TmoNews

Did you know that if you walk into a T-mobile with documentation that you can get one of the phones they offer, for cheaper somewhere elsewhere, T-mobile employees can price-match that competing store and give you the phone for the same price? Of course this only works with places you can physically go, such as Walmart, Best Buy, and Costco. Not online only companies such as Wirefly. Well this is the beginning of TmoNews bringing the best T-mobile deals to you whenever we find them. This week? This week Walmart takes the cake for providing the best deals. Here are some of WalMart’s offerings:

T-mobile Wing:

• T-mobile - $300
• Walmart - -$50 (Yes, there were supposed to be two - signs there. You actually make $50 with this device)

BlackBerry Curve:

• T-mobile - $150
• Walmart - -$50 (You make $50)

Samsung Blast:

• T-mobile - Free
• Walmart - -$75 (You make $75)

Nokia 5310:

• T-mobile - $50
• Walmart - -$50 (You make $50)

BlackBerry Pearl 8120:

• T-mobile - $150
• Walmart - Free

Click here to view the rest of the deals at Walmart.  To receive this deal in a T-mobile store, you must print out the page which shows you can get the phone for that price. Keep in mind that for any of the Smartphones, a $20/month data and e-mail plan is required to be eligible for the mail in rebate, however after you receive the rebate in 6-8 weeks, you can drop the plan. In the end, it will cost only $30-$40 for the plan. All you smart shoppers, keep sending in great deals! Many people pick T-mobile due to their competitive prices, and great deals. TmoNews will continue to do our best to find the best deals out there for T-mobile-ers. Enjoy!

Our friends over at BGR got their hands on some juicy tidbits of information that are showing up on Best Buy’s systems. All three devices (And the Motorola Rokr which we talked about earlier) look like they will be shipped on July 27th, so we may be looking at a release the day after, on Monday the 28th? Either way, this is a clear indication that all three of these devices are coming to T-mobile. Just to recap:

• Blackberry Curve will be released in Sunset
• The Tony Hawk Sidekick LX will come with the recant OTA software update already installed
• The Sidekick Gecco will be a nice replacement for the Sidekick ID
• The Blackberry Pearl 8120 will be getting three new colors, including blue and green

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Thanks to BreatheT-mobile, our go-to guy on phone unboxings, we got our hands on a nice review and unboxing for the Motorola Rokr E8, 5 days before it is released. We were a little skeptical about this one but ok, we have to admit, Motorola actually did their homework on this one. The Motorola Rokr E8 really is a sight to look at. The phone commands attention with every sense of the word. Its sleek design follows Motorola’s classic sharpness while managing to define itself in a completely new concept separate from that of the Razr. The phone has a glossy finish that will drive “de-smug-ificators” (yeah, I made up that word, so what?) crazy. The overall feel of the phone is great. We love the weight and size of the phone overall. This phone truly looks and feels expensive, and it is! The OS is super quick and definitely deserves major props. The half-wheel does get a bit annoying after a while. We actually found ourselves using the D-pad more. The Camera quality is the BEST we have seen in a long time. To top it off the E8 includes, a 2gb internal memory plus support for up to 8gb of external memory, Stereo Bluetooth, and a 3.5mm headjack. When everything is said and done, the Magic Morphing Keypad is by far the best part of the phone! If you are liking the morphing keypad, the candybar form-factor, and the classic Rokr music player, you can drop by a T-mobile store on July 7th and pick one up for a whopping $199.99.

The Phone packaging includes:
-Phone
-1 gb micro sd card
-Usb Cable
-Home Charger
-Carrying Pouch
-Headphones
-Installation CD

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Well well well, what do we have here? We have seen T-mobile push phones before, but the W490, that little persistent bugger, has gone through yet another color refresh. With specs that barley surpass the Razr, the Motorola W490 provides nothing on the inside for us to brag about. But hey, if your one of those people that loves to match your phone with your outfit, why not pick up a few W490s and you’ll be set! If you want some more shots of the new Black/Mandarin combination, head over to NewEgg.com, who is selling it for $149.99, no plan required. While we’re on the subject of color refreshes…those BlackBerry users that are somewhat disappointed in the pretty lame colors of the BlackBerry Curve and Pearl 8120 should be relived to hear that color refreshes are expected soon on both devices.

For those users that are disappointed with T-mobile’s official user’s site, MyT-mobile, here is a little relief. A while ago T-mobile brought you the first news about an update to T-mobile’s website, and it is finally here! Above is a screen shot of My MobileLife, giving you easy access to MobileBackup, MyFaves, Album, and Contacts. MobileLife came with some cool new features, such as the following list of options just under My Contacts:

Manage Address Book

On-demand alert codes

Create e-mail filters

Create nicknames

Group messaging

Change my phone’s e-mail address

With My MobileLife along with some slick new drop-down menus giving you access to…well, everything T-mobile offers, T-mobile’s online portal seems to have dramatically improved. So, it’s not national 3G or an Android phone, but at least it is a step in the right direction. What do our users think? Feel free to comment on the blog, or join the ongoing discussion on our forums.

Normally we wouldn’t bring you this much news on one phone, but we have to admit, the somewhat-sexy 5310 definitely has impressed us much more then we expected. Again, in case you for some reason don’t know, we can expect the Nokia 5310 to be released on the 28th in Purple, Red, and Orange. Check the column to the right to see exactly how long until the phone is available* to purchase. Pictures include unboxing, accessories, and part of the Nokia music promotion also starting on the 28th. Check Nokia’s Promotional Site for the terms, conditions, and more.

Update: It turns out you do NOT have to purchase a new phone to enter into the contest!

Update 2: It looks like if you want to pick up a 5310 now, you can head over to Best Buy and pick one up. Sounds like they have had them there for the last two or three days.

*New phones are usually available when T-mobile stores open, and available at 12:00 PM on T-mobile.com. The countdown shows when we expect the phone to be available online.

Great pictures BreatheTmobile!

Click here for more images

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This is pretty big news T-mobile fans. It looks as if T-mobile will be launching an Online Portal that may be an addition to MyT-mobile.com, or may be its own separate site containing all of your online T-mobile life. This new service will have four major components, which all have their own section on the home page.

1. MyAlbum
2. MyContacts
3. MyFaves
4. Mobile Backup

1. MyAlbum will be a much needed upgrade of T-mobilePictures. Besides great visual changes, MyAlbum will offer easy picture searching, easy album access, slideshows, and simple drag and drop functionality to add your thumbnails to whichever album you chose. There will also be some kind of easy sharing ability with picture services such as PhotoShack, MySpace, and Snapfish.

2. MyContacts will offer a nice alternative to any online contact book you currently have. With easy syncing via Mobile Backup (Which we will get to soon) your online contacts and mobile phone will stay up to date. Again, drag and drop functionality allows you to easily put contacts into groups, (IE Family, Work, Friends) as well as providing simple navigation through all your contacts. Options include search by name, sort by first name, last name, cell number, groups, change the page layout, and more. Our guess is that T-mobile will allow you to import contacts from other address books such as Outlook, Yahoo, or Google. To go with that, you will also have a group of contacts that will be listed under MyContacts but will not be put on your phone when MyContacts and your phone are synchronized.

3. MyFaves on this new online portal will likely not provide anything too new or exciting. With the expected launch of MyFaves 2.0 coming, you will be able to keep track of your 5, or 10 if you chose, MyFaves via this portal. It will provide visual improvements to the current MyFaves online portal. Options include viewing your Fave5 (or 10), Changing your MyFaves, changing/editing your Fave’s icons, or sending a message to your MyFaves.

4. Mobile Backup will provide a few improvements from the current Mobile Backup system T-mobile has in place. Some recant T-mobile phones have been coming faded and unselectable options such as Backup Calendar and Backup Notes. When backing up your mobile contacts, you will see these contacts listed under the MyContacts section of this page. Mobile Backup should provide some solace to those geniuses that have dropped their phones in the toilet, or jumped in the pool with their phone in their pockets (Don’t worry, we’ve all done it too).

Sources tell us that this new Online Portal and Mobile Backup will be out near the end of the May, or beginning of June. We’re definitely looking forward having our mobile life all in one, easy place. More to come soon, including screenshots!

Thanks Dave, and all that sent this in.

Join the discussion on our forum

The Nokia 5310 will be released on May 28th. But that is not all, on the same day, T-mobile will launch a huge Nokia Music Promotion. With T-mobile and Nokia teaming up, you can’t really go wrong, right? Customers who purchase a Nokia 5310 on or after May 28th will receive free downloads of themes, wallpapers, and other customizable features for their new music phones. But wait folks, thats not all! If you purchase a 5310, you will be able to head over to a promotional website, enter a number from the 5310 box, and be entered into T-mobile and Nokia ran contest. What does the winner get, you ask? Well it seems like there is not going to be one winner, but well over 10,000 winners (Could this be true?) of the grand price, which is a $100 Ticketmaster gift card, to bring yourself and a “Fave” to a concert. By the way, that is NOT the 5310 pictured above, here are some pictures of the upcoming device:

For those complaining about coverage and network problems with the Sidekick III, here comes a solution (Hopefully). Between Today (May 19th) and May 30th, Sidekick III users should be receiving text messages asking you to backup your contacts. In addition, you may want to backup your pictures and media as these may also be deleted during the update. As Hiptop3 reported, this is what is included in this OTA (Over the Air) update:

* GSM network feature enhancements
* Enhanced USSD Support
* Retry option for failed Text Messages
* Enhanced SIM PIN protection
* Optimized PLMN scan algorithm to improve network registration time when returning to good coverage
* Faster PLMN searches

So on the user-end, coverage should improve, and when going from an area without coverage, to one with coverage, you should see less time before you receive a signal. Hopefully this doesn’t wear out the battery even more when no coverage is available, like many phones do. T-mobile is really pushing the fact that this update should lower the number or dropped calls, but we’ll be the judges of that. After you have backed-up all of your contacts and registered to receive the update, you wont have to wait too long. Updates will be sent out starting June 2nd, and the last update will be sent on June 13th. Anyone who receives this update, let us know if you see any differences.

Click Here for T-mobile’s instructions regarding the SK3 Update.

Remember the Gekko we’ve been telling you about? Well it looks like we can add it to the list of phone to hit T-mobile before August. The label you see above was provided to us by the wonderful FCC, who passed this device yesterday. Unfortunately you’re not going to be surfing with speeds any faster then EDGE on this new Sidekick. Boy we’re excited for a 3G Sidekick to come out though…and hey, while your at it, add some UMA. Now we’re dreaming though…

Anyways, expect the SK Gekko to drop near the end of July, or beginning of August. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for further info on this, for all you avid SK users. Enjoy!