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.

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!

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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Interested in winning one year of free T-Mobile@Home service and mortgage or rent paid for that year? I’ll bet you do!! Well, one lucky winner in each of three locations for the T-Mobile@Home launch event (New York, Chicago, and Denver) will be walk..ing home with this fantastic prize package on July 2nd. That could be up to a $30,120 value for each winner! See, you know, the official rules state you can only get up to $30,000 for mortgage or rent… so if you own a ten million dollar mansion and are still paying it off, forget about assuming that T-Mobile will pick up that debt for the next year. Although if you do own a ten million dollar mansion and are reading this blog… we are now accepting donations from fine people such as yourself and would be honored to name you as a donator on this site.

The contest is available to legal residents of all 50 US states, but complete rules and details will be available at the event - that pretty much seems to mean you can’t just mail in an entry, or maybe you can but you won’t know where to send your entry form unless you’re at the event. Yeah, pointless. So if you’re near New York, Chicago, or Denver you might as well stop by… they’re also giving away free gifts and prizes as well as free food, games, and live music. Plan on attending? Bring your camera and let us know how it went by hitting the “Contact Us” link at the top of the page.

Source: t-mobileathome.com

Great news, an upgrade is coming to your Blackberry email services! According to this post at BGR, BIS 2.5 is going to be rolled out in the coming days, enabling HTML email, Hotmail and MSN support, and push email through AOL. In order for this upgrade to take effect, BIE service will be shut off nationwide from 00:00AM Eastern (Midnight) to 08:00AM Eastern on June 28th… yes, that’s today, so if you’re reading this after 8AM (Eastern) then you’ll be okay. It looks as if RIM definitely chose non-business hours and it seems as if this could have minimal user impact - aside from you night owls

Additionally, RIM is also performing a software update on July 5th that will render the ability to send/receive message useless, as well as possibly shutting off internet browsing, roaming, or registering devices; the update will occur between 02:00AM Eastern and 06:00AM Eastern.

Sorry, but there still is not much news on BB OS 4.5 for T-Mobile. Right now we’re looking at pre-September release, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear anything more!

Great news! If you’re a part of our forums then you may have already noticed a very informative post detailing a little bit about the T-Mobile@Home service launching soon. In case you’ve forgotten or are just now finding out about this, you’ll be able to replace your landline carrier with T-Mobile’s VoIP home service… kind of like Vonage but cheaper (well, as long as you already have a $39.99 cell phone plan). You get all the standard features you would get with any other phone, such as caller ID, call waiting/forwarding, and voicemail, plus you also get award winning customer service and a big pink T as a company logo! Who could ask for more? Just for clarification, this service must be used with your existing internet connection and your phone plugs into a T-Mobile provided WiFi router.

Seriously, this rocks… for a mere $9.99/month you can turn your home phone into a local and long distance unlimited minute eating MACHINE. Finally, an excuse to use my COW PHONE!

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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.

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.