AT&T Says No To FaceTime

News has just broke that AT&T has released a statement shedding some light on how they plan on going forwards with allowing FaceTime over their cellular network. Previously, speculation and rumors pointed to AT&T limiting users on enjoying FaceTime over 3G/4G, but as of today, AT&T is allowing its customers to FaceTime as they wish, but on one condition. You have to subscribe to their Mobile Share data plans. 

Here's the official AT&T statement: 

AT&T will offer FaceTime over Cellular as an added benefit of our new Mobile Share data plans, which were created to meet customers’ growing data needs at a great value. With Mobile Share, the more data you use, the more you save. FaceTime will continue to be available over Wi-Fi for all our customers.

As a side note, Sprint is offering FaceTime over their data network with no additional fees. 

Sprint Posts iPhone Plans, Offers Unlimited Data

Sprint has recently posted its data, text and call plans for the iPhone on its website offering customers to pre-order the 8GB iPhone 4 starting today for $99.99 in black or white with a 2-year contract and an October 14 shipping date, while opening up the pre-ordering for the iPhone 4S on October 7 together with Apple with shipping scheduled to start on October 14. Customers will also be able to get their hands on the iPhone 4S in Sprint brick and mortar stores on October 14. 

Sprint's iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S plans start at $69.99 and include unlimited data, which both AT&T and Verizon no longer offer. Looks like Sprint is the way to go for new iPhone buyers this time around at much lower monthly costs including unlimited data for that data hungry iPhone.

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief

HTC EVO to Get Froyo on Tuesday!

 

Yes it is official! Sprint has just announced that the HTC EVO 4G is going to get the latest version of Android, 2.2 Froyo on August 3rd. Sprint is the first carrier to offer the Froyo update and the EVO is the second phone to receive Froyo 2.2. Sprint says the OTA update will roll out in stages and will be done by "mid August, but they will be providing a manual download link for impatient people. 

Press Release

Sprint is the first wireless carrier to bring Android 2.2 to customers using the award-winning HTC EVO™ 4G beginning Tuesday, Aug. 3

 

Android 2.2 offers HTC EVO 4G feature enhancements including Bluetooth® voice dialing, built-in Flash, the ability to store apps to the memory card and much, much more

The award-winning HTC EVO 4G just got that much better. We are excited to announce that beginning the week of Aug. 1; Sprint will begin rolling out the Android 2.2 upgrade to its HTC EVO 4G customers.

Sprint will be the first wireless carrier to bring1 the latest version of Android to its customers. The Android 2.2 software release provides a significant number of feature enhancements, including:
• Voice Dialing Over Bluetooth.
• Application Storage on External Memory, giving users more storage room for all their apps.
• Camera 4-way rotation allows the camera icons to rotate with the camera.
• Improved Browser Performance including a faster JavaScript engine and Flash 10x Support improving the user’s ability to view videos and available content associated with web pages.

“Sprint is thrilled with our customers’ response to HTC EVO 4G and the innovative and exciting experience it offers,” said Fared Adib, vice president – Product Development for Sprint. “It is exciting for us to lead the industry in bringing the Android 2.2 update to these customers and improve on the amazing experience they receive with America’s first 4G capable phone.”

Easy Downloading
Sprint will begin sending update notifications to users in waves beginning Tuesday, Aug. 3 and the upgrade should be available for all HTC EVO 4G users by the middle of August.

The notification will let the users know that the update is available and it will provide the simple two-step over-the-air download process.

1. Users will receive a notification that Android 2.2 is available for download.
2. Once the user has downloaded the update, they will be prompted to install the update. The user will be notified that their device will be disabled during the installation process. The phone will be ready to use once the process completes.

For those who just can’t wait to get Android 2.2, there will be an easy user initiated option to download the upgrade. Customers can access the software update through their HTC EVO 4G under the Settings Menu System Updates HTC Software Update. This will initiate the three-step process also.

With this update, we should start seeing Froyo roll out across all of HTC android phones in the next couple of weeks.

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Source Sprint | Android Central 

Samsung Vibrant Launching on 15th July

 

A couple of weeks ago, Samsung announced its latest Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy S. It is going to be released on all the major carriers in the US, and to make it just a bit more complicated, the Samsung Galaxy S has different names on each carrier. But the T-Mobile version, the Samsung Vibrant is going to be released on July 15th, the same day as the Droid X launch. Yesterday, AT&T also announced their version that the Samsung Galaxy S, the Samsung Captivate and this is launching on the 18th three days after T-Mobile's Vibrant launch on the 15th.

The features of the Samsung Vibrant are a 4" Super AMOLED capacitive touchscree display, 1GHz Hummingbird Processor, 2GB included SD card and a 5MP camera. It is running Android 2.1 with Samsung's custom skin.

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Source Phonedog

Samsung Epic 4G Announced

 

Sprint and Samsung just announced their latest Android smartphone, the Samsung Epic 4G. This was formerly rumoured to be called the Samsung Galaxy S, the Epic 4G seems to be packed with features. These include:

  • 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 
  • 1GHz Hummingbird processor,
  • 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording, 
  • Front-facing VGA camera for video calls
  • Accelerometer 
  • 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
  • Landscape QWERTY slider keyboard. 
  • Samsung's custom version of Android 2.1

This is the second 4G phone on the Sprint network and this joins the EVO 4G as well. The Epic 4G is going to be released in "the coming months."

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Source Sprint

White EVO 4G Coming only to Best Buy

 

Over the past few weeks, the EVO 4G has been the one of the best android handsets that you can buy. And when you thought it couldn't get any better, it did, as the of today you can pre-order a white EVO 4G! The handset will be sold exclusively through Best Buy until August 8th when the Sprint store will have it and September for all other retailers. So assuming that you managed to not get a balck EVO 4G and that the price will stay the same at $199, you must be mad not to get the white version. 

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Source Engadget

Evo 4G On Sale Now On Sprint's Online Store


The new and much talked about Evo 4G by HTC is on sale now via Sprint's online store! It will run you $199 with a two year contract after $100 mail-in rebate and $150 instant saving. The Evo 4G is a duel mode 3G/4G mobile phone with a huge 4.3" touch screen, two cameras with a main 8MP camera and two-way video calling, personal WiFi hotspot and HDMI output. It's powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and has the Android 2.1 by Google operating system.

Source Sprint

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief