In case it isn’t embarrassing enough to realize you may have had one drink too many and sent your high school crush a gushing, nostalgia-filled message on Facebook the night before, the company is rolling out a new feature with its Messenger app —the ability to place voice phone calls over a WiFi network. So far the feature is only available for U.S. users so don’t get any ideas about calling your cousin in Australia. [More]
Don’t Call Your High School Crush: Facebook Launches Free Voice Calls On Messenger App
By January 17, 2013
Here’s How People Have Successfully Used An iPhone On AT&T With No Data Plan
By January 16, 2013
Earlier today, we shared the story of a grave consumer injustice: an AT&T customer who brought his own unlocked iPhone from three generations ago, but wasn’t interested in using mobile data. AT&T still mandates that such a smart phone have a data plan, though, and they caught him after nine months of wifi-only frugal bliss. Our readers, however, are always looking out for each other. Jon wrote in with one method that some rogue smartphone lovers have used to avoid having a data plan when they don’t want one. [More]
Having An Unlocked iPhone On AT&T With No Data Plan Is Simply Not An Option
By January 16, 2013
David brought his own unlocked iPhone with him when he joined AT&T nine months ago. He doesn’t use mobile data, so he didn’t sign up for a plan. So he’s not paying AT&T for the privilege of simply owning a smartphone that they didn’t subsidize, and that simply won’t do. Even if he turns off mobile data entirely and restricts all of the “smart” features of his phone to wifi. How unfair. [More]
Best Buy Gave Me A Free iPhone. What Should I Do?
By January 15, 2013
After he had already picked up his iPhone 5, Edmund got received an e-mail from Best Buy reminding him to come get the phone that he had ordered. He didn’t think much of it until he received another e-mail telling him that his preorder was canceled…and then he got a refund of the purchase price of the phone that he allegedly didn’t pick up. He’s not about to take the phone back, but he wonders: is he obligated to even let Best Buy know? [More]
Straight Talk Wireless Introduces iPhone 5 With $45 Unlimited Everything: What’s The Catch?
By January 11, 2013
Starting today, you can go to your neighborhood Walmart store and pick up an iPhone 5 from Walmart’s own house-brand carrier, StraightTalk Wireless. With it you’ll get a $45 unlimited talk/text/data plan. Instead of a phone subsidy, you’ll be paying the unlocked-phone price for your handset: $649 for a 16GB iPhone 5. That’s the same price you’ll pay for an unlocked phone straight from Apple, but Walmart offers something extra: you can finance your purchase and pay $25 per month with no interest…for 26 months. [More]
Apple Exec Swears The iPhone Will Never Commit The Crime Of Cheapness
By January 11, 2013
A cheap iPhone? Shut your mouth, says Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, according to a new report. Despite rumors that were swirling earlier this week that the company would move toward the popular model of a cheaper smartphone, Schiller says that just ain’t gonna happen. [More]
If You Used iOS6′s “Do Not Disturb” Scheduling Function, It Won’t Turn Off Until Jan. 7
By January 3, 2013
Ah, the sweet sound of silence. No phone calls coming in, no texts buzzbuzzing your phone — wait, why hasn’t he called? Is he EVER going to text? Perhaps you’ve been feeling a bit unnerved about your quiet iPhones, iOS6 users, and if you scheduled its “Do Not Disturb” function to begin and end at a certain time, it’s probably still on and won’t turn off until you make it turn off. [More]
New Year, New Speculation On iPhone 5S — Or Is It iPhone 6?
By January 2, 2013
Because everyone is already bored with the smartphones they received as recently as last week, there is already a bunch of buzz about the next iteration of Apple’s iPhone, though there seems to be debate about the name. [More]
NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg Blames Uptick In Crime On Thieves Coveting All Those iPhones
By December 28, 2012
At any given moment, the streets of New York City are like a veritable sea, teeming with fish (people) tempting thieves with their pockets full of shiny, new electronic gadgets. And that preponderance of highly-coveted technology, including Apple’s popular iPhones and iPads, is why the city’s major crime rate has risen this year, says NYC’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg. [More]
Patent Office Rejects Apple’s “Pinch To Zoom” Patent, Samsung Licks Its Chops
By December 20, 2012
That sound you hear? That’s Samsung rubbings its metaphorical hands together in gleeful anticipation after the United States Patent and Trademark Office smacked Apple’s patent for “pinch to zoom” technology down. That same patent helped Apple win its case against Samsung and win it $1.05 billion as a result. So if that patent should never have been granted, Samsung thinks there should be a whole new trial. [More]
Police Tase Woman At New Hampshire Mall For Refusing To Leave Apple Store
By December 13, 2012
While there is still plenty of room for confusion involving a recent police-on-civilian incident in New Hampshire, one thing is clear: A woman tried to buy more iPhones than an Apple store wanted to sell her, and she ended up on the ground outside getting tased by cops. A language barrier may have exacerbated the situation, as the woman is from China and says she didn’t understand police orders. [More]
Newly Updated Google Maps App Finally Makes Its Return To iPhones
By December 13, 2012
Apple’s pride is still likely stinging just a bit from the Great Map Debacle Of 2012, but nevertheless, a new version of Google Maps is now available as an app for iPhone users on iOS 6. Google announced yesterday that the revised map had finally been approved by Apple and will now be listed in the company’s app store. [More]
iPhone 5 Case Does The Opposite Of What A Smartphone Case Is Supposed To Do
By December 10, 2012
Ilya just got a new iPhone 5, and a $35 case from Incase to go along with it. The problem is that the case sort of did the opposite of what protective phone cases are supposed to do: it damaged his phone, instead of protecting it from damage. [More]
Aussie Police Warn Against Using Apple Maps Lest You End Up Lost In The Wilderness
By December 10, 2012
Apple hit a few bumps in the road a few months ago with its map application on the newest iteration of iOS, enough so that it suggested iPhone 5 owners use competing apps while the company worked out the kinks. Australian police are totally on board with people not using iOS maps either, after several people followed the app’s instructions and reportedly had to be rescued from the wilderness as a result. [More]
Apple-Loving T-Mobile Customers Rejoice: Your iPhones Are Arriving In 2013
By December 6, 2012
As I say when I’ve missed two buses and three trains only to arrive for the last five minutes of the open bar, better late than never, eh? And so it goes for T-Mobile customers who have been greedily eyeing Apple’s iPhone for the last four years while not being able to buy one compatible with their wireless carrier’s service. It might be late, but it’s not never — the iPhone is officially coming to T-Mobile in 2013 [cue "The Final Countdown" by Europe]. [More]
Is The iPhone Finally Coming To T-Mobile?
By November 29, 2012
It’s been about a year since T-Mobile customers’ hopes of getting access to the iPhone were dashed when the company’s merger with AT&T fell apart. Now come reports that they might finally be able to have the Apple device as early as next week. But some say that just won’t happen. [More]
Sprint Stores Still Forcing Accessories On iPhone 5 Buyers
By November 5, 2012
The world’s initial bout of iPhone 5 fever has passed, so retailers have stopped playing tricks to take advantage of customers’ insatiable gadget lust, right? Well… no. Not Sprint. Like other readers and even our parent company’s own mystery shoppers, Daniel was told at a corporate-run Sprint store that if he wanted to go home with an iPhone 5, he also had to buy an accessories package. If he didn’t like it, he could go to Best Buy or a different store. [More]
With A Data-Slorping AT&T iPhone And a Data-Sipping Sprint iPhone, I Can’t Win
By October 26, 2012
Aaron has a terrifying story of two mobile cell phone companies, 4G LTE networks, and a data-slorping renegade iPhone. He had an unlimited AT&T plan, but got throttled when he ran through five gigabytes in just three days. They couldn’t find the data leak. He switched to Sprint for true “unlimited” access. He didn’t run up any overages, largely because Sprint’s connections are too slow for him to do so. [More]
