Hasta La Gadget!

Right now there are four major mobile carriers in the U.S., Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. When AT&T’s bid to acquire T-Mobile ultimately fell through, nobody thought that another major carrier would immediately move to pick up the fourth largest U.S. carrier. Given that considerable time has passed since that failed attempt, a new report by The Wall Street Journal claims that Sprint is gearing up to bid for T-Mobile U.S. If it goes through, rather if regulators let it go through, the U.S. market will effectively be left with three major carriers.

It is reported that Sprint is likely to make an offer in the first half of 2014, the offer is likely to be to the tune of $20 billion. Sprint’s bid is almost half of what AT&T offered back in 2011, around $39 billion. There’s an obvious advantage here for Sprint to consider this bid. Bringing T-Mobile’s subscriber base and infrastructure on board will enable Sprint to launch much more effective competition against behemoths like Verizon and AT&T. Both Sprint and T-Mobile’s subscriber bases account for less than what AT&T holds, roughly 109 million. The question remains though, is Sprint going to face regulatory hurdles that might make it impossible to pursue this any further? That remains to be seen. There has been no official comment from either Sprint or T-Mobile confirming if talks are under way. So before a bid is officially made, we must hold on to those grains of salt.

Sprint Wants To Buy T-Mobile [Rumor] original content from Ubergizmo.

It has been nearly one month after the original Samsung Galaxy S3 on T-Mobile was on the receiving end of the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean mobile operating system, which means it should not be too long after that that the LTE-enabled model of the smartphone, too, would want to pick up some Android 4.3 Jelly Bean goodness for itself. Well, we are more than glad to announce that T-Mobile has already announced the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update will be arriving on the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE (t999L), where it will feature baseband version T999LUVUBMK4. This particular update will be making its way through Over The Air (OTA) as well as via Samsung’s Kies computer software.

Once you have updated your Galaxy S3 LTE smartphone to baseband version T999LUVUBMK4, you might just realize that your smartphone now supports Samsung’s very own Galaxy Gear smartwatch alongside its Knox security software. Samsung also did mention that the Premium Suite update will be accompanied by advanced camera options and a slew of other new features. Better late than never, I say. Oh yeah, and one more thing – if you are about to make that update, it is always a good idea to perform a backup of the existing handset just in case. [Press Release]

T-Mobile Galaxy S3 LTE Receives Android 4.3 Jelly Bean Update original content from Ubergizmo.

After months of speculation and agonizing wait, Galaxy Note 2 owners on T-Mobile have finally received the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update. That’s right, Android 4.3 for T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 is rolling out right now. The update has already been released for a number of other Samsung smartphones on rival U.S. carriers, T-Mobile has been slightly late in rolling it out, the update didn’t come out on the day that was mentioned on the leaked release schedule.

Apart from changes to the TouchWiz user interface and a few visual enhancements, Android 4.3 for Galaxy Note 2 brings support for Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. It also brings the improvements that are part and parcel of Android 4.3. The update weighs in at just over 615MB, so you might want to be connected to a strong Wi-Fi connection prior to downloading it. Due to the fact that T-Mobile is rolling out the update in stages, it might take some time before it ultimately pops up in your area. Other methods of downloading the update include manually refreshing the update menu in settings app or hooking up the Galaxy Note 2 to the computer and initiating the update through Samsung Kies software. With Android 4.3 Jelly Bean finally out of the way, subscribers can now settle down and wait for Android 4.4 KitKat to drop sometime next year.

Android 4.3 For T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 Released original content from Ubergizmo.

AT&T and T-Mobile used to have a pretty good working relationship, to the point where AT&T had even announced their plans to acquire T-Mobile and merge both companies into a giant carrier. The deal was met by a lot of opposition and has since fallen through, and it looks like both companies’ relationship had tanked in the process as well. Now it looks like both companies will be competing with each other again, and not just for customers, but for spectrum as well. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, it has been suggested that both AT&T and T-Mobile will be making a bid for a 700MHz “A block” of spectrum owned by Verizon.

This particular block of spectrum has the ability to send signals over a long distance and is able to do a better job at penetrating buildings, which we guess could be welcome by AT&T and/or T-Mobile customers who find that reception in buildings might not necessarily be ideal. Verizon has expressed interest in selling off the spectrum and stated that they will not be letting it go for anything less than $2.75 billion. It has been suggested that AT&T’s purchase of the spectrum would make more sense since it would play nicely with the carrier’s current network, as opposed to T-Mobile which uses frequencies of 900MHz.

Of course T-Mobile could have other uses for it, but as it stands it is unclear as to what T-Mobile might want to do with it. In any case we’ll have to wait and see what results from this, so check back with us at a later date for the details!

AT&T And T-Mobile Reportedly Looking To Bid On Verizon’s 700MHz Spectrum original content from Ubergizmo.

Sony launched the Xperia Z1 smartphone earlier this year and since then it has been rumored that T-Mobile is going to carry it. The carrier itself is yet to confirm if it has any intentions to carry the latest from Sony, but we have already seen a render of the device with its branding on it. Another render of the T-Mobile Xperia Z1 has surfaced, this time showing the front of the device as well. Magenta hasn’t made an official announcement as yet and it is not known when it intends to do so.

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T-Mobile Xperia Z1 Render Surfaces Once Again original content from Ubergizmo.