Andy Rubin’s startup Essential made its debut a few weeks ago, and needless to say, we’re all pretty excited for the company’s first smartphone to hit the market. Quite a few US buyers of the device may have been disappointed to learn that the phone would be a carrier exclusive to Sprint in the States, and now our neighbors up north are facing a similar issue — TELUS has just announced it will be the exclusive carrier of the Essential Phone.
Following its launch, Google’s Pixel smartphones have proved pretty popular. Due to that, Google has had a lot of trouble keeping up with demand for the phone, with many customers complaining about that issue. Now, some are alarmingly reporting that Google has ceased production of the phone. Unsurprisingly, Google has confirmed that those rumors are false.
Following the final N Developer Preview in July and as noted by another rumor, Android 7 should launch this month. A Software Update Schedule from Canadian carrier Telus points to Monday, August 22 being the precise date for when the Nexus 5X and 6P will receive Nougat.
Since its inception, one of the biggest pitfalls of Google Voice has been its lack of MMS support. In an era of time when nearly everyone has a smartphone, not being able to share videos and pictures with counterparts was a huge feature gap. This evening, however, Google employee Alex Wiesen announced on Google+ that Voice now supports MMS on more than a 100 North American carriers.
While lack of LTE connectivity in the Nexus 4 seemed to be one of the biggest controversies surrounding the device’s launch, Canadians will at least get to access local LTE networks on the device for now. As discovered by Canadian blog Tekgadg, which posted the video above (via TechCrunch), enabling support for LTE by simply switching the network type in settings seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, the trick, which only supports Canadian networks running LTE Band 4 put o 20MHz, could possibly be shutdown by Google in the near future. Until then, those who want to enable LTE on their Nexus 4 will have to type in *#*#4636#*#* to access the necessary preference pane. TechCrunch has step-by-step instructions, if you’re interested.
MobileSyrup discovered prices for many of the Canadian carriers at BestBuy. However, it seems as though the prices are no longer live on the page. BestBuy previously indicated Rogers plans to charge $149.99, with Telus and Virgin Mobile aiming to grab $159.99 each. The page also displayed SaskTel as asking customers to fork over $169.99 for the latest Galaxy-branded smartphone. Of course, all these price tags would have come with a three-year contract.
Pricing details for Bell were not listed and are unknown, but the cost for a reserved unit is $50. The presumed no-contract price is $649.99.
It is worth mentioning that Rogers’ pre-order page does not list a quad-core Exynos processor under the Galaxy S III’s LTE capabilities. Therefore, the LTE version might début with a dual-core Snapdragon S4. The Rogers website also lacks a release date, but AndroidCommunity cited June 20 for the main launch across Canada based on earlier reports.
Existing customers can reserve their flagship device online (here), while those looking to switch carriers can sign up for more information.
