Customer ServiceeRegister
The Gadgetress ~ TV, mobile and Internet: Covering technology's monthly bill

Archive for the 'Irvine' Tag

« Previous Entries

AT&T adds 2 cell sites in Irvine, Orange

April 9th, 2010, 7:27 am by

AT&T has added new 3G wireless cell sites in Irvine and Orange. The company could not provide details on the locations.

The 3G cell sites includes the recent upgrade to High-Speed Packet Access 7.2 technology, which should speed up Internet browsing and data transmission on the cellular network.

The company also announced new sites in San Bernardino and Chino and one in Kern County’s Shafter.

AT&T plans to add 200 cell sites in California, which should be good news to local iPhone users.

Latest news on cell sites:

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • • • | 23 Comments »

Countdown: Ian heads to Irvine to buy an Apple iPad (Video)

April 3rd, 2010, 7:48 am by

Hard to miss the news this week that Apple’s new iPad computer goes on sale today. All sorts of apps were announced and reviews started coming in.

This morning, O.C. Register reporter and Mac fan Ian Hamilton heads to the Irvine Spectrum Apple store to grab one of his own. He’ll be blogging about it right here later today.

As of 8 a.m., there are 40 people in the pre-purchase line and 30 others wishing they had pre-ordered. The first person was in line since 3 p.m. Friday.

If you’re standing in line too (or have been all night), he wants to hear from you. Tweet him at @hmltn or e-mail him at ihamilton@ocregister.com.

Read Ian’s latest posts:

The iPad is Apple’s first tablet-like computer. It’s a touch-screen marvel with Wi-Fi and option to add 3G wireless. Its pièce de résistance? It can access thousands of apps from the iTunes store. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Apple mania • Gadgets • • • • • | 58 Comments »

AT&T U-verse TV non-update update for Orange County

March 31st, 2010, 11:30 am by

Readers searching for an alternative TV service have been asking for months: Any updates on the AT&T U-verse roll out?

It’s been 8 months since last summer’s series detailing the company’s decision to stop pursuing 7 Orange County cities, including Cypress, Dana Point, Irvine, Lake Forest, Newport Beach, San Clemente and Tustin. AT&T ran into roadblocks with the city governments to install large utility boxes above ground. The cities wanted underground structures. AT&T decided it wasn’t worth the time or money.

So, what’s happened since? AT&T just got back to me with an answer and you’re probably not going to like it.

“No updates to report on the OC cities,” said Katie Keating, with AT&T.

More on the U-verse impasse

> More on U-verse Impasse<

Keep in mind, U-verse has expanded tremendously in the past year. According to the company’s 2009 earnings report, it doubled the number of U-verse customers to 2.1 million and it still plans to make the service available to 30 million by the end of next year.

AT&T continues to market to new customers in Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, La Palma, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Stanton, Villa Park, Westminster, and Yorba Linda.

But like the other newish TV service, Verizon FiOS, there have been no expansions into new cities. This week, the Associated Press reported Verizon is winding down FiOS expansion. We already knew this was happening in Orange County last year and the company confirmed as much just a few months ago.  If you can’t get FiOS today, you probably won’t be getting it for a very, very long time. Sounds like the same is true with U-verse, at least for the 7 cities previously mentioned.

There is still some hope that Orange County cities will get fiber Internet, if not TV service. Google’s recent pitch to help out cities build fiber networks did attract some local attention. Fullerton, Mission Viejo and Anaheim all made a bid (read earlier story: “Orange County doesn’t go crazy for Google’s 1 gbps fiber Internet“).

More on U-verse:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • | 25 Comments »

BlizzCon 2010 set for Anaheim this fall

March 25th, 2010, 11:14 am by

Another blog interruptus: The all-things-Blizzard-Entertainment game fest BlizzCon returns this fall to the Anaheim Convention Center.

BlizzCon, which will be the Irvine game company’s fifth fan convention, is set for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 22 and 23, 2010.

The convention usually sells out within minutes because it’s one of the rare chances for fans of the company’s games — World of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft — to get sneak peeks at coming games, meet the developers and snag some rare merchandise. Worldwide, some 11 million gamers play just World of Warcraft. The Blizzard franchise has been around since the early 1990s so it has a large and loyal fan base.

More details will be posted at blizzcon.com.

Here are stories from last year’s BlizzCon:

Posted in: Blizzard • BlizzCon • • • • | 4 Comments »

Ex-World of Warcraft crew at Red 5 Studios gets $20 million

March 22nd, 2010, 2:54 pm by

Blog interruptus (at least for regular TV readers): Irvine game developer Red 5 Studios, which has been struggling to put out a game at the same level of the founders’ former employer Blizzard Entertainment, has received $20 million from a new investor, The9 Limited in China.

According to a company statement, The9′s $20 million gives the Chinese company a majority interest in the local game studio.

UPDATE: Mark Kern, Red 5′s CEO who previously was lead developer for World of Warcraft, responded to a request for comment about the new investor:

“I’d like to say that this investment has been a great validation of the work we’ve been doing here. It’s also an interesting comment on the rise of Asian game development and increasing desire to expand into western markets. We’ve spoken to many publishers in the region, and all seem more eager and more able to tackle online gaming in the West than most US companies.” (added March 23, 2010)

It’s an interesting mix, considering Red 5′s founders hail from the almighty Blizzard Entertainment, the Irvine company behind the massively popular World of Warcraft. Last year, Blizzard cut ties with The9, which had been handling Blizzard’s China operation. Gamers in China lost access to WoW until Blizzard hired NetEase to handle the game’s operation there.

Red 5 launched in Aliso Viejo in late 2006 with a $18.5 million investment from Benchmark Capital and Sierra Adventures. The company was founded by Mark Kern, who led the development of World of Warcraft; Bill Petras, art director for the game; and Taewon Yun, who co-founded Blizzard’s Korea office and was responsible for launching the game in Asia. But beyond the founders’ heritage, Red 5 appeared to have no game plan or deadline. Their goal was to build another massively multiplayer venture.

The company has been pretty quiet ever since. But earlier this year, reports from the game industry said Red 5 was down to a skeleton crew after substantial layoffs. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Blizzard • • • • • • • • | 8 Comments »

Virgin Mobile updates prepaid mobile data plans with 5 GBs

March 3rd, 2010, 4:30 am by

For consumers who like the convenience of wireless Internet but don’t want to commit to yet another monthly contract, Virgin Mobile offers Broadband2Go, a pay-as-you go 3G data plan getting updated today.

The company, now part of Sprint’s prepaid group that includes Irvine’s Boost Mobile, added a 5 Gigabyte plan for $60, which the company considers as a “suitable replacement for at-home Internet broadband service.”

While that statement is arguable, the company notes that customers like the option of choosing a different plan each month so they can opt for a cheaper plan if they know they won’t be using wireless data much.

While there are no contracts or activation or termination fees, the drawback to any prepaid service plan is that minutes and megabytes can expire if you don’t use them. For example, the 5 GB plan must be used up within 30 days.  Virgin’s smallest data plan, for $10, offers 100 megabytes and must be used up within 10 days.

Here’s the guide:

Virgin Mobile Broadband 2Go plans for 2010
Price Expires MBs/GBs* Web Browsing Video Emails
$10 10 Days 100 MB 5 HRS 25 MIN 10,000
$20 30 Days 300MB 15 HRS 1 HR 25,000
$40 30 Days 1GB 50 HRS 4 HRS 100,000
$60 30 Days 5GB 250 HRS 21 HRS 500,000

*Data courtesy of Virgin Mobile

Comparably, Verizon Wireless’s 5 GB mobile broadband plan is $59.99 a month and may require a long-term commitment if you need a wireless modem to go with it.

Every level except the lowest is getting more megabytes with no change in price, as of today. When the Broadband2Go launched last June, the $60 plan included just 1 GB (read: “Virgin Mobile adds pay-as-you-go wireless Internet.”). The price of the wireless USB modem has also dropped to $99, from $149.

Broadband2Go uses Sprint’s 3G network, so expect speeds of about 600 kbps or slightly higher.

Virgin shared a little bit more about what customers are doing with the prepaid data service. Some 30 percent use it more than 4-times a week, while 16 percent used it to replace their at-home Internet connection. The biggest customer request: Larger data plans.

There should be a lot of news in the wireless data space this year, as newcomers like Cox and Time Warner (yes, the cable TV providers) jump in. Time Warner began wireless data service in December in Texas and North Carolina and plans to expand nationwide this year. Cox, meanwhile, plans to launch wireless service in Orange County sometime this month.

Recent Internet news:

Posted in: Cell phones • Internet • • • • • • • • | 7 Comments »

Broadcom rescues Irvine schools’ science fair — gummy bears and all

March 1st, 2010, 3:56 pm by

It’s nice to know that Broadcom Corp. is investing locally to nudge kids into engineering careers. The Irvine chipmaker, which supplies chips for iPhones, DVRs and other consumer electronic gadgets, ponied up $7,000 for the Irvine School District’s 29th annual science fair to replace money lost due to budget cuts.

On top of the cash, Broadcom is sending over some of its engineers to hang out with students on Wednesday during the district’s annual science fair, said Broadcom spokeswoman Dana Brzozkiewicz.

Update: The $7,000 is approximately the same budget as prior years.

The science fair includes 384 projects from Irvine’s 30 elementary, middle and high school students. Some of the geekiest that Brzozkiewicz could find: “The Effect of Cell Phone Radiation on the Reproduction of the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae” and “An Analysis of Clock Rate and Thermal Scaling in Modern Multi-Core Microprocessors.” The yummiest? “The Diffusion of Gummy Bears.”

This is the first education grant from the new Broadcom Foundation, established to get young people interested in science, technology, engineering and math careers. The organization targets places where Broadcom employees work, like Irvine, where the bulk of the company’s 7,407 workers are based.

“With the state budget crisis necessitating cutbacks at the district level, funding for this year’s Science Fair was in jeopardy. We are so grateful to the Broadcom Foundation and the Irvine Public Schools Foundation for preserving this valuable educational opportunity,” said Dr. Gwen Gross, Superintendent of the Irvine Unified School District, in a statement.

The IUSD Science Fair is Wednesday, March 3, at Northwood High School, at 4515 Portola Parkway in Irvine. Projects can be viewed from noon to 6:30 p.m. An awards ceremony is at 6:45 p.m.

More on Orange County companies:

Posted in: news • • • • • • • • • | 3 Comments »

Vizio not so little anymore, takes No.1 spot for HDTV sales

February 22nd, 2010, 8:24 am by

It’s official: Vizio shipped more LCD HDTVs in the U.S. than any other TV company last year, according to iSuppli, a market research company that tracks TV sales. The Irvine HDTV company nearly doubled its sales, growing 92.1 percent last year from the prior year.

Vizio was  neck-and-neck with Samsung all year. During some quarters, Vizio led the game, in other quarters, it was Samsung, which heavily pushed the newer LED back-lit technology. But ultimately, Vizio took the lead, ending the year with 5.92 million HDTVs sold. Samsung sold 5.60 million.

Even without its much-anticipated Internet TV, Vizio dominated the Christmas season, selling about 135,000 more TVs then second-place Samsung. During the fourth quarter, Vizio sold 1.844 million LCD TVs, making Vizio the champ for 2009.

Interestingly, iSuppli’s research shows that Toshiba also had a stellar year, growing 81.7 percent from the prior year. The TV maker, which has its U.S. laptop and storage operations in Irvine, sold 2.394 million LCD TVs. The company also sells plasma TVs and other TV technologies.

HDTV company HDTVs sold 2009 (millions) Market share Growth
VIZIO 5.920 18.70% 92.10%
Samsung 5.608 17.70% 22.60%
Sony 3.681 11.60% -1.00%
Toshiba 2.394 7.60% 81.70%
LG Electronics 2.396 7.60% 8.90%
Total 31.622 100.00% 29.00%

Vizio has already made a splash in 2010 by announcing a 3D HDTV, expected in late summer, plus super skinny TVs, mobile TVs, TV headphones, Internet routers,  and other TV accessories (read earlier: “Vizio goes beyond TV with 6 new gadgets.”) It also signed Beyonce Knowles Carter as its latest celebrity spokesperson and invested in its second Super Bowl commercial.

iSuppli analyst Riddhi Patel said that Vizio took the lead because of increased brand recognition and, more importantly, “providing technology advancements at affordable prices,” Patel said.

But Samsung still was at the top in one case: The best selling LCD TV. Samsung’s 32-inch LN32B360, priced at $549, was the nation’s top selling TV during the fourth quarter, according to Quixel Research.

Recent stories about Vizio:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • | 24 Comments »

« Previous Entries
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline