Polaroid has introduced its first Android powered smartphone with a full point and shoot assembly in the SC1630. While the SC1630 resembles a typical Android smartphone, a closer look reveals that it is actually a rebranded and re-engineered version of the Chinese Aigo A8 sold by China Unicom in that country.

The SC1630 as developed by Polaroid features a 16 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom, LED flash, a 3.2 inch touchscreen display on the back of the device at WVGA resolution and dedicated control buttons on the top for the camera shutter and volume rockers as well as a microSD slot and Bluetooth.

The device also features Android Gingerbread with full Google Apps and Android Market support along with AT&T/international 3G support for cellular data along with Wi-Fi and FM radio. The device does feature a mic for phone calls, suggesting that the device may be sold via  as well as unlocked directly by Polaroid depending on interest along with the possibility of an LTE version.

The SC1630 also features built-in dedicated camera apps for photo and video capture with cropping, red-eye removal, resizing and color correction. The device is being touted as a hybrid between a smartphone, media player and digital camera. The actual camera assembly consists of an F3.1 – F5.6 aperture lens assembly, 3X optical zoom, 5X digital zoom, a max shutter speed of 1/1400 and ISO max of 3200 with geotagging, anti-shake support and 720p video capture.

Representatives from Polaroid have also confirmed during CES that the company intends to sell the phone for $299.99 beginning in April and the release window hinges upon completion of final development work before then.

I’ve posted a few brief comments on Steve’s passing on my personal blog…

It’s not 100% clear yet if all iPhone 4S variants will have CDMA hardware inside, but Apple has made one thing clear; if you purchase an iPhone 4S from AT&T, a GSM/UMTS carrier, or an unlocked version, you won’t be able to use it on CDMA carriers like Sprint and Verizon.

Many sites, including a few of our competitors, were unsure why Apple made this move. Thankfully, we have the answers.

Presuming all iPhone 4S variants have the necessary CDMA hardware, we explore the history, and answer why, you cannot activate that CDMA radio on a GSM carrier. And, we’ll also tackle the difficult questions for CDMA customers of roaming on GSM that iPhone 4S has raised.

And yes, there’s a history lesson involved.

First, a primer. CDMA is the abbreviation for Code Division Multiple Access, and its more modern version, CDMA2000, which is the network that Sprint, Verizon, MetroPCS, Leap/Cricket, and others use today as their primary network. GSM/UMTS are the (2G/3G, respectively) networks that T-Mobile and AT&T use.

GSM/UMTS is primarily used in Europe and much of Asia. CDMA is the predominant network in the Americas, and portions of Europe. While CDMA does not have a technical future, its diminishing cost has driven it to developing nations, while GSM/UMTS are migrating to the newer LTE technology. As such, Sprint and Verizon will also eventually be using LTE as their primary networks.

Up until now, there have been practically zero phones that operated on both CDMA, and GSM/UMTS, in the same country. There are a plethora of international devices however that operate on the frequencies used abroad, as well as networks locally. Even when devices supported both CDMA 3G and GSM 2G, they rarely have supported the U.S. GSM, UMTS, and CDMA frequencies at once.

Much of this has been at the behest of US carriers. Regulatory concerns crop up once CDMA and GSM carriers can interact with one-another. Specifically, each and every carrier fears that the FCC may begin to mandate that the carriers act homogeneously. If the carriers can claim technical barriers to that, then they can stave off FCC mandates regarding roaming, interoperability, unlocking of devices, stolen device databases, and… well, we’ll end the run-on sentence there.

This makes iPhone 4S a bit of a game changer. Technologically, there’s nothing stopping a Sprint or Verizon customer from accessing AT&T’s “4G” GSM/UMTS/HSPA+ network. They could also theoretically access T-Mobile’s 2G GSM network.

However, they can’t. The reason is aforementioned paragraph regarding why the carriers have not wanted this innovation; they don’t want all the carriers being interoperable, as it opens the door to regulation. As such, none of the roaming agreements are in-place to allow for Sprint and Verizon customers to fall back to GSM/UMTS/HSPA, nor is there a roaming agreement for AT&T or T-Mobile customers to hop on Sprint and Verizon.

Now we start to see how this situation came about. Of course, if your iPhone is locked to AT&T, activating on Sprint or Verizon is not going to happen, so Apple simply disabled CDMA at the firmware level.

GSM carriers have abhorred the more-robust CDMA2000, some in Europe even made it illegal to deploy such a network in many areas through regulation and “discretionary mandates”. As such, international roaming in places like Brazil, Mexico, and elsewhere, cannot happen on the GSM side of things.

Apple, out of care to the carriers that are their largest customers, simply is disabling the CDMA portion of the device when initially activated on a GSM/UMTS carrier. This prevents all of these questions, and calls for comprehensive roaming agreements to occur.

It also prevents people from scamming AT&T out of a $400 subsidy, and then running the device right over to MetroPCS or Cricket.

The next question that then comes to mind is why you cannot take a device from Sprint to Verizon, and vice-versa. CDMA, unlike GSM, does not have firm subsidy locks… instead using an antiquated Master Subsidy Lock code system. As such, the risk of people ripping off a carrier is high. Customers have already hijacked “frozen” Verizon iPhone 4 devices and activated them on MetroPCS and other regional carriers, in areas where the devices are compatible (part of MetroPCS’s coverage uses the 1700 MHz frequency, which iPhone does not support currently on CDMA bands).

As such, Apple is again helping the carriers. While Apple cannot (totally) stop jailbreaking, they can ensure that unlocked versions of iPhone 4S are limited to the carriers that have openly accepted unlocked devices with open arms (AT&T, T-Mobile, and the MVNOs that operate on those networks).

Sprint has agreed, years ago, in a settlement to unlock and accept unlocked devices, but the attorneys that took their multi-million dollar payoff have never forced Sprint to enforce the latter part of the settlement. No attorney to date has filed the simple action needed to enforce this settlement. Verizon claims to accept unlocked devices through a similar settlement, but only supports a list of antiquated devices that can be hacked with a common tool — and will not activate a Sprint iPhone 4S, even if the subsidy has been fully paid.

In sum, most of the rules of CDMA vs GSM that Apple has laid out are of their own making, designed to appease the carriers that flagship their devices. The rules are born out of a history of antiquated technological boundaries that are no longer valid. It will be left to consumers to demand that things change.

After weeks of anticipation, HTC has announced a future update for the Inspire 4G smartphone to enable full-speed uploads via FCC documents after customer complaints began to surface that it and the Atrix 4G were artificially limited to 300Kbps upload speeds while the iPhone 4 was unaffected.

Speculation then began to circulate that Apple’s iPhone and the mobile broadband device lineup was exempt from the upload cap in order for AT&T to tout its new “4G” network, while capping other smartphones as it waited to deploy the necessary changes to its network to enable full HSPA+ access for both phones without issue.

Additionally, AT&T has broken its weeks of silence on the issue and confirmed with CNET that the Motorola Atrix 4G will also be updated to support full upload speeds along with the aforementioned Inspire 4G, with the update expected in mid-April.

AT&T has announced plans to launch a total of 12 Android devices throughout the year including the previously announced HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Atrix 4G, and Samsung Infuse 4G along with other yet to be announced devices.

In related news, the carrier has also announced that it plans to launch 20 4G devices throughout the year, with HSPA+ and LTE now considered 4G by AT&T. The first half of the year will focus on HSPA+ devices while the second half of the year will see the launch of LTE devices alongside its network.

Cell phone radio manufacturer Option, best known for its UMTS modems has announced its newest multi-radio modules in the GTM601 and GTM609.

The GTM601 and GTM609 are being touted by the company as the smallest to support voice, GSM / HSPA, CDMA / EV-DO, GPS, and the new GLONASS navigation system.

The modules will also be compatible with Windows Phone 7, Android, MeeGo and Linux.

T-Mobile has announced a further expansion of its HSPA+ data network overlay with customers in Chicago, IL, Colorado Springs, CO, Ft. Wayne, IN, Louisville, KY, and Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington, NC. Along with the new markets, new HSPA+ compatible devices have been announced in the myTouch 4G launching tomorrow and the Dell Mini 10 4G netbook with built-in HSPA+ modem also available tomorrow.

Following up, T-Mobile has expanded its HSPA+ coverage to more cities, with Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss.; Denver, Colo.; Huntsville, Ala.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Norfolk, Va.; Omaha, Neb.; Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento, Calif.; and West Palm Beach, Fla. now covered under the faster service along with availability of the webConnect Rocket USB modem.

T-Mobile has announced in a short press notice that it has expanded its HSPA+ network overlay to more markets, with customers in Boston, MA; Erie, PA; Fresno, CA; Palm Springs, CA; San Diego, CA; Miami, FL; Richmond, VA; Spokane, WA; and Topeka, KS now able to take advantage of the faster 21Mbps network with appropriate hardware, such as the recently released webConnect Rocket USB modem.

AT&T has released an official statement regarding a spate of reports yesterday that involved upload issues across its data network across the country, which have since been centered on a software defect found in network equipment provided by Alcatel-Lucent and caused issues with HSPA upload speeds for smartphone and aircard users.  AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent are currently developing fixes for the issue.

“AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect — triggered under certain conditions – that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices.”

Qualcomm has announced the development of new dual-mode HSPA+ and EVDO Rev. A and B chipsets for femtocells. Such examples of femtocells include the AT&T 3G MicroCell and the Verizon Wireless Network Extender. Qualcomm further states that the chips are the first to combine HSPA+ and CDMA2000 1X/EV-DO Rev. A/Rev. B access.

The chips will allow future femtocell units to offer access to successive network upgrades where and when available. The chipsets will also consist of baseband processors and network integrated RF access for all major bands. The chips will be sampling by the second quarter of this year with full-scale manufacturing by the end of the year.