Hasta La Gadget!

After a bunch of rumors, last week the merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS became official. At the time, T-Mobile executives were saying that the merger would close sometime in the first half of 2013, and today, T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom is getting a little more specific about that window. In an interview with German newspaper Boersenzeitung (as reported by Reuters), Deutsche Telekom CFO Timotheus Hoettges said that money probably won’t change hands until the second quarter of next year.

“The transaction is not likely be carried out until the second quarter of 2013,” Hoettges said. The deal, which will be a reverse merger with MetroPCS buying out T-Mobile, will end with Deutsche Telekom owning 74% of the US-based budget carrier and MetroPCS getting a cool $1.5 billion. Current MetroPCS customers have a little while to wait before they’re taken under T-Mobile’s wing, though, as we’re finding out today that the merger won’t close for a few more months at least.

It’s easy to see why Deutsche Telekom wants to buy MetroPCS, as doing so will give T-Mobile the boost it needs here in the US. After the merger is complete, T-Mobile will have an edge when it comes to competing against AT&T and Verizon, the two biggest players in the US mobile market. This merger also means that Deutsche Telekom can try to expand its US efforts without keeping all of its eggs in one basket – if it doesn’t work out, the company can just sell off MetroPCS and keep T-Mobile going.

In other words, T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom are in for a few very exciting months. MetroPCS is very popular when it comes to budget carriers, so it should prove to be a good buy for Deutsche Telekom. We’ll see if that’s the case soon enough, as it shouldn’t be too much longer before MetroPCS becomes a part of T-Mobile and, by extension, Deutsche Telekom. Stay tuned.

T-Mobile, MetroPCS merger may not close until Q2 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just incase you didn’t know that the Windows Phone 8X was coming to T-Mobile, an alledged roadmap of the carrier’s upcoming releases has made it clear. This roadmap from TmoNews also lists the LG Optimus L9 Android device, a Samsung Toba (possibly a tablet we’ve not heard of before), and a Dell BMW – this very likely being a laptop ready for action with Windows 8, starting up T-Mobile’s laptop efforts again like AT&T is doing with their set of notebook releases. This list goes on as well, showing off a color refresh for the Galaxy S II and a BlackBerry Armstrong device.

The BlackBerry Armstrong has been tipped as being one in the same with the BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900, a device that mixes touchscreen action with a full QWERTY keyboard. There’s a set of new colors for the Galaxy S II – strangely enough – though we must assume that this is mis-typed and means the Galaxy S III which has been getting several colored cases to carriers across the USA recently.

UPDATE: The Samsung Galaxy S II Color is a device in and of itself, bringing on what appears to be specifications replicating the Galaxy S II’s original release on T-Mobile. The BlackBerry device has been confirmed (so to speak, leaked) as the BlackBerry Curve 9315 with a 2.44inch 320 x 240 QVGA display, 1450mAh battery, Blackberry 7.1, 3.2 megapixel camera on the back. The images below also include the Huawei Summit, more than likely the most disappointing phone in the series. The BlackBerry image comes from @evleaks as well.

There’s also a Huawei Summit which will likely be either a smartphone or a mobile hotspot – we’re guessing the first since Huawei has been coming on strong with a variety of mid-market smartphones this summer. The Samsung Toba will likely be another data-connected version of a device they’ve got out in wi-fi only at the moment, and the HTC Windows Phone 8X will more than likely be extremely similar to its international edition.

What we’re seeing here is a set of release dats that places each of the devices either in late October or early November, with the Windows Phone 8X hitting on the 14th of November, the Samsung Toba coming on the 7th of November, and the Optimus L9 coming on the 31st of October. The Samsung Galaxy S II or III with refreshed colors will be coming on the 29th of October, the BlackBerry device on the 24th, and the Dell BMW will be out on the 14th of November.

T-Mobile Roadmap releases Windows Phone 8X on November 14th is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 810 has been introduced as an exclusive release on the carrier here in the USA with Windows Phone 8 at its side. This device will be working with a lovely 4.3-inch OLED WVGA Clear Black display as well as interchangeable shells on its back in both cyan and black – rather similar to the Nokia Lumia 820 with changeable shell for wireless charging as well. The difference between that device and this one appears to be slight – mostly a name-change, as it were.

Users will be able to work with the Lumia 810′s high-powered 8-megapixel camera on the back of this device with Carl Zeiss optics and HD video as well. This device also has a 1.2-megapixel camera up front that Microsoft notes is Skype HD certified. The Lumia 810 brings with it a collection of photo-friendly features such as Cinemagraph which will let you make animated GIFs – strange stuff! Another back-shooter-ready feature on this device is Group Shoot, allowing you to pick the best faces and smiles from a set of quickly shot photos of a group of people (or just one person, if you prefer.)

Of course you’ll also have Nokia Music with a lovely collection of advertisement-free, registration and subscription-free music tracks. You’ve got offline play and playlist availability as well – also free – and the ability to access playlists created by “an expert team of global and regional musicologists.” Sounds pretty nice right out of the box!

This device also works with Nokia City Lens, a GPS and camera-utilizing service which has you actually looking at the world around you with tags on businesses that you can access with a tap. This feature has been in the works along with Nokia Drive (for voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation) and Nokia Transit (for all the guides you could possibly need) for a very long time now – it’s time for action! The Nokia Lumia 810 is set to release “in the coming weeks” from T-Mobile with a pricing structure attached – it’ll also be working with T-Mobile’s Unlimited plans – 4G to get pumped up!

Lumia 810 brings Nokia Windows Phone 8 magic to T-Mobile is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With a collection of specifications that’ll not quite beat the competition but, together, create a smartphone that’s ready for the Fall, LG re-introduces the Optimus L9 for T-Mobile. This device comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a massive 4.5-inch qHD display with Gorilla Glass 2 across the front. This device works with T-Mobile’s own 4G network and their Unlimited data plan as well as a dual-core processor to keep you quick in more ways than one.

This device has a 5 megapixel camera on the back with a collection of LG’s newest and most entertaining features. One example is their “Cheese Shot” which allows you to simply say “cheese” loud enough for the phone to hear when you’ve got the feature activated to take a photo. This device also has panorama photo mode and continuous shot – for rapid-fire shooting.

You’ve got SlackerRadio onboard for radio stations galore, SmartShare for DLNA-capable pushing of your media to HDTVs, and BLuetooth 3.0 for wireless connections as well. This device works with Mobile Hotspot for shared data, Wi-fi calling, and a lovely 2,150 mAh battery under the hood for lots and lots of uptime. The camera on this device also shoots 1080p video for your favorite memory collecting – with simultaneous video and photos too!

The LG Optimus L9 is a continuation of the series of Optimus devices we saw earlier this year at IFA 2012. This collection sizes up LG’s vision for the smartphone with squared edges and an experience that’s just as lovely on one LG as it is on the next – and here with a dual-core 1GHz processor (OMAP from Texas Instruments) and T-Mobile’s 4G network, you’ll be rolling with speed and power. This device will be available “this fall” from T-Mobile – pricing incoming, too!

LG Optimus L9 unleashed on T-Mobile is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There’s a limited edition Entertainment Weekly magazine out there in the wild right now that contains no less than a fully functional Android smartphone. This Android device is being utilized as an advertisement, with its components spread out apart across a page that works with its tiny 2.3-inch display as an interactive experience. This device has been discovered to essentially be a cut-apart ABO 810, a budget smartphone running Android 2.2 FroYo and costing right around $40 USD if you buy one yourself.

This advertisement page with interactive display was run by the CW, showing commercials for programs like The Arrow and Emily Owens, M.D. – both of them coming to your television set soon. The device shows a commercial or two then moves on to CW’s Twitter page where you’ll see them Tweet in real-time. This means of course that you’re working with a wireless internet connection – and indeed the setup has been discovered to be working with a T-Mobile SIM card inside.

Of course the SIM card is quite likely rather limited in its scope, pre-paid without a doubt. This device still has a microUSB port which means you’ll be able to tinker with it if you like – and charge it too. There’s no keyboard, on the other hand, and it’s almost certainly going to be more than just a little challenge for you to break into this little gem if that’s your goal.

According to the BBC, this isn’t the first time the magazine worked with a video display – back in 2009 they ran an advertisement program with a display created by Americhip. This newest integration, working with 3G data and able to be pulled apart and tinkered with outside the page (though not by intention, we must suspect), make this the strangest – and yes, most technologically advanced – magazine advertisement in the universe today. Time for the next step – full page tablet ads!

[via Mashable]

Entertainment Weekly magazine includes Android-toting display is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.