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The Xbox Series S and X will be available on monthly payment plans
Microsoft will offer two-year financing for its next-gen consoles.
AppleCare+ monthly plans are available in Canada, Japan and Australia
Apple first rolled out monthly payments for Applecare+ last year, but so far the service has been limited to to US. Now, Apple is expanding the program abroad to three additional countries: Japan, Australia and Canada (via MacRumors).
Lyft's new monthly subscription is cheaper, but doesn't cover ride costs
Last year, Lyft tried to get users to pay $299 per month for its All-Access Plan. That included 30 "free" monthly trips (as long as they were under $15), but people were, understandably, shocked by the price tag. Now, Lyft is trying a new approach. It's Lyft Pink membership offers a 15 percent discount on all car rides, and it's just $19.99 per month, less than 10 percent of the monthly All-Access fee.
Some AT&T unlimited subscribers will get Spotify Premium for free
AT&T is adding a new streaming option to its Unlimited & More Premium wireless plan: Spotify Premium. AT&T customers with the Unlimited & More Premium plan are now eligible for Spotify Premium at no additional charge. Other select AT&T customers can sign up for a six-month free trial of the streaming service, after which they'll be able to purchase a Spotify Premium plan for $9.99 per month.
Hertz launches monthly car rental subscription starting at $999
Today, Hertz announced a new vehicle subscription service, Hertz My Car. For a monthly fee, users will have access to select sedans, crossovers, SUVs and trucks. The service follows on the heels of a similar, but more expensive, pilot program that Enterprise launched last month.
Amazon Prime Video is now a standalone monthly service
You no longer need to pay $100 in one shot to get a year of Amazon Prime. The retail giant now offers a monthly option for its full Prime service at $10.99 per month, with the option to cancel at any time. More interestingly, it broke out its Prime Video service for $8.99 a month if folks want streaming but don't need free shipping, music streaming and other perks. With the service, Amazon appears to be making a concerted effort to take on Netflix, which recently increased its price for new users from $8.99 to $9.99.
Sprint confirms pay-as-you-go service, promises not to throttle speeds or cap data
Word of a Sprint pay-as-you-go service crossed our desks just yesterday in the form of a leaked slide, and now Big Yellow has confirmed to FierceWireless that the effort, dubbed Sprint As You Go, will launch on January 25th. The Now Network's new initiative will offer a $70 monthly plan for smartphones and a $50-a-month plan for feature phones. Both options won't offer premium features such as WiFi tethering and Sprint Navigation, but Sprint says customers will see neither hide nor hair of data caps or speed throttling. As for hardware, the smartphone tier includes the LTE-enabled Samsung Victory at $250 and the LG Optimus Elite for $150. On the feature phone end of the spectrum, Samsung's Array and M400 handsets are available on the service (presumably ringing up at $80 and $50, respectively). Angling to take advantage of Sprint's new offer? You'll have to forgo online shopping this time, as the firm is making the offer available exclusively through it's brick-and-mortar Sprint Stores.
Hulu reducing monthly subscription prices in Japan by 33 percent
Looks like Huluers in the Land of the Rising Sun may have something to cheer about, as the entertainment service announced earlier it's lowering its monthly fees. Hulu claims the reason behind the dropped prices comes from having "listened to user feedback and assessed current market situations" -- or perhaps from taking note of the million-plus customers it gained with a similar strategy in the US. With the new charge, Japanese folks will only have to shell out 980 yen (around $12) per month, a hefty reduction considering the previous fee of 1480 yen. Naturally, before the current clientele throws a temper tantrum, Hulu's promising a 500 yen refund to make up for the recent shift in prices. You can learn the rest of the deets on the Hulu blog, which is linked down below.
HTC posts record sales (again), getting itself something nice (Dashwire) to celebrate
While the top three smartphone makers (Apple, Samsung, and Nokia) garner most of the press, HTC is quietly becoming a juggernaut. IDC's number five just posted yet another month of record sales, hitting $1.56 billion -- almost twice what the company moved in July of last year. To celebrate its continued meteoric rise, the Taiwanese manufacturer has announced it plans to acquire Dashwire, the cloud services company behind the awesome brilliant Awesome Drop, for $18.5 million. The only question is, how long HTC can keep this growth up? After all, common sense says what goes up, must come down -- just ask Nokia.
HTC sales in May reached $1.42 billion, more than double last year's total
We're seriously considering just reposting the same bit of text every time HTC's earnings come up for discussion. The story never seems to change. Taiwan's premier smartphone maker has once again blown away its performance from the previous year, having informed the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it tallied up T$40.62b ($1.42b) in consolidated sales for May 2011. That's a neat chunk of change more than April's T$38.73b and it also comfortably dwarfs last year's May total of T$18.82b ($656m). There's no breakdown of what devices are to credit for HTC's ever-ascending revenues, but if you ask us, its future prosperity looks pretty good with the Sensation, EVO 3D, and a few tablet-shaped things lurking on the horizon.
Mobclix finds the monthly value of an app user
Mobile advertiser Mobclix put together this infographic supposedly showing the "monthly value of an app user." It's the monthly advertising revenue for each app category listed, divided by the average number of users in a given month. As you can see above, iPhone apps are clearly generating more revenue per user than Android apps across the board, and Utilities apps top the list in terms of monthly value per user, as compared to Entertainment and Games apps. Before you start building an ad-driven Utility app for iPhone, though, don't forget that this chart basically sidelines the population stat. While the "value per user" on Games apps seems low, that's only because there are so many more users in that category. Lots more people, believe it or not, use their smartphones to play games than do actual work. Likewise for the Android listings; we already know that Android mobile app sales aren't quite as high as iPhone app sales, though there are more Android handsets out there than iPhones already. This is more of an interesting look at the people who use the apps. Utilities users on the iPhone tend to be a little more valuable as app users, while Games users are relatively cheap and plentiful. That's a pattern we've seen on platforms before, and things will likely stay that way even as the market for mobile advertising gets even bigger. [via AppAdvice]
AT&T on iPad 3G data: We can handle it
You probably had exactly the same response I did when you heard that AT&T would be handling the 3G data plan for the iPad: "Them again?" Sure, the deal is much better, and it's completely optional (you can get the iPad without 3G if you don't want it at all), but still: AT&T? Hasn't Apple heard enough complaining about their network without sending a bunch of tablet computers and all of that data downloading onto it? It's cool, says AT&T, we got it. That's what they told the New York Times' Bits blog yesterday, saying that they planned to put another $2 billion into cell phone towers, connectivity upgrades, and other costs for their network. But, and this is the part that kind of scares me, they also say that they expect most iPad users to stay near Wi-Fi hot spots, since the iPad plan comes with a subscription to every AT&T hotspot out there. They say they hope that will lessen the blow. Frankly, I doubt it -- if I'm paying $30 a month for "unlimited" on top of the $130 I paid for the option, I'm probably going to be using that 3G everywhere I can. And while AT&T says that they're getting better and better all the time, the worst case scenario is that the iPad's high data usage will knock out even longstanding iPhone customers. Hopefully this is all much ado over nothing, and that $2 billion will cover us as needed, but AT&T hasn't exactly earned the trust that Apple continues to put in them.
AT&T's new DataConnect Pass plans serve up data a la carte
AT&T is following Verizon's lead today with the introduction of new prepaid broadband plans targeted directly at netbook and laptop users who find themselves out of WiFi range (and in desperate need of email) every once in a while. The so-called DataConnect Pass plans exactly mirror Verizon's pricing, which means you can get 75MB as a "day pass" for $15, 250MB as a weekly deal for $30, or a half gig per month for $50. Like Verizon, you're far better off getting the 5GB postpaid plan if you're a heavy user here -- but if you find yourself needing wireless once in a blue moon, this may very well be the way to go. The packages are available now; follow the break for the full press release.
Changes in rules come to the Guild Wars tournament series
Those of you who are highly interested in the competitive tournaments of Guild Wars might like to know that ArenaNet has recently posted a new version of the tournament series rules on their website.The tournament series are the monthly tournaments that take place in Guild Wars between eight member guild teams as well as one versus one battles. The tournaments not only pay out with recognition as being one of the best players or being a member of one of the best guilds in the game, but also with tangible rewards from the Zaishen faction. Some of the rewards include titles as well as special emotes and potions.The full list of rules can be found on the main Guild Wars site, under the competitive section. It's a long read, but a necessary one for anyone interested in participating in this year's tournament series.
From Outland with gems
Dear players,Things are good back here in Nagrand -- though we don't see anyone but Death Knights coming through nowadays, I often think back to a few years ago when I saw so many of you come through leveling up, just as you are now in Northrend. You were so innocent and naive back then -- you really weren't prepared, at level 66 and 67, still not knowing what treachery Illidan might have planned or what treasure the walls of Tempest Keep might hold. Nowadays, the space inside those walls is empty except for the occasional Death Knight group -- my friend Ghabar up in Stormspire says they see even fewer players than we do here.Even the boys in Halaa say things are slow -- while I'm sure it's a relief not to be under attack every other hour, they come down here to Aeris Landing every once in a while just to pass the time and see what's up. I suppose when the Death Knights are gone, that'll be pretty much the end for us. Oh sure, we'll have the occasional newbie come through (I'll always need Crystal Fragments and Obsidian Warbeads, as long as there are suppliers to buy them -- and there are), but things won't be the same. Maybe I'll even get out of the trading business and take up a profession of my own. I hear Inscription can be fun.Oh, and by the way, it's the first of the month, so I've got your monthly gems sitting here. You may not need them up in Northrend, with your Lich King and your dragons and whatever else you've discovered up there (have you found any Ethereals yet?). But they're here, just like the rest of us, waiting for you. Sigh.Yours,Gezhe at Aeris Landing in Nagrand
EGM Rumor Mill: Wii Sports includes 30 games and Rez sequel coming
According to a post over on a blog at Jeux-France, the latest issue of EGM has some interesting rumors to share. The two of greatest concern to Wii Fanboys is the proposal of a Rez sequel releasing for the Wii, along with Nintendo's Wii Sports title including 30 total games. A sequel for Rez on the Wii is just about the greatest thing we've ever read. The problem with a rumor like this is that it sounds so good that it just can't be true. We want it, we want it bad, but likely could not survive the fall should it turn out to be fake. We'll remain as suspicious of this rumor as possible, for the time being.The idea of Wii Sports including over 30 different games is feasible and likely true. This could mean that Wii Sports would have a total of 24 games that we have yet to see (assuming that Wii Orchestra is included in the game and not a title in and of itself). Nintendo could get away with offering half as many games in Wii Sports and ask for full retail price, so the idea of 30 games being a part of the experience is wonderful. [Via Codename Revolution]
Another MMO Periodical in the Works
Remember those things we used to read before we had the internet? What were they called? Mag....maga...magazines! That's the ticket. Anyway, according to ICv2 News, Beckett Media has announced a new bi-monthly title to hit stores soon. Beckett Massive Online Gamer will be on the stands in May, and will focus exclusively on the world of MMO's. There are a few new MMO mags that will be on the market soon; it will be interesting to see which ones stick around...
Rumor: Mario Paint on the DS
1up editor Luke Smith recently posted about some tastey morsels that'll be running in the May issue of Electronics Gaming Monthly. Of these morsels, the tastiest to DS Fanboy readers (and Bloggers) is a rumor that the DS could be seeing an adaptation of the beloved SNES title Mario Paint. Considering how accessible the DS is to people who aren't hardcore gamers and the recent success Brain Training has enjoyed on the handheld, the idea of a Mario Paint game hitting the DS is a great idea. Using the stylus to swat flies would be too much fun!
