Hasta La Gadget!

That new prepaid business for the anti-power user crowd that Sprint was fixing to launch? Yeah, it’s here and it’s official: meet Common Cents Mobile. Billed as a way to help folks “cut unnecessary costs,” Common Cents Mobile is about as simple as it gets, offering pay-as-you-go 7-cent minutes and 7-cent text messages, plus unlimited messaging for $20 a month and data for $1 per megabyte per day. The bigger news, though, might be that voice minutes round down, which is a first in the US market as far as we know (in other words, frugal customers will want to make sure they hang up 59 seconds into the minute). As you might expect, the handset selection is bare-bones and easy on the pocketbook, consisting of the LG 101 at $19.77, the Samsung M340 at $39.77, and Kyocera’s portrait QWERTY S2300 coming in at $69.77 — all totally contract-free, of course. Look for these all to launch in select Walmarts across the land starting this Saturday, May 15. Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Common Cents Mobile becomes Sprint’s latest prepaid brand, exclusive to Walmart

Common Cents Mobile becomes Sprint’s latest prepaid brand, exclusive to Walmart originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone’s favorite WiMAX-powered Android device finally has a date and a price, and you don’t have terribly long to wait: June 4 is the date that you’ll want to be lining up outside your local Sprint store for an EVO 4G, $199 in hand (assuming you’re signing up for a new contract, of course — according to the fine print, the full cost is $450 before all discounts). Interestingly, Sprint has specifically called out that you’ll be able to video chat (remember, the EVO 4G has a front-facing cam) over both 3G and 4G using Qik — not a bad choice, considering the company’s well-established expertise with streaming live video out of handsets.

Unfortunately, there’s a downside to all this: customers will be paying a mandatory (as confirmed to us by Sprint reps) $10 per month “Premium Data add-on” on top of their plan — ostensibly for the privilege of enjoying WiMAX when they’re in a Sprint 4G market — and the 8-device WiFi hotspot feature runs an extra $29.99 a month, which Sprint is quick to point out is half what you’d pay for a dedicated mobile broadband account. As we saw at CTIA, the phone is the first to offer on-phone YouTube high quality video, a feature that automatically kicks in when you’re in the sweet confines of a WiMAX tower. Oh, and check this out: Sprint was hesitant to commit to offering simultaneous voice and data before, but HTC must’ve worked out the kinks, because it’s all systems go — you’ll be able to yap and browse on 4G at the same time.

We’re at the EVO 4G’s announcement in New York as we type, and we can tell you that everything Sprint is demoing is crazy fast — we’d expect no less from an WiMAX device with a 1GHz Snapdragon — and we’re particularly stoked to see them demo Need For Speed Shift on it, which will be launching on Android around the same time as the device. Follow the break for Sprint’s full press release!

Update: According to Phone Scoop, that $10 premium add-on has the benefit of no data cap for either WiMAX or 3G connections. Since we’re on the subject of updates, have you seen our bevy of new EVO 4G videos yet?

Update 2: Starting today, Best Buy is accepting pre-orders for the device, and per usual, they won’t require you to wait for the mail-in rebate — it’s just $199.99 straight-up on contract. Thanks, all!

Continue reading Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G on June 4 for $199

Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G on June 4 for $199 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Android OS may be flourishing in the U.S., but the “Google Phone” is clearly not. Sprint has decided not to sell the Google Nexus One only months after saying they would, a move that isn’t terribly surprising following the death of the Verizon Nexus One. Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein confirmed to Gizmodo Monday that the company wouldn’t be selling the Nexus One because of the “upcoming availability of the award-winning Evo 4G.”

It appears both Sprint and Verizon shied away from the Google Nexus One because they could instead have their own branded Android phones with just as much power or more. The Evo 4G, an Android 2.1 device with a 4.3-inch LCD screen and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, is widely expected to be released in a matter of weeks. Verizon has the HTC Droid Incredible, a well-reviewed Android 2.1 phone that is PCMag’s new Editors’ Choice for Verizon smartphones.

In light of Verizon’s recent decision (or was that Google’s decision?) to say goodnight to the Nexus One in favor of the Droid Incredible, we thought it might be wise to reach out to Sprint and get a comment on its own version — the EVO 4G is just around the corner, of course, and it’s lying in wait to cast a long, long shadow over any other Android device in Sprint’s lineup. Sure enough, the carrier says that it’s now taking a pass on Google’s first “superphone,” seeing how the EVO 4G is basically better in every respect: WiMAX support, larger screen, better camera, and so on. Of course, this might peeve a few folks who’d prefer stock Android over HTC’s Sense UI — if for no other reason than the fact that Sense-powered devices tend to have wildly longer firmware upgrade lag times than stock ones do — but otherwise, the move seems to be a perfectly logical one. Oh, and as for that EVO? No update on a launch window, but Sprint says that it’s still targeting Summer, thank goodness.

Sprint cans Nexus One in favor of EVO 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 15:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking at hundreds of FCC documents each and every week, it’s pretty difficult for us to get too excited about any particular filing, but there are two words that do it for us each and every time: “LTE” and “WiMAX.” In this case, the latter word caught our eye all throughout the filing for HTC model PC36100, which runs WiMAX on Sprint’s (and Clearwire’s) 2500MHz band alongside the standard suite of CDMA bands with EV-DO. In other words, folks, yes — it’s true — you’re looking at the frickin’ EVO 4G for Sprint. There’s not much to see here, really; it’s still under confidentiality for the external photos, but at least they’ve cleared that all-important FCC hurdle on the way to retail, which will be… soon, Sprint? Right? Please?

HTC EVO 4G earns FCC’s blessing, WiMAX and all originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 18:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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