One of the more annoying marketing gimmicks among wireless carriers, but also true among WiFi hardware makers as well, is that as soon as a new standard is announced, the urge to jump in and declare “we have that,” often trumps actually waiting for standards to be finalized, and far too often before the company can even deliver the real goods.

Case in point is the 4G service being touted by the nation’s wireless carriers. In case they weren’t aware, the term ’4G’ actually means something. In 2008, the ITU-R organization specified the IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced) requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbps for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbps for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).

With that said, which of the carriers are truly delivering  data speeds truly approaching the 4G standard? Seattle-based Analyst Root Metrics set out to determine exactly that. In a test comparing AT&T’s HSPA+, Sprint’s WiMAX, T-Mobile’s HSPA+21 and Verizon’s LTE networks in the Seattle area, the company used 4G-capable smartphones to get a clearer picture of what the consumer experience looks like on the ground. Down here in reality.

What they found will interest you.

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One minute I was just arriving in Boston, and the next I was packing up my bags and saying goodbye to PAX East 2011. And what a weekend it was.

From sampling the finest in upcoming videogames, watching some amazing concerts, meeting and making new friends, and bonding with old ones, this convention has got to be the best weekend of my year. Penny Arcade really puts together an amazing show, and it’s amazing that they do it twice a year, once on this coast and then over on their home turf of Seattle.

Not only was this the best PAX East ever (In my opinion), it was also the biggest. Head hancho Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade said that this year’s PAX had 69,500 attendees, up from last year’s 52,290 at the much tinier Hynes Convention Center.

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For those of you lamenting the lack of cool 4G smartphone offerings available for the Verizon Wireless network, this is the day you’ve been waiting for. Verizon Wireless’ first LTE handset, the HTC ThunderBolt, is now available on store shelves and online, ready to push the boundaries of wireless access.

If you plan on being one of the very first consumers to acquire the 4G handset, you have options as to where to pick it up. Verizon Wireless, Best Buy, and several others will be selling the handset for $250 with a two year contract.

However, if you don’t mind waiting for the device to be shipped to you, Wirefly will be selling it for $199.99. In addition, Amazon Wireless has it priced at $179.99. Plus, unless you live in certain areas of the country, no sales tax if you purchase at Amazon. Who doesn’t love that?

In case you’re not familiar with this 4G powerhouse, here’s a few stats to help get you excited:

• Powered by Android 2.2
• Latest version of the HTC Sense UI
• Support for Google Mobile Services, including Gmail, YouTube and Android Market
• 4G LTE optimized apps such as EA’s Rock Band, Gameloft’s Let’s Golf, Tunewiki and Bitbop
• 4G LTE – customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage area
• 4.3” WVGA display
• 8- megapixel rear facing camera and HD (720p) video recording

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I would like to think that Nintendo’s brand-new, first of its kind portable system wouldn’t have any kind of performance issues, especially when it comes to the previous generation’s games. Unfortunately, according to the people over at Gamespot, the Nintendo 3DS loads DS games 35% slower than the Nintendo DS Light, which by the way, was released in 2006, over five years ago.

No need to panic yet, as 35% slower computes to about a 5-10 seconds difference between the load times of the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo DS Lite, which isn’t too much. Gamespot went on to report that while the 3DS took considerably longer to get to the in-game menu, no performance issues were noticed from then on and frame rates were normal.

I am happy to report that, when I played the 3DS last weekend at PAX East, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries didn’t seem laggy or take a while to load, so I presume that the newer games aren’t having these kinds of issues. Nintendo has yet to comment on Gamespot’s findings.

With the release of the Nintendo 3DS less than two weeks away, it’ll be interesting to see what other users find when they review the system. While backwards compatibility isn’t the key feature of a new system, it certainly is an important one, and if the Nintendo 3DS can handle 3-D, it should be able to handle a little ol’ Nintendo DS game, right?

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Alright, I know I’m pretty late to the bandwagon since Kinect was released during the holidays, but I genuinely haven’t gotten to spend any time with the device. Until now.

One of the amazing things about Penny Arcade Expo is the expansive freeplay section available to attendees, and Kinect was available in full force. I stepped in front of a television armed with an Xbox 360, a Kinect, Kinectimals, and Dance Central, and I unwillingly and surprisingly fell in love.

Believe you me, I was just as skeptical about this device as I’m sure you all were, or maybe still are. And since Penny Arcade is pretty much my go-to for my videogame advice, and they aren’t the biggest fans of Kinect, I was expecting to be underwhelmed. Oh how wrong I was. Two seconds of tossing a ball around to a baby tiger and I was sold.

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With the release of Nintendo’s brand-spankin’ new handheld imminent on the horizon, it was only fair to assume it’d be at this year’s PAX East. I was really happy when I found that my assumptions were correct, as Nintendo had its launch line-up of games out in full force, including the new Kid Icarus and the 3DS release of the classic Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

And while I was anxious to check out these games, what was more important was checking out the Nintendo 3DS itself and seeing how it stacks up against the Nintendo DS, which has been my portable gaming console of choice for quite some time.

Given only a few short minutes to play Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, I immediately had a lot of impressions of the system. Firstly, I was happy to discover that it’s not much different than a DS or DSi, both in how it felt in my hands and how it looked.

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As was expected, today Apple updated its lineup of portable Macs with all-new MacBook Pro computers of various sizes and specifications. Although the updates are more evolutionary than revolutionary, that doesn’t mean they aren’t significant.

Some of the new updates include i5 or i7 “Sandy Bridge” processors across the lineup, AMD Radeon HD Graphics, Thunderbolt connector and all of the version have a larger trackpad, have dropped in weight and feature a new “Facetime HD” camera instead of the former iSight camera.

Here’s the full rundown:

13″ MacBook Pro

• 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with a 3 MB shared L3 cache or 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache
• 13.3-inch LED-Backlit with 1280×800 resolution; Glossy only
• 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM clocked at 1333 MHz (2×2 GB), supports up to 8 GB
• 320 or 500 GB, 5400 RPM Serial ATA hard drive; optional 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid-state drive
• Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384 MB DDR3 SDRAM shared memory
• FaceTime HD camera, 8X slot-loading SuperDrive, Thunderbolt High-Speed E/A and Mini-DisplayPort, 802.11N WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, SDXC, FireWire 800, USB 2.0.
• Starting at $1199

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With all the iPhone/Verizon rumors it’s nice to see rumors concerning another Apple product pop up sometimes. This time around it’s the iPad 2 which, according to Japanese Mac blog MacOtakara, will have a flatter back and smaller bezel compared to the original iPad.

The site also indicates the device will feature larger “wide-ranged speaker” located behind a mesh speaker grille. These will, presumably, offer much better sound quality than current generation device.

In addition, the next iPad will be three millimeters smaller than the original, but the display will stay the same size. That means the bezel surrounding the iPad’s display will probably shrink substantially, improving the devices overall appearance — at least to us. The rear case has been flattened to be more like an iPod touch, which should make it easier to lay on a flat surface. Yeah, that “bump” in the middle has always been a bit of a pain.

No word on if the new iPad will feature a camera, or cameras, but as often is the case, we’ll get more rumors and information as the device gets closer to release. Speaking of that, Apple’s next-generation iPad is expected to begin shipping from manufacturers in January or February, with a release likely soon after.

Without a doubt, Google makes some gorgeous Android phones and so expectations are high as the internet giant releases their second version of their branded smartphone, the ‘Nexus S.’ Officially going on sale Thursday in Best Buys nation-wide, the company hopes to avoid the fate of their last device, the hugely sexy ‘Nexus One’ that wowed Android fans with its design and specs, but failed to sell in sufficient volumes.

The new Nexus S certainly looks impressive. Running Android 2.3 (a.k.a. Gingerbread) makes this the first smartphone to run the Android OS’s latest iteration. Additionally,  the device sports a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor, 16GB of flash memory, front- and rear-facing cameras as well as a contoured and curved 4-inch Super AMOLED screen.

The Nexus S is also the first device to support Near Field Communication (NFC), which will allow apps to communicate with other NFC devices in close proximity. Many mobile analysts expect pay-by-phone apps to be built around this technology, which could allow consumers to pay for physical goods by simply touching their phone to a compatible payment device in stores.

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Another day another, Apple-related rumor with a slim thread of substantiating facts. On the plus side we do know that Apple will eventually release a new version of the iPad which will reportedly feature a thinner case, Retina Display, gyroscope and FaceTime support. It’s inevitable.

What isn’t is when said iPad 2 will actually start shipping. If you know Apple you know they are notorious for being tight-lipped about that sort of thing. However, a new report coming out from the folks at DigiTimes says Apple has let iPad manufacturer Foxconn know that initial shipments of the iPad 2 will begin in 100 days. Of course, this report is unconfirmed but it also suggests Apple’s initial order for the new device will be in the 400K to 600K range.

One of the many things that make this report seem less than reliable are those initial numbers. After all Apple sold more than 300K iPads on the first day it was available and went on to sell 1 Million of the shiny tablets in just 28 days. So, an initial order of 600K seems like not enough if they really want to sell a lot of them. Of course, that could just be for the first day with other shipments coming soon afterward.

However many Apple does end up making for the release you can probably expect lines of people waiting to get their hands on the devices. I’m not sure I’ll be one of them as the first gen iPad seems to do the job just fine for me. Still, it will be interesting, as always, to see what happens.

Now if Verizon and Apple could just get together and come out with the damn Verizon iPhone already that would be something I would wait in line for. Are you guys excited for the iPad 2 or are you going to go for a Verizon iPhone instead if it ever arrives? Sound off in the comments.

If you’re a fan of Apple and its products you know that they are not really on the inexpensive side. Sure, they are well made, well designed and work pretty flawlessly. Of course, all that comes with a price.

Fortunately, Apple too must realize consumers need a deal once in awhile and what better time to offer it than the end of this week during the madness known as “Black Friday.” So, to make this a reality Apple will be offering deals on its website and online store according to a teaser up at the company’s website.

Except for the cryptic text touting “dozens of great iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list” we’ve really got no clue what these deals may actually be. Still, its just nice to see that even Apple understands the economics of today’s world. People don’t have the money they used to have but they still want to get their hands on Apple’s latest shiny devices. With this sale on Friday, let’s hope they can.

This all starts on Friday, November 26th. If you do plan on taking advantage of these deals, start early as they probably won’t last.

We’ve seen a lot of mock-up PSPs in the past. Whether they were imitation PSPGos, PSP Phones, or PSP2s, these were either very good, or very bad, models of the gaming system we all know and like.
However, the supposed PSP2 pictures that have recently leaked onto the internet don’t look like mock-ups.

Perhaps that’s due to the crappy image quality, but it’s definite these weren’t thrown together on Photoshop by a fanboy. From what we can see, this PSP slides like the PSPGo, but looks much bigger. It’s also got two analog sticks, a microphone, touchpad, and camera.

We’re unsure whether this model will ever see the light of day, as Sony has stated they’ve designed several different variations of the PSP2, but it’s definitely interesting to see what they’ve been thinking about for the device.

According to Kotaku‘s report, the images have been confirmed by a development source. You can make your own conclusions after the jump.

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