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Mar

HTC Extends $100 Trade-Up Program Through April 26th Following Rumored Launch Delays

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, One

Last Updated: March 25th, 2013

Last month, HTC announced a smartphone trade-up program, offering potential customers the chance to trade in their old cell phone for a $100 prepaid VISA card or the value of the phone (whichever is greater) after buying a new HTC One. The decision was a good one, especially for a phone that – while technically great – is badly in need of some effective marketing.

The deal was set to expire March 31st, but HTC has decided to extend the offer all the way up to April 26th. Here's what HTC had to say in our correspondence:

HTC is thrilled with the positive response we have received to our $100 trade-up offer, and as such we are extending the offer for customers who purchase The new HTC One by 4/26 and trade in their old device by 5/31.

Mar

[Achievement Unlocked] Google: Nexus 4 And Nexus 7 Are The First Ever AOSP Devices That Have 100% Of The Proprietary Binaries Available

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Google, News, Nexus 4, Nexus 7

As an addendum to the announcement of Google completing AOSP rollout for Android 4.2.2, I wanted to highlight a big milestone for the Nexus program - something that has never been the case before today.

After asking JBQ (not to be confused with JDQ39) a follow-up question, I was able to get some clarity on his earlier post and confirm that as of today, with the release of Android 4.2.2 binaries, we have for the first time ever Nexus devices that have 100% of proprietary binaries available. These devices are the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 7.

Previously, even Nexuses marked as AOSP-supported were missing at least one driver that needed to be ripped out of live devices in order to build a fully working ROM.

Feb

HTC Activates Sign-Up Page For HTC One Trade-In Program: $100 Or The Value Of Your Phone

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in HTC, News, One

Did you hear that HTC just announced its new One phone? It looks pretty cool. Naturally, at least some people will be clamoring to get their hands all over this. Those people can kindly be directed here, where the Taiwanese manufacturer is accepting email sign ups for people who want to trade in their old handsets.

The language is actually mildly antagonistic towards competitors ("Upgrade to HTC", "Everything your phone isn't"...maybe the company is ready to get more aggressive with its marketing?), but the message is clear: if you have an old phone, you get at least $100 towards the purchase of a new One.

Sep

Motorola Announces Most 2011 Phones Will Get Jelly Bean, The Rest Will Receive $100 Credit For Upgrades, Promises Developer Editions Of Phones

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Motorola, News

Today, Motorola just floored users with an unprecedented offer: if you bought a phone from Motorola that launched in 2011, most of you will receive an upgrade to Jelly Bean. If, however, you're using a phone that Motorola decides will have a degraded experience, you will receive $100 in credit towards an upgrade. This may mark the first time that a manufacturer has broadly promised compensation for a lack of updates for all of its devices.

Your eyes aren't deceiving you, though. Yes, there's a third promise on that screen. Motorola is promising "developer editions" of their phones to allow users to "enable modifications of the Android code." This doesn't exactly sound promising for average consumers who want to avoid locked bootloaders, but we'll see how Motorola implements the program.

Aug

Sprint Offering $100 Amex Giftcard With All Online Smartphone Purchases Until August 26th (Requires New Line)

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, News, Sprint

Everyone likes "free" money, and Sprint is looking to take advantage of our human nature with its latest deal: buy any smartphone and add a new line of service, get a $100 Amex giftcard. It's not exactly free money, per se, but it is a nice incentive, especially if you've been considering adding a second line anyway.

As the ad above states, this deal is available for any smartphone (as long as you order it online). You know what that means? That it also works by pre-ordering the upcoming Motorola Photon Q. So if you planned on grabbing a Q and adding a new line for your sister/mother/brother/uncle/dog/self, then now's probably the time to jump on that.

Nov

Off-Contract Virgin Mobile USA Wildfire S On Sale For $99.99 (Half Off) Till November 26th

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Deals, HTC, Virgin Mobile, Wildfire S / Wildfire 2 (Marvel)

OK, so it might not be the Galaxy Nexus, but HTC's Wildfire S for Virgin Mobile is a fairly decent smartphone (the carrier's second best option), and it is available off-contract for a fraction of the price of a more high-end handset. Under regular circumstances, the device comes in at just $199.99 without any sort of contract, but from now until Saturday (November 26th), it's half off - $99.99.

Again, that's less than a Benjamin for a fully off-contract Wildfire S, complete with:

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
WiFi/3G radios
Bluetooth
A 3.2-inch touch screen
A microSD card slot
A 5.0MP camera
A battery good for 4 hours of talk time/12.5 days of standby

Admittedly, those specs don't quite make for a flagship handset, but then again, it costs under a seventh of the off-contract price of, say, the Galaxy Nexus.

Nov

Behold Amazon's Mind-Blowing Black Friday Deals: All VZW, Sprint, And AT&T Phones Are Now Just $0.01 (Rezound, RAZR, Galaxy S II, EVO 3D, etc.)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Atrix 2, Bionic, Deals, Epic 4G Touch, EVO 3D (Shooter), Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, News, RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Rezound

Last Updated: November 29th, 2011

Amazon Wireless, one of our favorite online mobile retailers, launched its Black Friday promotions a little early this year, and boy are they good!

Did I say good? I meant absolutely incredible (though, unfortunately, only for new customers): every single phone at Amazon Wireless sold by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint is going for just 1 penny.

Yup, even such $299 monsters as the HTC Rezound 4G and the DROID RAZR, along with the Galaxy S II variants (including the Skyrocket) are all priced down to a cent above free.

97 phones in total are participating in this Penny Pincher promotion, which is scheduled to go through Cyber Monday (November 28th), giving you ample time to pick up the best cell phone deals of the year.

Oct

[Update: Pricing Error] 16GB HTC Flyer On Sale For Just $100 At Best Buy Stores (Where Available)

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Deals, Flyer, News

Update: Turns out this was just a pricing error, and Best Buy is not honoring the price. Sorry for the false alarm, everyone!

Just a few days ago, Best Buy dropped the price of the HTC Flyer to just $300, and today they've dropped it further to $100. At that price, it certainly seems like a fire sale (similar to the HP TouchPad), but at this point it's unclear what's prompting the uber-low price.

As a quick reminder, the Flyer has a 7" screen, single-core 1.5GHz CPU, front and rear cameras, an SD card slot, and 16GB of on-board storage. At the moment it merely runs Gingerbread, but HTC has long promised an update to Honeycomb (and/or hopefully Ice Cream Sandwich) sometime soon.

Sep

Verizon Wireless Announces The Pantech Breakout, An Affordable 4G LTE Handset

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Breakout, News, Verizon Wireless

If there's one thing to be said about Verizon's 4G LTE network - aside from the speed, of course - it's that the devices equipped to run on it have been less than economically priced up to this point. Each device released with LTE connectivity has dropped with an initial price of at least $250 (usually more) -- a less than ideal price considering the accompanying two-year agreement.

Enter the Pantech Breakout, VZW's first affordable LTE handset. From a spec standpoint, the Breakout is a solid mid-range device, packing hardware similar to the HTC ThunderBolt and the Samsung Droid Charge:

4-inch 480x800 display
1GHz processor (single-core)
512MB RAM
5MP rear camera, VGA front facing
4G LTE
8GB microSD card included
Android 2.3

The real difference between the Breakout and other LTE-infused handsets is the price: $100 (after $50 mail-in-rebate) with a two-year agreement.

Aug

[Deal Alert] Buy A 32GB Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Tablet At Fry's For $450, Get A $100 Gift Card - Today Only (Aug 27)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Deals, IdeaPad K1, Lenovo, News

The IdeaPad K1 Honeycomb 3.1 10.1" tablet from Lenovo, released in July (not to be confused with the more expensive ThinkPad tablet), has only been out for a bit over a month, but Fry's Electronics is already folding its cards and letting it go for a whole $100 off the $449.99 price sticker. Well, technically, you get a $100 Fry's gift card, but hey - free is free, right?

The only problem - the deal is only good for today, Saturday, August 27th in all Fry's retail locations. Unfortunately, the Frys.com IdeaPad K1 page has no mention of the gift card, so if you want Lenovo's first Android tablet in your hands tonight, you're going to have to plop in your car and drive to the nearest mall with Fry's in it (hey, that's a good thing - I like to think of Fry's as a magical and happy place - what Disneyland?).