contract
Latest
Rogers Canada offers 'early upgrade' for your horribly outdated phone
Long term relationships can be hard. After a year or two, it's easy to lose interest -- but a contract's a contract, right? Not in Canada, apparently. Wireless carrier Rogers is offering a get out of jail early card, letting you get some new hardware before the end of your contract with its new "early upgrade" offer. But if you want, say, the Xperia Play pictured above, ditching your antiquated handset will cost you, naturally. The service provider has a tiered pricing plan, charging a different level depending on the device and the amount of months that you've got left -- something of an early termination fee for those who don't mind sticking with the carrier. If math isn't your thing, Rogers recommends you pop by one of its retail locations to help you figure out just how much it'll run you. In the meantime, try to avoid hurling the thing out a window in disgust, okay?
T-Mobile cancels Even More Plus unlimited plan on eve of launch?
Just when we thought T-Mobile was about to rock the world by offering bring-your-own-phone customers an insanely cheap unlimited plan, we're hearing that the company has strangled the $60 unlimited version of Even More Plus in the crib -- TmoNews snagged a supposed internal communique that claims the plan was canceled at the last minute. We just reached out to T-Mobile ourselves, however, and were told the reality is nothing of the sort: T-Mobile did not officially announce any rate plans yesterday, and the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. Today, T-Mobile officially announced a new, single-line unlimited plan that is available starting today for just $79.99 per month, with an Even More plan and a two-year contract. In other words, T-Mobile says it never sent out the previous press release (also originally obtained by TmoNews) at all. We're not sure who's telling the truth here, but either way, one thing's for certain -- there still won't be an $60 unlimited Even More Plus plan starting tomorrow morning. You're more than welcome to dry your tears with the $80 on-contract plan right now, though. PR after the break.
iRobot agrees to provide US Navy with bomb disposal and recon bots in a deal worth up to $230 million
iRobot may still be best known as the creator of the homely Roomba vacuum-cleaning drone, but savvy readers will know the company's endeavors span a pretty broad range of robot-related activities. One of those has now borne fruit in the shape of a multiyear agreement with the US Navy for the provision of "portable robotic systems" that can identify and dispose of explosives while also performing a bit of reconnaissance work in their spare time. The announcement doesn't tell us the particular model(s) or number of bots that will be provided, but there is clarification to say that iRobot will be responsible for providing spares, repairs, training, and accessories along with the hardware, with the total revenue for the company potentially swelling to $230 million over the full course of the contract, which lasts through 2015. Our guess is that the "throwable" robot shown off a couple of weeks back would be a good candidate for this task, though we doubt it'll be thanking us for endorsing it for such perilous work.
Verizon Wireless killing one-year contracts on April 17th, assumes you won't even care
Okay, so maybe you'll care, but you'll still opt for the two-year option once your contract is up. That's according -- more or less, anyway -- to a Verizon Wireless spokesperson, confirming to our inquiry this afternoon that the carrier's one-year contract option will be eliminated on April 17th. The reason, as you might expect, revolves around historical customer preference. That's a fancy way of saying that most customers prefer the stout hardware discounts that are available with a lengthier two-year agreement, and barring that, they can still choose month-to-month, prepaid or a rival. Not that VZW would encourage the latter, but hey -- America's about options, man.
AT&T bumps early-upgrade prices for all smartphones, reminds that patience is a virtue
The two year contract is a blessing and a curse, but looking at these updated prices from AT&T we're thinking those upgrading early and doing so to a one year contract are quite simply doomed. AT&T has upped the price on all early-upgrade one year commitment smartphones by a whopping $150. That's painful, but the early-upgrades are at least a little less painful. Smartphones like the iPhone are jumping by a relatively meager $50, meaning a new 32GB iPhone 4 will cost you $549 vs the previous $449. Or you could, you know, just suck it up for another 12 months. Update: As it turns out the $150 premium is unrelated to upgrading -- if you want a one year contract you're stuck with the $150 premium, regardless.
Verizon announces Xoom pricing: $600 on contract, $20 per month for 1GB data
Verizon just filled in the rest of the Xoom pricing story -- in addition to the $800 off-contract version that's already up for pre-order at Best Buy, you'll be able to sign a two-year data contract and pick up a Xoom for $600 upfront. That's a decent savings, although you'll be getting just 1GB of 3G data for $20/month, so it's not exactly a stunning deal in the end: a Xoom and 24GB of data over two years for $1,080. On the plus side, Verizon has confirmed that the Xoom LTE upgrade will in fact be free when it goes live in Q2, which is terrific news -- but we're waiting to see what the LTE data plans look like before we get too excited. PR after the break. Update: We're hearing from Verizon reps that the Xoom will also be able to take advantage of the carrier's larger data plans as well -- $35 a month for 3GB, $50 a month for 5GB, and $80 a month for 10GB. Still no word on LTE pricing, though. [Thanks, droiddoesall]
Improvements on the way for EVE Online's contract system
There are many professions open to players in EVE Online, but it's the trading that often draws players to the game. Due to the number of players buying and selling on EVE's single server and the fact that items are destroyed on death, a savvy player can find countless opportunities for profit. To avoid overloading the market window with thousands of items most players will never need to buy, CCP limits rare and unusual items to being sold on the contract system. Items can be listed as auctions or direct sales, and players can search for items by name. The system has been working amicably for years, but recently several back-end performance issues were identified in it. As part of CCP's on-going war on lag, major back-end optimisations were made. Due to this restructuring of how contracts are handled on the EVE server, several new features have suddenly become possible. In a new devblog, CCP Atlas explains the back-end improvements and what they mean for the average player. Several features players have asked for over the years are on the way, such as the ability to put damaged items into contracts. Ammo in the guns of a ship being contracted will now be moved into the ship's cargo hold rather than the item hangar, and ship insurance will no longer be voided when a ship is contracted. A whole host of improvements are also on the way to make the terms of courier missions more obvious. Players will be informed of the dangers of a contract before they accept it, including dangerous systems en-route and whether the destination station might refuse them docking rights. The upgrades are already live on the EVE test server and will be hitting the live server as part of the Incursion expansion's third phase in January.
Sprint inks another three years' worth of iDEN infrastructure support with Motorola, 'several' new phones coming in Q1
Even as Sprint starts to dream up ways to sunset its aging (but still popular) iDEN network, reclaim the spectrum, and migrate its push-to-talk customer base to something CDMA-based, there's still a network to maintain in the short term -- and to that end, the company has re-upped its contract with Motorola to keep the system in tip-top shape for at least another three years. Amazingly, this will mean that the network is some twenty years old by the time the agreement is up in 2013, after which they'll either need to be ready with their CDMA replacement (bearing in mind that QChat already failed) -- or we imagine they'll need another contract renewal. Oh, and this won't just be a run-out-the-clock situation, either: there'll be at least some new hardware, with Sprint saying that "several" handsets are on tap for the first quarter of 2011 including the i886 ("stylish," rugged, and landscape QWERTY) and the i686, an update of the i680 with improved waterproofing. Follow the break for the full press release.
US Cellular makes all phones free on contract from the 17th through next week
Well, this should make the choice between a Messager Touch and a Mesmerize an easy one, right? From December 17th through the 24th, you'll be able to pick up any phone in US Cellular's inventory for free on a new contract -- and what's more, they'll flip you a $100 bill credit if you're buying a smartphone, regardless of whether you're a new customer or an existing one adding a line. Almost makes you want to sign up for, like, 20 lines of service, doesn't it? No? Follow the break for the press release. Update: US Cellular reached out to us to point out that if you're on a Belief Plan and you're already eligible for a phone upgrade, this means you can walk into a store and take any phone you want for free without signing a new contract. How crazy is that?
Three's The One Plan serves up all-you-can-eat data in the UK
Unlimited data. No, for real this time. While US carriers are tripping over each other to claim the death of uncapped data allowances, the UK's 3G-only network operator is bringing them back like a pair of retro sneakers. Three's grandly titled The One Plan takes all limits and fair usage gotchas away and just lets you suckle bandwidth to your heart's content. And that explicitly includes tethering your phone to your laptop and using it as a 3G modem -- very classy. New and old customers will benefit from this, meaning that if you're already on this plan you're in line for a free upgrade. The offer's effective now and contracts start at £25 a month with a minimum term of one year. We'll be highly impressed if Three's network, never mind this deal, survives a full year of being bashed over the head by iPlayer streams and YouTube uploads, but here's hoping, eh?
UK telecoms Three, Orange and T-Mobile launch subsidized iPad plans
Following up on the announcement made a few weeks ago, UK telecom providers Three, Orange and T-Mobile formally launched their iPad subsidies today. Those of us in the United States are used to having our cellphone prices subsidized by signing contracts, but so far we don't have anyone subsidizing our iPad purchases as well. The discount plan offers shoppers who enter a two-year service contract money off the price of a new iPad, bringing the price of the 16GB with Wi-Fi + 3G unit down to £199 (plus VAT - Edited: VAT is included thanks @ crisss1205) or the equivalent of US $313 -- a steep discount from the normal price of $629.00 in the U.S.. While the price of the iPad is the same for each provider after the subsidy, each offers their own monthly plan and cost: Three offers 15GB of data per month for £25/month (US $39), with no Wi-Fi coverage included. Orange offers 1GB of data at peak times and 1GB between midnight and 4pm for between £25 and £27. This includes 3GB of Wi-Fi usage using BT Openzone. T-Mobile offers the same data limits as Orange but without any Wi-Fi coverage for between £25 and £27. Three is definitely offering the best plan for users, especially when compared to the caps that AT&T has in place on their 3G plans at 50MB/month for $14.99 or 2GB/month for $25. Granted there are no contracts in place with AT&T, but iPad buyers in the UK who don't mind signing a contract are seemingly getting a pretty good deal with these new subsidies. Of course, if you were willing to move to Japan you could get an iPad 3G for free after signing a contract, but it would probably be more cost-effective to stay right where you are and pay full price near home.
Softbank makes 16GB iPad WiFi + 3G free with two-year contract
An iPad for zilch on contract? Yessir... but only if you pack up and move to the Land of the Rising Sun. Softbank Mobile has just announced a new pricing plan that makes Apple's 16GB iPad WiFi + 3G model totally free with a two-year data agreement in Japan, and for those who recall it being "free" before, this situation is a bit different. You see, there's no built-in monthly surcharge for this one; rather than paying off your iPad over 24 months, you're actually getting it for nothing as long as you're kosher with forking out ¥4,725 ($56) per month for that 3G goodness. The deal starts on December 3rd, and we've got a strange, strange feeling that it'll do quite well if marketed correctly. And by "correctly," we mean "at all." [Thanks, Ken]
How D7 Consulting uses the iPad at work
We've been covering the story of D7 Consulting for a while here on TUAW -- that's the company that originally won 20 iPads from Box.net through our comments section, and then became a showcase project for how the iPad can be used in real-life business. I called up CEO Joe Daniels for one final interview this week to see how things have progressed and what he and his company have learned from using their iPads while out and about. He told me that even though the dust has settled on the initial program, the iPad implementation at D7 "is going to be ongoing forever." It's "an evolutionary thing," Daniels said. But it has gotten to the point where the company no longer uses paperwork to share files. "Everything I do when I go out to a job site is done through the iPad and Box. I don't even take a file with me any more."
NASA budgets $15 million for hypersonic flight
You're probably familiar with supersonic planes like the SR-71 Blackbird pictured above, which managed to fly at over three times the speed of sound, but imagine this: NASA set aside $15 million to develop a hypersonic plane that could exit our atmosphere at speeds between Mach 5 and Mach 20. The US space agency's not expecting to build it quite that cheaply, of course, and it's not holding out hope for a contractor to build the entire plane just yet -- the organization intends to fund some sixteen smaller science and engineering projects (ranging from "how to build a Mach 8+ engine" to "predicting hypersonic fluid dynamics") and letting would-be government contractors pick and choose. Know how to quantify baseline turbulent aeroheating uncertainty in a hypersonic environment? You've got until November 23rd to get your proposal in. Update: As some have pointed out in comments, hypersonic flight isn't unprecedented -- NASA spent eighteen years developing and testing the X-15 space plane starting in 1951, which reached Mach 6.7 using a rocket engine. [Thanks, Gadi]
Codemasters comes clean on LotRO EU's free-to-play delay
Lord of the Rings Online players are well aware that something has been rotten in the state of Denmark -- and the rest of Europe -- with the lengthy and unexplained delay in rolling out the new free-to-play update in the region. While we've speculated on the cause, Codemasters has been cagey and non-specific during the past month and a half, only promising that a solution was coming "soon." That changed today, as general manager David Solari posted a letter on the LotRO EU forums clarifying the situation. It turns out that the hold-up was due to legal rather than technical obstacles: "As many of you correctly surmised, the issues have been contractual rather than technical. As they were contractual issues, we are bound by confidentiality and you will understand that I can't give you any further detail... Unfortunately a contract was required in order to go free-to-play and this has taken much longer to conclude than expected. The good news is that the contractual issues have been resolved and we are on the home stretch." Solari promised more information later this week, claiming that the F2P launch is "imminent." Codemasters is in charge of operating Lord of the Rings Online in the region while Turbine handles the responsibility in North America. You can read the full letter over at the LotRO EU forums.
US Cellular launches The Belief Project, a slew of customer initiatives rolled into one
So US Cellular just spilled all the beans on its mysterious Belief Project today, and basically, they've just rolled up a whole bunch of policy tweaks under one neat, tidy name for marketing purposes. The list of changes is a long (and generally good one), featuring "one and done" contracts -- meaning you can get contract benefits forever after you serve out your first two-year contract -- along with free phone replacement for accidentally damaged handsets and $100 replacement for lost or stolen ones, three to five percent plan discounts based on payment method and paperless billing, overage caps and warnings, and a new rewards program that lets customers exchange points for discounts and free stuff. Follow the break for USCC's full press release.
TiVo tries a 'limited test' of free-on-contract DVRs
Our keen eyed friend Dave Zatz spotted an offer that popped up on TiVo's homepage over the weekend, offering customers the opportunity to obtain a TiVo Premiere DVR for zero dollars down, with the caveat that they would be locked into paying $19.99 a month for service for the next two years. That's a slight bump over the regular $12.95 per month (currently offered at $9.95) service fee, but nothing unreasonable if you do the math. Getting a $299 box for an extended $240 payment over two years sounds nice there is one gotcha here -- after the two years, customers are automatically resubscribed at the $19.99 rate, not the standard $12.95 fee. Once you've figured out the amortized rates and break even points (cancellation means paying $300 for the DVR minus $7 for each month that's already gone by) move fast if interested, as TiVo's PR team told Yahoo! News the deal was a "test" that would end within a week, but it still presents an interesting question. Does the possibility of buying a DVR like we buy our cellphones make TiVo's hardware more or less attractive in your eyes?
How-to: figure out the best value iPhone 4 contracts in the UK (updated)
Choices, choices. Do you get the 16GB or 32GB iPhone 4? The black one now or the white one a little later? We can't tell you which variant of Apple's next phone will hold its value best over the coming months, but we can try to clear up a bit of the fogginess surrounding price plans on offer from UK networks. Orange and O2 are the first to drop handset pricing and full contract details, but they haven't made it easy for the discerning buyer, with each carrier offering more than a dozen options. Vodafone, T-Mobile, Three, and even Tesco Mobile are set to follow suit in the coming days and weeks, but we thought we'd get the ball rolling with the pair we have now. Update: And just as we publish this, Voda has gone official with its tariffs. We've now broken them down into a more digestible format as well. Just for you. Update 2: Tesco Mobile has also outed its pricing and it's by far the best of the bunch. Check out the full chart inside the post. Update 3: Three's iPhone 4 pricing has now also been made known.
Vodafone UK details iPhone 4 plans a little early, we keep the screenshots
We don't know what shenanigans are going on over in Vodafone HQ, but the UK carrier gave the world a quick glimpse of its iPhone 4 pricing today, before promptly removing the data sheets from the ether. Thankfully, a fast-witted reader by the name of Liam Gladdy captured the incriminating data for us, and we can now sit and ruminate on what Voda has in store. As you might surmise from above, the vast majority of users won't be getting the handset for free, though that doesn't necessarily preclude the contracts from representing good value. We note with glee that Vodafone keeps its data limit at a robust 1GB, unlike a certain other network, and the £30 ($44) a month two-year contract is looking decent from where we're sitting. Prices over 18 months just jump by £5 in monthly outlay with handset costs remaining the same. Click past the break for the full breakdown, including details for the 32GB variety.
Motorola and RIM settle patent dispute with a good old cross-licensing deal
We always like to hear of companies burying the hatchet (and the lawyers with it, if at all possible), and our latest source of good vibes are two North American phone makers that have been at each other's throats over patents since early 2008. Motorola and RIM had a previous intellectual property-sharing deal that expired at the end of '07 and with the companies unable to come to a suitable extension agreement, it all spiraled out into a big and silly legal discord. That has at long last been settled now, with RIM paying a one-off fee and regular royalties, as well as licensing some of its own patent catalog out to Moto, in exchange for using the Americans' knowhow in WiFi and other areas. All in all, an inevitable conclusion to an unnecessarily legalized negotiation. Now how about both you guys get back to building us those QWERTY sliders and 2GHz Androids?
