Sprint revamps Prepaid plans to include more data at reasonable prices

In a market as competitive as the wireless market, carriers have to be able to adapt to changing times. Sprint knew that when they launched their Sprint Prepaid brand (formerly Sprint As You Go), and now to be even more competitive, they’ve made their prepaid plans even more attractive.

Similar to plans from their sister companies Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, Sprint Prepaid’s new plans offer reasonable amounts of data for cheap. $35 will get you 1GB of data, $45 will get you 3GB and $65 will get you a solid 6GB. The prices are good, but it should be noted that video streaming may be limited to 3G speeds, which may be cause for concern. Let us know in the comments if these new plans are enough to draw you to Sprint Prepaid, or if the lackluster network is still holding you back.

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Chinese city creates sidewalk lane specifically for addicted mobile users

Zuma Press

We’ve talked before about how nearly all of us are addicted to our smartphones these days, taking them practically everywhere we go including the bathroom, dates, dinner, church and some even use their smartphone during sex.

As the world continues its addiction, we will see the government and businesses further adapting by making changes that are designed to take our mobile-addicted lifestyles into consideration. This includes changes in the law related to driving, changes in what kind of devices you can and can’t use in certain public places and, in the case of the Chinese city of Chongqing, changes to our sidewalk lanes.

That’s right, the city has now divided its sidewalks into two different lanes: one for those that are walking about likely in a hurry, and the left lane is reserved for those of us barely watching where we are going as we stare down at our mobile devices. While it might seem a bit silly to create a lane specifically for those on their phones, it actually makes sense. At least you’ll know that people in these lanes aren’t watching where they are going so you can look out for them, and if you are in a hurry you don’t have to worry about bumping into them either.

Are you a walk-and-text (or walk and browse, for that matter) type of user? If so, what do you think of this idea — would you like to see such lanes in a city near you? Conversely, do you feel such an extreme measure is largely unnecessary?

Via: Wall Street Journal Blog;





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Sprint Offers Up Three Modified Pricing Plans For Prepaid Customers

Prepaid customers on Sprint are getting some changes that more closely reflect the way Sprint’s MVNOs handle prepaid wireless services, at least on the price point side of things. Today Sprint announced that they will be offering three sets of prices for their unlimited offerings on no contract prepaid, including plans that cost $35, $45, and $55 respectively depending on what the customers needs are for data allotments. Sprint mentions that all three price points include 3G and 4G data, whether a customer gets those data speeds though will depend on if they have a compatible device and if they live in an area where the towers are emitting those speeds.

Prepaid as an option for wireless services is a growing trend and Sprint has taken notice of that, and with all the other changes that they have been making to their brand after new CEO Marcelo Claure has taken over, Sprint’s Prepaid seems like the next likely place to receive some revisions. Sprint believes that this will now give their prepaid customers a more flexible set of options to choose the best plan that works for them. The starting plan which will end up costing customers the low cost of $35 a month with no contract includes unlimited talk and text with 1GB of 3G/4G data. Bumping up to the middle plan will set customers back $45 a month and give them unlimited talk and text with 3GB of 3G/4G data, and lastly the third plan will cost $55 a month and give customers unlimited talk and text and 6GB of 3G/4G data. As stated above since these are Sprint prepaid plans they come with no contract.

These new plans are stated as mirroring those offered by Boost and Virgin Mobile, both Sprint’s MVNO carriers that only offer monthly plans with no contract and operate completely with prepaid services. All three of these price plans are available as of now so if you were planning on setting up prepaid services through Sprint’s networks, you’ll have your choice of three different Unlimited options all based off of how much high speed data you’ll need when not on a WiFi connection.

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Another Samsung Shock Prediction From Analysts Further Adds to Samsung’s Woes

Last week it was reported that South Korean analysts were predicting low sales for the tech giant in regards to the newly launched Samsung Note 4 and Note Edge. In short, analysts were predicting both devices would only accumulate 11 million unit sales (9.5 million for the Note 4 and just over one million for the Edge) before the year ended. This was being seen by the industry as rather disappointing and especially if compared to the release last year of the Galaxy Note 3 which sold a similar level and number of devices. With the release of a newer and better device it would be expected that sales would increase from last year but according to the analysts this is not expected to be the case.

To make matters worse for Samsung, South Korean Analysts are now also reporting that Samsung should brace themselves for their lowest Quarter sales since the beginning of 2012. Originally it was expected operating profits for the third quarter (July-Sep) would be around 6 trillion Won, roughly $5.8 billion. However, the analyst at IBK Securities are now revising this number suggesting Samsung’s profits will be somewhere much closer to 5 trillion won ($4.8 billion). Although $5 billion sounds pretty good, to put this into perspective the second quarter of this year was the first time in eight quarters Samsung’s operating profits had dropped below 8 trillion (7.2 trillion Won, $6.9 Billion). This war largely due to what was seen as the underperforming of Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and sent the first shockwaves through the industry. With this in mind, if the operating profits do further drop from 7 trillion down to the now-expected 5 trillion this really will be a worrying issue for Samsung.

The drop in profits is largely being seen as an extension of the general poor performance of sales for the Korean company. As well as the operating profits hitting a long-term low the same analysts also expect the overall number of sales to be significantly impacted for the third quarter. IBK Securities again predict the overall sales for this quarter could fall as low as 49 trillion Won. This is further being echoed by analysts form BS Securities and Samsung Securities who predict overall sales to hit 49.8 and 50.5 trillion Won respectively. As for the reasons why Samsung is facing such a downturn, it is worth noting it is not all Samsung’s fault. One of the main reasons given is the unexpected rise and popularity of other Chinese manufacturers who are now targeting the lower end price brackets which in turn is ebbing away at Samsung’s foothold in the market. Not to mention the impending release of the new iPhone 6 Plus which for the first time is expected to compete with Samsung in the phablet market is also likely to have an effect. Either way, it does not look like a good end to the year for Samsung.

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Google Play Newsstand Paid Content Is Now Available In India And The Netherlands

Indian readers, today is your lucky day. In addition to the launch of a new global budget smartphone initiative and the promise of downloadable YouTube videos, you're finally getting access to a core Google Play media function. No, it's not Music, and it's certainly not All Access. It's not TV shows either, though you're in pretty good company there. No, you now have access to the paid Google Play Newsstand for newspapers and magazines.

Google Play Newsstand Paid Content Is Now Available In India And The Netherlands was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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RUMOR: HTC To Announce Nexus 9 on October 8th

Here’s a rumor that we’d normally dismiss. The rumor is coming out of Brazil which is where HTC has a production plant, and that rumor is that the much anticipated Nexus 9 would be announced at the company’s October 8th “Double Exposure” event in NYC. Now since HTC sent out invites for this event last week, there’s been a steady stream of leaks for this event, so we aren’t sure what to expect just yet. There’s rumor of a GoPro style camera, a couple of new smartphones and now the Nexus 9. Now the reason why we’d normally dismiss this rumor is that the Nexus is almost never announced by the OEM, but announced by Google. The only exception was the Galaxy Nexus. Which Samsung announced at Google’s event where they announced Ice Cream Sandwich. Now this could be the same thing, but I’d need more proof first.

The Nexus 9 specs are also in this leak from Brazil, and we’re expecting a 8.9-inch display, NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and Android L on board. None of which are really outlandish specs. As NVIDIA all-but confirmed they were putting the Tegra K1 into the Nexus 9 with HTC, and the 3GB of RAM doesn’t seem like a huge stretch as they are going 64-bit and that’s the next step. Although the 16GB of storage is a bit depressing for a tablet. Hopefully we do see 32GB and 64GB versions of the device announced. But at this point, it’s anyone’s guess.

I’m still not sold on the fact that HTC will be announcing the Nexus 9 that day. But then again I could be wrong, I really do hope I’m wrong. But looking at the past, it just doesn’t seem likely. How many of you are interested in the HTC Nexus 9? Let us know in the comments below.

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Verizon Customers With Upgrades November 15th Or Before Can Upgrade Starting Today

As some carriers usually do after the announcement of the new iPhone, Verizon has made it so that all customers who have upgrades on November 15th 2014 can upgrade right now. This means that if you had an upgrade coming up on Verizon between now and November 15th, you can upgrade starting today, you no longer have to wait until your previous upgrade date.

The reason that carriers pull this stunt is to get buy-happy iPhone users to upgrade to a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus now instead of waiting for their previous upgrade cycle to end. This gets Verizon more customers tied to Verizon for another two years which obviously means more money for Verizon. But we have to admit, despite this being slightly shady, it is a very smart business plan that will surely get Verizon many more customers a fresh two years with them. Also worth noting is that the cutoff date for the promotion, November 15th, is right before the holiday season starts, so people that are just outside the eligibility zone that want the new iPhone probably already have it on their Christmas list anyway.

We are sure that there a lot of questions that people are dying to ask right now about the promotion, hopefully this paragraph can answer most if not all of them. First off, if you are just a few days outside of the promotion window to get an early upgrade it would be worth your time to give Verizon a call or simply head down to your local Verizon store and see if they can give you an early upgrade as well. Chances are that they will be willing to bend the rules a little bit for you as long as you have been a good customer in the past. As for people who have multiple lines with Verizon, you should be able to get in on this promo if you just voice to Verizon that you want to. After all you are a customer who is more than likely giving Verizon much more money than a single line subscriber.

Android Police points out, and we would like to as well, that there is some fine print involved in the promotional ad. Said fine print says that the promotion will only be available for a “limited time”. We are not exactly sure how long that limited time is but needless to say, if this promotion applies to you and you want an upgrade then you better act as soon as possible so you don’t miss it.

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