This month, Verizon will be making good on its threat to choke data speeds for the most active 5 percent of its 3G data customers. If you use 2GB of data or more each month and have a 3G unlimited plan, there’s a good chance this slow-down applies to you. It isn’t “throttling,” of course, …

Come Sunday, AT&T will finally flip the switch on its 4G LTE network–in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio–almost a year after announcing its LTE launch plans. Although AT&T’s marketing machine has leaned on the carrier’s existing HSPA+ network to fill its 4G gap, AT&T’s progress lags three-quarters of a year behind Verizon’s LTE network, which now covers over …

At long last, AT&T is preparing to launch its first five markets to inaugurate its 4G LTE data network. The second-largest carrier will flip on LTE on Sunday, September 18, for Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, according to Fierce Wireless. The nationwide carrier plans to expand to 15 markets by the end of 2011. Already, AT&T’s LTE plans …

After impressing us with the higher-end Samsung Galaxy Prevail, Boost Mobile and Samsung are angling for a second success with the prepaid Samsung Transform Ultra. A reboot of the ho-hum Samsung Transform that parent company Sprint debuted a year ago, Boost’s Transform Ultra features Android 2.3 Gingerbread as its up-to-date operating system. It also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and …

Just a day before Boost Mobile puts the Android-powered Samsung Transform Ultra on the market, it’s bumping up the price of its all-in-one data plan for Android phones by $5 a month, from $50 to $55 per month. While nobody likes rate hikes, Boost will continue to sweeten the deal with its Shrinkage Plan, which lowers customers’ monthly plans by …

Now playing: Watch this: Sharp FX Plus (AT&T) 2:08 Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers! Sharp and AT&T have seen fit to renew their relationship in the form of the Sharp FX Plus, a slide-out smartphone sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and on Walmart.com. What’s that, you say? Sharp?! It’s true–while the electronics powerhouse is better known for TVs and other home electronics, the …

Editors’ note: This article was updated September 13, 2011. A while ago, I explored what it takes to build a killer smartphone screen–for starters, a highly technical blend of factors like brightness, screen resolution, and color reproduction. While you probably shouldn’t choose your next phone for the screen specs alone, the difference between a good display and a great one …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Convoy 2 2:03 We must have said it a million times: whenever a carrier updates a handset, we expect familiarity, yes, but also improvements. Verizon’s rugged, push-to-talk Samsung Convoy 2 scores high when it comes to refreshing the look and feel of the original Samsung Convoy; but some changes, or lack thereof, left us feeling …

Be it the nature of your job, your harsh living conditions, a love of sports, or downright klutziness, there’s a clear need for tough phones that can take a licking. We periodically round up the most notable of the bunch. This time, the crop of tough phones includes the Samsung Convoy 2, which is also a push-to-talk baddie with a …

What’s a mega British wireless telco like Vodafone, with no brand presence in the U.S., doing opening a research and development center in the heart of Silicon Valley? Quite simply following the talent. Vodafone lifted the lid today on its R&D center, which it will use as an incubation center for helping local startups quickly develop, test, and bring products …