Cellular

Verizon launches unlimited data plan with 10GB of LTE tethering, offers free iPhone 7/Plus

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 13, 2017

Verizon is no longer the only major US carrier without an unlimited data plan. As announced yesterday, the carrier's newly launched Unlimited plan gives you unlimited 4G data, texts and minutes on a single smartphone or tablet in exchange for $80 per month, or $45 per month for four lines ($180 total).

Those prices entail paper-free billing and AutoPay and exclude taxes. It's unclear if Verizon's access fees of $20 per month per smartphone and $10 per month per tablet apply to the new plan.

Like with other carriers, you don't really get truly unlimited data: consume more than 22 gigabytes of 4G LTE data per line in any given month and the system begins prioritizing usage behind other customers in the event of network congestion. For a limited time only, the big red carrier is offering a free iPhone 7/Plus, Google Pixel or another flagship smartphone to those who'd switch to the new plan.

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Truphone rolls out global data plans with Apple SIM in 40 countries

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 7, 2017

Truphone today announced that its 4G data plans aimed at cellular iPads with Apple SIM are now available in 40 countries around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Germany. Truphone's pay-as-you-go roaming plans start at €8 (about $8.5) for 500 megabytes of cellular data over 30 days and go all the way up to €20 (about $21.3) for 3 gigabytes of high-speed 4G cellular data over 30 days. They'll also treat first-time customers to 100 megabytes of data at no charge.

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Apple sues Qualcomm over withholding $1B as ransom in Korean legal investigation

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 21, 2017

Apple on Friday announced it's suing iPhone modem supplier Qualcomm, which owns many wireless patents, “after years of disagreement over what constitutes a fair and reasonable royalty”. The suit argues Qualcomm withheld nearly $1 billion in payments it owes to Apple as retaliation because Apple cooperated with the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Last month, Korean regulators slapped Qualcomm with a $850 million fine over its patent-licensing practices.

Apple's suit, filed in federal district court in the Southern District of California, accuses Qualcomm of charging royalties for technologies “they have nothing to do with.” Responding to the complaint, Qualcomm called Apple's claims groundless and said they “misrepresented facts”.

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Qualcomm under fire from FTC over allegedly forcing Apple to use its baseband modem chips

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 17, 2017

Now we know why Apple has made the controversial decision to dual-source baseband modem chips for iPhone 7 from both Intel and Qualcomm. Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged Qualcomm with monopolizing baseband modems used in smartphones, saying the firm's leveraged its position to force Apple to use its baseband chips in exchange for lower patent royalties.

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Tips for saving cellular data while playing Super Mario Run

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 31, 2019

Super Mario Run is one of the biggest hit games to launch on the App Store this year, and although it’s getting a lot of attention from both Nintendo and Super Mario fans, it also comes with a big caveat: it requires an active internet connection.

For anyone who plays the game at home on Wi-Fi, this isn’t a big deal. Unfortunately, if you’re relying on a cellular data network to play, then you might end up using more data than you’ve bargained for.

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Apple denies throttling LTE performance of Verizon iPhone 7

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 11, 2018

Bloomberg today shared research conducted by Twin Prime and Cellular Insights in a story suggestively headlined “Apple's Chip Choices May Leave Some iPhone Users in Slow Lane” which asserts Apple may have throttled LTE performance of the Verizon iPhone 7 handsets to make them perform about as well as the AT&T iPhone 7 models.

Apple in a statement shot down the report and denied throttling, insisting there's “no discernible difference” in wireless performance between various iPhone 7 models.

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Data Saver mode is reportedly coming to Facebook Messenger in a few weeks

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 20, 2016

I use Facebook Messenger literally every single day to message my friends and family and have always hated how the mobile app discriminately downloads media content regardless of whether I open the message or not.

Sometimes my friends would attach really long videos or high-resolution shots to their messages, prompting me to completely disable cellular access for Messenger on my iPhone, but then I don't receive their texts on the go.

Wouldn't it be better if Messenger handled data-hungry attachments more intelligently when the user is connected to a cellular network? As per a report by The Next Web a few days ago, a new data saver option is indeed coming to Messenger in a few weeks.

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