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LTE Nexus 9 passes through FCC with Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint support

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The Nexus 9 just recently became available in its WiFi-only model, with Google promising an LTE variant sometime this year. Yesterday, however, an HTC-made tablet passed through the FCC carrying the ID NM80P82300 and support for LTE connectivity. Given that the Nexus 9 is manufactured by HTC, it seems more than likely that this device is indeed the LTE-capable Nexus 9.


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Nexus 7 and 10 reportedly set to get Android 5.0 Lollipop on Nov. 3, Nexus 4 and 5 to follow

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Following this morning’s report that Android Wear 2.0 would drop on November 3rd, Android Police now reports that Google is planning to release Android 5.0 Lollipop to a trio of Nexus devices on that same day. The report claims that Lollipop will hit the 2012 WiFi-only Nexus 7, the 2013 WiFi-only Nexus 7, and the Nexus 10 on November 3rd.


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Verizon to offer double data on select service plans, won’t throttle unlimited customers after all

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After watching its competitors loosen up their data rates, Verizon has decided to get in on the action. Starting tomorrow the carrier will begin offering increased data allowances to customers committed to its More Everything service plans at no additional cost. Subscribers signed up for Big Red’s $110 12GB data plan will be bumped up to 15GB, while the carrier’s $130 16GB monthly setup will jump to 30GB.


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Verizon debuts its LTE-equipped Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 starting at $499 w/ contract

Galaxy-Tab_N000046_1024-x-640Verizon announced today that its 4G LTE version of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 10.5 tablet is now available for purchase online and in-stores. Verizon also says its variant carries some capabilities unique to the carrier.

Messaging apps are another way to make tablets a more versatile tool. Verizon Messages lets you text from your tablet without having to use your smartphone. You can read a digital magazine on Papergarden and text friends about it instead of reading on one device and texting on the other.

Samsung first announced the latest generation tablet earlier this year in June, and various LTE versions have begun to roll out recently. Verizon’s LTE model starts at $599.99, and customers can pick it up for $499.99 for a two-year contract for a limited time, according to the carrier. Otherwise, users can add the LTE-equipped tablet to More Everything plans for $10/month after purchasing the Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

T-Mobile unveils expanded WiFi calling capabilities, Personal CellSpot router, partnership with Gogo

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During its Uncarrier 7.0 event this afternoon, T-Mobile revealed a handful of new announcements as part of its ongoing quest to lead the mobile industry. Firstly, CEO John Legere announced that every phone it sells from here on out will be capable of WiFi calling and texting. The company says that anyone who does not currently have a phone capable of WiFi calling can upgrade to a supported phone with the carrier’s Jump program. As the name implies, WiFi calling and texting allows you to make calls and send texts over your WiFi network, as opposed to over the cellular connection.


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Sprint reaches 4G LTE roaming agreement w/ 15 regional & rural carriers

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U.S. national carrier Sprint announced today that it has signed 15 additional agreements with rural and regional carriers to cover 4G LTE roaming on its network. Rural and regional carriers participating with Sprint in the new agreements including New York and Pennsylvania’s Blue Wireless, Kentucky’s Bluegrass Wireless, Alabama’s Pine Belt Wireless, Idaho’s Syringa Wireless, and more including members and partners of the Rural independent Network Alliance.

With the 15 additional regional and rural partners announced today, Sprint says it not has 27 regional carrier partners across the United States. The announcement comes just one month after Sprint abandoned plans to acquire wireless carrier competitor T-Mobile and appointed a new CEO to lead the company. You can view a full list of Sprint’s newly announced additional 4G LTE roaming partners below and Sprint’s list of supported LTE locations here.


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Sprint launching LTE-enabled variant of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 next week

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If you’re just itching to grab the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, but just can’t take the plunge without Sprint’s “Spark” LTE, you might be glad to know that the wait is almost over. Sprint has announced that their own LTE-powered version of the tablet, which is just a slight variation on the Tab S that has been on the market since June, will be available from September 12th onwards.


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T-Mobile will let Simple Starter plans quadruple data for an extra $5/month starting Sept. 3

T-Mobile-LogoT-Mobile announced today that it’s adding a new data option to its Simple Starter plans that will let users quadruple their data for much less than the competition.

Currently the company’s Simple Starter plans start at $40 for unlimited talk, text, and 500MB of LTE data. Starting early next month, the carrier will let customers on the plan bump up to a total of 2GB of data for just an extra $5 per month. T-Mobile is promoting the option as a better alternative to overage fees charged by other carriers.

CEO John Legere compared the option to his competitors noting that if you “get Verizon’s $50 plan and use just one gig more data, and the price jumps to $65. It’s crazy.”

“People who use loads of data use T-Mobile,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “And it’s no wonder. The old guard telecoms punish people for using more data on their networks with crazy overage charges and fees. Get Verizon’s $50 plan and use just one gig more data, and the price jumps to $65. It’s crazy. At T-Mobile, we designed our network data-strong so our customers could use the hell out of it.  And that’s just what they’re doing.”

T-Mobile notes that the deal is a limited time offer and subject to change, so you’ll want to add the data to your plan before the promotion ends to take advantage. The promo officially kicks in on September 3. 

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Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 arriving as Sprint’s first Spark-enabled tablet Aug. 15

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After 8-inch and 10.1-inch variants arriving on T-Mobile, AT&T and elsewhere in recent months, today Sprint announced that it will be launching Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 this Friday on August 15.

The tablet, which packs in a 1.2 GHz Quad-core processor, Android 4.4 KitKat, 1.5GB RAM, and a 1280×800 WXGA display, will be available through Sprint for $299.99 or $0 down and 24 monthly payments of $12.50 on its installment plan.

Sprint also notes that for a limited time it will offer customers “a $10 monthly service plan credit for 24 months, or a $240 value, with qualifying tablet and data plan of $10 or higher.”

Galaxy Tab 4 can be activated on one of the Sprint tablet data plans, including a special limited-time offer featuring 100MB of data for $10; other tablet data plans include 1GB for $14.99; 3GB for $34.99; 6GB for $49.99; 12GB for $79.99; and 30GB for $109.99 (all pricing excludes taxes and surcharges).

Sprint points out that the tablet is its first to take advantage of the Sprint Spark network:

Sprint Spark is an enhanced LTE service that’s built for data and designed to deliver average wireless speeds of 6-15Mbps and peak wireless speeds of 50-60Mbps today on capable devices, with increasing speed potential over time.5 Sprint plans to reach 100 million Americans by year-end with the service. The capability is available in the following 27 cities: Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Chicago; Dallas; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Fort Worth, Texas; Houston; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Kan./Mo.; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Newark, N.J.; Oakland, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Provo, Utah; Salt Lake City; San Antonio; St. Louis; Tacoma, Wash.; Tampa, Fla.; Trenton, N.J; Waukegan, Ill.; Winston-Salem and Greensboro, N.C.; and West Palm Beach, Fla.

The Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 will be available through all Sprint channels starting this Friday.

Moto G successor to feature 8MP camera, larger 5-inch display according to leaked benchmarks

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It’s no secret that we were huge fans of the Moto G when it was released last fall. At under $200 and with the performance of a flagship device, it was a steal of a phone at the time. Now, two benchmarks have emerged from what is allegedly the Moto G successor. First noticed by CNET, these benchmarks peg the second-generation Moto G as having a 5-inch display, up from 4.5-inches, and a higher-resolution 8MP rear camera, up from 5MP.


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T-Mobile’s VoLTE service rolls out nationwide following Seattle launch

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T-Mobile announced during its earnings report that it has now completed its US roll-out of its Voice over LTE service after its launch in Seattle back in May and expansion to 16 markets last month.

With more than 8 million VoLTE-capable devices on the T-Mobile network, our customers have made over 52 million crystal-clear VoLTE calls to date.

VoLTE offers faster call setup and better audio quality during calls through HD Voice, as well as the ability to switch seamlessly between voice and video calls. It’s supported by a limited number of handsets at present, with the Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Light and LG’s G Flex among them, but is likely to become a standard feature over time. Verizon has also announced that it will be launching its own VoLTE service nationwide later in the year.

T-Mobile also noted that JD Power just ranked T-Mobile the highest in customer service among the top four major U.S. wireless providers, AT&T taking second place, Verizon third and Sprint Nextel fourth.

NVIDIA Shield Tablet and wireless controller with gaming focus officially unveiled

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After weeks of leaks, rumors and speculation, the NVIDIA Shield Tablet and Wireless Controller have officially been announced this morning. NVIDIA posted a series of videos on their YouTube channel promoting the new device with the slogan “high-performance gaming everywhere”.

In terms of aesthetics, the device looks like we imagined. It features dual 5MP cameras, dual front-facing stereo speakers, and an 8-inch, 1920×1200 display. The specs under the hood are equally impressive. The device boasts an NVIDIA Tegra K1 GPU, an ARM Cortex A15 CPU clocked at 2.2GHz, and 2GB of RAM.

In terms of pricing, there are two different models of the device. A 16GB WiFi variant and a 32GB WiFi + LTE version, selling for $299 and $399, respectively.  Both models will ship for a July 29th release. 
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Xiaomi announces $13 Mi Band wearable with phone unlock feature, and first LTE phone

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Rapidly-growing Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi announced its first wearable today, the Mi Band. While it’s a fitness band rather than a smartwatch, it does have one smartwatch-style feature: it can be used instead of a passcode to unlock Mi phones.

The waterproof Mi Band measures activity levels and sleep patterns, has a smart sleep-cycle alarm and claims to have a 30-day battery-life. Amazingly, it will be going on sale in China and Singapore for the equivalent of just $13 … 
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Verizon’s LTE support for ALLSET prepaid plans arrives July 17 starting at $45/mo

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Verizon today announced that it is finally adding 4G LTE support to its ALLSET prepaid plans starting on July 17th. This announcement comes just a few weeks after the addition was originally rumored. Starting on July 17th, customers can bring their own devices to ALLSET and use them with LTE data, in addition to using the devices already offered through ALLSET by Verizon.


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Samsung’s new Exynos chips fuse LTE modems with application processors

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Today, Samsung announced its newest processors, the Exynos ModAP. This new chip fuses an LTE-A modem with a quad-core processor, built on a 28nm process. Designed with efficiency in mind, Samsung’s new chip also maintains a cool temperature, which is why the company used a frosty image in yesterday’s teaser.


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Sprint’s LivePro projector/hotspot hybrid device launches on July 11th

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In an effort to appeal to businesses and connected families in one fell swoop, Sprint announced its new LivePro projector/mobile hotspot today. The hybrid device goes on sale on July 11th for $450, however the carrier will offer it to qualified customers for no money down with a rate of $18.75 per month for two years.


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Verizon reportedly launching prepaid LTE services on July 17th

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Verizon may finally be adding LTE to its prepaid services, according to the folks at Droid Life. This change would will reportedly take effect on July 17th and the carrier will offer this new service through its ALLSET prepaid plans that include unlimited talk, text and 500MB of date for $45 a month. Customers using this off-contract setup can add 500MB of data for $5, 1GB for $10 and 3GB for $20.


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T-Mobile’s LTE footprint passes 230 million points of presence

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T-Mobile held its un-carrier 5.0 (and 6.0) event a couple of weeks ago, and the company’s press release to go along with the event had T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray promising that the company would have an “LTE footprint north of 230 million pops by the end of [the] month.”

It appears that, just in time, the company has hit this goal. And in sarcastic and hilarious fashion, John Legere has taken to Twitter to confirm:

Along with its growing LTE network, the un-carrier 5.0 event brought a slew of other announcements including an iPhone 5s test drive program, free streaming for iTunes Radio and other music services, and the company’s own music streaming service dubbed “unRadio.”

Google issuing $150 refund to LTE Chromebook Pixel owners burned by Verizon data promo

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Google is trying to right a wrong plaguing customers who purchased the LTE version of its Chromebook Pixel. Released last year, this network connected edition of Mountain View’s uber-Chromebook originally shipped with a free 100MB of monthly 4G data from Verizon for a period of two years. However, for one reason or another, Big Red has stopped honoring this promotion, with its customer service reps telling Pixel owners that they’re unfamiliar with this service offer.


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The HTC ‘Volantis’ is the company’s 8.9-inch aluminum Nexus tablet

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The fate of the Nexus line of devices has been up in the air for sometime now due to rumors of the Android Silver program and an LG executive saying that his company had no plans on manufacturing the next Nexus device. Android Police, however, has now published information regarding an upcoming Nexus tablet. According to the report, Google and HTC have teamed up to develop the next Nexus tablet, dubbed the Volantis. The device has an 8.9-inch screen and looks to potentially replace the Nexus 10.


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T-Mobile launches VoLTE in its own backyard w/ support for LG G Flex, Galaxy Note 3, & Galaxy Light

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Following announcements earlier this month from both AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile announced today it’s introducing Voice over LTE support starting with Seattle. The first three devices to support the new tech include the LG G Flex, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Light.

So I’m thrilled to congratulate my team on the launch of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in the Seattle area for our existing LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Light customers. Our friends at MetroPCS were the first to launch VoLTE in the U.S. back in 2012, and we’ve been working hard on a LTE Advanced version of VoLTE, which we plan to roll out to more T-Mobile customers throughout the coming year.

T-Mobile’s CTO Neville Ray noted that the new technology, which brings voice calls onto the same LTE radio layer previously reserved for data, will allow “faster call setup times (almost twice as fast as a non-VoLTE call setup) and the ability to enjoy lightening fast LTE data speeds while on a call.” It will also support the HD Voice or wide-band audio feature supported lots of newer hardware. Ray explained how the technology works:
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