If you’re on Sprint and you’ve been feeling left out as far as having the option to use carrier billing when purchasing Play Store items other than apps, welcome to the circle.  Sprint is now offering you the ability to use carrier billing instead of entering in your credit card information, adding music, books and even movies to the mix.  Just another easy way for the consumer to pay for rich media content.  We’ll take it.  If you’re a Sprint customer, enjoy.  Feel free to let us know if you prefer carrier billing over standard methods of payment for your Play Store entertainment.

source: Google+

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The HTC One X smartphone is perhaps the best smartphone of the year so far, but it hasn’t come without its quirks. While Sense 4.0 has been rightfully praised because of its revamped look and tweaks to Android 4.0′s multitasking, it has brought some unwanted and unnecessary confusion to how the multitasking actually works. Let me explain— the multitasking feature found in the One X is actually overaggressive in closing background apps compared to other Android devices. For example, say you close your browser or Slacker radio for longer than 30 seconds, each will close completely and not return from the state of when you left it to begin with. As you might imagine folks are not the least bit happy with this “tweak” to multitasking, so individuals like our friends at The Verge reached out to HTC to ask, what gives? Here’s what HTC had to say on its “tweaked” multitasking:

“HTC is aware of some questions in the enthusiast community about how the HTC One X handles multitasking and memory management for background apps. We value the community’s input and are always looking for ways to enhance customers’ experience with our devices. That said, right now multitasking is operating normally according to our custom memory management specifications which balance core ICS features with a consistent HTC Sense experience”.

So there you have it folks— HTC clearly states its “tweaked” multitasking is actually “operating normally”… as in there’s nothing wrong with it, so you’d best leave it alone. Here’s hoping it will continue to enhance customers’ experience with the HTC One X and improve the multitasking eventually.

source: The Verge

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HTC was off to a great start this year, but just hit a bump in the road when the U.S. Customs halted shipments of the Sprint EVO 4G LTE and the AT&T One X due to violations with Apple patents. It also caused a delay for the EVO 4G LTE launch, which was supposed to be in stores starting tomorrow. It all surrounds the messaging and browser app, in which a pop up of options appears when tapping a link. For example you might get a choice of which email client to use when tapping on an email address. This infringes on Apple patent #5,946,647.

The interesting thing is that HTC already removed these pop ups with both the Sprint EVO 4G LTE and the AT&T One X. Not only that, there is an App Associations menu (pictured above and below) that allows you to choose default apps to be associated with certain items. So when tapping on an email address, you can set Gmail to be the default or the stock Email app.

I’ve tested this on both my EVO 4G LTE and AT&T One X, and I can confirm that you won’t get a pop up to choose applications. In the case of the EVO 4G LTE, I did get a pop up, but it was to open an email client. For whatever reason the default application for emails was set to the stock email application (in the App Associations menu). I didn’t have one set up so it asked me what type of email account I wanted to add. See below:

Whether these changes will appease the U.S. Customs or not is unclear, but I don’t understand why this wouldn’t have been approved beforehand so we wouldn’t have to deal with this mess?

source: theverge

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It turns out Verizon’s move towards shared data plans isn’t exactly as altruistic as we would have liked, according to a CNET report. Sometime this summer, Verizon will turn on shared data plans that will allow customers to share data with other people on their plan, and connect multiple devices such as tablets and laptops to Verizon’s speedy 4G service. In a perfect world, shared data plans would save customers a bit of money, say paying $50 for a shared 5GB of data instead of $60 for 4G (two 2GB plans at $30).

That may actually be what Verizon plans on rolling out this summer, and it may end up saving several people decent amounts of cash on their plan, but Verizon sees it as a way to make even more money long-term. Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo believes shared data plans and access to tethering will lead to more consumption, forcing people into higher-tiered, more-expensive data plans.

“I think revenue ARPU [average revenue per user] will continue to grow as we get into data share plans and people start to connect more devices [on the network]. As they add more devices, they are going to have to buy up into tiers. So again, you will see the revenue increase there.”

So while you may be paying a bit less on the lower end, Verizon is betting that as their customers become more and more mobile, they’ll use their cellular connection to hook up laptops and tablets to their Verizon 4G network, and 5GB of monthly data will no longer be enough to get you through the month without either needing to switch to a higher tier or suffer significant overage charges. If you happened to get in on Verizon’s unlimited data before they took that benefit away, you’ll be forced into the data share plans once you upgrade, unless you purchase your phones outright at full retail.

This is not the first time this year Verizon has instituted a price increase on wireless service. New customers are now charged a $30 “Upgrade Fee” meant to offset the cost of handset subsidies. This one in particular doesn’t sit well with us, as Verizon already charges $50 – $100 more than any other company for new, high-end devices. Customers would do well to consider all possibilities when it comes time to upgrade, lest you end up paying significantly more for the same service.

[via CNET]

Verizon to raise prices for its wireless customers originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2012-05-17T14:12:28Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

Read: IntoMobile

If you want to read the press release of the Xperia GX and SX you can do that in an article that we published earlier this month. The jist of that article was basically Sony’s announcement of the two devices. GX being the higher-end model, boasting the following: Android 4.0, LTE, 4.6″ Reality Display, 1.5GHz dual-core, 16GB internal flash storage, 13MP shooter, HD video recording and more. The SX version will be packed with many of the same features, just a little smaller, such as 3.7″ Reality Display, same processor, 8GB internal flash storage and an 8MP camera.

I will say these are some pretty sleek looking android phones Sony has come up with. The various colors just finishes off the design nicely in my opinion. We know for sure these are releasing in Japan, but what about the US? Think these devices could drop in the states? Hit the jump for a couple videos, each showcasing the Sony Xperian GX and SX.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

source: pocketnow

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Well, if you suspected that the Galaxy S III would come in quite an array of different hardware configs, you’d be correct.  We’ve already seen the device sporting the Exynos quad-core CPU and we know it will arrive on some carriers with Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4 chip.  However, up until recently most carriers releasing any modern day device has been pretty fixed in the RAM dept, steadily choosing to use 1GB.  However, following the footsteps of LG, it appears that Samsung is gearing up to release 2GB of RAM in a version of the Galaxy S III slated for Japan.  Japan’s NTT DoCoMo is preparing their shelves for the GSIII, model SC-06D around June or July sometime.  Most likely the device will be running the Snapdragon S4 chip however, thanks to a spec sheet by DoCoMo, there are a number of devices listed of which the SC-06D is showing 32GB of storage and 2GB of RAM.  Nothings definite as of now, of course, but this is most likely a reliable source.  It would also be nice to see a device like this hit the US this summer sporting the 2GB’s of RAM.  As of now, we’ve not heard of any outside of Japan.

source: NTT DoCoMo (PDF)
via: PocketNow 

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In a sad turn of events, Verizon has decided to end its $30/month unlimited data plan for 3G customers who were “grandfathered” into the plan because they were customers prior to Big Red’s switch to tiered data plans which began last year. CFO Fran Shammo was speaking at the 40th annual J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference and argued as 3G unlimited data plan customers move to 4G LTE service, they would ultimately have to switch to Verizon’s upcoming data-share plan and go off the unlimited data plan anyways. While the new data share plan is scheduled to launch in mid-summer, there’s no word on pricing just yet. Nevertheless, Shammo believes this new plan will make it simpler for families and businesses to connect multiple devices and the industry has constrained the market around connected devices because people think they need additional data plans:

“If I can add as many devices as I want, that is more efficient from a family perspective and a small business perspective.”

To convince customers to utilize the new data plan, Shammo is looking solely in the direction of 4G LTE. Shammo confirmed 4G LTE will indeed be the rock of the data plan and as customers move from 3G to 4G LTE, they will need to be on the data share plan, which allows Verizon to kill off its 3G unlimited plan. Shammo adds:

“A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited… When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us.”

Keep in mind that there is no word or current talk for existing 4G LTE customers, so hopefully, they’ll be exempt from this data share plan. On a final note, Shammo continues to share his enthusiasm for its improved 4G network. Shammo also confirmed Verizon will launch its VoLTE by the end of 2012, but will not market the technology until the middle of 2013. Shammo believes by then, Verizon’s 4G network will be just as big, if not bigger than its existing 3G network— which would be a better time to market the VoLTE technology.

Any of you Verizon folks going to jump ship or miss Verizon’s unlimited data?

source: Fierce Wireless

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We have some bad news for those of you clamoring to get your hands on the new HTC EVO 4G LTE on Sprint. It was supposed to be released tomorrow, May 18, but due to the U.S. Customs holdup, it’s not going to happen. If you didn’t read about it, Apple is the culprit as they were granted an ITC exclusion order for hyperlinks in the messaging app and browser late last year. Shipment of the EVO 4G LTE along with the AT&T One X are being held up at U.S. Customs as a result.

Sprint did make a statement, but unfortunately there’s no timetable to speak of. It’s in the hands of the government, which could be really fast or really slow.

The U.S. availability of the HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed. HTC is working to resolve this issue and appreciates your patience as they work to get products into Sprint channels. We can’t provide specific timing for product availability at this time and we appreciate your patience as HTC works to get products on store shelves as soon as possible.

Delivery of products for pre-order are on hold and Sprint will provide a ship date as soon as possible. Sprint will maintain the promise for the preorder customers that they will be among the first to receive their HTC EVO 4G LTE units.

While we’d rather you didn’t cancel your pre-order, there are instructions provided in the backorder email on how to do so. If you would like to select an alternate product or cancel your backordered item, please call 866-789-8292 between 8:00 a.m. EST to 11:00 p.m. EST Monday to Friday or 9:00 a.m. EST to 9:00 p.m. EST on Saturdays and Sundays.Please note that cancellation requests may not always process successfully due to the speed of warehouse processing.If you cancelled your backordered item but still received a shipment, please refuse the shipment or call us to process a return within 14 days of receipt.

source: theverge

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