Spring, South Middleton and Upper Allen, and townships.
   

• Dauphin County: Highspire, Hummelstown, Middletown, Paxtang, Penbrook, Royalton and Steelton boroughs; Derry, Londonderry, Lower Paxton, Lower Swatara, Susquehanna, Swatara, and West Hanover townships.
   

• Perry County: Marysville.
   

• York County: Dillsburg borough; Carroll and Fairview townships.

Article source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/05/central_pennsylvania_municipal_1.html