Hasta La Gadget!

The pro-corporate, anti-majority political class is sustaining itself with a lot of self-serving myths these days. Guess you need to do that when you’re dismantling the social contract. In the closed society that is Insider Washington, rites and mythologies are used to promote the otherwise-indefensible: the cruel irrationality of Austerity Economics.

Dean Baker, for example, points out that Democrats must “prove their manhood” by cutting a treasured and valuable program like Social Security. (Funny: Republicans are never asked to do the same.) This initiatory rite is something like a Mafioso’s “earning his bones” as a “made man” by “whacking” somebody – in this case, his own grandmother.

Here’s another myth: Government must “act more like a business” through spending cuts. Is that really what a smart business person would do? What savvy executive would tell his managers to cut spending by a certain percentage over the next ten years when she or he doesn’t even know what the sales figures will look like?

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T-Mobile has released its fourth quarter earnings for 2012, showing a drop in revenue over the fourth quarter of 2011 to $4.9 billion, a 5.2-percent decrease. Still, the revenues represent a second quarter of growth for the carrier, which also saw growth in both its Monthly4G plans and branded prepaid customers. While the data shows both gains and losses for the company, overall things were less than fantastic.

While things are looking up for the carrier’s prepaid plans, contract customers are down, with revenue from branded contracts dropping 4.3-percent to $3.4 billion. This is a 13.9-percent year -on-year drop, with ARPU declining 2-percent to $55.47, a 4.7-percent year-on-year decrease. Still, the company is seeing good things with its BYOD (bring your own device) option, with the carrier seeing about 100,000 new iPhone subscribers per months under the program.

Per the announcement, T-Mobile has seen a customer increase from its Mobile Virtual Network Operator partners, with the numbers growing by 275,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, nearly a 5x jump over the Q4 of 2011. Likewise, its B2B channel experienced growth last quarter to 6.4 million, a 7-percent increase. Despite the losses it experienced, the carrier sees good things in its future.

T-Mobile USA’s President and CEO John Legere had this to say: “T-Mobile finished 2012 on a strong note, providing a foundation for executing even bigger game-changing moves in 2013. As the ‘Un-carrier,’ our promise is simple. You will see us put customers at the center of everything we do going forward, and that means giving them fair and simple wireless experiences in a way that other carriers never have before.”

[via Business Wire]

T-Mobile releases 2012 Q4 data, shows $4.9 billion in revenues is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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By Teresa Maples for YourTango.com

If you are asking yourself, “Is he cheating?” you probably sense something is off in your relationship. Too often women doubt themselves in favor of accepting a cheater’s lies. But “Is he cheating?” is a brave question to ask. It means you trust your own instincts instead of the lies he’s offering.

Facing the reality of your relationship can be difficult. However, it also can help you see your relationship more clearly. The following six steps can help you grow emotionally, whether or not he is actually cheating on you:

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Is it a good thing that T-Mobile’s US operation is in the crosshairs of a MetroPCS merger? We’ll see, but meanwhile the operator again shed revenue, customers and profit in Q4 2012. Total revenue dropped during the quarter to $4.9 billion from $5.2 billion last year, while income was down a whopping 25.1 percent to $1.05 billion year-over-year. Meanwhile the company lost 515,000 branded contract customers compared to 492,000 last quarter, representing a ‘churn’ rate of 2.5 percent in that category, a slight improvement over last year. All that culminated in a rather miserable year for the carrier, which earned $424 million less than in 2011 ($4.9 billion), while showing a total loss of $6.4 billion thanks to depreciation and impairment charges. Meanwhile, parent Deutsche Telecom said recently that MetroPCS would merge with T-Mobile as early as April — which sounds like it can’t come soon enough.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, T-Mobile

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Source: T-Mobile

David Spade will play the lead in ABC’s “Bad Management” pilot, EW reports.

The plot revolves around an egotistical female boss (Sharon Hogan) at a luxury goods department store, who finds the status quo affected when the owner’s son (Spade) joins the company and wants to target a younger demographic using hot trends and sex. Spade will be joined by the pilot’s writer/executive producer Rachael Harris, who will play another employee at the store.

The pilot will be in second position to Spade’s “Rules of Engagement,” the resilient backup player that CBS often relies on to fill holes in its midseason schedule. If the bubble show is finally cancelled, Spade will be free to move on to “Management,” otherwise the ABC comedy will have to find a new lead.

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