By Don Clark, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

New U.S. legislation that sharply boosts visa fees to pay for tighter border security may play well in some parts of the country, but the applause is faint in Silicon Valley.
The measure, signed into law by President Barack Obama on Friday, is expected to raise operating costs for outsourcing firms that use large numbers of foreign-born employees to serve their U.S. customers. But the biggest impact, critics say, is to increase the perception that America is becoming more protectionist and hostile toward foreigners.
“It’s adding to the negativity about America,” said Vivek Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at the University of California and research associate at Duke University who studies immigration issues. “The money raised is insignificant and the damage is huge.”

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Of the seemingly countless variants of the Galaxy S that Samsung’s in the process of deploying around the globe, one stands out in a couple very unique (and important) ways: Sprint’s Epic 4G. The Epic hangs on to a couple of the Galaxy line’s most important characteristics — namely the 1GHz Hummingbird processor and the 4-inch Super AMOLED display — but adds in a sliding landscape QWERTY keyboard, support for the wickedly fast WiMAX network that Sprint shares with partner Clearwire, and a handful of other notable one-off customizations.

We’ve already taken a look at two of the other US-bound Galaxy S models — AT&T’s Captivate and T-Mobile’s Vibrant — but it shouldn’t take more than a quick glance at the Epic to tell you that this is a very, very different beast. Becoming just the second WiMAX phone released in the States (and the first with a physical keyboard), this is a pretty critical release for Sprint at a time when its subscriber count is just starting to pick up after several quarters of decline — and making things even more interesting is the fact that Sprint’s first WiMAX handset — HTC’s EVO 4G — is simply one of the best phones we’ve ever reviewed. In other words, yeah, you could say that the Epic’s got a lot to live up to. Is it up to the task? Let’s find out.

Continue reading Epic 4G review

Epic 4G review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a great time in a phone user’s life when they receive a major software update. I remember eagerly awaiting the eclair update for my trusty ol’ HTC Hero.

I also remember the frustration of seeing so many other phones getting the software bump, while I was left in the cold.

You HTC Incredible owners out there are probably feeling a bit like this right now (unless, of course, you grabbed that leaked version). I feel your pain, but I also offer remedy: Froyo should be coming your way this week.

Mashable claim that their magical mysterical (yes, I made that word up) anonymous sources are telling them that your Incredible phone should get the bump to the incredible Froyo come August 18th.

According to my advanced calculations, that’s this Wednesday. This aligns well with the “early August” estimates, we heard back in July, but, as we always say, don’t set your hopes too high: release dates for software updates are notoriously moveable.

[via Engadget]