Hasta La Gadget!

Want to know just when T-Mobile’s LTE network goes live? Not long, if you ask CTO Neville Ray. On stage at CES, he declared that the faster access should go live in Las Vegas within “weeks.” That includes a full-on LTE-Advanced network, and the deployment should be fast with 100 million customers reached in the first half of 2013. Devices? Nothing was immediately confirmed on stage, but Ray and other executives told us and others that the Galaxy Note II’s known latent LTE could be switched on through a firmware update — although we weren’t told when. Magenta customers still have good reason to be happy, however, knowing that their days of being HSPA-only pariahs should soon be over.

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

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T-Mobile knows that the easiest way to get new customers is to give away your service for free, and it’s handing access out like so much candy with its new 4G Connect strategy. Similar to what we’ve seen for Chromebooks, the deal supplies 200MB of free data every month for up to two years, right out of the box. Those who need more than casual email checks on the road just need to pay T-Mobile’s prepaid rates to keep the broadband going. The Dell Inspiron 14z and HP Pavilion dm1 are the only devices available for now that qualify for the 4G Connect plan, but more are lined up for 2013, including (but not exclusively) devices with Qualcomm’s Gobi chipsets in PCs or its Snapdragon chips in Windows RT tablets. T-Mobile tells us that we won’t have to hunt down specific Magenta models, either — once a PC line includes 4G Connect, every American variant should carry the needed modem as a matter of course.

We had the opportunity to try a Pavilion dm1 with 4G Connect, and it’s clear that T-Mobile is largely letting the PC builder take priority. The hardware is very much vanilla on the outside. Most of what you’ll notice, apart from reasonably fast HSPA+ data when you’re away from WiFi, is a custom T-Mobile app. Both a Live Tile and the full app will show usage; diving in shows everything in a simple not-Metro layout with extra options for SMS messaging and topping up when the bandwidth runs low. Apart from having to register the PC in the first place, the service is as simple as we’d care to see. Now, where’s our LTE connection?

Continue reading T-Mobile’s 4G Connect offers free 200MB of monthly data on PCs and tablets (hands-on)

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Mobile, T-Mobile

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Source: T-Mobile

Out of the four major wireless carriers in the U.S., the only one that currently doesn’t have the iPhone as part of its official smartphone library is T-Mobile, although rumors have been picking up in the last few months pointing towards the iPhone finally coming to T-Mo. Even though the iPhone has yet to officially land on T-Mobile, their CEO John Legere had some interesting numbers to share in regards to the iPhone.

During a Citi conference today, Legere shared his carrier is activating 100,000 new iPhones a month with a total of 1.9 million iPhone customers already hogging up T-Mobile’s network. Seeing as these numbers are based on T-Mobile customers who had to acquire an unlocked iPhone model, we assume that number will skyrocket once Apple and T-Mobile announce when the iPhone will officially be available.

Seeing as T-Mobile continually promotes its iPhone pricing plans are cheaper than other carriers by luring those with an unlocked iPhone to its service, that’s probably what helped spark the current rate of iPhone activations. Once again, we could only wonder what that number may jump to once Apple and T-Mobile make their official iPhone-availability announcement.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Lenovo Unveils 4 Dual SIM IdeaPhone Devices, Trade In Value Of A Broken iPhone 4S Is Apparently The Same As A Near-Mint Galaxy S2,

If you’ve ever found yourself on a lone road in the middle of nowhere with zero bars of reception on your phone, it’s quite likely that you’ve entertained the idea of grabbing a signal booster. Wilson Electronics, one of the best known manufacturers of such devices, is introducing its latest Sleek 4G booster at CES. What makes this version different from the models launched just a few months ago? Instead of needing separate boosters for AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, it’s now capable of supporting phones, tablets and hotspots on all three, as well as legacy signals for all other US carriers. Head to the press release for more details.

Update: We actually had a chance to catch up with Wilson Electronics here at CES Unveiled 2013 and spend some brief time with the Sleek 4G signal booster. For a piece of kit that can take virtually any U.S. wireless frequency (with Nextel and WiMAX as the only exceptions) and amplify it, the Sleek 4G signal booster is a quite unassuming black, plastic accessory. The add-on, which is set to retail for $199, works by plugging into any smartphone via USB — yes, your phone will have to be on to power it — and features a switch alongside that port to toggle between AT&T and Verizon’s LTE. Considering the ever-growing sizes of smartphones these days, Wilson’s seen fit to include three sets of extenders in the box to accommodate whatever handset you happen to sporting. It begins shipping next week, so if you typically have issues with cell reception, this could very well be one (pricey) solution.

Joseph Volpe and Sarah Silbert contributed to this report.

Continue reading Wilson Electronics announces Sleek 4G signal booster with multi-carrier support (update: hands-on!)

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Wireless, Mobile

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Hey everybody, there’s a new BlackBerry in town! But don’t get too excited, this isn’t one of them fancy BB10 handsets we’re all so eagerly anticipating, this is yet another 7.1 model. In particular it’s a slight rehash of the Curve you’re all quite familiar with. The 9315 is a QWERTY-sporting device bound for T-Mobile that also features a dedicated BBM key and a 3.2-megapixel camera. And, if you haven’t fully embraced the digital music revolution yet, there’s an FM tuner for pulling in your favorite terrestrial radio stations. (Just in case the internet isn’t providing you with your daily dose of Gangnam Style.) Perhaps the most interesting thing about the new phone is the wallet friendly price of $50 — after a mail-in rebate and with a two year contract, of course. The only question is, how many people will care since a week after its January 23rd debut RIM is set to take the wraps off its next-gen devices. PR awaits you after the break.

Continue reading T-Mobile launches Curve 9315, BlackBerry 7 still alive and kicking

Filed under: Mobile, RIM, T-Mobile

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