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Jan

Carrier-Unlocking Smartphones Will Be Illegal In The U.S. Tomorrow: Here's How (And If) It Affects You

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Features, News

At this point, you've probably heard that starting tomorrow, it will become illegal to unlock your smartphone to use it on another carrier. You certainly should have heard so since the decision was made three months ago. That being said, there are still quite a few questions that folks want to have answered. Chief among them, 'How does this affect me?' Well, I'm glad you asked, dear reader.

For a bit of context, first, let's take a look at exactly what has changed. This is not new, sweeping legislation. What happens is that every three years, the Librarian of Congress issues a set of exemptions to the DMCA.

Jan

NASCAR Mobile '13 Screeches Into The Play Store, Covered In Engine Grease And Logos

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Round and round and round she goes. Where she stops nob-holy mother of crap! That car just exploded! Okay, alright. Maybe I can understand a little bit of why folks like NASCAR. And in solidarity with my fellow southerners who adore the sport, allow me to share this with you: NASCAR Mobile '13.

The app gives you access to news, schedules, driver information and a ton more. It even looks nice, utilizing the sidebar navigation we're all getting used to, and a Holo-ish feel. There are a few quirks, though, as some features (like the Sprint Unlimited Vote) require the user to open a browser, and sliding between videos—as in the center image above under the "Latest" subheading—was very difficult when I tried it.

Jan

AT&T Is Going Shopping For A European Carrier To Buy Or Merge With, Says WSJ

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in AT&T, News

AT&T has a problem on its hands. It's big, but is it big enough? If you're a CEO of a major corporation the answer to that question is always "no." However, the carrier has difficulty expanding on the home front. An overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens have phones with one carrier or another, so there's very little wiggle room to grab new customers. And gaining in market share when you (and all your competitors!) are dead set on locking people into two-year contracts is very difficult. In short, growth isn't much of an option outside acquisitions, and those haven't gone so well.

Jan

Leak: Sprint Offering $400 Device Credit If You Port In A Family Plan With At Least 3 Lines Starting January 18th

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Carriers, Deals, News, Sprint

There might be more appealing national networks to run your phone through, but Sprint is hoping to lure in more customers with some free money. A leaked internal Sprint doc indicates that a previously popular promotion is coming roaring back on January 18th. If you meet the qualifications to take advantage of this deal, it can mean big savings on a couple new smartphones.

Before you get too excited, you have to be opening a new account with Sprint, along with the following eligibility requirements:

IL [Independently Liable] customers activating 3-5 new handsets [read: phones only] on new lines of service
At least one line must be a port-in from another carrier
Customers must activate all phones on an Everything Share or Simply Everything Share plan

The independently liable stipulation is just referring to a line that you own, not one handled through an employer.

Jan

Sprint-Galaxy-S-III-Google-Wallet-Preloaded-2GB-RAM-Dual-Core-S4-Preorders-Up-June-5-Release-On-June-21-A

Sprint Pushing Small OTA Updates To The Flash And Epic 4G Touch

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Epic 4G Touch, Flash, News, Sprint

A couple of small OTA updates - both of which are primarily bug-fixers - are making their way to the Flash and Epic 4G Touch on Sprint this morning.

Flash owners, you can expect LED blink timing improvements, camera enhancements, better text input with Swype, and a tweak to the information provided in Settings > Applications > Running applications.

The list is actually shorter for the Epic 4G Touch, with only two things in the OTA: it adds Sprint's Connection Optimizer, and brings some security updates. Exciting, I know.

You can see if the update is available on either device by heading into Settings > About phone > System Updates > Update firmware.

Jan

Dish Network Ups The Ante And Outbids Sprint For Clearwire By $200 Million

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in News, Sprint

Break out the popcorn, folks, it's time for some corporate drama. As we reported last month, LTE service provider Clearwire is looking to sell itself, with 50% stake holder Sprint Nextel the obvious choice. But while Sprint's $2.2 billion offer (plus another $800 million in staggered investments) sits on the desks of both Clearwire shareholders and the Federal Trade Commission for approval, satellite TV provider Dish Network has made another offer. They're putting $2.4 billion on the table, about $3.30 per share, and an 11% increase over Sprint's initial offering.

For the uninitiated, Dish has been gobbling up the rights to as much LTE spectrum as it can get, though its plans for leveraging those rights isn't immediately clear.

Jan

Sprint's LG Optimus G Receiving A Small OTA Update To Build LS970ZV9

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Optimus G, Sprint

If you have Sprint's version of the LG Optimus G, you may want to head into Settings > About phone and see if the latest OTA is available on your handset. The update – which bumps the device up to build LS970ZV9 – is just a small one that brings a couple of fairly minor enhancements to the device:

Visual Voicemail update
Battery improvements

This just started rolling out today, so don't stress if it's not yet available to you. Give it a few days – Sprint says that all users should have the update "within 10 days."

[Sprint]

Jan

Sprint Will Begin Pay As You Go Service On January 25th, But Standard Sprint Phones Aren't Invited To The Party [Update: Sprint Confirms]

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Galaxy Victory (SPH-L300), LG, News, Optimus Elite, Sprint

If you want to use Sprint's network without signing a contract, there are a lot of options out there, including its subsidiary Boost Mobile, the American MVNO Virgin, and hybrid provider Republic Wireless, among others. Sprint hopes that there are at least some prepaid customers left out there, because starting on January 25th, it will be offering its service in contract-free flavors.

Update: Sprint confirmed the new service to Fierce Wireless and provided some additional details. There will be no limits on data or bandwidth throttling, and LTE service will in fact be enabled on the Galaxy Victory.

There are only two smartphones that will be available at the beginning of Sprint As You Go: LG's somewhat misnamed Optimus Elite, and the Samsung Victory, conspicuously absent of the "4G LTE" branding that's present on Sprint's current Galaxy model.

Dec

[Download] Full RUU For The EVO LTE JB Update (3.15.651.16)

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in EVO 4G LTE (Jewel), News

Nearly a couple weeks ago, the Jelly Bean (4.1.1) update to the Evo 4G LTE ~~XL BBQ~~ began to roll out. By now, we think it's safe to say that most or all of you have it. If you don't, however, or if you've already updated, flashed another ROM, and want to get back to stock, then maybe I can interest you in a nice RUU?

As a side note, if you're HTCDev unlocked, you'll need to relock your handset or you'll get an error while trying to run the .exe. More information on relocking the bootloader can be found here.

Dec

[Deal Alert] HTC EVO LTE Now $0.01 For New Customers And Upgrades From Amazon Wireless

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Deals, EVO 4G LTE (Jewel), News, Sprint

If you've been waiting for the best possible price on the EVO LTE, it's time to go ahead and buy. Why? Because Amazon Wireless is letting this handset go for a penny, and, well, it doesn't get much more affordable than that. This deal's good for both new customers and upgrades, so it's open for basically everyone (granted you're already eligible for upgrade). And of course, let's not forget that the handset was recently updated to Android 4.1, so now it's full of Jelly Bean goodness.