Just remember that HSPA+42 devices ( HTC Amaze 4G and Samsung Galaxy S II) will require a 5 GB data plan. Other than that, you are in the clear for your brand new 4G devices.

Go ahead and check out the press release and T-Mobile’s website for more details. You may want to take advantage of this deal, whether it is for a Valentine’s Day gift or not.

* This explains the “huge” line i saw at the mall today around t-mobiles kiosk.

So if your a smartphone user, and let’s face it – we all are here at PPCGeeks! It appears that a recent survey finds that most smartphone users hate talking on the phone. It says we prefer other means of communication, like text, email, or IM clients.

Phone calls are apparently “too time-consuming or intrusive,” according to survey respondents, with nine out of ten people preferring texting. Half of the respondents had negative feelings toward calling and voicemail, with attitudes ranging from finding calls too intrusive to outright hatred of voicemail.

Now what I find funny is that we have described what we do now adays in communication as “cloudtalk”. This is where we use social media (Facebook, Google+, etc) to talk to people instead of voice.

“What we’re seeing at CloudTalk is that people love to talk, as long as it doesn’t require our immediate attention,” said CloudTalk CEO David Hayden. “We can respond on our own time and see the entire conversation thread at a glance — it’s just more convenient.”

Now if I may add my own insight to this little study…Cell Phone have become very sophisticated, in the fact that we can watch entire movies thanks to Fox Studios, stream music, watch netflix, even edit photos like a pro. It would seem to me that if we were in the middle of any of these activities we would be very unhappy to stop to talk to someone like our boss, or parents, or the wonderful, lovely husband/wife (or dreaded however you look at them). Now we can even play Xbox Live games on our phones – thanks Windows Phone 7! But even still in the middle of Ilomilo, or Hydro Thunder Go, the last thing I want to do is mess up to answer a call…

So you tell us PPCG is this survey correct? Do 9 out of 10 smartphone users have voicemail, and voice calls? If so why do you dislike (or Hate) the power of voice? Tell us below!

Source: Mobileda

Sprint recently announced a new Total Equipment Protection application that is very useful for smartphones if you pay for the TEP insurance plan. If you lose your phone you can locate, lock, clear and restore it all with this application. To give you peace of mind you can restore your information once you recover your handset so don’t think everything is gone forever. This is something Verizon and AT&T have already been successful with so maybe Sprint will be as well.

We haven’t found it in the market yet but you can click here and download it and then place it on your phone. Sprint says it should be showing up starting today for those who pay for TEP.

The application is free and does work with Android and Blackberry devices, again only if you pay for the $7.00 a month TEP protection.

Take a look at the Press Release below:

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The cost to replace a lost mobile device is usually the least of a wireless customer’s worries, especially if he or she is protected by Sprint’s Total Equipment Protection, which provides coverage against loss, theft and damage. The bigger nightmare is the thought that a customer’s personal contacts, photos and other private information could fall into the wrong hands. To help alleviate those fears, Sprint (NYSE: S) customers needing to track down a lost device and protect their personal information can do so now with the launch of a new application called Total Equipment Protection App.*

Sprint customers with Total Equipment Protection will be able to access the new application, beginning today, at www.sprint.com/protection, where they will benefit from the following features:

* Locate lost device by sounding an alarm on the smartphone even if in silent mode, doing a real time locate via GPS technology, or viewing the smartphone’s location history on a map via a Web Interface
* Remotely lock their smartphone
* Erase contacts in the address book on a lost smartphone
* Backup, manage and restore contacts

“Anyone who has lost a phone knows that their personal information is possibly just as vulnerable as if their computer was hacked,” said John Carney, senior vice president of consumer marketing for Sprint. “Now, Sprint customers have peace of mind knowing that their personal and private information is safe. TEP and this accompanying application is a safeguard for customers who want protection from not only loss, but misuse and unauthorized access.”

The Protection App is included at no additional charge as a benefit of Total Equipment Protection plan, which is $7 per month, per line of service. It is available to customers with phones using BlackBerry and Android mobile platforms. TEP customers download and install the user-friendly application at www.sprint.com/protection. Privacy protection is included with the Protection App. Each time the smartphone’s location is requested by the Web interface, an SMS text message is sent to the smartphone notifying it has been located.

Do you currently pay for TEP and own a smartphone? Go on and download the application and let us know what you think. Of course, we know you may not make a claim today but you can at least tell us how much you like the looks, features, etc. Are you with Verizon or AT&T and use their similar apps? Let us know! Leave your comments in the box below.

Source: Engadget via Sprint

The title says it all. If you don’t already know, Honeycomb has been ported for use on the HTC Droid Incredible, HTC Evo 4G and the HTC Desire HD. This isn’t the official update that everyone’s been talking about or hoping for but it’s definitely a start in the right direction. Keep in mind, there are a few bugs to be worked out but hey, it’s available.

Take a look at the videos below of Honeycomb running on the Incredible and the Evo. You will notice a bit of a lag but also you’ll see how the new version of Android fits the phones very nicely.

You can find the download links here and keep in mind if you use this, it’s at your own risk!

via ZoKnowsGaming & Androinica

Are you a current AT&T customer with old devices laying around? Keep them because you may be eligible to get credits for some, if not all of them.

Beginning January 23rd AT&T will launch a brand new handset trade-in program for their customers. AT&T and other carrier’s devices will be eligible for this offer. There will be credits applied towards the purchase of any new purchase at AT&T. You will also have the option to donate the credit to charity, done for you by AT&T.

We want to know what you think about this new program? It can only be a good thing right? Leave your comments in the box below or hop into the thread already started here at PPCGeeks and discuss.

Source: BGR

The race for the lead is on! Numbers are increasing consistently and Nielsen has the results spreading around the web like wildfires. According to November data from The Nielsen Company, the popularity of the Android OS among those who purchased a smartphone in the last six months (40%) makes it the leading OS among recent acquirers. This is the most recent recording available.

When it comes to overall consumer market share, according to Nielsen, Android OS (25.8%) is still behind Apple iOS (28.6%). RIM Blackberry’s position is (26.1%) putting it within the margin of error of both Apple iOS and Android. In other words, RIM remains statistically tied with both Apple for first and Android for third. Did you expect to hear that?

We can tell from these results that all three smartphone OS leaders – Apple iOS, RIM Blackberry and Android are benefitting from strong demand for smartphones. In November, 45 percent of recent acquirers chose a smartphone over a feature phone. Guess we can say the world is relying more on technology in phones these days. Would you agree? Let us know what you think about these results.

Source: BGR & Nielsen

Most of our visitors are CDMA users, mainly Sprint and Verizon, but what one carrier does, more might follow. At&t has just announced new smartphone data plans that are going into effect June 7th. With At&t launching the new iPhone and more Android devices, they know their network will take an even bigger hit when it comes to data. We’ve already seen with with every version of the iPhone, and there’s been plenty of people complaining about their network, all due to data usage. Now you have the option of a 200Mb plan or a 2Gb plan, and that’s it.

According to At&t, 65% of their users use less than 200Mb of data per month and 98% of their users use less than 2Gb, so their theory is that these new plans could save you some money. If their stats are right though, it will probably anger those that use more than 2Gb.

You have two options now, for $15, you can get 200Mb of data per month. If you go over this 200Mb, you can get another 200Mb for another $15. The other option is 2Gb for $25. If you go over this, you will get 1Gb extra for $10. For you iPhone users out there, if you subscribe to the DataPro plan, you can now tether for an additional $20/month.

• DataPlus. Provides 200 megabytes (MB) of data – for example, enough to send/receive 1,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 150 emails with attachments, plus view 400 Web pages, plus post 50 photos on social media sites, plus watch 20 minutes of streaming video – for just $15 per month.** This plan, which can save customers up to 50 percent off their wireless data charges, is designed for people who primarily like to surf the web, send email and use social networking apps. If customers exceed 200 MB in a monthly billing cycle, they will receive an additional 200 MB of data usage for $15 for use in the cycle. Currently, 65 percent of AT&T smartphone customers use less than 200 MB of data per month on average.
• DataPro. Provides 2 gigabytes (GB) of data – for example, enough to send/receive 10,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 1,500 emails with attachments, plus view 4,000 Web pages, plus post 500 photos to social media sites, plus watch 200 minutes of streaming video – for $25 per month.** Should a customer exceed 2 GB during a billing cycle, they will receive an additional 1 GB of data for $10 for use in the cycle. Currently, 98 percent of AT&T smartphone customers use less than 2 GB of data a month on average.
• Tethering. Smartphone customers – including iPhone customers – who choose the DataPro plan have the option to add tethering for an additional $20 per month. Tethering lets customers use their smartphones as a modem to provide a broadband connection for laptop computers, netbooks or other computing devices. Tethering for iPhones will be available when Apple releases iPhone OS 4 this summer.

There are quite a few users out there that have also cheated the system and are on the $15/month “dumbphone” MEdiaNet plan even though they have a smartphone. Will At&t start cracking down on these users?

What are your thoughts? With more and more companies using invisible caps on “unlimited” data plans, the plus side of this is at least you know your limits and you have options.

I have the Nexus One on At&t and I use WiFi while I’m at work, at home, and anywhere else I can. My data usage is usually 200Mb-300Mb/month for those times I’m away from WiFi. In my opinion, they should take their highly popular Rollover motto and apply it to their data plans. If they’re going to give set limits like they do voice, then why not offer Rollover for data? If I pay for 200Mb but only use 50Mb, then I should get 150Mb that Rollover every month for up to a year like they do voice. It only seems fair and it would go in line with their voice plans.

They’ve also said that smartphone users won’t be forced to change their current plan, so if you’re on the $30 unlimited smartphone data plan, you can keep that if you want.

There’s no mention of what happens if you go over your additional allotted data. If you’re on the DataPro plan and go over the 2Gb, then you get the extra 1Gb, what happens when you go over the 3Gb? Can you keep adding 1Gb for $10?

What are your thoughts? With 5Gb caps being the popular thing nowadays, and Sprint’s infamous $10 Premium Data charge for the Evo 4G, how does this compare?