Archive for: cellphone
In a move that should ensure the sanity of countless Indiana cellphone users, an amended “Do Not Call” law has been extended to include cellphones, pre-paid numbers, and VoIP accounts.. Previously, landline-based numbers were the only supported communication methods.
We here at GS have received two maybe three telemarketer calls on our cellphones in the last several years. Nonetheless, for those that attract telemarketer calls like *insert catchy analogy here*, this newly revamped law is certainly a lifesaver.
Indiana readers: How often have you been contacted via cellphone by telemarketers?
If you haven’t brushed up on the official Gadgetsteria iDapt 3 multi-gadget charging dock review (say that 5 times fast…) now is the time to do so. We’ve got another iDapt i3 in-house in need of a new home. You know the drill — leave a comment inside and we’ll pick one winner at random. And for the record, saying something on our Facebook fan page and/or Twitter page helps your chances. There isn’t any limit on comments/Facebook posts/Tweets-retweets. As for all the Twitter users out there, use #gsidaptgiveaway so we can easily find you. Have at it!
- February 9, 2011 12:59 pm
Talk a lot? While data and text-based communications are the norm (in more tech savvy circles) these days, sometimes you just want to pick up the phone and talk — a lot. Back before all of this new fangled technology, data plans, and SMS, talking was it. As such, overages charges on minutes were a way of life for some. But as data and texting becomes more popular, voice gets cheaper.
Following Sprint’s 2009 lead, AT&T has announced that they too will begin offering unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling to any carrier, not just their own. For the social butterflies who love yaking it up, this is exceptionally good news. The only catch is that you’ll need to also be signed up for AT&T’s unlimited messaging plan ($20/month single or $30/month family) and subscribed to a “qualifying plan” — Nation or FamilyTalk.
While not actually “free”, it’s nice to see AT&T at least attempting to do something nice for once, even if they can’t manage to leave the strings at home. Anyone yakers feelin’ the love?
It’s pretty ironic that the most exciting thing coming from Nokia these days is not bleeding edge smartphones, but words straight from CEO Stephen Elop’s mouth. These aren’t just your every day words. And they’re far from your typical upper level management “we’re on top of the world” comments either. Instead, the new CEO is laying it all out in one lengthy email sent company wide, hitting every point the tech community has lambasted Nokia for over the last several years, and asking the question how Nokia can survive. It’s actually quite startling to see a CEO of such a large company talk so blatantly about the inner workings of their troubled train wreck. Some key statements (plenty more after the jump):
- “The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.”
- “In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.”
Right there Elop focuses on two of Nokia’s biggest competitors — iOS and Android — and how they have in a surprisingly short time (all things considered) gone from a nobody to two of the largest mobile platforms in the world.
In light of all of this, we respect Stephen Elop quite a bit more today. This man truly sees how screwed up and behind Nokia is in the mobile sphere, and that it will literally take a miracle to keep from folding. Now lets hope all of that soul searching and self humiliation actually turns into something worthwhile. Recent rumors have the Finnish giant picking up both Windows Phone 7 and Android as mobile platforms to instead focus more on in-house hardware. That is far from confirmed for now. But like everything else, we’ll keep you updated.
Full email after the jump…
- January 12, 2011 11:22 am
As of Monday, January 10th, frequent visitors to BBC’s mobile WAP website no doubt noticed a big change — the WAP site is now closed. A message on the page reads: “We’ve now closed the WML version of BBC Online. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this causes you. However, if your phone supports XHTML, then you can still access BBC Mobile. Please update your bookmarks”.
What once commanded a nearly 20% share of mobile traffic back in the WAP’s hayday doesn’t even total a single percentage point in 2011. Naturally, paying to sustain the WAP portal doesn’t make sense. From here on out, mobile users can either use one of the various mobile apps spanning several different platforms or use a phone that supports XHTML. Anyone want to admit they still use WAP-anything?
It appears that Verizon’s anti-consumer policies are once again pushing full steam ahead. The leaked slide above details two very disheartening changes to Big Red’s network. First and foremost, early upgrades are out. Customers will now have to wait until after month 20 of their contract if they want any type of discount with their new upgrade. Second, the “New Every Two” deal that gave Verizon users a steep discount off of new purchases when renewing an expired two-year contract are effectively dead as well. It’s worth noting that in all cases highlighted, customers on one-year contracts are not affected.
I understand you have to pay the bills, but these changes are just ridiculous. Combine the above with the new, higher ETF’s and you have a a recipe for disaster. At this point, Verizon is becoming less and less relevant even if they do have super speedy LTE. And here we thought Verizon was getting better with this whole pro-consumer thing…
Look for the changes to go live by January 16th.
For cellphone users who are constantly upgrading phones every few months, news of an upcoming “Buy Back” program from Best Buy Mobile no doubt perks your ears. According to the leaked documentation above, the “Buy Back” (clever) program will go as follows:
- $59.99 at time of handset purchase
- Between months 1-6: 50% of phone’s full retail price.
- Between months 6-12 and 12-18: 40%
- Between months 19-25: 20%
What’s more enticing is that the Buy Back program will also cover other devices as well — not just cellphones and smartphones, but tablets as well. For people who aren’t as OCD about upgrading every time the latest and greatest gadgets come out, this isn’t all that important. But for those of you who are constantly eating money when upgrading your phones every few months, even the lowest 20% buy back price helps.
Will the above offer entire anyone to do more mobile shopping at Best Buy Mobile?
- December 29, 2010 6:31 pm
Europeans will have a much easier time finding chargers for their phones in 2011 and beyond. A law that has been several years in the making will go into effect and mandate that all phones be able to charge via micro-USB. The list of manufacturers who came together to support the law is surprisingly large and includes many big name companies including Apple, LG, Motorola, RIM, and Samsung to name a few…
- December 19, 2010 5:19 pm
The slide above you is…ridiculous. It’s part of a webinar put on by two companies (Allot Communications and Openet) who supply AT&T, Verizon, and Vodafone with services. What you’re looking at is the beginning of the destruction of life as we know it should it ever be implemented by wireless carriers. The service as outlined above apparently can detect what you’re doing with your data connection and charge accordingly. Browsing a normal web page might cost you $0.01 per page, yet flipping over to Facebook’s mobile app would instantly skyrocket the charge up to $0.30 per page. That’s not right, nor should it ever be allowed. But we’re open-minded here at Gadgetsteria. Perhaps the quote from the webinar will appease us…
[We use] a number of different methods to accurately identify the application — methods like heuristic analysis, behavioral and historical analysis, deep packet inspection, and a number of other techniques. What’s key is that we have the best application identification available on the market, which means that even applications that are encrypted or use other methods to evade detection will be correctly identified and classified… We essentially feed this real-time information about traffic and application usage into the policy and charging system. Each subscriber has a particular service plan that they sign up for, and they’re as generic or as personalized as the operator wants.
Nope. Still sounds like the apocalypse to us. Not to mention, being able to scan and “determine” even encrypted services sounds like a security nightmare to us. Out of all the useless agencies we have needlessly policing people in this country, I’m sure we’ve got at least one or two that would have a field day with such a service.
**Note to carriers: Implement any form of this crap and I’m gone as are millions of other users…
