Mar 18

AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop (update)

Posted in: att, iPhone, jailbreak, mobile hotspot, MobileHotspot, Today's Chili
Been using an app like MyWi to enable tethering on your jailbroken iPhone? Then there’s a good chance you’ve already received a message like the one above from AT&T, or perhaps an email like the one after the break. By all accounts, the carrier is now cracking down on all unauthorized tethering, and it’s asking folks engaged in such behavior to either pay up for a proper tethering plan or simply stop tethering altogether — if it doesn’t hear anything back for you after sending the message, AT&T says it will automatically enroll you in a DataPro 4GB tethering plan (at a rate of $45 a month). We should note that all the reports we’ve seen so far are from iPhone users, although that certainly doesn’t mean Android users will simply be allowed to slip by unnoticed. Exactly how AT&T is identifying users isn’t clear, however, and we could well just be seeing the beginning of a cat and mouse game as folks try to discover workarounds to go undetected. More on this one as we get it.

Update: AT&T reached out to us and, yes, this is pretty much all there is to the tale: the “small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan,” are being contacted to either cease and desist or prepare to start paying for the service. No word yet on how many customers have been contacted, but it does seem that they’re all using iPhones.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop (update)

AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 18

AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop

Posted in: att, iPhone, jailbreak, mobile hotspot, MobileHotspot, Today's Chili
Been using an app like MyWi to enable tethering on your jailbroken iPhone? Then there’s a good chance you’ve already received a message like the one above from AT&T, or perhaps an email like the one after the break. By all accounts, the carrier is now cracking down on all unauthorized tethering, and it’s asking folks engaged in such behavior to either pay up for a proper tethering plan or simply stop tethering altogether — if it doesn’t hear anything back for you after sending the message, AT&T says it will automatically enroll you in a DataPro 4GB tethering plan (at a rate of $45 a month). We should note that all the reports we’ve seen so far are from iPhone users, although that certainly doesn’t mean Android users will simply be allowed to slip by unnoticed. Exactly how AT&T is identifying users isn’t clear, however, and we could well just be seeing the beginning of a cat and mouse game as folks try to discover workarounds to go undetected. More on this one as we get it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop

AT&T tells customers using unauthorized tethering methods to pay up or stop originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 17

Why You Can Probably Skip Buying 3G on an iPad 2

Posted in: Apple, att, ipad, ipad 2, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili, verizon

The iPad 2 is only slightly thicker than a pencil. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

When you’re shopping for an iPad 2, you have a dozen configurations to choose from, and some recent discoveries will make this decision much easier for you.

To configure your iPad 2, you have 12 options as you decide on color, storage and, most importantly, data connection — 3G + Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi-only.

It turns out that if you’re one of the millions of people who own an Android phone or an iPhone, you don’t need a 3G model, which will save you a big chunk of cash. Here’s why.

Smartphone hotspots

All U.S. iPhones (upgraded to the latest version of iOS) and the vast majority of Android smartphones now officially support wireless-hotspot capability, which turns the handset into a Wi-Fi connection that can be shared with multiple devices, including the iPad.

So if you go with a Wi-Fi-only model and you want to hop on a cellular connection, you can activate the hotspot option on your smartphone through your carrier, pay $20 per month and connect the iPad to that.

That’s not as seamless as having 3G built into the iPad, but it will save you the extra $130 you’d plunk down on a 3G model. Plus, you’d have to pay at least $15 a month just to use an iPad’s 3G connection anyway.

Jailbreaking for free hotspots

If you’re down with getting a little dirty, you can use your Android phone or iPhone as a hotspot without paying monthly fees by hacking your device.

For Android phones, you just have to root (aka jailbreak) the device with a tool called Unrevoked. For rooted Android phones, there are unauthorized apps called Wireless Tether and Barnacle, which offer free hotspot utilities. You can also flash your device and install CyanogenMod, a different Android skin that includes a built-in hotspot feature. Presto.

For the iPhone, all you have to do is jailbreak with any of the tools out there. (Do note that if you do update to the latest version of iOS, you can’t jailbreak yet.) Jailbreaking will install the Cydia app, which gives you access to the underground Cydia app store. There, you can download the unauthorized app MyWi, which costs a one-time fee of $20, and doesn’t charge you monthly.

GPS Transplant

The Wi-Fi iPad doesn’t have built-in GPS, but if you want to use that beautiful Maps app for navigation, you still don’t need a 3G iPad, so long as you have an iPhone. It turns out that if you hotspot with an iPhone, the connection transfers the GPS to the iPad.

Just connect the iPad to the iPhone’s hotspot, then launch the Maps app, and you’ll see the blue dot tracking your location.

(We’re not sure if this works when hotspotting with an Android phone — if you can confirm, let us know in the comments.)

3G FaceTime

Another surprise is that if you turn your smartphone into a wireless hotspot, you can connect to it with your iPad 2 and use FaceTime videoconferencing.

That’s interesting because typically you can’t use FaceTime over a 3G connection; it’s supposed to only work on a Wi-Fi connection. Because a hotspot shows up as a Wi-Fi connection, you’re basically tricking the iPad 2 into using a 3G connection for FaceTime.


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Mar 16

AT&T Will Charge You for Uncompleted Calls

Posted in: att, Today's Chili, verizon

AT&T's billing policies may be clearly stated in the company's contracts, but they can still be infuriating. Photo: Jason Morrison/Flickr

One Wired reader got an unpleasant surprise upon testing his new AT&T GoPhone last week: Even if a call hasn’t been connected, you are charged for the call after 30 seconds.

Lon McQuillin, a San Mateo, California, writer, decided to test his new pre-paid phone by calling his main cellphone, and it took a little while for it to start ringing. Once the other phone did ring, he ended the call without completing the connection.

Thinking he would be charged only if the call were completed, McQuillin was shocked to find that he’d been billed $0.10 for the call.

It was only subsequently that he discovered AT&T’s wireless customer agreement, which clearly states that:

Airtime and other measured usage (“chargeable time”) is billed in full minute increments…. Chargeable Time begins for outgoing calls when you press SEND (or similar key) and for incoming calls when a signal connection from the caller is established with our facilities.

AT&T representative Seth Bloom confirmed that this is true for all phone models: The caller will be charged — even for unanswered calls — unless you hang up within 30 seconds of hitting the Send button.

This policy gotcha may not be a big deal for those on a data plan (you’re already overpaying), but for GoPhone users who are charged 10 cents a minute, those minutes can add up.

There are numerous past instances of carriers billing customers in questionable situations. Verizon was fined $77 million for unfairly charging 15 million customers for accidentally going online without a data plan in October 2010. And remember all those crazy roaming charges when people began traveling abroad with the original iPhone?

Are such charges legal? Certainly. Ethical? Doubtful. They certainly seem like cheap shots.

In the case of AT&T’s “30 seconds and you’re charged” policy, $0.10 may not be much, but across millions of subscribers over the course of a month, AT&T could be raking in quite a bit of money on short and failed GoPhone calls and overage fees for data-plan subscribers who exceed their monthly minutes.

Unfortunately, exact numbers for that data aren’t readily available in any of AT&T’s recent sales reports or annual reports (.pdf).


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Mar 16

Verizon May Have 10 Percent of U.S. iPhone Market

Posted in: Apple, att, iPhone, Phones, Today's Chili, verizon

Apple's iPhone 4 became available on the Verizon network in February. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The iPhone appears to be gaining serious momentum on the Verizon network after just one month on the market.

About 10 percent of iPhone customers in the United States could be on Verizon, according to estimates by mobile advertisement firm Chitika.

If that estimate is accurate, it signifies rapid growth of the iPhone on Verizon. The Verizon iPhone went on sale online Feb. 3 for pre-orders, and the handset hit stores Feb. 10, ending AT&T’s exclusive partnership with Apple.

“For Verizon to pick up that big of a share of iPhone users in about a month is impressive, and doesn’t bode particularly well for AT&T,” Chitika said in a blog post.

Chitika has been using a live tracker to monitor web usage of iPhones on the Verizon and AT&T networks, based on activity of websites running ads on Chitika’s network.

The live tracker on Tuesday peaked at 12.7 percent of iPhones surfing the web on the Verizon network. As of Wednesday morning, the tracker shows 9.4 percent of iPhones are on Verizon. The results are based on 700,000 impressions from Chitika’s network.

“The spike is really interesting to me,” said Daniel Ruby, research director of Chitika, in an e-mail to Wired.com. “I’m trying to figure out if it’s indicative of a different usage pattern between AT&T and Verizon users, or if it was just a spike in Verizon usage across our network.”

Though Chitika believes the data presents a problem for AT&T, AT&T has said it’s not worried about iPhone customers switching over to Verizon.

AT&T previously told investors that it was confident iPhone profits would remain strong because many customers were on family plans and corporate plans, which would make it difficult to transition to a different network.

See Also:


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Mar 15

Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Comcast, More Nominated for “Worst Company”

Posted in: Apple, att, Microsoft, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, verizon
wcia_bracket_header_2011.jpg
Watchdog blog Consumerist this week announced the nominations for its sixth annual Worst Company in America competition. The list, which is is broken down in full March Madness bracket-style, features a number of high profile tech companies. 
In the first round, Apple will be competing with Microsoft, Facebook will be duking it out with Time Warner, DirecTV and Dish Network will be going head-to-head, and Sony and Dell will be doing battle. Also on the list: Tickemaster v. Paypal, Verizon v. AT&T, Radioshack v. Best Buy, Comcast v. Charter, and GameStop v. Wal-Mart.
BP makes a notable debut on the list this year, after an oil spill that proved one of the biggest man-made disasters in U.S. history. The oil company will be facing stiff competition in this round from Toyota–the car maker recalled millions of vehicles in 2010, over pedal-related problems.
Not surprisingly, in light of continued economic woes, banks and credit card companies had a big showing on this year’s list, with Chase, Wells Fargo, American Express, Capital One, Bank of America, and Citibank all making the cut. Interestingly (also in light of the year’s events), the number of airlines dropped to two, with only Delta an United making the final list.
The 32 companies will begin squaring off tomorrow. 
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Mar 15

William Shatner explains what microprocessors are and do… from way back in 1976

Posted in: att, processors, Retro, Today's Chili, video

For a man that spent the best part of his acting career representing a savvy dude from the future, William Shatner looks pretty well at home in the past as well. This video, dusted off from AT&T’s Tech Channel archives, shows Shatner dressed in a casual tan ensemble and dropping some knowledge on the subject of microprocessors. Aside from the retro visuals and presentation, what’s great about the vid is that the seemingly lavish claims about where computers could take us — and their own move toward increasing importance, utility and ubiquity — actually seem pretty tame in light of what we know today. Beam yourself past the break to see this golden nugget from the Bell Labs archives.

[Thanks, Dan]

Continue reading William Shatner explains what microprocessors are and do… from way back in 1976

William Shatner explains what microprocessors are and do… from way back in 1976 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 14

Gadget Lab Notes: Yves Behar’s Metallic Watch-Inspired Dumbphone

Posted in: Android, att, HTC, media player, Miscellaneous, thunderbolt, Today's Chili

The +YvesBehar phone shuns the touchscreen trend

Yves Behar-Designed Cellphone Gets Its Design Inspiration From European Watches
If you want to trade in your touchscreen-centric smartphone for a dumphone that’s not short on looks, you can’t go wrong with Yves Behar’s +YvesBehar phone. Swiss and French watchmakers developed the watch band-inspired metalwork, which is available in either stainless steel or gold. Those slick looks come at a price though: It’ll cost 7,000 euros when it debuts this spring.

Yves Behar Desings a Sleek Handset [Gizmodo]

Eminent Planning an Android HD Media Player
The EM7297 hdMEDIA AND, which will run an unspecified version of Android, will let you play HD movies and Android apps on your HDTV. It’ll support USB 3.0, Flash 10, Gigabit LAN, and OpenGL. It’s unclear if regular apps or only specifically built Android applications will be able to run on the set top box, but it could be a nice option for fans of Google’s OS when it debuts.

Eminent to Develop HD Media Player with Android [Eminent via Geeky Gadgets]

HTC Thunderbolt Coming March 17, According to Tweet
A regional sales manager for HTC accidentally tweeted that Verizon’s first 4G LTE smartphone, the HTC Thunderbolt, will arrive March 17th. This date lines up with previous rumors and expectations. The tweet, by Imran Shahid, was quickly deleted.

HTC Rep Confirms Thunderbolt Launch Date [Droid Life]

AT&T Will Begin Capping DSL and U-Verse Internet In May
In a move purported to only affect “less than 2 percent of [their] Internet customers”, AT&T will begin capping their Internet services May 2nd. Landline DSL subscribers will have a 150GB cap; U-Verse customers will have a 250GB. For every additional 50GB of data used, a $10 overage fee will be charged, following a 2 strikes and you’re out rule—the third month you go over, you’ll get slapped with the fee. An online tool will let you monitor your usage and send out an alert when you reach certain percentages of your monthly allowance. Apparently, the top 2% of their subscribers use 20% of their network’s bandwidth—equal to the usage of “19 typical households.” AT&T will begin notifying customers of the change this week.

AT&T Will Cap DSL and U-Verse Internet [Engadget]

Recharge Old Alkaline Batteries with the Wattsclever Alkaline Battery Charger
The Wattsclever Alkaline Battery Charger can charge up 4 of your old batteries in 4 hours. A microcontroller checks that they won’t overheat and die. It’s made of recyclable material, and promises to recharge standard alkaline batteries up to 20 times, so if you find yourself constantly throwing those suckers away, a $46 investment in this gadget could pay off.

Alkaline Battery Charger [Wattsclever via Red Ferret]


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Mar 14

AT&T and Verizon Allow Free Calls to Japan

Posted in: att, Japan, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, verizon

Japanese Flag

In the wake of last weeks’ devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, AT&T and Verizon have stated they’re waiving the costs of all calls and text messages to Japan until March 31st and April 10th, respectively. 
AT&T subscribers also have the benefit of a 60 minute credit for direct dial calls to Japan that they can have applied to their bill if they made calls to Japan prior to the 11th, when the fee waiver took effect. 
This means that people in the US who are AT&T and Verizon customers can reach out to their loved ones in Japan and check in on them without worrying about racking up massive international long distance fees in the interim.
Both companies are also leveraging their television networks as well, with AT&T opening up free access to TV Japan for subscribers to AT&T’s U-Verse television service, and Verizon giving all FiOS TV subscribers access to Japan TV as well. Both companies will keep the television network on the air for their subscribers for free until March 17th.
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Mar 14

AT&T makes calling Japan free until the end of March (update: Verizon and Sprint, too)

Posted in: att, free, Japan, Sprint, Today's Chili, verizon, Wireless

We imagine that many of you, like us, have been making frantic calls to friends and family in Japan over the last few days without regard to the costs. Now, in the face of otherwise devastating news, we have some good news to share courtesy of AT&T. Ma Bell is offering wired and wireless billing relief for calls made on AT&T between March 11th and March 31st. Under the plan, AT&T wireless postpaid customers will not be charged for international long distance or text messages to Japan from the US and Puerto Rico. Likewise, residential wireline customers can seek credits for up to 60 minutes of direct dialing to Japan. Sure it’s a shameless publicity grab but this one seems genuinely helpful.

Update: Sprint and Verizon have both now elected to waive call and text message fees (in Verizon’s case, the move applies both to landline and wireless numbers).

Continue reading AT&T makes calling Japan free until the end of March (update: Verizon and Sprint, too)

AT&T makes calling Japan free until the end of March (update: Verizon and Sprint, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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