Jul 03
The UK media is weirdly ablaze this morning over a story about a store attendant who flipped out when a customer refused to stop talking on her phone while at the checkout. But is that rude, or is it now socially acceptable?
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Jun 12
Sony Mobile event invites tease sizable surprise, could mean Xperia Z Ultra
Posted in: Today's Chili
Several French sites report receiving invites (shown above) to a Sony Mobile press event promising a surprise of size while showing off a device’s slender side profile and a stylus. The reference could be a teaser for the rumored Xperia Z Ultra, believed to be a Sony competitor to the Galaxy Notes of the world featuring a 6.44-inch 1080p display and possibly a Snapdragon 800 CPU inside. The buttons also seem to match another leaked image, and invites have also gone out for events in Germany and China on June 25th, while the message itself encourages recipients to “note” it in their calendar.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony
Source: FrAndroid, Xperia Blog
May 18
Sprint was clearly hungry for capacity when it bought spectrum from US Cellular last fall, and it’s at last getting its fill — some of it, at least — by closing the deal today. The carrier has officially taken possession of 20MHz in airwaves across Midwestern cities like Champaign, Chicago and South Bend, as well as 10MHz in St. Louis. The customer handover isn’t quite as grandiose as was mentioned in November, however: Sprint is ultimately adopting 420,000 US Cellular customers, rather than the originally claimed 585,000. It should be a relatively bump-free transition, no matter who’s included in the group. Sprint expects the switch to take several months, and it’s keeping the US Cellular network active while customers go hunting for discounted phones.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint
Source: Sprint
May 12
If you’re still wielding a basic feature phone, you may be familiar with Google SMS Search: it’s a handy tool that lets you text a search query and get a quick result. Or rather, it was a handy tool. Google now confirms that it quietly dropped the service within the past few days, delivering an automated shutdown warning to anyone messaging the short code. A Google employee explains the closure as a simple “streamlining” effort, although we’ve reached out for greater detail. It makes sense that Google would drop SMS Search when basic phones are quickly becoming the minority in a world full of web-friendly smartphones. However, the lack of advance notice could have some in that group upgrading their devices sooner than expected — if that’s even an option in the first place.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Google Product Forums
May 01
Virgin Media doles out many minutes and data to mobile users with its Premiere plan, but it hasn’t had a truly unlimited option for those who don’t want to even think about their calling habits. It’s assuaging those minds today with new VIP tiers that offer unlimited domestic voice, data and text messaging. The exact perks depend on the level of commitment, however. Traditional customers can pay £26 per month (£31 if they’re not already Virgin customers) with promises of unlimited calls to frequently costly 08 numbers. For SIM-only customers, it’s all about the price — while they don’t get the 08 number exception, the £15 they pay per month for otherwise unlimited access is comparatively cheap. The new rates may not always make sense depending on local coverage and a desire for LTE, but we’d at least keep them in mind.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Source: Virgin Media (1), (2)
Apr 29
NEC Terrain for AT&T spied in leaked press photos, packs a QWERTY keyboard
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Memory of a time where an NEC phone graced US shores escapes us, but the prolific — and often accurate — @evleaks has tweeted a press shot that signals a handset from the Japanese firm might soon arrive stateside. Emblazoned with AT&T’s logo and reportedly dubbed the NEC Terrain, the Android-toting smartphone shares its front real estate with a screen, a camera and a QWERTY keyboard. No other details were spilled with the image, but with a name like Terrain and what looks like a rubberized border, we wouldn’t be surprised if it could withstand a fair amount of rough and tumble.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, AT&T
Source: @evleaks (Twitter)
Apr 12
Verizon upgrade eligibility extends to a full two years, New Every Two credits expire April 15th
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Verizon subscribers, we hope your device habits don’t revolve too closely around that 20-month upgrade cycle: it’s about to get longer. Big Red has confirmed that upgrade eligibility will now start only after the two-year contract is up. Those who have an existing contract that expires in January 2014 or later will have to wait four more months before they can get hardware at a discounted rate. Ostensibly, the shift is to let customers count on a lone upgrade date for all of their connected devices, but let’s not beat around the bush: the longer intervals are bad for any subscriber whose desire for a new phone or tablet doesn’t perfectly dovetail with their contract length.
There are a few other changes afoot. Those on multi-line accounts can still share their upgrades as long as it’s within the same device category, but they won’t have the option to transfer a hotspot or tablet upgrade. It won’t be as easy to upgrade to that Galaxy Note 10.1, unfortunately. Likewise, anyone who’s been hoarding New Every Two upgrades since the program ended in 2011 may want to use them this weekend — the credits expire on April 15th. While these last two changes won’t affect as many of us, they reinforce the notion that Verizon would really prefer that we hold on to the gear we’ve got.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, Verizon
Via: Droid-Life
Source: Verizon
Apr 08
We all increasingly rely on non-verbal forms of communication—email, IM, texting—to let people know what’s going on in our lives. That’s great for us, but it’s causing headaches in Hollywood when it comes to creating drama. More »
Apr 03
The Cellphone Turns 40 Today
Posted in: Today's Chili
Forty years ago today, senior Motorola engineer Marty Cooper made one very important phone call. From midtown Manhattan, Marty called Joel Engel, then the head of rival research department Bell Labs. When Joel picked up, Marty uttered something rather unexpected: “Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cellphone, a real handheld portable cellphone.” More »
Mar 24
T-Mobile must not want to wait for a special event to lure customers through its doors: it just launched its revamped, decidedly UnCarrier-like plans a couple of days early. As became clearer this weekend, unlimited voice, text and basic data are now things you can take for granted on Magenta’s network. It’s only the cap on throttle-free data that determines how much you pay: rates sold through T-Mobile itself start at $50 for a basic 500MB of online use and climb in steady 2GB increments that each cost an extra $10 per month, up to a total of 12.5GB for $110. You can still get truly unlimited service if you want, for $70 — although you’ll have to bolt on a separate hotspot plan that the capped tiers get for free. Costs at resellers are expected to run slightly higher, but it’s still clear that T-Mobile is aggressively courting those of us who see internet access as the very reason to have a smartphone in the first place.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, T-Mobile
Via: TmoNews (Twitter), The Verge
Source: T-Mobile
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