T-Mobile Looks to Shake Up Cellular Industry Again With 'Un-carrier 8.0' Announcement Tuesday [iOS Blog]

T-Mobile today announced that it will be broadcasting a "fireside chat" with CEO John Legere and Yahoo Tech's David Pogue tomorrow. During the live webcast, Legere will announce the terms of "Un-carrier 8.0" and answer questions about the latest chapter in the company's ongoing Un-carrier initiative to differentiate itself from the other major U.S. providers.





Details on the changes T-Mobile plans to introduce have not yet been revealed, but the carrier teased the announcement was "so big we had to keep it under wraps."



In the past, the company's initiatives have produced market-wide changes in the cellular industry, including contract-free service plans and generous bonuses for switching carriers. The most recent Un-carrier announcement back in September focused on Wi-Fi calling and texting as well as a partnership with Gogo in-flight wireless.



The Un-carrier 8.0 webcast will begin on Tuesday, December 16 at 10:30 AM Eastern / 7:30 AM Pacific. It will be broadcast from newsroom.t-mobile.com with a link to the stream available starting Tuesday morning.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, December 15

GT Argues Inability to Disclose Bankruptcy Details, Citing Confidentiality Agreements

GT Advanced Technologies today appeared in a New Hampshire courtroom, asking for non-disclosure in its pending bankruptcy proceedings. According to Reuters , a lawyer for the company told the court that a confidentiality agreement prevented it from disclosing the details surrounding its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Luc Despins of Paul Hastings told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff an unspecified confidentiality agreement prevented GT from disclosing the cause of its bankruptcy, or its plan for dealing with the situation. He also acknowledged the 90 percent drop in the company’s stock price in the first three trading days of this week.

GT further asked the court to seal select documents referencing a third-party, noting that the disclosure would violate existing confidentially agreements. The publication of these documents could prove costly to the sapphire maker with potential damages of $50 million per violation. GT failed to identify the third-party company, but it almost certainly is Apple, which is known for its strict confidentiality clauses.





GT's lawyers also asked that the proceedings be closed to the public as part of what they agree is an "unusual (and perhaps unprecedented)" request. Lawyers from the Department of Justice denounced GT's motions, saying "the record is insufficient for the court to find what the court needs to find."



GT filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, taking Apple and Wall Street by surprise. Apple reportedly was working with the company to help it remain solvent, but those efforts have failed for the time being and GT will seek to restructure its finances moving forward.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, October 09

The funniest thing you’ll see all day: Pierce Brosnan plays GoldenEye on the N64 with Jimmy Fallon

Before Halo, before Call of Duty, there was one first-person shooter that could bring people together just as easily as it could tear friendships apart. One game could be the focal point of a 10-year-old's birthday party or a pregame at a college dorm. That game was GoldenEye. The movie-licensed Nintendo 64 classic set the stage for console shooters for generations to come and still holds some cultural relevance nearly 20 years later.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, August 20

This chart should scare the hell out of Samsung

Before looking at this chart, we should emphasize: Samsung is not "doomed." It's a hugely profitable company that has a lot more businesses than just smartphones and every other Android vendor can only dream of having the kinds of sales and profits that Samsung enjoys. That said, a new chart produced by Jackdaw Research's Jan Dawson shows that things are definitely looking very bad for Samsung when it comes to the growth of its mobile phone business unit and the company is right to be feeling nervous.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, August 05

Fleksy Offers Beta Preview as Keyboard Makers Look Forward to iOS 8

Keyboard developer Fleksy today announced that the company has its iOS keyboard alternative running on iOS 8. Apple revealed earlier this week during its WWDC 2014 keynote that iOS 8 will support the system wide implementation of these third-party keyboards.





An alternative to a traditional keyboard, Fleksy boasts improved typing speeds through the use of automated word suggestions and a sophisticated autocorrect engine that corrects errors on the fly. It also incorporates a gesture system that lets users complete common tasks like inserting spaces and punctuation through swipes.



Fleksy tweeted a screenshot of its keyboard on iOS 8, along with an invitation for users to register for a preview of its iOS 8 keyboard app. iPhone and iPad owners running a beta version of iOS 8 on their devices can sign up for a preview on Fleksy's website. The company will notify customers via email when the public beta program goes live.



Fleksy won't be the only third-party keyboard available to consumers when iOS 8 launches later this year. Both Swiftkey and popular Android keyboard Swype confirmed they plan to launch iOS 8-compatible versions of their keyboard apps.

"We're delighted Apple has decided to embrace the importance of opening its platform to third party keyboards.

...

We first brought a taste of our technology to iOS in January this year with the launch of the free note-taking app SwiftKey Note. Are we going to build SwiftKey Keyboard for iOS 8? Of course we are. We've already started, writes Swiftkey founders Ben Medlock and Jon Reynolds."

Both Switfkey and Fleksy already offer versions of their keyboards for iPhone and iPad owners, but their functionality is limited due to iOS constraints that prohibit their system-wide installation. iOS 8 will remove this restriction, making it possible for all keyboard makers, including iOS newcomer Swype, to bring their keyboards to Apple's mobile platform. The beta version of iOS 8 is available now to developers, with a public release expected this fall.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, June 04

Apple Customer Support Claims Apple Stymied by Phone-Switching iMessage Glitch

There is a long-standing problem with lost iMessages for select users when they switch from an iPhone to another device. Apple allegedly is aware of the problem and not able to provide a fix, claims former LifeHacker editor-in-chief Adam Pash, whose iPhone was affected by this message delivery problem.



After disabling their iPhones, some users experience an issue where iMessages sent from other iPhone owners are routed to the now-disabled iPhone and not forwarded as a text message to the active phone. The recipient never receives the text message, creating a situation that is frustrating for both people involved in the conversation.



Pash spoke to Apple's customer support after he stopped receiving messages from iPhone-owning friends when he switched to an Android phone. The support personnel confirmed "this is a problem a lot of people are facing" and "added that engineering team is working on it but is apparently clueless as to how to fix it."

In the meantime, Apple has completely hijacked my text messaging and my phone number portability (portability between devices, not networks). No one can fix this but Apple because it’s a problem at the device level, which means people in my position have no recourse but to wait for Apple to figure out what the problem is. But Apple isn’t offering any public support on the issue that I’ve been able to find (and it’s worth repeating that proper support is behind a $20 paywall for most people who’ve switched devices, who would also be the most commonly affected by this problem)

This issue with iMessage has been reported as far back as 2011, shortly after the messaging service debuted as a flagship feature of iOS 5. iPhone owners are advised to disable iMessages before they deactivate their phone in order to remove the device from Apple's system and allow messages to be forwarded properly as text messages to their new handset. This precautionary step of disabling iMessage apparently works for some, but not all iPhone owners who switch to another smartphone platform.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, May 14

Apple’s next big thing is already here – and it’s about to get even bigger

Amid Apple's strong fiscal second-quarter results and continued promise of new products and services, was the burgeoning growth of Apple TV, Apple's $99 set-top box that's rapidly changing industries and causing competitors to pick their heads up and take notice.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, April 24

This cool iOS 7 iBeacon app will try to automate your life (some day...)

Placed is a new $2.99 iOS 7 application that aims to help users automate some of their various activities while at home with help of Bluetooth LE-based iBeacons. By placing iBeacons inside the house, an iPhone could automatically pick up a signal when in their proximity and automatically launch an appropriate application the user may want to access. Placed could trigger a remote app when the user is near an Apple TV, a timer app when a user is in the kitchen or a weather app when he or she is next to a closet, for example.

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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, March 21

Comcast insists it won’t throttle Netflix or other video companies following TWC merger

There are a number of fears that come to most pay TV and Internet subscribers' minds when they think about the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger that was announced last week. Will my bill go up? Will real competition in the industry become even more rare? Will the resulting mega-ISP be ruthless and evil? Also high on the list of concerns in light of net neutrality's death is whether or not a combined Comcast-TWC entity would use its newfound heft to throttle Netflix and other online video providers.



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Posted in 2014 at 04:45PM, February 17