Clutch your Razr tight and give the StarTAC under your pillow a pat — the Motorola name will soon be a thing of the past. [More]
cellphone
Virginia Artist Accuses Target Of Ripping Off Designs For Cellphone Covers
By 10.29.15
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but that’s not how one Virginia artist sees it. At least not in the case of cellphone covers she says Target and one of its suppliers copied from her designs. [More]
FreedomPop Launches $5 Unlimited Public WiFi Access, But Is It Worth It?
By 1.21.15
While major wireless carriers are investing billions of dollars in LTE services, a Los Angeles-based tech company is aiming to capture some of their customers by offering unlimited access to millions of WiFi hotspots across the U.S. for as little as $5 a month. While that might seem like a deal you just can’t pass up, the new service likely isn’t an attainable alternative just yet. [More]
Buy Groceries From Giant QR Code Wall In Subway Station
By 7.7.11
As you wait for the subway to arrive, thoughts of errands drift through your head. Pick up medicine from the pharmacist, get package from the post office, and go get the groceries. In South Korea, Tesco has been experimenting with a system that lets you take care of that last one, right while you’re on the subway platform. It’s a wall-length billboard with photorealistic images of essential supermarket supplies. You take a picture of each item you want, grabbing its QR code, place your order, and Tesco will deliver it to your door. [More]
AT&T Charges You A Fee For Getting A Discount
By 7.27.09
Reader “ValentineHumphrey” has a part-time job with a company that gets a 25% discount from AT&T. It sounded like a good deal until she found out there was actually a fee for signing up for the discount. What?
Leaked Pix Of iPhone's New Firmware Upgrades
By 6.3.09
Leaked photos have surfaced showing off the iPhone’s new firmware upgrades, which include:
- multimedia messaging
- horizontal typing
- compass
- video and voice recording an
- a camera autofocus that lets you select your point of focus by tapping your finger on the touch screen
More photos at the Apple 2.0. blog.
Reader Escapes Sprint With No ETF Thanks To Admin Fee Increase
By 11.24.08
Reader Kenneth says he escaped Sprint without paying an ETF because of our post “Escape Sprint ETF-Free Over Administrative Fee Increase.” He sent us the transcript of his chat with Sprint so you can see how he did it.
Consumer 101: 3 Ways To Lower Your Out Of Control Cable, Internet And Phone Bills
By 11.13.08
How much to spend on cable, internet and telephone is something nobody had to worry about only a few generations ago. Today, the Pew Research Center says that after housing, cable and satellite TV service was most frequently cited as a regular household expense (78%), followed by cell phones (74%) and internet service (65%). By contrast, just four-in-ten adults (42%) say they make a car payment. If you’re looking for a way to cut the amount of money you spend on these “information age” expenses, we’ve got three of them to choose from.
AT&T Won't Honor iPhone Price Announced In Its Own Press Release
By 8.19.08
Reader Rom is angry with AT&T because they won’t sell him an iPhone 3G for the price listed in their press release. AT&T says the promotional pricing ($199 for an 8GB, $299 for a 16GB) is only available to, among others, existing iPhone customers. Rom is an existing iPhone customer.
By 8.18.08
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Good news for some of AT&T’s business customers who don’t live near a AT&T or Apple Store: if you’re part of with AT&T’s Premier Enterprise program, you can now buy your iPhone online. [PC World]
By 7.15.08
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Well, it looks like the new iPhone has been unlocked already. [Gizmodo]
Sprint: Can You Please Give Us $39,952 Today?
By 5.6.08
Reader Richard says he came home this summer to angry parents “because of our sprint bill with the family share plan was insanely high.” Of course, it turned out to be the same typo we’d written about before, but we really enjoyed the polite but firm manner in which Sprint asked Richard’s parents for $39,952… “today.”
By 3.7.08
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Rumors on the Internets: T-Mobile may be consider buying Sprint in order to keep the company from lowering its prices and triggering a price war, says Merrill Lynch. “In such a price war scenario, we think T-Mobile would face the most pressure, and Deutsche Telekom would see the increased urgency to drive market repair,” the firm’s analysts said.
Three Weeks Later, Your Helio Phone Is Still Not Activated
By 1.28.08
Reader Katherine has been trying for the past 3 weeks to get her Helio phone activated and has had no luck. The CSRs say they’re working on transferring her number from Verizon, but when she calls Verizon they say that no one from Helio has called. How mysterious.
Another Customer Escapes Verizon Contract For Free
By 1.25.08
Okay so I read the script from last years price hike on messaging rates, to get out of your contract scot-free. I thought I read some where else that they were going up again to 0.20. So I called Verizon and ran the script on them. No one in cancellations had heard about it. I called the general customer service line. Of course the csr didn’t know anything and wanted me to pay the ETF’s. So I went to her supervisor. His name was Aundra (pronounced Andre), employee # 7817 out of the Birmingham office.
Cancel T-Mobile With No ETF By Complaining To The FCC
By 1.18.08
…just wanted you to know that I am one of the many people who can’t seem to get T-Mobile service even though I live in New York City, a major market. All my calls to the regular customer service line got me no where and they did the standard runaround: $5 credit, work with their tech team to isolate the problem, etc. I read a user comment on one of the many T-Mobile threads on the Consumerist which said to file a complaint with the FCC and, by doing so, T-Mobile will have to address the problem and report back to the FCC a resolution. So I did. (There’s an online form so it’s easy.)
By 12.18.07
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Alltel has magical feature that will let you read voicemail messages. Expensive, but should please people who violently hate voicemail. (Like, me, for example.) [NYT]
