Verizon Wireless had a press conference earlier today where they announced a plethora of new technologies capable of running on their new 4G LTE network and they hope to have 2/3 of the U.S. covered by LTE by mid-2012 with 10 new LTE devices launching by mid-year (4 phones, 2 tablets, 2 mobile hotspots, and 2 netbooks).
One of the major devices announced at the event was the HTC Thunderbolt. It can act as a 4G mobile hotspot capable of connecting to 8 devices. Rockband Mobile was also announced giving users the ability to play with up to 4 friends.
Samsung debuted 3 new devices – 4G Galaxy Tab, 4G mobile hotspot, and a new phone. The phone has a 4.3 Super AMOLED Plus display which features improved sharpness and outdoor visibility (which the iPhone definitely lacks unless one is willing to pay for an anti-glare screen shield). It also has an 8MP camera, HD video recording, 1.3 MP front-facing camera.
The new Galaxy Tab will feature a 1.2 Ghz Hummingbird processor (faster than the Snapdragon processor found in most smartphones) and will be launching in the first half of 2011.
It also turns out that some of these new LTE phones will support simultaneous voice and data at launch while others will not. Unfortunately no word was mentioned regarding the purported Verizon iPhone.