MyTouch 4G Confirmed for November 3

From DailyTech: Depending on your political leanings, T-Mobile is offering an opportunity to celebrate or forget the results of the mid-term election November 2 by releasing the MyTouch 4G the next day. The news comes via T-Mobile's Facebook page and confirms not only the launch date, but the destined-to-be-controversial moniker of the Android 2.2-powered device we previewed a few weeks ago.

A quick recap of the MyTouch 4G's specs tells us that it boasts comparable hardware to other top-tier Android offerings, with a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.8" WVGA touchscreen, dual cameras (front-facing VGA and rear-facing 5-megapixel), and comes pre-loaded with an 8GB microSD card. What really sets it apart, though, is the fact that it is the second smartphone (first being the G2) that supports T-Mobile's high-speed HSPA+ network, which the carrier claims delivers "4G"-like speeds.

"Designed specifically to deliver today’s 4G speeds on T-Mobile’s rapidly expanding HSPA+ network, the myTouch 4G will offer customers blazing fast access to websites, applications, videos, downloads and more," T-Mobile said.

This claim is sure to infuriate the other carriers, particularly AT&T, which has had gripes with T-Mobile's "4G" claims in the past. "I think that companies need to be careful that they're not misleading customers by labeling HSPA+ as a 4G technology. We aren't labeling those technologies as 4G," AT&T Spokesperson Seth Bloom told DT in May.

In fact, HSPA+ is generally labeled as something closer to 3.5G, considering it is an upgrade to existing 3G technology, and not a true fourth-generation system like LTE, which all the major carriers plan to eventually utilize. One caveat: In an independent study conducted by PhoneScoop, T-Mobile's HSPA+ network held up against and, in some cases, outperformed Sprint/Clearwire's WiMax, generally accepted as 4G. The logic follows, then, that if Sprint can brand devices as "4G," so can T-Mobile.

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