Verizon will launch brand new, simpler data plans and kill subsidies as expected from August 13. Today, the company introduced a set of plans which will require customers to pay for their smartphones in monthly installments, or buy them outright, instead of having the cost subsidized.
A few weeks after Sprint and AT&T pushed over the air updates, upgrading the HTC One M9 to Android 5.1, HTC has made the open source kernel files available to developers. The files will be of particular help to those creating custom ROMs.
The files can be downloaded from HTC’s Developer Center.
Via Android Police
Well, this is sad: despite a successful Indiegogo campaign which saw the company pass its funding goal in mere hours, Yota Devices just announced that the “two fronts” YotaPhone 2 with its secondary always-on ePaper display won’t be coming to North American shores. The Verge first reported on this news.
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It seems AT&T thinks throttling the data speeds of customers without telling them about it isn’t such a big deal. The Federal Trade Commission sued AT&T back in 2014 for “deceptive and unfair data throttling” after the company imposed caps on unlimited data contracts, beyond which it reduced their data speeds by almost 90%. The Federal Communications Commission joined the party last month, fining AT&T $100 million – and The Hill reports that the carrier now wants that fine reduced to just $16,000.
The Commission’s findings that consumers and competition were harmed are devoid of factual support and wholly implausible,” the company wrote in its filing. “Its ‘moderate’ forfeiture penalty of $100 million is plucked out of thin air, and the injunctive sanctions it proposes are beyond the Commission’s authority.”
The FTC had stated that it could legally have imposed fines of $16,000 per affected consumer, but that would have resulted in an “astronomic” fine, so chose to limit the total penalty to one large enough to deter future violations. AT&T had originally claimed that it was doing nothing wrong, but Ars Technica notes that the company amended its policy in May so that throttling was applied only when the network was congested.
AT&T has not offered unlimited data plans to new customers for some years, but has a small-ish group of customers who remain on grandfathered plans which remain valid for as long as the customer retains the plan.
Photo: Re/code
AT&T and DirecTV’s $48.5 billion merger has been approved today following more than a year of regulatory review. The merger will see AT&T become the biggest pay-TV company, passing up cable company Comcast. AT&T says it will serve more than 26 million U.S. customers and 19 million users in Latin America.
Asus today announced that it is releasing a budget-focused device to AT&T’s prepaid GoPhone service today dubbed the Zenfone 2E. The device is very similar to the Zenfone 2, but less powerful and aimed at the budget-conscious customer.
If you’ve been following our thoughts on this year’s flagship smartphones, you know that we think that Samsung’s offerings are some of the best. The Korean company really stepped up their game with the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, introducing a much more premium build, a cleaned up version of TouchWiz, and internals that are worthy of 2015. In that vein, the Galaxy S6 Active is pretty much identical. It has a really nice hard plastic body, the same less-horrible TouchWiz, and the exact same internal specifications as its standard S6 brethren. But it’s not perfect, and there are always going to be compromises. Maybe fewer compromises than ever before, but compromises nonetheless…
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AT&T today has revealed a pair of minor software updates for the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3. For the Galaxy S5, the update comes in at 296MB and includes performance and security updates. The changelog doesn’t specify specifically what changes have been made, but improvements to the overall speed and safety of your device are always welcome. After updating, your phone will carry the software version G900AUCU4BOF2.
Owners of the super-selfie-shooting HTC Desire Eye on AT&T are about to throw a party. HTC’s Mo Versi has announced on Twitter today that the phone received technical approval yesterday and that the rollout of its OTA to Android 5.0 is to start rolling out today.
I actually own an HTC Desire Eye, and I have yet to see the update hit my device. It’s rolling out in stages over the next couple of days, though, so it probably won’t be long. In other Lollipop news today, Sprint’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge seem to be getting Android 5.1.
Great news for HTC Desire Eye AT&T owners! We've just received technical approval for Lollipop update! OTA to start tomorrow!
— Mo Versi (@moversi) June 30, 2015
Another day, another OTA update for a Samsung tablet. Today it’s the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 on AT&T, which is receiving a bump to Lollipop (hurrah!). The update is to 5.0.2, not a more stable version like 5.1.1, but be grateful that you’re at least getting all the goodness that comes with Lollipop.
This information is courtesy of a support page on AT&T’s website, which also says that the size of the update is over 1.1GB, so you’re going to need at least that much space available to download and install it.
As per usual, updates delivered by the major carriers tend to have notoriously slow roll-outs – waiting a week or more to see it come down on your device is totally normal. To check if it’s been pulled down to your device, open the Settings app, find “About device,” then tap “System updates.”
The Galaxy S6 Active was made official by AT&T earlier this week following several leaks, and now the company has made the much-anticipated rugged S6 variant available on its online store…
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Update: AT&T has confirmed that they are the source of the update, but hasn’t said why it was pushed or what it contains.
According to several angry reports swirling around on Reddit, Twitter, and elsewhere, either AT&T or LG (or both?) seemingly just pushed a mysterious update to the LG G4 without asking permission. Some users even had their calls dropped while talking and saw their LG G4 reboot in front of their eyes, without a notification that this would happen or any dialog box asking permission…
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Pre-orders for the LG G4 have just gone live on Best Buy’s website for the AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint variants. Along with guaranteeing you’ll get the phone the day it launches on your carrier, the big-box store is even throwing in a $100 gift card to sweeten the deal.
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LG has quietly launched the successor to its ‘Escape’ handset today on AT&T, featuring mid-range specs and a price tag to match. The phone has a 4.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 720p, but what makes this handset somewhat unique is that it features a curved display like LG’s G Flex and G Flex 2 handsets…
Update: Either the individual who sent that tweet from before (it was pulled) misspoke or information has changed, because in a press release today T-Mobile officially announced May 27th – so, tomorrow – online availability of the phone with a June 3rd launch in nationwide stores. The carrier in partnership with LG is also throwing in a 128GB SD memory card for free while supplies last, and apparently has an exclusive on the brown leather back plate, so get on it!
LG and T-Mobile have set off on a nationwide tour of the United States to promote the newly announced LG G4, and it appears that this tour has now brought us a firm date for the device’s in-store launch on the country’s third-largest carrier. In a conversation between the Twitter account of LG’s Preview Tour and a prospective customer, LG said the following in response to a question about availability on AT&T:
https://twitter.com/G4Preview/status/598877993717501953
It’s not clear whether the tweet was confirming availability on AT&T or T-Mobile, or both, but considering that the Twitter account is part of a promotional campaign between T-Mobile and LG, we have to assume they’re confirming a launch date for the Magenta network.
All the major U.S. carriers have committed to selling the device—Sprint and US Cellular have pledged to start selling it in June (you can pre-register on Sprint here)—but this is the first time we’ve heard a hard timeline for nationwide availability from any carrier.
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AT&T today announced that it will soon begin selling the budget AT&T Trek HD 4G LTE (let’s just call it the Trek HD), the nationwide carrier’s first company-branded tablet. In its press release, the company says the tablet will be available to purchase on their website starting May 12th and in AT&T stores starting May 15th, and notes right in the first sentence, and on multiple other occasions, that it will run Android Lollipop…
AT&T has today pushed an update to the LG G3 (specifically model D850) over-the-air, and with it comes VoLTE support. That sounds great; who wouldn’t want some AT&T HD Voice goodness? Wait until you hear what else this update brings.
On top of VoLTE support, you’re going to get a couple of other goodies. AT&T Mail and Uber are also making their way to your home screen with this update and—if you want VoLTE—you’re just going to have to deal with that.
Here’s the full change log, as per AT&T’s support website:
What’s changing?
This software update includes:
- VoLTE
- AT&T Mail
- Uber
You can expect the update to be rolling out OTA right now, and you’re going to want to make sure you’re connected to WiFi if you plan on updating.
Just a day after the device became available on the Google Store, the LG Watch Urbane is now available for purchase from both AT&T and Verizon. Both of the carriers list the device as available for $349, which is the same as the Google Store.
AT&T has today announced that the ZTE Spro 2 smart projector will be available through the carrier on April 24th. Featuring a 5-inch touch screen that basically acts as a built-in smartphone, the device easily lets you project your content straight from the projector itself and can even double as a handy WiFi hotspot…
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You may recall last month that Microsoft announced a major partnership with Samsung to include a number of mobile apps on the flagship Galaxy S6 out-of-the-box. While bundled apps may be considered bloatware for many consumers, the deal meant Microsoft’s Android apps would gain a lot of exposure for adopters of arguably the best 2015 Android smartphone. The results of that deal may vary, though, as two major carriers have introduced roadblocks to some of Microsoft’s apps for their versions of the Galaxy S6…
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The LG G2 is one of the most trusty Android phones to have ever launched. Even to this day, it’s regarded as still one of the better buys if you’re looking for an Android phone unlocked under $200. Its tried-and-true horsepower is again being proven today, as the AT&T variant of the device is now receiving the latest version of Android—specifically 5.0.1 Lollipop.
On top of adding Lollipop, AT&T says that the update is also removing a couple things—namely the “Browser Bar and Famigo,” and “AT&T Code Scanner and Beats Music.” Keep your eye on your handset over the next couple of days to catch the new software, and as usual, you’ll need to be connected to WiFi to download the over-the-air update.
Lollipop updates continue to roll in, and today it seems—based on tweets from the company’s “ATTCares” Twitter profile—that AT&T is starting to roll out the latest version of Google’s mobile OS to the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and the Galaxy S5.
It’s not clear exactly how much this is going to help, but Google updated its Android distribution data this morning to show that Lollipop has just barely passed 5% adoption. KitKat, meanwhile, is still seeing increases as Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybean lost ground.
@TheCheshireCody The Note Edge update will start today, thank you for your patience. ^ManuelE
— AT&T Help (@ATTHelp) April 8, 2015
@JeRrYFaR Hi Dave. The update for the Samsung S5 will be released on 4/8/2015. Thank you for your patience. Please DM any questions. ^DonW.
— AT&T Help (@ATTHelp) April 8, 2015
After the Android 5.1 rollout began for the Google Play Edition LG G Pad this morning, the Google Play Edition One M7 and M8 are also now receiving the update. HTC VP of Product Management Mo Versi confirmed on Twitter that the company has received approval for the updates and that the rollouts have commenced. Android 5.0 Lollipop rolled out to the Google Play Edition M7 and M8 in December of last year.
HTC VP of Product Management Mo Versi announced on Twitter today that the AT&T HTC One M8 will begin to receive Android 5.0 Lollipop tomorrow, April 7th. Versi confirmed that HTC has received approval from both Google AT&T to commence the update.
AT&T HTC One (M8) Owners! We just received technical approval for Lollipop OS! Thank you for all your patience, OTA to start tomorrow.
— Mo Versi (@moversi) April 7, 2015
