TmoNews

Get your grills fired up, your lawn chairs ready and your friends and family together. That’s right, HOPEFULLY you know that today we celebrate independence day. “O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light…”

So from all of us here at Tmonews to all of you wherever you are, happy birthday America!!

Because we love sarcasm here at T-mobile, I leave you all with this youtube clip, from a “classic” 4th of July movie. Watch here and I promise each and every one of you, its NOT a rick-roll. I don’t think that counts of sarcasm, just punishment.

The day will soon arrive when you can finally block all those messages from the crazy ex’s, annoying friends and hell even your parents (kids)! Thats right T-mobile fans mark your calenders as July 16th is the day. Hallelujah! Here is what we know:

Beginning July 16, T-Mobile will offer Message Blocking, an add-on feature that gives customers the ability to block unwanted chargeable messages. TMobile will offer Message Blocking free of charge. Our Message Blocking services will allow customers to block the following chargeable messages individually or all together:

• Text/Picture Messages
• Instant Messages
• E-mail

Note: The option of blocking instant messages and e-mail will not block any Internet driven instant messages and e-mail via a data feature (WAP deck). Message Blocking should be recommended to customers if the following options will not meet their needs:

• Message Value Bundle
• Spam Filter (available via My T-Mobile)
• Family Allowances feature (for family or multi-line individual plans only - launching soon. Stay tuned!)

Customers who use Message Blocking will continue to receive non-chargeable messages from T-Mobile that are required to maintain the service.

This is terrific news and I am sure just about everyone will agree this is a major step in the right direction. Whether a response to this, or just a brand new service we can all agree this is a very very welcome addition.

So here is an article from rcrnews pointing out that T-mobile is attempting to stall/slow down the process by which a decision would be rendered in the AWS-3 auction. See how I sounded real smart there by talking about AWS-3? I wrote it and literally have no idea what it means but I bet It sounded like I did. Anyways back to normalcy, T-mobile wants extended time to discover if this spectrum would interfere with the licenses they bought for future, hopeful 3G services. Lets be honest, this is the only real 3G news we’ve had in some time and absolutely irrelevant.

Dearest Robert Dotson, please let us discover if there is interference by rolling out nationwide 3G coverage like yesterday and we’ll give you all the feedback you want. Oh yeah, how about an android phone while your at it. Pronto.

Read the rest of the article here, its nothing special per se, but news is news. At least it shows that they actually have plans to launch a nationwide service, I mean thats at least good news, right?

Ok, turns out there was a forum post before I got this up. Our super forum member found it first, who is this mystery man who deserves the credit. Go here to find out!

Well T-mobile gave us an ETF adjustment this week and now they grace us with an sms increase. Thats right all you casual texters, starting August 29th T-mobile joins the ranks of #1, 2 and 3 and raises their pay per use rate to $.20! As expected this plays out for both postpaid and flexpay customers. Keep in mind this pay per use rate increase affects mms messaging as well, all messaging in fact. Expect to see inserts in your billing starting later this month alerting you to the change. No word on yet on whether or not this is a contract kill though I am sure those who are verbally crafty will figure out the way to get er done.

I can’t say with 100% positivity but I do believe prepaid customers are not subject to this increase. They only mean to charge more to the customers who really matter, us post paid folks. I suppose a price increase is exactly what we need to pay for the recently deployed, soon to be deployed, will be deployed before the next century 3G network.

Will any of our benevolent readers try and escape the chains of T-mobile bondage with this price increase? Sound off in the comments if you are able to successfully null and void your contract.

Well as our count down plug in has indicated for some time now we have reached d-day for the Nokia 6301 and Samsung SGH-T339. Yawn. Both phones are as expected, myfaves, hotspot at home compatible, voicemail, number pad etc. The nokia has a 2 megapixel camera and the Samsung has a 1.3 megapixel camera. Honestly, what does anyone want me to write about these two phones? The Nokia has an FM radio! Score! Ok I’m already bored by these two launches. Moving on.

Big news of the day comes via T-mobile yet again. Introducing ETF’s that decline, NOT pro-rate but decline. Expect changes to happen on June 28, 2008 and expect this to be for customes who sign contracts on or after that date.

Quick breakdown:

Days left in contract:

180+: $200
180-91: $100
90-30: $50
29-1: $50 or monthly rate, whichever is less.

While this is a step in the right direction, it differs from the recent activity by ATT and the past year or so from Verizon whose ETF’s prorate. Each month passed on a contract causes a 5 dollar reduction in the ETF cost with both companies starting at the $175 mark. While I could understand that not everyone we see things this way, I do see this as a positive step and in the right direction. Any reduction of the fee is a good thing and should be welcomed with open arms. While we all pray for the day that these fees die a slow and miserable death, for the moment I’ll take what I can get.

Next, I just want to clarify this whole Android “debacle” making the news rounds today. The reality yesterday was still the same as is the reality today, T-mobile should expect a device in the 4th quarter. Today’s headlines show that Google is having some software difficulties along with specific carrier requests that could cause a delay in the release. T-mobile doesn’t seem to be subject to this and while the article specifies that T-mobile is sucking up alot of google juice, the release calender still seems to be 4th quarter, as it has always been.

On a side note, sorry this news comes pretty late in the day and without a lot of substance. It’s only a quick plug for our forum because there are continuing discussions on all these topics over there anyway. See I just got back from a bachelor party yesterday and I look like a cherry so most of the day was spent wallowing in pain and agony. Therefore, the news comes slow today. Deal with it, I’m hurting.

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Well thank goodness for FCC release details. Phonescoop has given us what is quite possibly the best news we have come across in a while. Drum roll please, we have the Sony Ericsson TM 506. Now, our info matches this up with this phone being the Bella we have been mouth watering over for some time. Of course the only thing that truly matters is that the phonescoop article points out the most important fact of all, it has 1700/2100 WCDMA frequencies AND its T-mobile branded of course. Nothing concrete seems to be gained from these documents of course with 3G frequencies we can dream about data love. Sony Ericsson how we have missed thee. Of course all this is speculation until we see official documentation but for now, we’ll revel in the moment.

Check out the photo after the jump.

Well our inbox this morning had another little goody in it. LiquidCipher of forums.tmonews.com fame was kind enough to send some pics over of the new hotspot@home router lauching sometime early next month. This one has a few extra goodies though. He was even kind enough to write up his own little review for us. I love it when someone does all the work for me.

“Well boys and girls, with the looming relaunch of Hotspot@Home just days away we found a nice surprise on our doorstep this morning. The new Linksys WRTU54G-TM wireless router. Thats right, TM for T-Mobile!

This router sports some average goodies along with a few hidden tricks. As expected, the 802.11G wifi is optimized for Talk Forever Mobile phones such as the Blackberry Pearl 8120 and Nokia 6086. The Linksys delivers the ever so common 4 ethernet jacks for hardwiring your desktop, slingbox, tivo and Xbox360’s. But thats where this device leaves the realm of common routers and slides into something new. Next to the the 4 ethernet ports you now have 2 RJ-11 ports (think telephony). These are to take advantage of T-Mobiles new Hotspot@Home service. With the service enabled, and a T-Mobile sim installed into the belly of the beast, you can now take full advantage of T-Mobiles new home-based VOIP service. The router will support not just one, but two sim cards allowing for multiple numbers to be handled by just one router which is great for people who have multiple lines or run a small businesses out of there home.

More information will be available about the service and the router when the service launches the beginning of July so keep and eye here for the latest information about the carrier we all know and love”

Thanks Liquid!

I know we’ve been a little behind lately but rest assured we are going to getting back to daily musings very very shortly. I’m just getting back into form myself, let me tell you strep throat is a bitch!!

Anyways, one of our super awesome forum members was kind enough to give us this lovely news for the day. Thats right you motorola fans, all two of you. We have, drum roll please the launch date of the the rokr E8, July 7th!! I really don’t know what else to write about this little ditty, morphing keypad and half scrolling still seem to be two interesting features that I would love to see in a hands on experience. Pricing is yet TBD, but we’re keeping an eye open for that information and we’ll update you as soon as we get our hands on some 2 year pricing.

Reading through our forum postings it looks like we have 4 gb capacity for expandable memory. The specs read like a list from the V8 so I wouldn’t expect anything breakthrough with this one. There is one interesting nteresting feature set though, music ID. Now I know most phones have this as an expandable application and I would assume this is the same but a built in music ID feature would simply rock, I know I find myself listening to the lite music all the time late at night by myself wanting to figure out which love song is playing.

Anyways, check out the forum post below and make sure to visit our forums daily because they are the best forums on earth, ever. End of story.

forums.tmonews.com

Thanks to teufel!

Boygenius was awesome enough to post what is the long talked about sidekick lx OTA update hitting…..JUNE 25th!!!!! Most of you already know some of the hightlights and according to bgr its going to take about 4 weeks to spread out the updates for all you sidekick owners drooling over this awesome update. Here is the rundown of what to expect:

• Capture videos using the new video mode
• Playback from the SD card or email attachments using the media player
• Share videos via email, Picture messaging, and Bluetooth
• Listen to songs or videos using a stereo Bluetooth device
• Send and receive photos, videos, or music via Bluetooth
• 3 IM clients & enhancements to AIM® and Yahoo!® Messenger
• Create and join group chats
• See who is logged into IM from the address book or email and instantly start a conversation
• Set a custom status message then keep chatting
• Search for friends in a buddy list
• Got more buddies than you can keep track of? See who’s online right from the address book or email, and search for friends in your buddy lists
• Select how Web pages are displayed based on preference
• PC-like, full-size layout to pan & scan while reading o Standard Sidekick screen-size layout to simply scroll down the page to read · Mini Page to zoom out on an overview of an entire Web page
• Save images from Web pages to the SD card Personalize the way you want to surf
• Device does not restart after a download. Just install an item, and it’s ready to use
• Capture videos and share them directly from the Camera app
• Video integration for playback, send, and save to gallery
• QuickFind: search for keywords across applications to find messages or information
• Spell Checker

Read the entire article at boygenius… and then go out and celebrate fathers day. Me, I got my dad the entire series of Walker, Texas Ranger available on dvd. Just what a man wants.

Sorry sports fans I know someone of us are still in vacation mode and the rest of us are sick as all hell. That would be me. Forgive me if the news comes slow today, I’m not even sure what day it is.

Anyways, while details seem to be pretty sparse it looks as if there has been a “settlement” in the T-mobile/ATT WiFi war over in Starbucks land. Engadget as well as multiple other news sources have picked up the whispers of an accord being reached but details are nowhere to be found. The original terms of the agreement were to give T-mo customers if memory serves 5 years of access to the hotspots. Personally for WiFi these days I head over to the nearest Panera bread where I don’t have to listen to a line of people ordering drinks that sound like they are from Mars. Starbucks made $672,000,000 in profit last year, honestly would it hurt them to give away free WiFi? Anyways, as details come forward we’ll be bringing them to you.

Ok, I’m going back to bed now.