Category: Articles

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Cricket Adds 5.5″ Acatel OneTouch Idol 3 for $149

Proving to be my Wife’s favorite phone of the year thanks to its low cost and front facing speakers, the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 is coming to Cricket!

When I reviewed it, I thought the Idol 3 was a budget champ at $250, but Cricket will be offering it for $149.99. Front facing stereo speakers, 5.5″ HD screen, MicroSD card expansion, and a nice mid-ranger camera. It’s a solid offering which covers the basics really well, and can be fun for rich multimedia playback.

Cricket will also be expanding their data plans, with LTE coverage for Canada and Mexico included at no additional cost.  You can read their full press release below.

Continue reading “Cricket Adds 5.5″ Acatel OneTouch Idol 3 for $149”

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AT&T Offers Data Perks for Taking Surveys

Screenshot_2015-10-26-07-57-49Customer data is valuable, tracking trends and brands. It’s largely how users “pay” for services like Facebook.

Lately though, a number of services have started sharing perks with customers who volunteer to share info with brands and services. AT&T recently announced a partnership with Aquto to monetize this data gathering and offer their customers additional data for their plans.

Taking surveys, watching ads, or participating with product trials will net AT&T subscribers additional data for their monthly cap. It’s similar to the Google Rewards app which awards Google Play credit for taking surveys.

Users engage through a free app, and participating can reward customers up to an additional gigabyte of data per month.

This could be a novel way for AT&T to offer up a little “profit sharing” as Big Blue has struggled in the past with other data initiatives . You can read the full press release below.

Continue reading “AT&T Offers Data Perks for Taking Surveys”

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Snapseed App Now Edits RAW Photos on Android!

Phones have recently started saving RAW photos, but we didn’t have many options for editing those photos out in the field. We would have to transfer those images to a proper computer for any manipulation.

In an update today, Google has added RAW support to their popular photo editing app Snapseed!

Screenshot_2015-10-29-08-38-44RAW photos are just what they sound like, the RAW data captured from the camera sensor. These are very large files, chock full of info, but often don’t look that great, and the larger file sizes make them more difficult to share. Snapseed now let’s you tweak a shot from the RAW info, then compress that into a smaller JPG file to share.

The editing tools also got a small update for more precise developing, including kelvin values for exposure and white balance.

The Snapseed update is now live in Google Play!

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LG V10 Arrives on AT&T Nov. 6 with Free Battery and 200GB Micro SD Card

LG’s new monster fashion phablet is finally making its way to AT&T!

Big Blue announced pricing and availability for the LG V10, and our estimates we’re right on. The pricing will land around $700 total when using AT&T’s $0 down, monthly pricing plans. On the Next program, the V10 will cost $35 a month when financing over 20 months, andthe phone will be on store shelves November 6th.

As with the G4 launch, LG will be sweetening the deal by adding in a spare battery, a battery charger, and a 200GB Micro SD Card. The V10 already comes standard with 64GB of built in storage, so this will provide a whopping amount of space for all of the incredible high bit rate video you’re going to shoot on this monster camera.

We’ve got the full scoop on the V10, and you can catch all of our reviews and comparisons below!

LG V10 Review

LG V10 Camera Review

Continue reading “LG V10 Arrives on AT&T Nov. 6 with Free Battery and 200GB Micro SD Card”

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Chattanooga Increases Fiber Internet Speeds to 10Gbps

In covering the state of broadband internet access in the United States, we’ve been seeing pockets of incredible speed increases. Usually built on projects like Google Fiber, or communities coming together to fund their own fiber roll out paid for by taxes and grants.

Chattanooga Tennessee was the first city in the United States to offer up true gigabit fiber internet to consumers and businesses. Today they become the third city in America to offer a 10 Gigabit per second data speed, following  Springfield Vermont and Salisbury North Carolina. None of these offerings are supplied by traditional cable or fiber providers like Comcast or Verizon. Continue reading “Chattanooga Increases Fiber Internet Speeds to 10Gbps”

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Wi-Fi Calling Now Available for iPhone 6 and 6S

We’re taking more steps towards all communication on mobile devices moving to data.

Now users on the iPhone 6 and 6S running iOS 9 will have access to WiFi calling on AT&T. This feature will be built into post-paid plans, and wont affect any current services the consumer might be paying for.

ATT logoWiFi calling allows people to move voice calls to data networks, without managing separate VOIP phone numbers, and can makes for a handy solution in areas with poor call quality. Once this feature is enabled, text messages can also travel over WiFi.

While we’ve seen services like Google Voice in the past, AT&T has recently been making moves to incorporate more cell connection “mobility”. Supporting products like the Gear S smartwatch which could move calls back and forth between the SIM in your phone and the SIM on your wrist. Earlier this year at their developer conference, they showed off demos of people moving video calls seamlessly between PC and phone, all tied to the phone number on their plan.

Moving forward, it seems your phone number will be less a static way to call someone, and more your Login ID for richer data driven communication.

You can read the full press release below.

Continue reading “Wi-Fi Calling Now Available for iPhone 6 and 6S”

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Microsoft Unveils New Surface Pro 4, Lumia Phones, and Surface Book Multi-Mode Laptop in NYC

Sitting second row for Microsoft’s unveiling of their new hardware line up, the WiFi is already slaughtered, and cell phone networks are melting down. It’s frustrating being detached from the wider social media world, but the buzz surrounding this event makes sense. Microsoft has never put together such a complete line up of products and services to show off before.

Chatting with others around me, everyone seems to be here for a different product category. Lumia fans, Surface fans, XBox Fans, Band fans, Microsoft has a lot riding on bringing these various teams together. Not just internally, as their company wide reorganization seems to be working, and we’ve recently seen a bit more product synergy between departments which used to feud. We’re looking at a company now trying to bring their diverse customer base together. Taking individuals who might turn to Microsoft for a single service or solution, and exposing them to a more comprehensive ecosystem.

They’ve made a lot of progress recently in re-establishing their reputation as a services company, providing apps on every platform. That doesn’t unseat the need for Microsoft and partners to find opportunities to continue pressuring the hardware market. While Windows is the dominate force in PC sales, they represent a much smaller slice of the mobile market. The timing on this event actually works in their favor, as tablet sales for Android and iOS are starting to cool off, Windows slates are in a good spot for consumers to replace both laptops and tablets with a single purchase. To continue moving towards one unified operating system environment, Windows needs to blur the lines between phones and tablets, as much as they did between tablets and PC’s.

One of the first major announcements to follow that theme came from Facebook, building out a new suite of universal apps for the entire Windows 10 platform. Continue reading “Microsoft Unveils New Surface Pro 4, Lumia Phones, and Surface Book Multi-Mode Laptop in NYC”

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SomeGadgetGuy in NYC! Let’s Talk New Microsoft Hardware!

I’ve been blasting it all over social media. While I’m trying to keep my expectations in check, I’m really looking forward to Microsoft’s announcements tomorrow, where the company is expected to take the wraps off of a new Surface Pro, and where we fans of Windows powered phones will finally get some new flagship devices.

lumia 950 leaked photo

Specs have already leaked for the forthcoming Lumia 950 and 950XL, and from a hardware perspective they look like they’ll be competitive handsets with some novel new tech features.

Most interesting to me, will be how this Lumia team has refined the camera experience. It was the old Nokia devices group that ushered in an era of crazy high quality optics and larger sensors on our phones. Nokia was years ahead of the curve there, but manufacturers like LG and Samsung have largely caught up to older devices like the Lumia 1520 and 930 (which I’ve brought along to help cover this event).

lumia 1520 and 930

For my money, the camera battle between the Lumia 950 and the LG V10 is shaping up to be the most brutal as LG is working on improving their audio, and providing manual controls for shooting video, both areas where older Windows Phones still compete really well.

I’m also very curious to see how Microsoft will address mobile security. More Android devices are following behind the iPhone in offering up a smooth fingerprint scanning solution for unlocking phones and initiating mobile payments. The rumors on the 950 don’t show a fingerprint scanner on board, but instead the Lumia will be offering up an iris scanner. While other phones have flirted with using the front camera to unlock a device based on your face, we haven’t yet heard of anything as sophisticated as examining the iris of your eye. Whether this will be used solely for unlocking the device, or if we’ll see it utilized for some form of mobile payments will be closely examined.

And of course, I’m always going to be interested in seeing what Microsoft does with the Surface. As this division has become a billion dollar brand all by itself, the Pro 3 was a very well received product. Will the Pro 4 be a spec bump and minor refinement, or does Microsoft have something craftier up their sleeves?

I’ve only been on the ground here in NYC for about an hour, and we’ll be getting the official answer to all of those questions tomorrow morning! Now I’ve got to hunt down a good slice of pizza!

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