Category: Cell Phone Carriers

Head of T-Mobile crashed At&T party

 

 

 

 

See this guy? This guy is John Legere, the CEO of T-Mobile. A couple of days ago he was at CES 2014, the biggest consumer electronics show in the world. Probably because he has some kind of mild interest in new technology, right? Also – apparently John Legere really likes Macklemore., because he went to see him perform while he was there, and because Macklemore is pretty rad, right?

 

All of this sounds realllly logical. Until you get to the part where Macklemore was actually performing at the  AT&T CES party at Rain Nightclub, which John Legere crashed, and was promptly escorted out by security because AT&T got a little upset.

 

CNET News Executive Editor Roger Cheng was at the party and tweeted:

 

“Ran into @JohnLegere at the AT&T party. Yep, he crashed it. And still wearing the pink t-mo shirt. #CES2014”

 

and then:

 

“Oh wow, security just escorted @JohnLegere out of the party. AT&T is not happy with my tweet. #ces2014”

 

“Some security guards escorted him out. It was crazy. ”

 

According to a security guard that spoke with Geek Wire AT&T staffers said that the CEO was “harassing” them.

 

 

Later on in the evening, the twitter world heard from the man himself-

 

” @RogerWCheng great to see you! I just love Macklemore! Very bad move by @ATT and #PalmCasino . Have a great night! I am very angry!

 

C’mon guys, can’t we all just get along? What would  Macklemore do? What what what whaaat what what what whaaaaat…?

 

 

 

 

Also, some friday afternoon hilarity just for you guys:

 

 

Images courtesy of Geekwire, Pandawhale & Memecenter

 

 

Smartphone Users, By The Numbers

INFOGRAPHICS! YEAH! These things make everything fun to read what with the colors and the shapes and the little pointy arrows!

 

We give you the best fun of 2014 so far- Smartphone infographics!

 

YEAH!

 

 

 

This Infographic is produced by Coupon Audit (provides Converse promo code) and iPhoneAntidote – Sell Your Cracked iPhone

 

No more subsidies?

 

No more subsidies?! That makes us go:

 

 

 

 

 

Alright, crash course in subsidies!  A Subsidy is something you more than likely have used or been a part of. It’s a form of financial or in kind support extended to an economic sector, institution, business, or individual generally with the aim of promoting beneficial economic and social outcomes.

 

It’s also what happens when you buy a smartphone in this country, unless you buy it outright.

 

If you paid $199 for an iPhone 5S, or $99 for an iPhone 5C, your carrier subsidized the real cost of the smartphone. This means that you paid a certain amount, and because you signed a two year contract with them guaranteeing your continued business for a locked in period of time, they paid Apple the rest of the cost price of the iPhone.

 

 

All good, right?

 

Well, for now, yeah. Last week however AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson came out and dropped a little mini iPhone world bombshell on the future of subsidies in the smartphone industry.

 

His main point was that with smartphone saturation climbing rapidly towards 90% (!) carriers will need to move on to a different way of doing things, because the current model can’t be maintained at that rate.

 

Carriers like AT&T use the subsidies to drive demand, but with such a high percentage of the population of the country already owning a smartphone, demand moves to upgrades and the companies subsidy system was never meant to support a predominantly upgrading model.

 

So what now? & how will it affect you?

 

 

We’re heading towards a smartphone world with financing rather than subsidies. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said the company’s new AT&T Next program, which offers no-money down and 0-percent financing, “drives smartphone penetration in a way that is more sustainable over time.”

 

So if you buy an iPhone in the future, you’re still likely to sign a contract. That contract however will be broken up in a way where you can see that each payment period you are paying off a stated amount from the total cost of the smartphone. Separate to that amount would be what you are paying to use the carrier’s service- calls, texts, etc. You would of course also always have the option to buy the phone outright.

 

It’s the way that it’s done in a number of countries around the world and it will be interesting to see if and how the market here adapts and changes.

 

 

 

Images courtesy of 9to5Mac,  Macrumors, 

What’s the top selling Smartphone of the last 3 months?

 

 

A dude named T. Michael Walkley, an analyst over at Canaccord Genuity did some counting, as analysts do, and figured out the top selling Smart phone at AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile for the months September, October and November of this year.

 

And the winner is?

 

 

The iPhone 5S!

 

 

 

Here’s the figures! (Via Appleinsider.)

 

 

Carrier Sales

 

 

The figures were following the same trend last year, with the iPhone 5 being the top selling smartphone of the last quarter of 2012, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S III, and then the iPhone 4 and 4S.

 

Yay iPhone 5S!

 

 

 

Images courtesy of  Youtube & Afuntab.

Deal of the Day! Friday the 13th Edition

 

Happy friday the 13th! Spoooooky.

 

 

Now grab this!

 

The FreedomPop Special Platinum Edition Photon 4G Hotspot (Refurbished) & 3GB Wireless Hotspot for first month only $24.99 with free shipping!

 

Whaaaaat!

 

Awesome.

 

Get it here.

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Themetapicture

Walmart & Best Buy Holiday sales feature price drops on iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S!

So, this Friday is Friday the 13th.

 

 

But don’t worry! Why not? Well, because the only things  you need to worry about Friday the 13th is avoiding ladders, black cats and ridiculous superstitions.

 

AND checking out Walmart’s Holiday Sale!

 

Included in their holiday sale is the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S! Whaaaa? Super awesome good luck! Take that unlucky Friday the 13th!

 

You can look forward to deals such as zeez:

 

 

The iPhone 5c will be offered at just $27 instead of the $99 price offered at Apple!

The iPhone 5S will be offered at $127 on a two year contract instead of the $199 price offered at Apple!

Also offered is a $50 gift card with the purchase of a $299 16 GB original iPad mini.

 

 

It all starts at 8AM on Friday, and runs through to December 24th!

 

AND THERE’S MORE!

 

Best Buy is now offering the iPhone 5S starting at $124.99 with 2 year activation! You can also get a $50 Best Buy gift card with the purchase of an iPad 2.

 

Did somebody say DEAL?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of  8track & Memecenter.

10 things mobile phone users should never do

 

 

 

 

1. Please don’t miss social opportunities that you mistake as AWKWARD social situations by pretending that you’re texting.

 

 

When we use technology to avoid possibly awkward situations, we’re simply avoiding learning how to manage ourselves in possibly awkward situations. Once we learn that, we can turn these situations around to use them in our advantage. Evil genius or awesome Yogi advice?

 

 

 

2. Don’t go one step further and pretend to be on a phone call, cos, you know, the phone will probably ring.

 

There is no sage advice with this one. Just don’t risk it, please. For humanity’s sake.

 

 

 

3. Don’t Judge people on their smartphone choice or lack of choice.

 

 

Just because you made a choice based on your own understanding of how technology works well in your own life, does not mean you should judge other people for making a different decision. Your opinion on which brand is better may be imporant to you, but calling people sheep or stupid for their smartphone choice is irrelevant and, well, dumb. People make different choices, get over it.

 

 

4.Please don’t put your phone on loudspeaker, put it right in front of your mouth and then proceed to yell into it.

 

This. This just hurts everyone’s ears and some people’s souls. Please consider the poor souls around you. Speaking quietly is far more effective in business and personal relationships, at any rate. However, it is far more acceptable if you are yelling into your phone because you are pretending it is a microphone, and that you are Steven Tyler. ( Liv Tyler’s dad for those more, uh, modern among us.)

 

 

5. Don’t Frape.

 

In case you don’t know, Fraping is when someone leaves their phone or computer unattended and has their FaceBook app or page open. The aim is to then go ahead and try to make them seem stupid/gay/pregnant etc to their many friends and loved ones.

 

Who is actually laughing at these?  Please stop. The only exception is if it is awesome, like this one.

 

 

 

6. It’s totally the cool thing these days to make sure no-one uses their phone at the dinner table, or in other social circumstances. We get it, people are trying to be disconnected from the outside world, and only connected to the people in the physical space around them.

 

 

But please, don’t be a obnoxious douche and please understand if someone has to have their phone on. Sometimes people have things going on in their lives that means they need to be connected to the outside world. It doesn’t mean they’re rude.

 

 

 

7. On the other hand, don’t be a rude douche and take out your smartphone out to do anything that is less important that what is happening in the room around you.

 

 

Especially if there is something happening that is important to someone you care about. Even though it may be tempting to follow the game during the family christmas movie time, think about how that breaks you apart from what everyone else in the room is experiencing. No good.

 

 

 

8. DON’T USE YOUR MOBILE PHONE WHILST DRIVING. 

 

It’s so tempting, we know, and we know you can do two or three things at once, and we know you’re one of the best drivers you or anyone else knows, but that’s what other people thought, minutes before they crashed.

 

Just don’t do it.

 

 

 

9. Don’t forget to use your upgrade!

 

Sirs! Madams! You should upgrade! Why are you waiting around with a stinky old phone? You can do better, you can be better! Upgrade! And then don’t you dare leave that stinky old phone in a drawer. Sell it for CASHMONEY.

 

Then smile!

 

Lastly,

 

10. Don’t forget to be super grateful and happy about the tiny fancy computer in your pocket that lets you communicate, educate, create, listen to music, play games and movies, take photos and video. Be happy about the fact that these tiny computers are relatively normal now, because technology is always advancing, and you’re lucky enough to experience it personally!

Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of  The Friskybetcheslovethis, Gurl.com, Cuteoverload, Aroundtheworldineightywaves, Funnyjunk, Pinterest, DailyMail, Vride, Elftest & Unitedcats.

Which celebrities use which phones

 

 

 

 

Yeah, yeah, why should we care what kind of celebrities use what kind of phones? Right? Right?

 

Well, cos they have people to tell them which is the best one to buy according to style and/or function. And they also have lots of money, so no real barrier to entry.

 

OR they get the best sponsorship deal. OR they get all phones for free and choose the best one.

 

Or cos they’re cooler and prettier than people in real life, and we want to be just like them.

 

Or so we can make fun of them cos they suck, and their smartphone choice proves it.

 

Anyway, wanna know which of your favorite celebrities use which brand smart phone?

 

Here’s what our researchers have come up with. Judge away.

 

 

 

Brad pitt uses an iPhone ( Hello ladies) as does Kate Hudson, Sarah Michelle Gellar ( Of course Buffy uses an iPhone. Right? COS SHE COOL.), Selena Gomez, Posh Spice, Denise Richards, Sharon Stone, Miley Cyrus and the Biebs (Uh oh).

 

 

Kanye West appears to have convinced Kim Kardashian to swap to an iPhone from Black berry. Halle Berry is also a big swapperer, having changed from being a Blackberry lover.

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Blackberry lovers, a surprising amount of celebs fit into this category. Who knew?

 

George Clooney, Megan Fox, Demi Moore,  Leo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon, Courtney Cox, Ben Affleck, Rihanna, Paris Hilton, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Justin Tiberlake, Snoop Dogg ( Lion?) and Mindy Kaling (Breath), The Olsen’s, Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen all fit in here. As does Justin Bieber, again. What a category lover.
The President is well known to be a fan of the BlackBerry. So much so, that he has two of them.

 

 

Celebrities that use Samsung phones are also different than we expected – a lot less! Perhaps someone in Samsung has to get their celebrity marketing game on!

 

Jay Z is of course endorsed by Samsung and uses the brand, LeBron James lurves Samsung, as does Eliza Dushku, Nicole Sherzinger and Evan Rachel Wood, Robbie Williams, Anna Kendrick and a whole bunch of Ashley’s; Ashley benson, Ashlee Simpson and Ashley Green.

 

 

So the winning phone category if we cared what celebrities like would be Blackberry, then iPhone, then Samsung? That sounds…weird.

 

Color us surprised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of blah, celebswithcells, cultofmac, sodahead, engadget and Goodreads.

Country by country who has the most mobile phones?

 

 

There are over 6.8 BILLION mobile phones in the world. Yay! Everyone in the world has mobile tech!

 

Uh…not quite. (Zuckerberg is working on it though!)

 

Not everyone in the world has ( or wants?) access to mobile tech, but there’s quite a few people who do. Some even many times over.

 

Which country you think has the most mobile phones?

 

If you’re thinking it’s mostly dictated by, well, which country has the most people, you’d be about.. 63.2% right ( don’t try and calculate that, it’s a fakestimated percentage!)

 

Here is the list, ranked country by country of mobile phones ownership around the world.

 

 

 

1. China 1,206,553,000
2. India 867,800,000
3. United States  327,577,529 310
4. Brazil 268,440,423
5. Russia  256,116,000
6. Indonesia 236,800,000
7. Pakistan 125,012,860
8. Japan  121,246,700
9. Germany  107,000,000
10. Philippines 106,987,098

 

 

So there you go. Lots and lots and lots and lots ( is that enough lots?) and…lots of mobile phones! Who knew this would be a thing? ( Steve Jobs did.)

 

 

Image courtesy of Metskers.

 

 

New Motorola phone? Looks exciting!

 

Do you guys remember a lil’ while back when a video featuring a blocky, stack together futuristic idealistic mobile phone started doing the social media rounds?

 

This one:

 

 

If you haven’t seen it, definitely check it out. There are some really smart ideas in there, formed by some people really thinking about how to make the future of tech better.

 

The phone in the video above is designed by a group called Phonebloks, and it’s a design prototype; it’s not real, yet. Turns out Motorola has been thinking along the same lines as the guys from Phonebloks, and now they’re working together on a project that is super exciting.

 

The following is from the Motorola Blog, go here to check it out at the sauce.

 

Goodbye Sticky. Hello Ara.

 

Over the last six months, our MAKEwithMOTO team took Sticky, a truck wrapped entirely in velcro and filled with rooted, hackable Motorola smartphones and high-end 3D printing equipment, across the country for a series of make-a-thons.

 

On that trip we saw the first signs of a new, open hardware ecosystem made possible by advances in additive manufacturing and access to the powerful computational capabilities of modern smartphones. These included new devices and applications that we could never have imagined from inside our own labs. Open fuels innovation. See some examples here, here, and here.

 

After the trip, we asked ourselves, how do we bring the benefits of an open hardware ecosystem to 6 billion people? Meet Ara.

 

Led by Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara is developing a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines.

 

Our goal is to drive a more thoughtful, expressive, and open relationship between users, developers, and their phones. To give you the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs, and how long you’ll keep it.

 

 

Here’s a sneak peek at early designs for Project Ara:

 

 

 

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules.  The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter–or something not yet thought of!

 

We’ve been working on Project Ara for over a year. Recently, we met Dave Hakkens, the creator of Phonebloks. Turns out we share a common vision: to develop a phone platform that is modular, open, customizable, and made for the entire world.

 

We’ve done deep technical work. Dave created a community. The power of open requires both. So we will be working on Project Ara in the open, engaging with the Phonebloks community throughout our development process, as well as asking questions to our Project Ara research scouts (volunteers interested in helping us learn about how people make choices).

 

In a few months, we will also send an invitation to developers to start creating modules for the Ara platform (to spice it up a bit, there might be prizes!). We anticipate an alpha release of the Module Developer’s Kit (MDK) sometime this winter.

 

So stay tuned. There will be a lot more coming from us in the next few months.

 

–Paul Eremenko, and the Motorola Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara Team