It looks like AT&T and Verizon aren’t changing their pricing for the new iPad. The pricing will stay as they were for the iPad 2, so that means still too expensive. I guess the determining factor for people will be LTE. If you get better speeds, maybe more people will fork over money for wireless connectivity.
Source: Apple
Starting March 23rd, Virgin Mobile USA will start to throttle “Beyond Talk” plans for users that have downloaded more than 2.5GB worth of data. Once users cross that magical 2.5GB limit, they’ll see their download speed drop to 256Kpbs – so good luck with that. As this is a pay as you go plan, users can drop more cash on their account and they’ll see their speeds return to normal.
Source: The Verge
You might know Samsung by their high end Galaxy series of smartphones but they do so much more – by so much more, I mean wifi washers and dryers for your future connected home. That’s right, your washer of the future (2012) is wifi connected and can be controlled by your smartphone – even allowing notification reminders, telling you the cycle is done.
Other features of the WF457 include:
• The industry’s largest capacity – large enough to fit 31 bath towels
• Seven Specialty Cycles to take the guesswork out of laundry and provide the best washing performance and stain treatment for specific every day occasions. And unlike most stain treatment cycles that only remove a specific stain, Specialty Cycles treat all potential stains and dirt for the best cleaning results
• Eco Seal to prevent the build-up of residue around the washer door
• Samsung’s exclusive PowerFoam™ Technology, which infuses detergent with air and water to create a powerful cleaning foam that penetrates fabrics quicker
• Steam Cycles in both the washer and matching dryer for enhanced stain removal, wrinkle reduction and fabric refreshing
• Stainless Steel Diamond Drum design that reduces wear and tear on delicate fabrics
• VRT Vibration Reduction Technology Plus™ which makes the washer so quiet, it can be installed on second floors and near bedrooms, even at 1300 revolutions per minute
• Smart Vent Sensing in the DV457 dryer that indicates blockages in vents and notifies consumers when it’s time to clean them, helping with overall appliance performance and reducing potential fire hazards
Source: Samsung
AT&T announced yesterday that is had ending its bid to acquire T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom AG, a bid that began earlier this year but saw fierce opposition from the FCC.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) said today that after a thorough review of options it has agreed with Deutsche Telekom AG to end its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA, which began in March of this year.
The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.
This is a major blow to AT&T, as it will now pay a $4 Billion back-out fee to Deutsche Telekom AG, all while Verizon snatches up wireless spectrum. If the merger did go through, AT&T would have become the largest mobile wireless operator in America (by subscriber base), adding T-Mobile’s spectrum to its expansion into LTE.
The FCC argument was based on consumer protection and the lack of proper competition if there were only to be 3 wireless carriers left in the United States. Now we’ll see Verizon’s play, as many people believed that they were going to make a play for Sprint Wireless – that thought might be put on hold.
Source: AT&T
A small wireless carrier named Republic Wireless is on the verge of doing the unthinkable – offering $19/month voice/text/data plans! While we don’t know the full story yet and the complete details - what we do know is that it will essentially be buying bulk minutes from Sprint and then reselling them to its customers. Does Republic have coverage in your area? Can you get in on this ridiculous deal? Find out everything Nov. 8th and sign up for email updates here.
Source: BGR.Com
Shocking! Sprint has wasted no time releasing a statement that warns against the AT&T buyout of T-Mobile USA. The third place, Sprint Nextel, has about 49.5 million customers, placing it about 1/3 the size of the new AT&T/T-Mobile company – in terms of customer base. You can bet hard currency that Sprint will do all it can to convince both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), that the AT&T buyout is horrible for the US wireless industry and especially bad for the American people. Here are two lines taken from their statement:
“The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, if approved by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would alter dramatically the structure of the communications industry…”
“If approved, the merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80% of the US wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete…”
Sprint, welcome to the club – this is how we’ve (as customers) have felt for the last X amount of years, as realistically, there isn’t enough competition in the US wireless market.
Source: Allthingsd.com
Bombshell! AT&T announced today that it has agreed to buy T-Mobile’s US arm from Deutsche Telekom for a cold $39 Billion in cash and Stock. Chump change – we know. Details are still few and far between but the deal isn’t done yet and AT&T has stated that they’ll need about 12 months to convince all governmental agencies, that the resulting deal will “Better” the US wireless market.
So what do we get with the resulting AT&T-Mobile company? Well, how about 130 million GSM customers, creating a massive national GSM monopoly – as Verizon & Sprint use CDMA. With AT&T expanding into LTE or its next gen cell technology, the combined company will essentiall be able to offer high speed wireless data/voice to 95% of America.
Regardless of the benefits of reaching such a large audience, the buyout essentially leaves only 3 carries for 300 million customers – this can hardly be good for competition. Still want more, click here for the press release.
Source: Engaget.com
Fran Shammo, Verizon CFO, has told attendees at a Morgan Stanley Technology – Media and Telecom conference Tuesday, that tiered data pricing will come this summer but the actual details are still being worked out. What might the plans be based on you ask, well some things being considered are “By Consumption” pricing or “Speed Differentiation” pricing.
This is hardly a surprise, as AT&T has already moved to tiered data pricing but the main question for me still remains: Will all the people that just bought a CDMA iPhone 4 be grandfather in to these new plans? So much for my dream: $100 unlimited data(not 5GB) and unlimited Talk.
Source: BGR.com
“Hello there,
There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.
As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,” and he needed to make a choice.
He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behaviour.
We too, are standing on a “burning platform,” and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour….”
Those powerful words are from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and they came to light in a leaked memo he wrote to employees. Engadget received the memo from one of their sources and are trying to check its authenticity as I write this. If this is true, there is little doubt as to Nokia’s position and how they feel about their future in the smart phone realm.
Elop goes on to explain how Nokia found itself in the situation that it’s in now and the way their competitors have out played them in every step. He doesn’t hold back and there are no bright spots or positives – just a chilling last paragraph of uncertainty….with a glimpse of hope:
“The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.”
Source: Engadget.com
Word from Verizon is that it has broken all previous device sale records with the iPhone 4 and it’s also completely sold out. Well, the first part I tend to believe, as there was strong demand for the iPhone 4 on a better network but as for the “Sold Out” – what device doesn’t sell out know? This is all manufactured by the carriers and OEMs – limited stock = sold out every time! This is especially true if no actual numbers have been released – wait for Monday. Click Here for the Verizon press release.
On a side note, early Verizon iPhone 4 orders have already shipped but may be delayed thanks to the monster snow storm hitting most of the country. Does mother nature work for AT&T? NEXT!!
Source: BGR.com
Verizon hits back with a new iPhone 4 commercial and brings back Paul Marcarelli. Great fake commercial below:
UPDATE: AT&T hits back…..with a somewhat lackluster slap at Verizon’s “call only or data only” limitations. Be the judge:
Nielsen’s has released a new survey on, as the above title states, “Smart phone Share By Race.” This is just the Q4 of 2010 and the overall results aren’t super shocking. Overall, the stats point to a somewhat even avg. share across Whites, Hispanics and African Americans – in respect to each OS. Asian and Pacific Islanders had a much higher adoption of Apple’s iOS then the previously mentioned race/ethnic groups. Bottom line: People of all races love smart phones and they almost all feel the same way about specific mobile operating systems. Click Here to see all the results. NEXT!!
Source: Nielsens.com
Not a good week so far for Microsoft, as it has issued a reason for the mysterious Win Phone 7 data lose issue and has been accused of piggybacking Google’s search results.
WP7: As it turns out, Yahoo is to blame for the massive amount of unaccounted for data usage people had showing up on their monthly wireless phone bills. The issue specifically: “Rafael Rivera demonstrated that Yahoo was sending 25 times more data than other IMAP mail providers whenever the phone interrogates the mail server; though the amount of data transferred each time is not enormous, the effect over the span of a month can be many gigabytes of data.”
Caught Cheating: Husband’s away on a business trip and the gardner comes over to thin out your bed? No, nothing so provocative here, just a classic cause of, “if you can’t beat them, cheat of them!” Google has accused (with evidence) Microsoft of essentially piggybacking of searches: “To test this hypothesis, Google manually set up fake results pages for very random queries, sent 20 engineers home to search on those terms using a computer with the IE8 toolbar, and weeks later those same fake results for those random results showed up on Bing.”
Oh Microsoft – this midlife crisis will not last forever, so sell the sports car and get ride of the gardner. Stay true or exit stage right. NEXT!!
Source: Arstechnica
Verizon is getting all set for the iPhone 4 release this coming week with a website countdown(really), email alerts and TV commercials. Interestingly enough, actual sign-ups for the iPhone 4 on Verizon’s site start at 3a.m. Eastern time – that’s right 3a.m.! Weird right? Well, not really if you take into account what happened to AT&T’s website during last summer’s iPhone 4 sigh-up – the site suffered from slow or no network activity.
Verizon is hoping that potential die-hard iphone 4 customers will stay up and get their orders in before the following morning, when less thirsty upgrader’s sign-updispersing the traffic to Verizon’s site. If speculation about potential iPhone 4 sign-ups is true – Verizon’s site doesn’t stand a chance. NEXT!!
Source: Appleinsider.com
Well looky here. 9To5 Mac has juts posted this interesting little tidbit – that’s right ,the above might just be the official Verizon IPhone 4 pricing. Obviously, they have some kind of source within Verizon but from the look of things – you’re going to be paying about $100 not including sms for unlimited talk + unlimited data (if you sign up early). Still seems ridiculously expensive to me and this is not including mobile hotspot. NEXT!!
Update: These exact specs are now live on Apple.com. Update 2: Apple took down the pricing. Oops;)
Source: 9To5Mac.com
Well what do we have here? Looks like MetroPCS is taking a page out of Verizon’s net neutrality book because they just filed suit in Washington DC over their “…concerns of competitive wireless carriers, like MetroPCS, are addressed.” What does all this mean? To be honest, MetroPCS like Verizon, could be testing the waters, trying to see just how heavily the FCC will stand behind its decision or it might be honestly concerned about its small stake in the US carrier race. regardless, this is most likely going to be chest huffing and tax payer’s dollars wasted. NEXT!!
Source: Engadget
Hug Hug Kiss Kiss
We Shall See – Still Waiting.
Remember when Google and Verizon had a sleep over and then in the morning they gave that press release in favor of “Net Neutrality?” Well, they handed the government a draft of their idea of net neutrality, which came down to all broadband traffic would be treated equal but mobile broadband traffic would be less regulated. Jump several months later and the GOV passes a very similar net neutrality bill, which many in the tech community and in Washington (Senator Frankin) said it didn’t go far enough. Jump to yesterday when Verizon filed suit against the FCC and the net neutrality bill that Verizon originally wanted – kind of.
Obviously Verizon has some kind of beef against the current form of the bill but I see it having a hell of a time standing alone. Verizon, meet me at camera three………..Ok….take some advice. Pull yourself up, dry your eyes and take a deep breath – it’s going to be ok. NEXT!!
Well, the city by the bay just got a little snappier! Sprint announced today that it has flipped that magical 4G switch and has blanketed Frisco with that yummy 4G goodness. San Fran is Sprint’s 71st market to be graced with 4G, so it looks like number 3 isn’t playing around with all this next gen stuff. Click on the link to get the full story. Source BGR.com
NEXT!!