Apple Unveils Smaller iPhone SE

Apple has announced the iPhone SE, a smaller less expensive alternative to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The SE's defining feature is the 4-inch display, this design is very similar to that of the iPhone 5/5S. 

The iPhone SE however runs on the Apple A9 chip with M9 co-processor which is the same as the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The M9 co processor enables low energy sensor tracking and always on "Hey, Siri" functionality. 

The iPhone SE has a 12-megapixel camera with focus pixels, true tone flash, and support for Live Photos. The forward facing camera has a Retina Flash for low light selfies by flashing the display. The iPhone SE includes a wide range of LTE bands for better international roaming and VoLTE and 802.11ac WiFi for quick local networking. 

The iPhone SE includes Touch ID, an NFC radio with Secure Element, and Apple Pay. The iPhone SE will cost $399 (16 GB) and $499 (64 GB). Apple will begin accepting preorders for the iPhone SE March 24 the device will reach stores March 31.


Source: Apple

Google Releases Android Wear For iOS

Android Wear for iOS has started rolling out today. Just pair your iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, or 6 Plus (running iOS 8.2+) with an Android Wear watch to bring simple and helpful information right to your wrist.

Get your info at a glance: Check important info like phone calls, messages, and notifications from your favorite apps. Android Wear features always-on displays, so you’ll never have to move your wrist to wake up your watch.

Track your fitness: Set fitness goals, and get daily and weekly views of your progress. Your watch automatically tracks walking and running, and even measures your heart rate.

Save time with smart help: Receive timely tips like when to leave for appointments, current traffic info, and flight status. 

Just say “Ok Google” to ask questions: like “Is it going to rain in London tomorrow?” or create to-dos with “Remind me to pack an umbrella.”


Source: Apple App Store

T-Mobile’s New Simple Choice Plans Explained

T-Mobile took the stage today and very much explained its new plans in layman’s terms. There was a bit of confusion as to how unlocked devices will work and how this new “non-subsidy” approach will work out over the long term. Thankfully we took some pretty good notes and can help you work through them all. Here’s how it works:

Pick Your Plan

T-Mobile has several new plans to choose from, but understanding them is very easy. First, you can either choose from a $50 “unlimited plan” that includes unlimited text, voice and “web” surfing per month. Now make no mistake, web surfing isn't considered “data” in this case, so you’ll still need to rely on data for downloading videos and music, among other things. This entry-level plan comes with 500MB of “high speed” data. That means you can use 500MB of data per month before you fall back off of LTE or HSPA+ and to a slower network.

If 500MB isn't enough, and we doubt it is for most of you, you can add an additional 2GB, which means you’re getting a total of 2.5GB of data, for $10 extra per month. If you want truly unlimited data, T-Mobile will charge you an additional $10. All said and done, the most expensive plan is $70 per month. Keep in mind, however, that the final “truly unlimited” plan actually limits your tethering to 500MB per month. There is not a limit on the 2GB or 500GB option.

To make it easier, you can choose between a 500MB unlimited plan for $50, a 2.5GB (2GB  + 500GB) plan for $60, or a fully unlimited plan.

Pick Your Device

Now comes what seems like the “tricky” part because T-Mobile is ditching subsidies as we know them. But really it’s very simple. T-Mobile will allow you to purchase a high-end device such as the HTC One, an iPhone 5, the BlackBerry Z10 for just $99 at check-out (T-Mobile has not yet disclosed pricing for the Galaxy S4). You’ll need to pass a credit check, otherwise you’ll have to buy the device at its full cost. If you pass the credit check, you can opt to either buy the phone outright, at which point T-Mobile will unlock it, or you can choose to pay it off over 24 months. No, this isn't a contract. Basically you’re agreeing to pay either at the beginning of each month (prepaid, you didn't pass your credit check) or when you’re billed (postpaid, you passed your credit check).

So that means you’ll choose your plan above $70 at the high end then pay for your phone in $20 monthly installments each month. That means you’ll be paying a max of $90 per month for a single plan. The good part? You can walk away at any point and simply keep paying down your $20 monthly payment, buy your phone outright or trade-it in and pay the difference in “fair value.”

 Family Plans

Ok, so stuff changes a bit if you decide to add additional lines, but it’s very easy to understand. Each additional line with the entry-level 500MB plan is just $10. If you add a line to your unlimited account (the one we went over above) with 2GB of data you’ll pay $100 per month total. If you have two unlimited lines you’ll pay $120 per month, total.

Now a little math: if you’re paying for unlimited data ($70), plus your own phone each month ($20), you’re paying $90. If you have a second line with 500MB of data you’re paying an additional $10 for the new line plus $20 for the new premium phone. That totals out to $120 for two lines with two premium phones, one with a fully unlimited plan and one with a 500MB plan. If you want two unlimited plans with two premium smartphones you’re paying $70 for unlimited, plus $20 for your own phone ($90), plus $50 for the second unlimited line and $20 for the second premium phone. In total, an unlimited bill for two people with two premium phones purchased at $99 each would cost $160. Not terrible.

It might sound complicated, but it’s very simple and you can see the prices on your own on T-Mobile’s site.

T-Mobile will offer the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 is the only one that will support the carrier’s 4G LTE network, however, and will always fall back to its still-fast HSPA+ 42Mbps network. You can buy it for $99 and pay down $20 each month, or buy it outright. It’s a unique device from Apple that adds support for AT&T’s LTE network too but only if you’re unlocked! That means, however, that it supports many required bands that haven’t been in other iPhones before T-Mobile said it worked with Apple to make sure of that. So, again, you can buy the iPhone 5 for $99 which is a steal in any market, and pay it down at $20 per month, or buy it outright at the time of purchase.

Apparently Apple will be phasing out the existing version of the AT&T phone in favor of this new version of the A1428, so that may mean that phones on Ma Bell may include the support for T-Mobile moving forward. Do expect, however, for the feature to be dormant unless you unlock it.

The Gist of it All

The idea behind the new plans is that you’ll save money by not being “screwed” by your carrier. T-Mobile wants you to own your device, and it’s doing exactly that. You don’t have to worry about early termination fees because you can walk away from those aforementioned plans at any time. You just need to settle up your bill with them when it comes to the phone. And honestly, it’s not a bad deal, especially because it’s just $20 per month for a premium phone. It also allows you to upgrade more frequently, because T-Mobile, as I said earlier, is willing to give you a “fair value” price for trading it in.

So what about “unlocking” my device?

T-Mobile fully supports the idea of unlocked devices, but like other carriers it wants you to finish paying for your phone first. Unlike other carriers, however, you don’t have to continue paying your data/voice/text message fees each month. No, indeed you just have to finish paying for your phone. You can do that up front by buying an unlocked device right away (full cost and T-Mobile will give it to you unlocked) or whenever you’re done paying for it. Like other carriers, of course, you can always buy a new device without signing a contract. It’s just that T-Mobile is breaking its payments down between your actual plan and the payments you make for your device.

Wrap-up

The biggest thing I took away from the event is what I just wrote above: you’re not buying a plan and a device and signing a contract. You’re agreeing to a plan and paying off the cost of your device over two years. You can choose to walk away from the plan, but you can’t always just walk away from the phone. T-Mobile is a business and ultimately you need to pay the price of the hardware you want to use. Thankfully, however, it’s not hiding the price of a subsidy inside its plans. Put $100 down for your premium device, pay $20 a month for 24 months ($480) and you’re done.

Hopefully this clarifies what was going on today. It’s a great idea for people who are worried they’re paying too much from their wireless bills and prefer to pay a monthly fee for a product they own. Think of it, sort of, as an interest-free way of renting your cable box. You pay for Time Warner service, but you also pay a monthly fee for the box rental. Of course, with T-Mobile, you can keep the box and move elsewhere (if you don’t like the service) and continue paying for the “box” while canceling the service.

Alltel To Offer Apple iPhone Starting March 15th

The iPhone 5 is already available for pre-order and the 16GB model starts at $149.99 with a two-year agreement.

AT&T is positioned to acquire Alltel’s assets and customers in their entirety in the second half of this year. It is still business as usual for the once large regional carrier, mostly bought out by Verizon Wireless.

As you may recall from that merger some years ago, Verizon had to divest several markets or work some spectrum swaps with other providers (like AT&T) in order to secure regulatory approval. The leftovers remained as the Alltel brand, operated by Atlantic Tele-Network Wireless and that is what AT&T will be taking on later in the year.

Meanwhile, Alltel continues to maintain its lineup of products and services and that includes the iPhone. In addition to the iPhone 5, Alltel will also begin selling the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. The16GB iPhone 4S will run just $49.99 and the iPhone 4 will move for $0.99. The iPhone 5 starts at just $149.99 for the 16GB flavor, add an additional $100 for each iteration up the storage ladder for the other models.

Alltel operates a CDMA/EV-DO network in 6 states and hold spectrum licenses that AT&T will certainly be able to make use of. Though with the addition of the more expensive hardware, it will be interesting to see what route AT&T takes as it converts Alltel’s network to GSM/UMTS and LTE.


Source: Alltel

Apple’s Alleged Massive iPhone 5 Order Cuts

The Sunday evening Wall Street Journal article claiming that Apple had cut its iPhone 5 display orders drastically for the March quarter made quite a splash. The way WSJ wrote its piece seemed to support the original Nikkei claim about Apple cutting its iPhone 5 display orders in half from the originally planned order of 65 million units. This would be a massive adjustment. But Apple uses the same new display type for both iPhone 5 and the latest iPod touch. Neither WSJ nor Nikkei addressed this, however both seem to be referring to just iPhone 5 displays.

The latest estimates for iPhone sales during the Christmas quarter average around 52 million units. Let’s assume (charitably) the iPhone 5 portion of this may be anything from 30 to 40 million. In the seasonally soft March quarter, iPhone 5 unit sales might be 25 to 35 million units. Sales of the latest iPod touch tend to drop by 50% from the Christmas quarter to the March quarter, but could add 4 million units to the total number of devices equipped with 4-inch Retina displays Apple sells in the quarter.

So if the most likely number of 4-inch screens Apple is reasonably expected to sell in March quarter is around 30 to 40 million units, why did Nikkei publish a report stating that Apple had halved its display orders for the quarter from 65 million units? Nikkei was quite specific with the 65 million number. And it clearly tied it to iPhone 5 component orders, not total iPhone or iPhone 5 and iPod touch orders.
In what world did Apple expect to order components for 65 million iPhone 5 handsets in the seasonally soft March quarter?

Perhaps the weirdness of the math is why the current version of the WSJ article no longer cites the 65 million unit figure. Sometime between Sunday at 8:00 p.m. EST and Monday at 7:00 a.m., the Journal decided to drop the number from its article. But if the 65 million number is not right, is the estimate for halving March orders correct, either?

Google Confirms That It Is Not Working On A Maps App For iOS 6

Former Google CEO and current chairman Eric Schmidt on Tuesday confirmed to Reuters that the Internet giant has made no move to provide Google Maps app for the iPhone 5 or iOS 6. “We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?” Schmidt said to a small group of reporters in Tokyo. “What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It’s their call.” Apple dropped Google Maps from its latest operating system in favor of its own in-house program, however the Cupertino-based company has seen a tremendous amount of user backlash. Schmidt revealed that Google and Apple were in constant communication “at all kinds of levels,” although he noted that any decision to allow a Google Maps application in the App Store would have to be made by Apple. “We have not done anything yet,” he said.

Yahoo Moves Away From BlackBerry Smartphones

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is instituting a new company policy called Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!” according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider. Under the new policy, full and part time U.S. employees of Yahoo will be receiving their choice of the iPhone 5, Galaxy S III, HTC One X, EVO 4G LTE or Nokia Lumia 920.

In addition to buying the devices, Yahoo will also be covering the monthly plans for data and voice.

The possible casualty in this fight is that this means Yahoo is moving away from the company supplied BlackBerry devices, and they are not offered amongst the choices. As Mayer states in the memo, “we’d like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do.” RIM can’t be too happy about such a statement, but considering the declining market share of the BlackBerry line, it makes sense.

No word as to when the new phones will be arriving in employee hands, but seeing as some of the devices have not yet been released, it would appear it will be a staged rollout.

The thought process behind this initiative is:

We have a very exciting update to share with you today – we are announcing Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun! As of today, Yahoo is moving off of BlackBerries as our corporate phones and on to smartphones in 22 countries. A few weeks ago, we said that we would look into smartphone penetration rates globally and take those rates into account when deciding on corporate phones. Ideally, we’d like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do.

Moving forward, we’ll offer you a choice of devices as well as provide monthly plans for the data and phone.

The smartphone choices that we are including in the program are:

* Apple iPhone 5

* Android:

- Samsung Galaxy S3

- HTC One X

- HTC EVO 4G LTE

* Windows Phone 8:

- Nokia Lumia 920

We’re getting started right away and taking orders starting now.

Apple Awarded ‘iWallet’ Patent

Apple on Tuesday was granted a significant patent by the United States Trademark & Patent Office, Patently Apple reported. The technology, which is supported by 23 Patent Claims, allows credit card companies to send statements directly to a user’s iTunes account for purchases made using an NFC-enabled iPhone. Account holders will also be able to allow a secondary account holder, such as a child, to make purchases on the same card while allowing the primary account holder to control spending and implement various limits.

Apple To Unveil iPhone 5 At WWDC In June

Following the fall launch of its wildly popular iPhone 4S last year, Apple reportedly plans to return to its summer launch schedule and unveil the next-generation iPhone 5 during its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in June. DigiTimes relayed the claim, which cited a Daiwa Securities analyst when it first appeared in Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times on Thursday. The continued use of glass-to-glass touch panel technology in the iPhone 5 is the only other detail noted in the report. Apple’s next-generation iPhone is expected to feature a completely redesigned case that utilizes a unibody aluminum architecture much like Apple’s iPad. The handset will also supposedly feature a larger display that measures approximately 4 inches diagonally. BGR reported in December that the new iPhone would feature a new aluminum case and a redesigned antenna system.