AT&T Hates You: Raising Prices, Cutting Service Plan Options, And Laughing All The Way To The Bank.

Sprint now costs the average data user $10/month. Verizon wants people to may more when they upgrade. But AT&T? They just hate you and want your money outright. Today, today is a good day to be an AT&T customer — just kidding. The above slide contains but a small portion of the new pricing and policy changes that our coming to America’s favorite network in 2011. With so much good news, lets get the party started. First up: messaging plans. The old $5/200 messages and $15/1500 messages are gone. Replacing them are a new $10/1000 messages and the same $20/unlimited plans. Next up, iPhone/non-iPhone upgrades.

• Old iPhone upgrade: subsidized price + $200

• New iPhone upgrade: subsidized pricing + $200 only available for first six months of new plan. After six months, subsidized pricing is as good as it gets.

• Non-iPhone upgrades: $50 and $100 discounts on top of subsidized prices are no more (ala Verizon killing “New Every Two)

Family plans get the shaft as well with per-line activation fees rising from $10/line $26/line up to $36/line. Calling to Canada is rising from $0.29/minute to $0.39/minute. And we saved the best for last — AT&T’s network relief tool that customers have to pay for MicroCell. Once $149, this little device which is pretty much a 50/50 crapshoot in regards to actually functioning properly is rising to $199.

While all of the above changes certainly suck for consumers, it is the MicroCell change that is perhaps most infuriating. AT&T is asking us to pay more for a device that helps their broken network trudge along. Anyone have some choice words/thoughts? Internal change documents after the jump…

Rovio: Angry Birds Cartoon Soon Heading Into Production.

If you happen to frequent Gadgetsteria often, you’ll know we have a borderline sick obsession with Angry Birds. It’s pretty much greater than sliced bread. We have the games, iPhone cases, plush toys, board games, and soon, cartoons. We’ve already heard several times that Rovio Mobile was planning to bring the birds and the pigs to the tv/computer screens around the world. And now after Rovio CEO Mikael Hed’s interview with British TV site C21media, we know that the reality of such a show is this much closer. Although in reality, the interview didn’t reveal any hard release dates or whether the Angry Birds cartoon would be in digital (read: online) only form or online + TV. But even then, news of the cartoon’s continual progress is promising and of course, exciting. Are you looking forward to Angry Birds cartoons as much as we are?

Samsung Responds: “We’re Not Charging For Android Updates”

Is Samsung charging for Android updates as we highlighted earlier, and thereby causing carriers to avoid Android 2.2 updates for Galaxy S devices? It’s hard saying at this point, though Samsung certainly denies the whole thing. Samsung sent a reply to PhoneScoop, stressing they aren’t artificially blocking any updates, and that more details on the very topic at hand would be coming soon. The reassurance is nice to hear, but after the Samsung Omnia II fiasco, “trust” isn’t exactly something Samsung has won over from me.

WebOS “Topaz” Tablet Breaks Cover.

We’ve long been promised some exciting new hardware for webOS to stretch its legs on. And while some of you may be losing hope in Palm, you may want to stick around a tad longer. The above image was sent to Engadget by a claimed reliable tipster. The device front and center is the upcoming Palm “Topaz”, which features a 9-inch display. From what we can see on the render, it looks slick and rather thin. But if you’re eager to get one in the near term, we have to break some bad news. Unfortunately, the tablets aren’t scheduled to hit Palm’s own offices until June, with a full on public release sometime later this fall. One they do drop however, we can expect to see the tablets come in WiFi, 3G, and LTE models. The latter of which has a spot on AT&T — but not until mid-2012. We have to wonder though, how relevant will these tablets be when released next to the likes of Motorola’s XOOM, RIM’s PlayBook, and of course, Apple’s iPad 2? Yeah, we’re not getting our hopes too high either.

Scandal Uncovered: Why U.S. Galaxy S Android Devices Are Stuck At Android 2.1.

If you’re like most of the U.S. population currently rockin’ a Samsung Galaxy S device, you’re no doubt deep in thought about why your device is still dragging along with Android 2.1. Unfortunately thus far, neither Samsung or the carriers distributing Galaxy S devices are saying anything on the matter. However, at this point in the game it is obvious the move is a calculated and planned move by Samsung (and possibly others) as numerous rooted ROMs have shown Galaxy S devices running Android 2.2 just fine. But wonder around aimlessly we have to do no more. “The Samsung Secret” just spilled a bunch of background information over at XDA about how Samsung is classifying Android 2.2 as a “feature upgrade” and requiring a per device upgrade fee for the privilege. Naturally, the carriers aren’t too happy to pay for an open source operating system update many times over. And in an act of defiance and protest, they’ve seemingly come together and refused to pay Samsung’s upgrade fees in hopes that Samsung will drop the practice.

It’s certainly alarming even if it wasn’t all that surprising. Though it further backs my opinion of Samsung (in the mobile smartphone arena at least) — they care little for their customers and only about their bottom end. With that said, I will never buy a Samsung smartphone as long as they employ this methodology for firmware/OS updates. Perhaps if enough end users start doing the same, some real change can happen. Full account after the jump…

Holiday Verizon Smartphone Buyers Will Receive $200 Towards iPhone 4 Purchase.

Buying a seemingly bleeding edge device only to have a new one that trounces it announced a mere few weeks after your initial purchase is maddening, saddening, and frustrating. That very scenario no doubt happened to quite a few Verizon users who don’t stay up to date with their consumer electronics news over the holiday season. Normally, if you buy a phone and a better one comes out soon after, you’re stuck. But Verizon is really pushing the whole iPhone thing (and they should). A snippet from the Verizon iPhone FAQ page:

I just purchased a new smartphone during the holiday season, but if I knew that iPhone 4 was going to be available soon I would have waited. What are my options now?

Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones or certified pre-owned phones between 11/26/2010, and 01/10/2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa debit card when they purchase an iPhone 4 at full retail price by 02/28/2011 and return their existing phone. Note: This offer is only available on consumer accounts with five lines or less, who are purchasing iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless retail stores, telesales, or through verizonwireless.com.

While you’re still looking at several hundreds of dollars to move from your recent smartphone to a new iPhone 4, the option to do so is a nice gesture no less. Even though we’re used to the old tried and true eBay method for funding new gadget purchases via the sales of old ones, we can certainly appreciate Verizon’s motives. Any VZW customers going to take up their offer?

Android 2.2 Froyo Coming Soon To An LG Ally Near You.

Good news LG Ally users, your Android 2.2 (Froyo) update is getting closer, thanks to confirmation by the internal documentation above. Update VS740ZVD will bring you all of Froyo’s goodness, save for a few potentially power-hungry features such Flash we’d assume. Though the final feature list and release date haven’t been confirmed just yet, so we can’t comment either way. Any Ally users eager for the new shot of youth?