Let's Talk Tech
If you’ve been wondering what new advanced features were coming to the S-Pen Stylus on the Galaxy Note 4, Samsung has produced this adorable little video to help whet your appetite for their upcoming super phablet. Enjoy!
In a public open letter to Comcast and Time Warner, the FCC announced they will be hitting pause on their 180 day review of proposed merger between the two largest cable companies in the United States.
Only 85 days into the review process, both Comcast and TWC failed to meet deadlines on information requests in September. The FCC also responds to claims that the Comcast NBC Universal merger did not affect pricing, and that there was a substantial amount of data contradicting that claim needing examination. The FCC will resume their review process October 29th, allowing more time for the public to file comments and responses to the merger.
Public reaction to the merger has largely been negative, with many fearing the affects of what one super-large cable company will do to pricing and competition for services. It’s also become a cornerstone talking point in the ongoing net neutrality debate, as companies like Netflix have been forced to engage in negotiations and paying higher data transfer fees to prevent their services being throttled. It’s also given rise to a cottage industry of people recording poor customer service experiences with Comcast, and posting those recordings online.
You can read the FCC’s public letter here: Letter to Comcast, TW, and Charter regarding stopping clock
Low cost carrier sweetheart Straight Talk is now starting up a Bring Your Own Device program for GSM enabled tablets.
Announced via their blog, users can BYOT and sign up for monthly data plans starting at $15 a month for 1GB of GSM data with support for LTE where available. Plans top out at $50 a month for 5GB of data. Not a bad way to keep your mobile data habit fed.
You can hit http://www.straighttalkbyot.com/ for more info or to sign up and grab a SIM card.
In a filing with the SEC, HP today confirmed their intentions to divide their company. They’ll retain the traditional HP name for consumer electronics like Laptops and Printers. A new organization named “Hewlett-Packard Enterprise” will retain their corporate solutions.
It would seem HP has had difficulties in selling off under-performing divisions, and now the company is revisiting the strategy laid out by Leo Apotheker back in 2011 before he was ousted as CEO.
This move also comes with the news that layoffs will increase from the expected 45,000 to 55,000 employees now expected to get cut during this transition.
Current CEO Meg Whitman will make the move to the new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, while EVP of Personal Systems and Printing Dion Weisler will take over as the new head of HP.
Well done VZW.
Big Red as decided to pull the plug on their “Network Optimization” plans which would have throttled the data connections on the top 5% of heavy users. Droid Life is reporting on a company spokesperson’s comment:
Verizon is committed to providing its customers with an unparalleled mobile network experience. At a time of ever-increasing mobile broadband data usage, we not only take pride in the way we manage our network resources, but also take seriously our responsibility to deliver exceptional mobile service to every customer. We’ve greatly valued the ongoing dialogue over the past several months concerning network optimization and we’ve decided not to move forward with the planned implementation of network optimization for 4G LTE customers on unlimited plans. Exceptional network service will always be our priority and we remain committed to working closely with industry stakeholders to manage broadband issues so that American consumers get the world-class mobile service they expect and value.
Even more incentive to hold onto those unlimited plans if you’re still rocking one!
The carriers are waging price wars, and AT&T took another blow at family data sharing by introducing new share plans and rates.
Starting today, AT&T’s new plans double the data shared for the same price, which means the smallest plan starts at $130 for 30GB of data, scaling up to 100GB a month plan for $375. All plans support up to ten lines, unlimited talk & text, and unlimited messaging.
This is a promotional rate however, and the sign up period runs through October 31st. If you don’t activate one of these new plans by Halloween, then data rates revert back to their old caps. Once you sign up for the plan though, you will receive that data cap for the life of your account with AT&T.
Check the full press release below!
Continue reading “AT&T Doubles the Data on Mobile Share Plans, But You Have to Act Soon!”
When Microsoft acquired Nokia’s hardware division, they did not get all of Nokia’s assets. One team to remain under the Nokia badge was the HERE mapping division, and it’s quickly become a favorite of Windows Phone users, bringing terrific turn-by-turn directions and downloadable maps to Microsoft’s ecosystem.
Reported today by The Next Web, a Nokia Executive Sean Fernback was quoted in regards to future HERE development:
“today we still maintain the [HERE] Windows Phone apps, it has our brand on it so we need to look after it, although we’re not particularly investing in them at the moment, that could still change. With the Nokia X program, we were authorized to continue to work on it until about now really, but that work is about to cease. I think there have been a number of different programmes that have continued through the year onto different platforms, but now it’s just going to focus on the two – Android and iOS.”
We’ve known that HERE Maps would be making a transition to Android, specifically on Samsung devices, and it would make sense that the team would be turning more resources to the newer (and larger) platforms. HERE Maps is not leaving Windows Phone, but for fans of Microsoft’s OS (and ostensibly Nokia’s hardware) a reduction in support could be a worrying proposition. There are already precious few outlets developing for the WP platform.
The Galaxy Alpha is an interesting statement of a phone from Samsung. The Alpha steps away from Sammy’s usual “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” manufacturing approach, and working on crafting a more refined experience. It seems tailor-made to combat the newly released iPhone 6.
Instead of continuing a specs war, the Alpha takes solid performing hardware and pairs it with the metal build quality we’ll soon see on the Galaxy Note 4.
AT&T has announced today they will be the exclusive carrier of the Alpha in the USA, and the phone will be available to buy starting September 26 for $200 on a two year contract. If you’ve been considering an Alpha, drop us a comment, and you can read AT&T’s full PR (with a video teaser) below.
Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Alpha Exclusively Available at AT&T Sept. 26”