MobileCrunch |  |
- T-Mobile Plans To Shake Up Family Plan Offerings?
- A Failed T-Mobile Acquisition Could Cost AT&T $6B
- Samsung Droid CHARGE To Charge Onto Verizon’s Shelves Tomorrow
- HTC Merge Finally Available For Verizon… Sort of.
- How To Install Netflix On Most Android Devices
- Google Nexus S Knock-Off Is All Talk, Not Much Walk
- Verizon Delays First Dual-Core Tegra 2 Smartphone Launch: Motorola Droid X2
- Google Bullies OEMs Over What Can And Can’t Appear On Android Devices
| T-Mobile Plans To Shake Up Family Plan Offerings? Posted: 13 May 2011 01:32 PM PDT According to this leaked snap of an internal T-Mobile document, it looks like AT&T's betrothed will be switching up its Family Plans on May 22. The picture leaves a few questions unanswered, but this should at least give you an idea of what T-Mobile may be offering in the near future. The original 3,000, 1,500, and 750 minute plans should become a thing of the past, to be replaced by 1,000, 2,000, and unlimited minutes plans. For talk and text on two lines, the carrier will charge $99/month. That will jump to $119 when both lines add 200MB of data, $139.99 for 2GB, 159.99 for 5GB, and $219.99 for 10GB. Add-a-lines will cost $10 each for 500 minutes of talk time, and $30 per line for unlimited minutes. Unfortunately, data costs for additional lines aren't outlined in the picture, so we'll have to hold out until the official T-Mobile announcement to learn those. For $79.99, the first two lines will get 2,000 minutes. But if T-Mobile has any say in it, you'll probably end up opting for the unlimited plan, as the carrier didn't even offer text or data costs for the 2,000-minute plan, but instead labeled the categories with "N/A – Upsell to Unlimited." A 1,000-minute plan will have a $59.99 price tag for two lines with talk only, or $79.99 with the addition of text. On the 1,000 minute plan, data pricing is as follows: $99.99 for 200 MB, $119.99 for 2GB, $139.99 for 5GB, and $199.99 for 10 GB. [via TmoNews]
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| A Failed T-Mobile Acquisition Could Cost AT&T $6B Posted: 13 May 2011 12:16 PM PDT
Reuters reports that AT&T will owe a whopping $6 billion, including $3 billion in cash, to T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom, should the deal fail to receive approval. Reuters' sources chose to remain anonymous, but did say that the $6 billion would include giving Deutsche Telekom $1 billion in a roaming agreement and $2 billion in spectrum. A number of different people raised their concerns with the deal at Wednesday's congressional hearing, including democratic Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl, who said the deal could create a "duopoly," and Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, who said (as promised) that the deal would cause "irreparable harm to competition." It'll be a while before the verdict is in, as the Justice Department and the FCC have requested further information from the carriers before making their decision. Until then, all of you T-Mobile customers have some choices to make: If the deal passes will you become part of AT&T's potential 130 million subscribers, jump ship to Verizon, or place a wallet-shaped vote in underdog Sprint's ballet box? [via CNET]
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| Samsung Droid CHARGE To Charge Onto Verizon’s Shelves Tomorrow Posted: 13 May 2011 11:02 AM PDT Just days before Verizon last set out to launch the Droid CHARGE, their 4G network mysteriously fell apart nationwide. Launching a big 4G device in the middle of your first big outage isn’t exactly good for return rates, so VZW went ahead and pushed things back a bit. With their 4G network back up and seemingly quite stable (I’m using it to publish this post, in fact!), Verizon’s ready to give it another shot. Tonight at midnight EST, the Droid Charge will hit the virtual shelves of Verizonwireless.com, and you’ll be able to nab one in store as of tomorrow morning. Sadly, it doesn’t look like the 2-week delay has done anything to lighten that $300 pricetag.
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| HTC Merge Finally Available For Verizon… Sort of. Posted: 13 May 2011 09:57 AM PDT Oh, poor HTC Merge; you first sneaked your way into the spotlight so many months ago, and yet, you’ve gone mostly unseen ever since. Sure, Alltel picked you up and put you on the shelves — but your true calling was at Verizon, and they just refused to dial your number. Until now… sort of. So why isn’t VZW going huge with this device? They’re not giving specifics, but we can take an educated guess: Verizon’s all about LTE/4G in their higher-end phones now — and LTE support is something this phone lacks. If it had launched back in November as originally intended, VZW likely would have picked it up — but with delays pushing the Merge launch to a date after the Thunderbolt (their first 4G phone), VZW seemingly lost the love.
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| How To Install Netflix On Most Android Devices Posted: 13 May 2011 08:45 AM PDT Netflix previously all but ignored Android, leaving users confused and annoyed by the lack of love. All that changed yesterday when the app dropped on the Nexus S and several HTC devices. But that’s the catch. Only a select few devices currently support the streaming service, so the fun is only for those rocking the HTC Incredible, HTC Nexus One, HTC Evo 4G, HTC G2, and Samsung Nexus S — unless you’re comfortable following a few lines of instructions! First off, back up your device. This could brick your device. Please do not proceed if that scares you. Also, your phone must be rooted. Check out the xda-dev wiki for rooting instructions for nearly every Android device. The following process is sort of hit or miss right now. Among other phones, it reportedly doesn’t work on the HTC Thunderbolt for some reason but it’s worth trying if you must have Netflix up and running on your Android device before the complete rollout. Got your device rooted now? Good. Let’s begin. 1) Go to Settings > Applications > Check the box next to Unknown sources to allow your phone to install the downloaded Netflix app. 2) Download the Netflix apk from 3) Download ES File Explorer 4) In ES File Explorer go to Settings > Root Settings and check both boxes on that screen 5) Go to /system/ and copy/paste build.prop to /sdcard/ as a backup 6) Go back to /system/ and open and edit the file build.prop 7) Trick the Android install to thinking you have the Nexus S by changing the follow lines:
8) Reboot the phone 9) Download and install the Netflix apk from here if you haven’t already 10) Profit! I totally apologize if this doesn’t work on your Android device. Some users can’t get it to work no matter what so YMMV. Of course you could always wait until the Netflix app officially hits all Android devices. That’s bound to happen eventually. At least I hope. See this Reddit thread for more troubleshooting.
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| Google Nexus S Knock-Off Is All Talk, Not Much Walk Posted: 13 May 2011 08:00 AM PDT
The K1000D sports a 4-inch 800×480 WVGA resistive touchscreen, a 3.2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, and 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. The handset also features support for Wi-Fi, GPS, and has dual SIM card slots. Unfortunately, the guts of the phone can't really compare with the Nexus S, as the K1000D is powered by a 460MHz MTK 6516 processor, and runs Android 2.2 Froyo, whereas Google's smartphone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread powered by a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor. In terms of specs, the Google Nexus S far outperforms its knock-off counterpart. But the makers of the K1000D did an excellent job mimicking the form-factor of the Nexus S. The buttons look basically identical, and the back-panel has a textured feel to it that prevents fingerprints, much like the Nexus S. The K1000D also sports an external antenna, which the Nexus S keeps tucked away on the inside. The only real difference in appearance lies in the K1000D's display, which lacks Super AMOLED awesomeness. [via MicGadget]
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| Verizon Delays First Dual-Core Tegra 2 Smartphone Launch: Motorola Droid X2 Posted: 13 May 2011 06:55 AM PDT The only thing worse than a regifter is someone who gives you something special only to snatch it back, which could accurately describe Verizon during its 4G LTE network outage. To offer blazing-fast speeds only to have them fail on us is a huge party foul, to say the least. What's worse, Verizon really screwed Samsung out of a pretty high-profile product launch, with its Droid Charge smartphone, as the network crashed on the day of the devices launch, postponing in-store sales and activation of the pre-ordered handsets. Today, it gets even worse, as the Motorola Droid X2, which was originally rumored to hit shelves today, will also be delayed, according to Verizon. This is more than upsetting, as the Droid X2 is Verizon's first smartphone to feature a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor. And of course, as a Motorola smartphone, we'd be shocked to see anything other than Android OS. Wait, it gets better. The Motorola Droid X2 will be powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which shouldn't upset Droid X owners too much as the Gingerbread update is expected to roll out this week. Some other specs include a 4.3-inch qHD screen at 960×540 pixels of resolution, an 8-megapixel rear camera capable of recording in 720p, 8GB of internal storage plus an 8GB pre-installed SD card, and a 1540mAh battery. Hopefully, these impressive specs don't get you too riled up at Verizon for pushing today's release back to May 26th. The good news is that Verizon promises that direct fulfillment orders will start on May 19th, which means a pre-order could be on the way. [via Droid-Life]
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| Google Bullies OEMs Over What Can And Can’t Appear On Android Devices Posted: 12 May 2011 02:15 PM PDT
Basically, anytime a manufacturer wants Android — or at least, Android with all of its best perks, like the Android Market or Google’s ultra slick Gmail client — on its smartphone, the device must adhere to Google’s compatibility standard. In an email dated August 6, 2010, Dan Morrill, a manager in the Android group, mentioned that it's pretty obvious to phone manufacturers that "we are using compatibility as a club to make them do things we want." Obviously, that "club" could be seen as a method of stifling competition, but analysts have mapped out another potential motivation. Since Google's Android OS must function across a variety of devices, and remain compatible with different software made by other companies, the company must protect its technology. "Google has the same problem today that Microsoft had 20 years ago, when Windows started to takeoff in the personal computer market," said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. "It needs to maintain the integrity of its technology, and control it." However, Skyhook Wireless is alleging that Google's control over Android wasn't to protect its operating system, but to put a foot on the neck of its competitor. In April of 2010, Motorola chose Skyhook's location-based services over Google's for a new line of Android phones. The decision was reversed in less than three months. The same story played out with Samsung, too. Upon news of the Skyhook win with Motorola, an Android product manager Steve Lee offered up a reason for the deal in an email, writing "Skyhook [...] is a hungry start up [...] actively engaging and selling. Google hasn't prioritized 'selling' it so it is easy to be outsold." As word of the Skyhook/Motorola deal made its way around Google offices, the tech giant knew it needed to find a way to positively spin the loss of business. "Are there any seeds we can plant with Motorola's P.R. team to that effect?" wrote Google manager Andy Mathis. "Perhaps there is language we can plant with them for a blog post?" Within the same day, an Android communications manager Anthony House forwarded along pieces of Motorola's response, which stated: "Motorola's relationship with Skyhook demonstrates one of the many benefits of working with Google in an open partnership. We remain committed to the Android platform." About a month later, in May of 2010, Google switched up its strategy with concerns about technical compatibility. Skyhook's location-based services work by combining location data from Wi-Fi hotspots and other sensors to locate the user. Google claimed that this system may bring about data "contamination." Stephen McDonnell, a Motorola manager, responded in an email dated May 25, 2010, writing, "we feel the contamination concern you have is unfounded." Despite Motorola's resistance, Google won out in the end. In an email dated June 2, 2010, a Motorola executive by the name of Tim Vangoethem wrote to Skyhook personnel, informing them of the latest word from Google on the matter. He relayed that Skyhook's location service on the smartphone "renders the device no longer Android Compatible." My only question is: if throwing out "Android compatibility" was all it took, why didn't you start with that strategy in the first place, Google? [via NYTimes]
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There's been a lot of talk out there about what will happen after 
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