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Sprint is now selling monthly Amazon Prime subscriptions
Sprint announced on Thursday that it will begin selling Amazon Prime subscriptions to its customers for $11 a month. That's slightly more than what you'd pay if you purchased Prime on your own but this is the only way to get the service for less than a year -- and $100 -- at a time. Interested Sprint customers can sign up through the company's website.
Qualcomm's X16 modem could help gigabit LTE work in more places
While our wireless carriers bicker over who offers the fastest service, Qualcomm went and pulled back the curtain on the Snapdragon X16 modem, a dry sounding bit of networking tech with huge implications. With it comes the promise of insanely fast gigabit LTE download speeds... but shouldn't hold your breath waiting see your Ookla Speedtest results shoot through the roof.
Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are now available SIM-free
Apple is now selling unlocked versions of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, giving you options if you'd rather not be tied to a contract or want a handset that works in other countries. The downside, of course, is that you'll pay the full retail price without those carrier subsidies -- starting at $649 for the (controversial) 16GB iPhone 6s at Apple Stores or online. In addition, Apple has started rolling out its latest iPhones in 36 new countries, including Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and Spain. They're now available in 48 nations, and will hit about 80 more by the end of the year.
Verizon's Nexus 6 could arrive very soon
Are you a Verizon subscriber holding out for a Nexus 6 on Big Red? Well, your wait might be over pretty soon. Leaked in-store marketing materials are starting to float about and Verizon auto-uploaded a promo video for the handset (now made private) to its YouTube channel, as spotted by Phandroid. Apparently those banners and related items are set to display come March 11th with the device releasing the next day. What's more, Phandroid's sources say that when the launch does happen, Moto's big-screen device'll pack Verizon's enhanced LTE service (voice over LTE) and Lollipop 5.1. Until the Nexus 6 actually hits your local Verizon store, maybe watch our video review (below) again -- it'll make the wait exactly 3:48 shorter.
Carphone Warehouse staff will help you choose the best network for your area
Now that Phones4u is no more, Carphone Warehouse is one of the few independent retailers selling mobile phone contracts in the UK. With mounting competition from dedicated carrier stores, the company hopes to stand apart by offering its customers better impartial advice. To that end it's teamed up with RootMetrics, a firm that specialises in monitoring mobile network performance. Using its CoverageMap app, which combines professional and crowdsourced network tests, Carphone Warehouse staff will now tell shoppers which carriers offer the best coverage in their local area. Whether you're interested in call quality or download speeds, this information could save you from picking a weak network. You can always download the app for yourself or check RootMetrics' map online, but a timely reminder just before you sign up for a new contract can't hurt.
Ofcom's opening up more spectrum to cope with UK mobile data demands
While Ofcom is busy soliciting opinion on whether it should open up more 4G spectrum to carriers, it's already taking the necessary steps to ease mobile data congestion in the UK. The regulator today announced that it will open up the 700 MHz spectrum, allowing mobile networks to enhance their data services for lower cost. With its longer wavelength, the 700 MHz band is particularly well suited for data. It can travel longer distances without degrading but also penetrate further into buildings, meaning it's useful in both rural and urban environments. It also helps that the UK isn't alone in wanting to utilise the frequency, with France, Sweden and Finland all announcing plans to use band. Ofcom plans to make spectrum available by 2022, but will first need to reallocate digital TV and wireless event communication signals to let carriers tap it for mobile broadband. Luckily, you won't need to do anything until 2019 at the very latest, and even then you'll probably only need to retune your television.
AT&T will give you $50 to upgrade to a new iPhone
If you're an AT&T subscriber and needed a little extra bit of incentive to convince you that now is a good time to dive into the iPhone 6 waters, AT&T is offering a $50 bill credit to anyone who upgrades an existing line to an iPhone 5s, 5c, 6, or 6 Plus through the Apple Store -- online, or in-person. The catch? You have to finance the phone through the AT&T Next installment plan and keep the line active for at least 45 days. The Next installment plan can end up costing you a good bit more in the end, especially if you don't want to trade the phone in for another Next upgrade after twelve months, but if you don't have the cash saved to make a new purchase it'll help you score a new iPhone anyway. The deal is scheduled to end on December 31st, but AT&T notes that it could end at any time, without notice.
France's Iliad calls it quits on trying to buy T-Mobile USA
AT&T wanted to buy T-Mobile USA. That fell apart. Then, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son wanted Sprint to merge with it. No dice. Most recently, Iliad (the owners of a French wireless carrier called Free) wanted to acquire a 67% stake in it. You can probably guess what happened: Iliad announced that it's officially dropping its bid for T-Mobile, despite repeatedly claiming it'd "accelerate T-Mobile US' transformation". If we're being honest, Iliad never had the cash on hand to counter Sprint's coffers -- that may explain why neither T-Mobile's board nor folks at Deutsche Telekom didn't really give them the time of day. The Ilium team must be bummed, but no matter: T-Mobile's on the upswing now as it is. At last count, the magenta-hued carrier picked up over 2.5 million subscribers over the first half of the year, enough to let it crow about being the country's fastest growing carrier. Thought's not to say that Deutsche Telekom won't still try to offload it, though -- now it's going to wait for a spectrum auction later this fall before it decides what to do next.
90 percent of 911 calls made in Washington, DC lacked accurate location info
Data pulled from a recent Freedom of Information Act request reveals that an overwhelming majority of 911 wireless calls made over a six-month period last year in Washington, DC were delivered "without accurate location information to find callers who are lost, confused, unconscious or otherwise unable to share their location." Only ten percent of calls from the first half of 2013 within the city included detailed location data. At the moment, FCC regulations demand higher location accuracy only on outdoor calls, making built-up areas like DC harder to hone in on. Public safety officials told the Washington Post that these location issues are widespread.
T-Mobile Test Drive lets you borrow an iPhone 5s for a week
T-Mobile clearly wants you to become a customer -- the company's "UnCarrier 5.0" move will get you an iPhone 5s to try out for a full seven days. At an event in Seattle today, the carrier introduced Test Drive, a service that will help customers avoid "buying blind," giving you an opportunity to experience LTE at home before you commit to making a purchase. The service launches this Sunday and lets you borrow Apple's latest handset for a week, at which point you'll need to return the device to any T-Mobile store, even if you plan on signing up and purchasing a device.
EE could soon ditch Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U
A strategic shift by the UK's largest mobile operator could leave a nasty taste in the mouths of Carphone Warehouse and its new partner Dixons. The Telegraph reports that just weeks after the two UK retailers confirmed plans to merge in a £3.6 billion deal, EE is deciding whether to end its relationship with Carphone Warehouse, and possibly Phones4U, as it looks to work more closely with customers. EE is expected to make an announcement "within weeks," and could involve dropping either one of its partners, or both. If EE was to sever ties with newly-formed Dixons Carphone, it would lose direct sales from over a thousand high-street stores, which puts more pressure on its own stores to pick up the slack. However, it already counts more than 30 million customers, has a one-third share of the UK market and recently announced plans to boost its retail presence across Britain. Carphone Warehouse has prided itself on being the best place to independently compare deals, but with Three already flying solo and EE set to follow, it could seriously undermine the retailer's claims.
$20 FreedomPop 'Unlimited Everything' plan includes 1GB of Sprint LTE, limits
FreedomPop's been signing up customers with the promise of free mobile phone service since last year, but once you're hooked, you'll need to shell out a bit of dough to keep things going. The basic plan, which does in fact come with a $0.00 monthly fee, gets you 200 minutes, 500 text messages and 500 megs of data. Once you reach those caps, you'll pay one cent per minute or 2.5 cents per MB, or you can step up to the new "Unlimited Everything" plan, which will run you $20 monthly for all-you-can-eat voice, text messages and data, with a catch: You'll only get 1GB of LTE, after which you'll drop down to Sprint's 3G network. Assuming you'll consume that gig of data in far less than 30 days, FreedomPop's four LTE smartphones, including three from Samsung and Apple's iPhone 5, may not be the best fit. Still, $20 is a relative steal for unlimited smartphone service, and if you can live with 3G speeds after that first gig is up, FreedomPop's ready to start saving you cash.
AT&T relaunches Cricket prepaid brand with nationwide 4G coverage
It's a brand new day for Cricket, AT&T's budget wireless arm. Last year, the mobile giant announced plans to acquire Leap Wireless, Cricket's parent company, and has since launched a major refresh, formally introducing the new service today. After purchasing new devices, Cricket customers will be able to access AT&T's nationwide 4G network, including LTE. All plans include unlimited domestic calling, messaging and international texting to 35 countries, and come in at $35, $45 and $55 monthly (after a $5 auto pay credit), with 500MB, 2.5GB and 5GB of data, respectively. You won't be charged for data overages -- instead, Cricket will cap your speed at 128 Kbps for the rest of the billing period.
With Free, France shows the US what an open mobile market should be
If you hadn't noticed, T-Mobile has been on a rampage lately in the US. It has offered cheaper contract-free plans, paid users cold hard cash to switch, and generally crashed other carriers' parties. The result has been a wave of new customers for T-Mobile and cheaper, me-too plans from AT&T and Verizon -- all a boon to US consumers. But over in France, an alternate-reality version of this scenario has been playing out. Until recently, old guard carriers like Orange and SFR have trundled along, milking customers while stifling innovation. Then, trampling over them on a white horse, came a Bizarro T-Mobile carrier called Free Mobile. It's been a far greater competitive threat than T-Mo in the US and, thanks to its radical plans, France has become a wireless utopia with some of the cheapest rates in the world.
EVE Online plans drone renaissance
EVE Online is giving much-needed love to its drones come this summer, and a new dev blog posted today has all of the copious details. "There are several aspects of drone balance that are not yet up to our current standards," the devs posted. "In the summer release we will be implementing a wide ranging balance rework for drones of all sizes." The changes will include balancing drones between the different empires, between quality levels, and between drone sizes. There will also be modifications made to drone skills and sentry drones. These changes will also impact skills and modules for fighters and fighter bombers. After the update, these "larger drones" will have reduced base damage and can only be hosted 10 at a time on a supercarrier instead of 20.
Daily Roundup: Ubuntu's first phones, Lumia Icon review and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
US carriers can now block activation of stolen smartphones if they head abroad
US wireless industry group CTIA has announced that a stolen phone database launched last year by T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon is now final, including integration with international carriers. That'll let foreign operators block stolen US device activations, a bone of contention for law enforcement officials stateside. They complained that the list was having no impact on thefts, since organized crime groups were simply dumping devices overseas where their serial numbers couldn't be detected. Police would prefer to also see kill switches installed in handsets to truly put a dent in phone-knapping, but carriers have strenuously objected to that idea -- strictly out of self-interest, according to some. For its part, the CTIA said that the completed database at least means there are fewer countries where gangs can hawk their stolen wares. Still, as the carrier group pointed out, if a stranger asks to "borrow" your phone for directions, just, don't.
FCC rubber-stamps use of select AT&T LTE bands by smaller US carriers
Last month, AT&T agreed to let smaller US carriers use its 700MHz LTE spectrum, and now the Federal Communications Commission has rubber stamped the company's interoperability plan. With the approval in place, the way is paved for punier providers -- often in rural areas -- to support 4G devices built for Big Blue's network, and potentially leverage roaming over the particular waves. However, there's no word on how quickly other outfits will be able to take advantage of the fresh frequencies, even with the agency's blessing. Regardless, Uncle Sam is pretty optimistic about the deal, as the FCC says it will "improve wireless availability and competition, spur investment in and build out of the networks in the Lower 700MHz band, and result in significant savings to the consumer." Sure, congress still hasn't confirmed Tom Wheeler as the commission's head honcho, but acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn seems to be warming his chair quite nicely.
Switched On: The why of the 'i' buy
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. For the past few years, the media has met iPhone introductions with skepticism that precedes great sales success. This has become such a cliché that the superstitious might worry what would happen should new iPhones be introduced to universal praise. But there was no cause for worry as far as the iPhone 5c and 5s were concerned. In the weekend following their initial availability, Apple reported that it sold 9 million iPhones, which set a new record for the company. A few of the reasons behind this success likely had less to do with the strength of the product per se. The new iPhones were launched in 11 countries as opposed to nine in the previous launch. The fast-growing market of China was one of those. It was also the first launch to include Japan's NTT DoCoMo. And back in the U.S. this marked the first time that new iPhones had been launched on all four major US carriers -- a significant shift from the product's first years as an AT&T exclusive. In fact, T-Mobile, the newest carrier to participate in an iPhone debut, has been particularly aggressive about promoting its Jump service that encourages upgrades, and its competitors have introduced their own upgrade-facilitation programs that grease the upgrade wheels for Apple and others.
French authorities investigating Apple's carrier contracts
The French finance ministry is looking into Apple's business practices in the country again, this time focusing on contracts between the company and French mobile carriers. The investigation is part of a larger probe into relationships between major handset makers and their major clients -- the operators who sell the phones. The probe was initially reported by French news channel BFM TV, and spokesmen for Apple and the finance ministry's anti-fraud and antitrust unit made no comment. France's antitrust watchdog group -- Autorite de la Concurrence -- is already involved in two other inquiries into Apple's business, having raided some Apple offices earlier in the summer seeking evidence of whether or not the company has engaged in unfair competition against Apple resellers. The authority is also investigating the app stores run by Google and Apple with an eye toward antitrust proceedings against a company or the entire industry.