T-Mobile vs. Sprint: Best family plan

Comparing data, to minutes, to cost, to perks, which carrier is right for your family?

When you’re shopping between T-Mobile and Sprint it’s important to know how much data you need, how many devices will be on your account, and how much data you expect to use when choosing a sharing plan.

• What sharing plans are available?
• How many devices are allowed on a shared plan?
• How does data work on a shared plan?
• How do talk and text work on a shared plan?
• What perks come with sharing plans?
• Which carrier’s shared plan is right for my family?

What sharing plans are available from T-Mobile and Sprint?

Sharing plans allow you to purchase one big chunk of data and divvy it up between all the phones and devices on your account.

T-Mobile doesn’t really offer a true sharing plan. Instead of sharing one big chunk of data, each person on your account is given a monthly allotment of data. Once they surpass their data limit, they can still use data on their phone or tablet, but their download speeds will be slower.

Sprint used to offer something called the Family Share Pack, but have now eliminated that program in favor of a more simplified plan for individuals and families called the Better Choice plans, which allow you to share data between multiple devices, just like a familiy plan.

How many devices are allowed on a shared plan?

With both T-Mobile and Sprint you are charged for each device on your plan. Adding smartphones to your plan costs more than adding tablets or wearables, so knowing how many devices you want to share data with will impact your total bill each month.

T-Mobile cost per device

With T-Mobile you can have up to 12 devices on one account. The more devices you add, the cheaper it is per device (until you eventually bottom out at $10 each). Adding a tablet to your T-Mobile plan is only $10/device if you also have a cell phone on your plan, otherwise it’s $20.

• Phone 1, $50
• Phone 2, $30
• Phone 3, $10
• Each additional phone $10
• Each additional tablet $10 (or $20 if you don’t have a phone)

Sprint cost per device

With Sprint, the price per device depends on whether you lease your phone or pay in monthly installments, or if you’re on a two-year service agreement.

• $20/month/smartphone for non-discounted phones
• $40/month/smartphone on a two-year service agreement
• $10/month/tablet (at least one activated phone required)
• $10/month/mobile broadband device (at least one activated phone required)

Remember, if you’re not bringing your own phone, your carrier will also charge you a monthly fee to purchase one of their phones. Costs vary, but if you want the most up-to-date phone, you’ll be looking at about $25-$30 per month until the device is paid off.

How does data work on a shared plan with T-Mobile and Sprint?

This is where things get tricky. T-Mobile gives you a specific data allotment for each device, whereas Sprint gives you a big pool of data to share.

If you go over on T-Mobile your data speed slows down, but you won’t have to pay more. If you go over on Sprint, you have to pay overage fees.

T-Mobile monthly data rates

• 2 GB (included with your monthly charge for each device on your account)
• 6 GB, $15/device
• 10 GB, $30/device
• Unlimited, $45/device

Overage Charges: If you go over your monthly data limit with T-Mobile your connection speed can be reduced (If you have a normal, 4G, LTE connection your speed can be reduce from between 6 and 20 Mbps to between 64 and 128 kbps which is less than a 2G network connection). Even on an unlimited plan, if you exceed 25 GB on a device in one bill cycle your speeds may be reduced. This may only happen during peak use times, or if you’re lucky, not at all, but T-Mobile reserves the right to limit your speeds if you go over.

Rollover Data: T-Mobile offers a service called Data Stash which allows you to rollover any unused data in future months and will save this unused, high speed data for an entire year.

Sprint monthly data rates

• 1 GB $20
• 3 GB $30
• 6 GB $45
• 12 GB $60
• 24 GB $80
• 40 GB $100

Sprint also offers an unlimited plan but the pricing structure is a little different than other plans. You pay $75/month for unlimited data and a decreasing amount for each line you want to add bottoming out after your fifth linphone at $30 for each additional line added. Your data speed will be reduced after 23 GB are used in one month.

Overage Charges: All Sprint plans come with unlimited 2G data after you have used up your high speed allotment for the month. This means you will not be charged overage fees, but your data speed will slow way down if you go over your allotment.

Rollover Data: Sprint does not let you rollover your high speed data into the next billing cycle.

How do talk and text work on a shared plan on T-Mobile and Sprint?

Both T-Mobile and Sprint include unlimited talk and text with their shared plans.

T-Mobile includes unlimited talk and text to Mexico and Canada with any plan, no matter how much data you buy.

Sprint offers free calling to Mexico and Canada when you’re in the U.S. Additionally, you can add the Open World plan to your account for free. This gives you unlimited calling and text while travelling in Mexico and Canada (as well as a few other countries) plus you get 1 GB of high-speed data while roaming.

What perks come with share plans from T-Mobile and Sprint?

Sometimes it’s tough to decide between one carrier or another, so each provider will offer something to sweeten the pot and hopefully make you choose them over someone else.

T-Mobile’s incentive package helps protect your high speed data, by making certain data-draining activities are exempt from your overall high speed data allotment. T-Mobile’s Music Freedom allows you to stream music from popular services you already have an account with like Apple Music, Google Music, Pandora, without counting against your data. Binge On works the same way as Music Freedom, but for popular video services you have an account for like YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu.

Sprint doesn’t have any perks comparable to T-Mobile, but if you have family living outside of the U.S. their above-mentioned Open World plan has some advantages.

Which carrier’s shared plan is right for my family?

Both T-Mobile and Sprint have a lot of room to customize their services based on the needs and budget of your household. For comparison purposes, we will look at share plans that have two phones and two tablets on them.

If you want the absolute cheapest plan, that can be built with Sprint, but you would have a very small amount of data (1GB) to share between devices.

If you want the most high speed data you can get that with T-Mobile, but even though you’re buying “unlimited” high speed data, it may start to slow down after you use 25 GB on one device. Sprint offers an unlimited plan as well, but they reserve the right to reduce speeds at 23 GB. Speed reductions could happen only during peak times or, if you’re lucky, not at all!

If you want the best value for your data T-Mobile lets you buy the amount of data you think you’ll need for each device and won’t charge you overage fees.

If you have many devices (5 or more) consider the T-Mobile plan as it’s per-device account fee bottoms out at $10 for three or more devices, which is less expensive than Verizon’s rates. However, if you only have one smartphone on your account and the rest are tablets or wearables, then Verizon may be a better choice.

If you want to avoid overage fees then T-Mobile is a clear winner since they only slow down your data if you go over your limit instead of charging you per GB of data.

If you’re primarily concerned with talk and text from your provider, T-Mobile and Sprint are pretty equal. The only difference is if you frequently travel to Mexico or Canada, Sprint includes unlimited calls and messages plus 1 GB of data while roaming if you upgrade to their free Open World plan

If you already pay for TV service in your home neither T-Mobile or Sprint offer any kind of TV bundling services, so this won’t be a deciding factor.

Keep calm and carrier on!

Ultimately choosing a shared plan for your family comes down to how many people are in your home, what devices they use, and what they use them for. T-Mobile and Sprint have slight advantages between each other depending on what category you look at.

Overall T-Mobile’s plan offers the most customization and flexibility and their low data prices and lack of overage charges make them a really appealing option for data-hungry households.

Parsey McParseface is Google’s open source bid to help machines understand English

One of the biggest challenges in interacting with machines is their ability to understand the way we meat bags naturally speak. Thankfully, Google has just open sourced a tool that was constructed to tackle this precise problem. And standing in stark contrast to the tool’s quite serious purpose is its exceptionally silly name: Parsey McParseface.

Parsey McParseface is actually the English language parser that is itself part of a larger framework for understanding natural language, called SyntaxNet, that Google has open sourced. Google touts Parsey McParseface as the most accurate model of its kind, noting its potential benefits to developers and researchers now that it’s open source. From Google:

Parsey McParseface is built on powerful machine learning algorithms that learn to analyze the linguistic structure of language, and that can explain the functional role of each word in a given sentence. Because Parsey McParseface is the most accurate such model in the world, we hope that it will be useful to developers and researchers interested in automatic extraction of information, translation, and other core applications of NLU.

In fact, Google says that Parsey McParseface’s dissections of English language sentences are 94% accurate. Given the inherent ambiguity in the meaning of many sentences — something that Google says is one of its main challenge — that’s a pretty impressive statistic.

This follows Google’s recent move to open source TensorFlow, the company’s overall machine learning platform to which Parsey McParseface and SyntaxNet belong. For much more on how Parsey McParseface works, be sure to check out Google’s full blog post.

Fallout Shelter on Android gets exclusive Old Longfellow vault dweller

Coinciding with the upcoming release of Fallout 4’s latest DLC, Fallout Shelter players on Android can add an exclusive dweller to their vault. Called Old Longfellow, the character will appear in the upcoming Far Harbor DLC, but is also a free dweller available exclusively to Fallout Shelter players on Android.

For limited time on @GooglePlay, get Far Harbor’s Old Longfellow FREE in #FalloutShelter https://t.co/UTUUz9vwXP pic.twitter.com/FhW5Ms3ESw

— Fallout (@Fallout) May 12, 2016

In addition to Old Longfellow, it looks like you’ll get a bonus of five free lunchboxes as well. It’s unclear what players can expect from old Longfellow, but it’s a cool bonus nonetheless if you happen to be playing the game on Android.

Gboard: Here’s how to use Google’s new iPhone keyboard to search the web

Have you ever been texting someone and had to exit your messaging app to conduct a web search in another app? Yeah. It’s a common thing.

Switching between apps can be tedious when you’re trying to quickly find and relay information, such as looking up an address or phone number to a business or even finding a GIF. But imagine a world where your iPhone lets you conduct web searches directly from your keyboard. Need to look up and copy a recipe online to send to a friend? No problem. Want to browse for the perfect animated response? Easy. Just use Gboard.

Gboard is Google’s new app for iPhone. It lets you search and send information, GIFs, emojis and more: “With Gboard, you can search and send all kinds of things – restaurant info, flight times, news articles – right from your keyboard. Anything you’d search on Google, you can search with Gboard. Results appear as cards with the key information front and center, such as the phone number, ratings and hours,” explained Google.

The best part is… everything works with just one tap. Here’s everything you need to know about Gboard, including how to set it up and use it.

Gboard keyboard: How do you set up Gboard?

Download Gboard from the Apple App Store (it requires iOS 9.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch).
Open Gboard and go through the intro tutorial. You should see a blue Get Started button. Tap this button to launch the Keyboard section of your Settings app, and then tap Add New Keyboard. If you don’t see the Get Started button, go to the Settings app on your iPhone, and then tap General. From there, go to Keyboard, and then select Keyboards. You will then need to tap Add New Keyboard.
Once you tap Add New Keyboard in your Settings app, select Gboard, and then tap Gboard again under the Keyboards section. At this point you will need to switch on the toggle for Allow Full Access. This will allow the keyboard to work across all apps on your iPhone.
Go back to Gboard and finish its tutorial to conclude setup.

Gboard keyboard: Can Gboard be your main keyboard?

Yes. You can reorder keyboards on iPhone to make Gboard the first keyboard that shows up.

On your iPhone, go to the Settings app on your iPhone, and then tap General. From there, go to Keyboard, and then select Keyboards.
At the top right, tap Edit.
Next to Gboard, touch and hold to reorder its position. You must drag it to the top of the keyboard list to make it your main keyboard.
Tap Done to finish.

Gboard keyboard: How do you open Gboard?

To open Gboard, tap the message field, and then the keyboard will appear if it is your main keyboard.
If it isn’t your main keyboard, touch and hold the globe-looking button in your iPhone keyboard to see other available keyboards. Tap Gboard.

Gboard keyboard: How does Gboard work?

Search for and send information

Open the Gboard keyboard, and then tap the colourful G button.
In the search bar, start typing search terms, and then tap Search. You will see search result cards appear.
Tap the card you want to share. It will be automatically entered into your message field.
Press Send to send the information.

Search for and send an image

Follow steps 1 and 2 above, and then at the bottom of the screen, tap the Image button.
Tap the image you want to share, then tap in the message field, and tap once more to Paste.
Press Send to send the image.

Search for and send an emoji

Open Gboard, then tap the Emoji button, and tap the emoji you want to share. It will be automatically entered into your message field. You can also type in the Search emoji field to find a specific emoji, and then tap the emoji you want to share.
Press Send to send the emoji

Search for and send a GIF

Open Gboard, then tap the Emoji button, and tap GIF.
Type in the Search GIFs field to find a a specific GIF, and then tap the GIF you want to share.
Tap the message field, and then tap Paste.
Press Send to send the GIF.

Gboard keyboard: Does Gboard do Glide Typing?

Yes. Gboard lets you type words by sliding your finger from key to key.

Gboard keyboard: Which apps does Gboard support?

Gboard works in any app, whether that’s a messaging app or email app.

Gboard keyboard: Which languages does Gboard support?

Gboard is currently only available in US English. Google said it will soon add support for more languages. 

Nvidia might have new Shield gaming tablet on the way, FCC filings reveal

Nvidia is likely cooking up another tablet for gamers.

The US Federal Communications Commission has published filings that show Nvidia is seeking clearance for a new tablet that’s a lot like the current Nvidia Shield, meaning the company has likely developed a successor. The filing revealed the tablet is 120mm wide by 215mm tall… and that’s about it. There’s not much information to go on at the moment, but we at least know the new model has a smaller body.

The current Shield Tablet K1 is 126mm wide by 221mm tall. Nvidia announced it in 2014, then recalled every unit a year later, and launched a refreshed model late last year. When we reviewed the K1 tablet, we said Nvidia had focused on price and subsequently provided outstanding value. The Shield is a device most suited to the gaming community, and at the time, we considered it the best on the market for that purpose.

FCC

However, its capabilities and usability with everyday functionality might attract others to the party who find the £150 tag alluring. We’re expecting . Nvidia to put a new chip in its upcoming tablet, but who knows. The FCC filings only revealed the tablet’s size and that it supports 5GHz and 2.4 GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy. Oh, and it has a micro USB port. The tablet’s model number is P2290W.

Last year’s Shield Tablet K1 features an 8-inch 1920 x 1200 pixel display, Nvidia Tegra K1 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.

Viacom Labs’ first projects focus on boosting fan interaction

Lots of brands have R&D labs these days to try out concepts and strategies, like Sony’s Future Lab that gets user input on product prototypes. Programming titan Viacom is no exception, with a new experimental department that focuses specifically on boosting fan interaction. Today it announced that Viacom Labs’ first set of partners will includeAirBnB and GIPHY, along with a creators-in-residence program for artists to “explore ideas” with Viacom content.
The residence program’s first lineup of artists includes neuroscientist Beau Lotto, who created the augmented reality platform Traces, and the multi-disciplinary Indian artist Raghava KK. While their contributions have yet to be defined, the general Labs projects aim to get fans closer to shows in more direct ways, from GIFs starring Viacom characters to experiences like an AirBnB-rentable Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Lair in New York City. But it will also test new tech-driven storytelling concepts like livestreaming fans into shows.

Source: Business Wire

Billboard for fake funeral home urges drivers to text

A billboard with the unusual message of encouraging texting while driving was showcased this week along the the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, Ontario. The ad, which says it’s for the Wathan Funeral Home, isn’t a way to drum up business for a mortuary service. It’s actually a public service announcement about the dangers of texting and driving.
The website for the Wathan Funeral Home lets visitors know it is not actually looking for recently deceased customers. The billboard is from the Montreal agency John St and Cieslok Media, according to AdWeek. They’re trying to prevent bereavement from happening in the first place.

“People see and hear the words ‘Don’t text and drive’ almost every day, but the number of people doing it keeps going up and up,” Mylene Savoie, managing director of John St. Montreal told AdWeek. “So we wanted to think of a different way of saying it that would make people think about the real consequences. Which is where ‘Text and drive’ came from.”

The funeral home website cites many disturbing statistics. More Ontario residents died last year in distracted-driving crashes than drunk-driving crashes. Distracted driving killed 77 percent more people than speeding in the province last year. Actually, 2015 was the third consecutive year where distracted drivers killed more people than drunk ones, according to CNN. The Wathan Funeral Home points out that half of Ontario drivers have admitted to texting while driving.

“That’s more than half of the drivers on the road today risking their lives, their passengers’ lives and the lives of their fellow motorists and pedestrians,” the website says. “Which should make you even madder than our billboard did.”

Of course, distracted driving is a scourge here in the states. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that, at any given daylight moment, 660,000 drivers are using cell phones on America’s roads. Distracted crashed killed 3,179, and injured 431,000 people in 2014.

Related Video:

Source: CNN, Wathan Funeral Home, AdWeek