Cricket, a subsidiary of Leap Wireless, started offering the iPhone last year. Initially, it was the only prepaid carrier offering the popular smartphone, but it has since been joined by Straight Talk and other low-cost competitors.
So it’s no surprise that the wireless provider announced today that it’s revamping its iPhone plans, bringing them more inline with its Android plans and the competition. The service now starts at $50 for unlimited everything… Read More
The U.S. wireless carrier AT&T this morning introduced its data-hungry subscribers to some powerful new tiers.
Going beyond AT&T’s existing options topping out at twenty gigs, the new options are now available to add thirty, forty or fifty gigabytes of cellular data to your shared plan of choice. Beware, however – these come at high prices.
The $30GB a month tier will set you back an unsettling $300 a month, with the 40GB and 50GB tiers commanding an alarming $400 a month and a whopping $500 a month, respectively. These prices include unlimited calling and texting. Should you need only data, AT&T will happily sell you data-only tiers for your tablet and laptop, with the top 50GB plan running $335 a month… Read More
U.S. carrier AT&T today expanded its 4G LTE coverage in several markets and now word has reaches us that the company has signed an interesting roaming deal with The Cloud to offer travelers free access to 16,000 Wi-Fi spots in the United Kingdom. The Cloud is a BSkyB-owned Wi-Fi hotspot provider and the agreement entails up to one gigabyte of free roaming data.
RIM has always bested the iPhone and other handset vendors with reasonable service terms that typically include free or inexpensive messaging and data for BlackBerry users traveling abroad. While Apple’s dealings with the world’s carriers don’t included these benefits, it’s nice that one of the most important carriers globally is now appeasing to its customers with a fair roaming deal… Read More
The nation’s top carrier, Verizon Wireless, on Friday launched new wireless plans that are only aimed at owners of 3G-enabled smartphones and tablets. New prepaid plans expand options for “budget-minded consumers”, Verizon said.
There are two plans to choose from: one costing $60 a month and the other a $70 value, tailored to your monthly data needs… Read More
I didn’t care much about cellular data tracking apps until I gave up my unlimited data plan, a couple months ago. Then all the sudden it became important to me to figure out how much data I was using and make sure I didn’t go over my allocated amount. My wife and I share 4GB, and although we’ve historically never been close to using all of that, I like to keep an eye on my usage, just to feel safe.
So I downloaded the DataMan app, which has served its purpose wonderfully ever since as it provided me with real time data usage. One thing always bothered me about this app though: it just looked bad.
But this morning, I received an email from Johnny Ixe, the developer of DataMan, letting me know about his new app called DataMan Next. It serves the exact same purpose as DataMan, except it looks much better. I’d actually go as fasr as saying it looks beautiful, but you might want to see for yourself… Read More
A few months ago, we passed along a report that Facebook was urging its employees to swap out their iPhones for Android devices. It knows Google’s mobile OS has continued to be an afterthought to iOS, and it’s looking to change that.
Well according to some newly-released data, that’s probably a smart move. Enders analyst Benedict Evans has just published Facebook’s mobile app user stats, and, as of November last year, Android users vastly outnumber those on iOS… Read More
“Just chalk it up to marketing.” That’s how a lot of pundits have explained Apple’s success over the years, indicating that the company devotes a lot of its resources to, and greatly depends on, marketing to sell products.
But according to a new report from Asymco analyst Horace Dediu, Apple spends far less on marketing than the competition does. In fact, when it comes to these kinds of expenses, Samsung spends more than anyone… Read More
After two years of sitting on the sidelines, Sprint will finally be landing the iPad this fall. Once they become available, the carrier will be offering LTE versions of both the new iPad and the iPad mini.
And it looks like it has some new data plans to go with the new tablets. The company announced last night that starting November 11, it will be offering new 4G tablet data plans starting as low $15… Read More
Apple purchased a 160 acre plot of land in Prineville, Oregon from Oregon’s Crook County back in February of this year for $5.6 million. And it immediately built a 10,000 square foot modular data center on the property.
Well this morning, reports are coming in that Apple has started work on its main data center at the Oregon location. It’s begun clearing and flattening land to make room for one of two, 338,000 square-foot buildings… Read More
Have you noticed Verizon cellular data usage increments on your iPhone 5 while connected to Wi-Fi? If so, then you definitely want to apply a recently released carrier settings update, which was issued to Verizon subscribers to fix the issue.
The update will change the Verizon carrier settings from 13.0 to 13.1. Although, under most circumstances, cellular data should not be used while connected to a Wi-Fi network, that appears to be exactly what has been happening for some customers. Read More
Apple’s already building another 500,000 square foot data center and a smaller tactical data center, both adjacent to its existing $1 billion iCloud facility in Maiden, North Carolina (which almost didn’t get built). In addition, the company operates a data center in Newark, California and has revealed plans to build another 500,000 square feet data center in Prineville, Oregon and an additional $1 billion facility in Reno, Nevada. And if that wasn’t enough, a report out this morning has it that another massive data center will crop up in Hong Kong SAR, China… Read More
AT&T kickstarted some controversy last month when it announced that customers would have to switch to one of its Shared data plans to utilize iOS 6′s new FaceTime over Cellular feature.
But it looks like if this is a deal-breaker for you, you can head over to Verizon. The carrier has just confirmed that FaceTime over Cellular will work with any of its available data plans… Read More
AT&T just pushed out a press release announcing that it will be carrying the iPhone 5. As Apple announced, customers will be able to pre-order it on September 14, or purchase it on the 21st.
But far more interesting is the fact that AT&T also mentioned in the press release that customers that still have unlimited data plans, will be able to keep using them with the new iPhone… Read More
T-Mobile USA, the nation’s fourth-largest wireless company and the sole major U.S. carrier without the iPhone, today announced new unlimited “4G” data plan, as promised last month. The new plan will set you back $20 a month if you’re on T-Mobile’s Value plan or $30 a month for those on the Classic voice and text plan.
The new plans do away with speed limits or bandwidth throttling, the carrier said. Though T-Mobile continues with its dubious practice of advertising its network and these new plans under the “4G” moniker, in the carrier’s terminology this really means iPhone-compatible high-speed 3G HSPA+ as T-Mobile is way overdue with 4G LTE deployment… Read More
AT&T made good on its promise today and rolled out its new Mobile Share data plans. The launch comes amidst swirling controversy regarding the plans, and the new FaceTime over Cellular feature in iOS 6.
The new plans look extremely similar to Verizon’s Share plans, where subscribers start with unlimited talk and text, and then pay extra according to how much data and how many smartphones they need… Read More
The unlimited data plan, for all intents and purposes, is dead on two of America’s largest wireless carriers. Both AT&T and Verizon recently switched to Shared data plans, and they’re not looking back.
But while other operators are eradicating the unlimited plan, T-Mobile is embracing it. The carrier just announced that it is going to start offering new unlimited, unthrottled data plans next month… Read More
Some news today for AT&T customers hoping to take advantage of the new FaceTime over Cellular feature in iOS 6. The carrier has just announced that it won’t be charging subscribers separately for the service.
The news comes in the wake of ongoing criticism, after warning messages started popping up in handsets running iOS 6 last month indicating that the feature would be an additional cost for AT&T customers.
But there is one major stipulation… Read More
Apple is moving the ball forward to build a new data center in Prineville, Oregon. Having purchased an 160-acre parcel in Prineville from Crook County for $5.6 million back in February, the company has now filed paperwork with the city officials revealing plans to build a monster 500,000 square feet data center facility akin to that in Maiden, North Carolina which powers iCloud… Read More
