Verizon has said today that Samsung’s first LTE device, the Droid Charge, will be available on April 28th.
The Droid Charge runs Android 2.2, has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 1GHz processor, an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 1.3MP front-side camera.
Samsung has pre-loaded Flash and the Samsung Media Hub, offering up movies and TV shows for rental or purchase.
Verizon says LTE users should have down speeds of 5-12Mbps and upload speeds of 2-5Mbps.
The Droid Charge will also feature mobile hotspot, allowing up to 10 devices to connect to the LTE. For now, Verizon is offering that feature for free.
Starting next week, the Charge will cost $300 with two-year contract, and it comes with free $25 credit to Samsung Media Hub.
Result for: media hub
Boxee CPO Zach Klein has released a video today showing off a production model of the highly anticipated Boxee Box.
The video implies that Boxee will begin mass production on the box now, with a release date not too far in the future.
Boxee’s “sinking box” design is still intact, but it has been given a slightly more refined look and a more fingerprint-resistant finish.
The Box is a media hub, as well as a set-top box, whose primary purpose is to stream music, photos and video from within a local network or use streaming services such as Pandora and video sites.
Boxee Box uses a fast NVIDIA Tegra chipset, which will allow for 1080p video playback and hardware-accelerated Flash 10.1.
The hardware is expected to sell for $180.
Result for: media hub
VUDU has announced today that it will begin offering music and video for free through its service, fully ad-supported.
The deal, made with Brightcove, will initially only include Sony music and videos. The company hopes to eventually add long-form content to the new service but there is no set roadmap.
The move will make VUDU one of the first media hubs to try to add advertisements as part of the working business model. Rivals such as the Apple TV and Roku provide access to existing services or use the standard pay-per-title model.
The ad-backed model has not been thoroughly tested but for the most part has failed miserably with the notable exception being Hulu, the video site which continues to see huge growth.
