Your Amazon login can sign you into HBO Now and Showtime apps

Amazon has begun changing the way its Channels pay-TV service works, giving users more freedom to choose where to stream their next show. The tech titan began allowing Prime subscribers to tack streaming services to their accounts through Channels back in 2015. While it’s certainly one way to cut the cord, users only have access the add-ons they pay for, including HBO’s and Cinemax’s offerings, through Channels itself — they can’t exactly log into the services’ applications. According to TechCrunch, though, Amazon has recently launched a new feature that gives HBO’s and Showtime’s Channels subscribers the power to log into those networks’ standalone apps.

TC says folks paying for HBO through Amazon have been able to log into the HBO Now app since Wednesday. All they need to do is use the log-in credentials for their Amazon account with the Now apps for iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Kindle and Fire TV devices, PlayStation 3, PS 4 and Samsung Smart TVs. The feature will also roll out to the Roku and Xbox 360 applications “soon.”

The publication notes that Showtime subscribers have been able to access the Anytime app with their Amazon log-ins since February, but that’s pretty much all of it. Unfortunately, the tech titan hasn’t given Cinemax the same treatment yet, though it sure would be great if the feature becomes a standard for all of Channels’ offerings in the future.

Source: TechCrunch

Could ‘Angry Birds’ maker Rovio finally be headed for an IPO or acquisition?

Why it matters to you

You may not have heard of Rovio, but the maker of ‘Angry Birds’ might have a lucrative future ahead.

It’s been six years since we first told you about Angry Birds maker Rovio’s plans to go public, but now, it seems as though action is on the horizon. As per a report from The Information, the Finnish game maker and animation studio “could list on the stock exchange in the future.” The company would not, however, comment on reports that another exit strategy could be an acquisition by Tencent Holdings, China’s giant investment company with a penchant for buying game developers.

The Information did not name its sources in suggesting that Tencent could be considering a bid of up to $3 billion for Rovio. And it certainly wouldn’t be an unprecedented move for the company. After all, over the course of the last year, Tencent has made a number of acquisitions totaling a cool $19 billion, and among its new holdings include companies like Supercell Oy, yet another Finnish game creator which created the Clash of Clans franchise.

Of course, Rovio is a lot less prolific, seeing as it has exactly one claim to fame — Angry Birds. But given that one game’s continuing popularity, it’s certainly an attractive company. After all, the game not only has worldwide appeal, but has also inspired a whole line of paraphernalia, and even a movie.

That said, Rovio has fallen upon tougher times lately. Last year was the first time in quite some time that the company made a profit, thanks to the success of the Angry Birds movie, which seemed to improve game sales. But prior to that, earnings at Rovio had taken a tumble, jobs were cut, and divestments were made.

As such, a more likely alternative could be an IPO. “We and our shareholders regularly assess different alternatives to further develop Rovio,” the company said in an emailed statement on Friday to Reuters. “A stock exchange listing at some point in the future could be possible in order to support the continued strong growth of Rovio and its strategic targets. However, Rovio and its owners have not made any decisions regarding a possible IPO.”

Horizontal lines make it almost impossible to count the Jubilee’s decks

Why it matters to you

You’ll save yourself a lot of decisions if you have your superyacht delivered in turn-key condition.

Get your order or your reservations in early if you’re in the market to buy or charter a superyacht. Superyacht sales and charters are hot markets today. The 110-meter Jubilee, the largest superyacht ever built in Holland, was launched by Oceanco Yachts in February and is finishing sea trials now, according to Boat International.

Jubilee was ordered by Burgess Yachts, a London-based superyacht sales and charter company with locations worldwide. Turin-based Lobanov Design was in charge of the yacht’s exterior styling, which includes unique horizontal lines that give a visual effect of more than her six decks. Freemantle, Western Australia-based Sorgiovanni Designs designed the interior, but no photographs have been yet revealed to the public. Owner representation by Burgess was continuously involved.

According to an Oceanco release, for the first time in yacht building, Jubilee was ordered as “a fully turn-key project, completely outfitted at delivery including all owner’s supplies, tenders, spares, watersports equipment, china, crystal, silverware, table linen, sheets, loose furniture, cushions, etc.”

Jubilee can accommodate 31 guests in 15 doubles and one single cabin. In addition, there is an entirely private owner’s deck. There’s crew space for 45 to attend to the needs of the ship and the guests.

Amenities include a large pool deck with a built-in aquarium, a substantial beach club aft, and main deck port and starboard balconies adjacent to the dining room and lounge. There is also a forward certified helicopter deck for an Augusta GrandNew, an 8-passenger light helicopter that by itself has an $8.1 million price tag. It’s not clear whether the helicopter is included with the yacht’s “turn-key” status.

Jubilee has a steel full displacement hull, aluminum superstructure, and teak deck. Power is supplied by two 4,828 hp MTU 20V 4000 M73L diesel engines rated for continuous operation with a heavy load. The yacht has an 18.5-knot maximum speed and a range of approximately 5,000 nautical miles at its 14-knot cruising speed.

Once Jubilee finishes her sea trials, she’ll be available for sale and is already listed on the Burgess site. The price is not listed, other than “On Application,” meaning you have to be, or seem to be, a potential buyer. Given the list prices of somewhat similar superyachts, you probably should figure the price will be somewhere between $1.5 and $2 billion. That’s a lot of money, but don’t forget sheets and table linens are included.

Assuming Jubilee will be available for charter after she’s purchased, which is usually the case, the price will likely be just over $1 million a week plus all expenses. Figure another 20 to 40 percent for expenses; more if your guests demand things like having special booze flown in for dinner.

Superyachts take 3 to 5 years from start to finish. Jubilee was announced in 2012.

At 110 meters  (360 feet and 11 inches), Jubilee will be the 29th largest superyacht in the world once she’s put in service, based on Boat International’s list. Two other yachts on the list, Lürssen’s Ona and Radiant, currently holding spots 29 and 30 on the list are the same length as Jubilee, but each has a 16.3-meter beam, while Jubilee has a 16.4-meter width so she’s larger.

So the 110-meter Jubilee was Holland’s and Oceanco’s largest built superyacht, but the distinction won’t last. In late February, soon after Jubilee’s launch for sea trials, Oceanco announced Amara, a 120 meter (392 foot) “resort” yacht. No launch date has been set, but figure 2021 or even 2022 to be safe.

Keeping the same phone for two years

Long term support should be as important as the hardware when it comes to our next phone purchase.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Apple, Samsung, and Google are pricing their premium phones high enough to make a dent in most everyone’s bank account. There’s a lot of room to talk about phones, no matter how smart, being worth the asking prices, but talk probably won’t change anything there. The prices are what they are, and we all expect to spend upwards of $900 on a new phone from any of the three the next time a new model comes along. If we buy one, that is.

As prices rise and hardware gets better, our phones will keep doing cool things longer than they used to.

And that’s the thing. Along with the creeping prices, the features and parts used to build them are getting better, too. And I think we’re at the point where a phone from almost any of the companies who make them could last two years, for even the enthusiast. That’s us — people who read about phones on the internet because we love them enough to read about them.

I know some of us are already there. Pick any article about a new phone and there’s a good chance you’ll find someone happily keeping their Note 4 or Nexus 5, and people have been using iPhones for two to three years for a while now. The same goes for phones from LG, HTC, Motorola or anyone else. In 2019 we’ll still see people who love their Axon 7. What used to be rare among the enthusiast crowd — keeping a phone because you like it and it still works fine — is a lot more common now. And that’s one of those good things I like to mention every now and again.

Let’s take Apple out of the picture here. An iPhone 5S is still a very usable phone because it was well built and Apple still supports it. There are people who bought one when it was first sold who will keep it until it stops working and an Apple Store employee helps them get a brand new model. Even the most die-hard Android fanatic has to recognize that Apple has nailed the after-sale support, and it’s well worth paying for if you don’t rush to buy the new thing every time it’s shown to you.

Supporting a product costs a lot more than making it did.

Androids don’t have that level of longevity. In a perfect world, Samsung puts its own processor inside every phone it sells, and it supports them for years. As long as it still turns on, it’s fine. Samsung doesn’t do this because it can’t afford to put its Exynos processor inside every phone and it wouldn’t be able to compete with the rest of the companies making Android phones if it had this sales model. The first might change once the courts sort out Qualcomm’s fair-use patent pricing. But even then, Samsung just doesn’t have the profit-per-unit (I’m sure there is a fancy accounting term for this) that Apple has and it can’t make money this way. And the rest of the companies making Android phones? Pfffft. They would make one last model then disappear in a cloud of Chapter 13.

That’s important. If you have a phone you want to use and it has some horrible glitch every time you try a certain thing, you need it fixed with an update. Of course, there are also security concerns, which is why Microsoft has to keep sending out updates for software it sold in 2002. These things matter to most of us, but what if your phone works just fine and you’re not concerned about security? (You should be concerned about security, and you should lie to me if you’re not so I can sleep at night.) That Note 4 does everything Joe wants it to do and does it well, so Joe is keeping it until it falls apart.

The reasons why phones can’t be updated for a longer period makes sense, but that’s a problem for a billion dollar company to sort out.

I think Joe might have the right idea. I was using my Nexus 5X yesterday and realized I could use it every day until it stopped getting monthly security patches in 2018. There will be cool things coming in the next software update for newer phones that I might like, but it does everything I need it to do just fine. The same can be said for a Galaxy S7 or an LG V10. They are great phones with stable software, and they still do everything they did when they were brand new. This isn’t a brand thing because every company makes phones that someone just loves.

The only issue I see with keeping the Nexus 5X (or any phone) for two years or more is the software update situation. Because security updates are important to me, it probably matters more than it does for others, but we need to know the company who made it and took our money is willing to be there to fix whatever needs fixing when it comes to the software it runs. And unfortunately, you can’t count on long-term support from any company in the Android space, even Google.

Keeping something you paid $900 for more than 12 months is not a crazy idea.

There are plenty of reasons why, and most of them make sense. But that doesn’t matter because Apple and Microsoft can do it. We should expect the same service from a company as big as Google or Samsung or LG. Problems with component vendors or profit margins may be valid, but that’s for the billion dollar companies to sort out and do whatever it takes.

We deserve better, and we deserve to be able to keep a $900 phone as long as we want. It would also mean we’ll probably buy the same brand next time because we feel like we were taken care of. There is competition between the companies for more than just specs or screen resolution when it comes to our gadgets, and it needs to be just as important as how much RAM your next phone will have.

Pokemon Go Gyms closing, but will return soon

Niantic Labs, the company behind Pokemon Go, has confirmed that it will be temporarily closing gyms in the game from the 19 June. In a statement by the company, the developers of the smash hit AR game stated:

“Gyms will temporarily close starting Monday, June 19. Any Pokémon you’ve assigned to Gyms will be returned to you at that time.”

The move, the developers state, is ahead of a new update that was announced earlier in June.

“To kick things off, we will be hosting the Solstice Event starting on June 13, 2017. This in-game event will feature Fire-type and Ice-type Pokémon, huge XP bonuses for throwing Poké Balls accurately, and discounted Lucky Eggs in the in-game shop. Soon thereafter, you can look forward to a new update focused on collaborative group gameplay features that will get you playing Pokémon GO in fun new ways,” explained Niantic Labs on the 8 June. “In preparation for these exciting features, we’ll be temporarily disabling Gyms for a short period of time.”

The company has not said how long the Gyms will be offline for, or what the new features will be when they return, although it’s rumored the company wants to overhaul gyms to help fight cheating. It might also introduce raids, allowing players to team up or play against one another in the gyms.

• Pokemon Go Gym tips: How to battle, train and win

A spokesperson for Niantic confirmed on Reddit that the move is so Trainers can collect their Defender bonus points:

“As we get ready to update Pokémon GO, we want to ensure that Trainers have a sufficient heads up that Gyms will soon be disabled so that they can collect their Defender bonus. We will provide updates on our social channels in advance of Gyms closing in-game.”

We will keep you posted. 

Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man’ gets what it means to be Peter Parker

When Sony revealed that Insomniac games was working on a PlayStation 4 exclusive Spider-Man game set in an original universe, the specter of another game hung over the announcement — 2004’s Spider-Man 2. This movie tie in is widely regarded as the game that perfected web-swinging, as well as the title that no subsequent Spider-Man game ever lived up to. Creative director Bryan Intihar is aware of the stigma, but he doesn’t seem worried.He’s confident his game will make players feel like Spider-Man. His goal is more complicated. He wants players to feel like Peter Parker.

“I think you can’t do a Spider-Man experience the right way if you don’t tap into everything that Peter offers to the player or viewer,” he told Engadget at E3. Intihar had just finished running a room of reporters through the game’s tradeshow demo — a live, but hands-off gameplay session piloted by a member of his team.

The preview was all spectacle. Spider-Man leaping across a construction site on top of a skyscraper. Spider-Man stealthily taking out enemies as he investigates a crime scene. Spider-Man chasing a helicopter through downtown manhattan. It looks fun, but the experience doesn’t feel real until that helicopter starts to plummet toward a crowd below. The third-person camera zooms in and settles behind Spider-man’s mask, and his heroic confidence fades away as we hear Peter Parker plead with himself in a panicked voice. “Please don’t screw this up.”

It’s a small moment, but one informed by Intihar’s years of spider-fandom. Insomniac’s Spider-Man won’t retread the hero’s origin story, but its version of Peter Parker still driven by the guilt and self-doubt of his past. “There’s a sense of reliability and vulnerability that he has in comparison to other heroes,” Intihar explains. “He’s not a god, like Thor. He’s not rich and so polished as Tony Stark, and he’s not driven like Steve Rogers.” It’s not that he isn’t confident, it’s just that he’s extremely aware of the consequences of his failures. “I know that if I screw this up,” Intihar speaks for Parker, “someone’s going to die.”

That self-doubt has stuck with the character since his conception. Insomniac’s story takes place several years after Peter Parker put on the cowl. He’s been Spider-Man for years, and has just graduated college. He’s starting his career as a young scientist and coming into his own as an adult. “I think what makes Marvel’s world so interesting is, it’s not a great character with super powers, but it’s the narrative.” Intiher fondly describes classic Spider-Man comics as being kind of like a soap opera. “I think you want some of that in there, and we have that.”

Even so, he wouldn’t touch on how that drama plays out. “Peter Parker is integral to the experience of this game,” Intiher said, stopping just short of confirming if one could play as Parker outside of his tights. When asked if the character’s career as a photographer might contribute to an in-game photo mode, the creative director flatly said he couldn’t talk about it. When asked if the trailer’s cameo of Miles Morales, the Marvel comics universe’s other contemporary Spider-Man, was a hint that there may be more than one playable character, he kept it simple. “I will say that it’s Peter’s journey.”

Mum’s the word for now, but Intiher’s passion for Spider-Man lore and character driven storytelling shows through — and the tangents our conversation took toward obscure character traits, old comic book storytelling and pedantic debate over the highs and lows of Spider-Man 2’s best-in-class web-swinging left me feeling confident Peter Parker’s PS4 exclusive adventure. It’s hard to tell without playing it myself, but if Intiher’s confidence reflects the final version of the game, 2018 will be a great year for Spider-fans.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Verizon’s first LTE-only handset is an LG flip phone

When Verizon finished rolling out its LTE network for calls, it became apparent that it also plans to drop its CDMA phone service altogether. Now, the carrier has begun offering its first LTE-only handset to subscribers, and it’s obviously an attempt to lure people who prefer basic feature phones over smartphones away from the legacy network. The LG Exalt LTE is a flip feature phone, and even though it looks much nicer and sturdier than its plasticky counterparts, it’s still far removed from the advanced devices we’re used to today.

Its specs underline that it’s definitely not something for those expecting everything an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy S8 can offer. The Exalt has an unnamed 1.1 GHz Snapdragon processor, a 3-inch WQVGA screen, a 5-megapixel camera, text-to-speech function, up to six hours of battery life, 8GB of storage and support for microSD cards up to 32GB. For people who just want a phone that makes clear voice calls, though, it could be more than enough. Since its calls go through Verizon’s LTE network, it takes advantage of the carrier’s HD Voice feature that delivers high-resolution sound.

LG’s Exalt LTE is available from Verizon’s website right now for $7 a month for two years or $168 up front. If it successfully entices feature phone lovers into upgrading, then the carrier can finally dedicate its CDMA network to powering internet of things devices.

Source: LG

In ‘Fortnite,’ building is just as important as fighting monsters

Epic Games’ Fortnite, once described by company founder Tim Sweeney as Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead, has been six years in the making. That’s a long time to keep someone excited about a game, but you can’t fault Epic for not wanting to rush its latest Unreal Engine 4 project. And based on my first experience with Fortnite, it has the potential to be a solid survival game. Not everything here is about fighting or killing monsters, though, as your success in the Fortnite world will also largely depend on your building and exploring skills.

Throughout the game, your main character is guided by a cute robot (which resembles Fallout 4’s Codsworth) that uses its voice to help you find the right weapon to use for particular tasks, like getting an axe to destroy rocks blocking a doorway. And if you’re struggling to find the next move in a mission, the robot also uses its voice to assist you with that. Since the game is so complex, Epic Games says it wanted to make it easier for the player to understand it, so it needed to make sure there was a solid tutorial system in place before launch.

When it comes to building forts to protect yourself from the incoming wave of monsters, including some ugly ones that wear baseball uniforms and use pitching balls as a weapon, you’ll need resources. That’s where exploring comes in. All around the environment, you’ll find the items you need to build walls, doors, ceilings, weapons and traps, which you can loot simply by axing down trees if you need wood or hammering down an old car to get steel. If the monsters manage to destroy any of your property, all you have to do is keep looting to build more reinforcements.

Fortnite lets you pick pick between four types of heroes: soldiers, constructors, outlanders and ninjas, with each one offering a different set of skills. Ninjas, for instance, are great for melee fights (and yes, they throw stars), while constructors are quick and efficient and building traps in the middle of a monster battle. All in All, I had a blast playing Fortnite, and it definitely exceeded my expectations. But just know that you’ll have to be really committed to it if you want to have a good experience, particularly because of all the time you’ll have to spend exploring, looting and building. The fighting is the easy part.

Epic Games is releasing the game on July 25th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows and Mac. On the PC side, Fortnite won’t be available on Steam, but rather through Epic’s own launcher.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

The evolution of women in video games continues at E3 2017

Feminist Frequency founder Anita Sarkeesian tries to make it clear her yearly, gender-focused analysis of the video games announced at E3 isn’t founded in malice — it’s simply reality. Even in 2017, video games overwhelmingly feature male protagonists, rather than female leads. According to Feminist Frequency, 109 games debuted at E3 this year, and just eight of them (or 7 percent) star female characters, compared with 29 titles (26 percent) featuring male protagonists. Fifty-two percent of newly announced games utilize a system that lets players select specific characters or genders. On their own, these statistics aren’t bad or good; they’re simply facts.

“We’re not trying to be bummers,” Sarkeesian said on the Engadget stage at E3. “But it’s like, let’s look at the actual numbers so we can actually improve for real.”

Sarkeesian and Feminist Frequency’s Managing Editor Carolyn Petit have been compiling data on the gender of protagonists in video games announced at E3 since 2015, which plenty of people in the industry dubbed the “year of the woman.” Sarkeesian and Petit weren’t convinced, so they decided to dive into the actual numbers and break down the number of games announced at E3 that actually starred female characters.

“There was this sense in the air of, things are changing and there are more games starring women announced, etcetera, etcetera,” Sarkeesian said. “But we were like, OK, but we might be getting ahead of ourselves. So we just started counting. And we came up with numbers and we decided to track them over the years, which would create a really interesting data set moving forward in terms of judging how the industry presents itself and how it’s changing over time.”

As it turned out, at E3 2015, just 9 percent of new games starred women, while 32 percent had men in the leading role. In 2016, the gap grew — only 3 percent of newly revealed games featured female protagonists, while 41 percent starred men. This escalation made Sarkeesian and Petit nervous about the figures this year, but things are actually closer to 2015 — the so-called “year of the woman” — than 2016.

“The important thing, I think, is that we don’t rest on our laurels,” Petit said. “We don’t say, ‘Oh, hey, equality achieved!’ or whatever when, actually, the reality is that there’s still a lot of work to be done. These trends are encouraging and great, but they’re not, hopefully, the end of anything.”

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Looking for a cheap phone plan? Here are the best MVNOs out there

The phone plan as we know it is changing. Gone are the days when you were stuck with one of four carriers that charged a little over-the-top for their service. Nowadays, you have a ton of companies at your disposal when choosing a carrier in the United States.

Perhaps the most interesting new options are MVNOs, or Mobile Virtual Network Operators. These companies use the networks and towers owned by the major four carriers — AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile — but buy access to that service in bulk at wholesale value, then sell it back to customers. The result? A slew of interesting and inexpensive options for those unwilling to go with the big four.

Pros and cons of MVNOs

There are some great things about going with an MVNO, but there are also some downsides to consider. The main selling point of going for an MVNO is that they can get quite a lot cheaper — but considering the fact that the infrastructure is owned by competitors, there are some limitations.

For example, MVNOs often have monthly data caps, and their network speeds may not be quite as fast as one of the big four carriers.

Another important thing to consider is the handset you want to go for. MVNOs sometimes require that you buy a phone directly through them — and not all MVNOs have a good list of phones at their disposal. Alternatively, sometimes you can bring an unlocked phone to the company, though you’ll have to make sure that your phone is compatible with the MVNO you’ve chosen.

Still, while there are some downsides, the financial benefits are hard to ignore. After all, MVNOs are often far cheaper than what’s offered through the major carriers.

Best for unlimited data — Boost Mobile

• Uses Sprint’s network
• Prices range from $35 to $50 for single-line plans
• Unlimited data plan available
• You can bring your own compatible phone

Boost Mobile is owned by Sprint, and it offers some pretty great single-line plans. In fact, it offers the cheapest unlimited data plan we’ve seen yet. The MVNO uses Sprint’s network, and while you can bring your own phone to the company, only a few select Sprint phones are compatible, so keep that in mind. Having said that, if you’re willing to buy a new phone, Cricket does have a nice selection of phones to choose from.

The company doesn’t necessarily offer all that many plans, however. For a single-line plan, you’ll have the option of either a $35 plan, which gets you unlimited talk, text, and data with 3GB of that data being on LTE speeds, or a $50 plan, which gets you unlimited talk, text, and LTE data. That’s $5 cheaper than the Cricket Wireless option. There are also family plans, however, they’re the same price as the single-line plans for the first line, after which you’ll pay $30 per line.

Best for lots of coverage — Straight Talk

• Uses Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint networks
• Prices range from $30 to $60 a month
• No unlimited data plan
• You can bring your own compatible phone

Straight Talk is a relatively well-known MVNO, largely because it’s the result of a partnership with TracFone and Walmart. Such being the case, you’ll see Straight Talk stalls in Walmart stores all around the country. It’s a great option for those who want wide coverage, as it makes use of the four major carriers in the United States.

The monthly plans at Straight Talk range from $30 a month, which will get you unlimited texts, 1,500 minutes of talk, and 100MB of data, to $55 per month, which will get you unlimited talk and text, and 12GB of 4G data, after which your data speed will be throttled to 2G. There’s also a $60 plan, which offers unlimited international calling and 8GB of 4G speeds, after which the speed will go down to 2G.

It’s really not a bad offering, and while it can get a little pricey, there are some clear advantages, like the huge coverage area.

Google Project Fi

• Uses Sprint and T-Mobile networks
• Prices range up from $20
• No set unlimited data plan, but you can use as much as you want if you pay for it
• You can bring your own phone, but choices are limited to Google Pixel and Nexus 6P

Google Project Fi is another MVNO that uses Wi-Fi to handle calls and texts when it’s available, but Google also has another trick up its sleeve: It refunds customers for any data they don’t use. You’ll start by paying a $20 base fee, which will get you unlimited talk and text, after which you’ll pay $10 for each 1GB of data. Then, however, you’ll be refunded for any data you don’t use, which can be used toward your next bill.

For example, let’s say you pay $40 for 2GB of data, but during the month, you only use 1.5GB of data. You’ll then be refunded $5, which can be used toward your next bill. It’s really a neat idea, and means that you’ll only spend money on what you use. You can also add more data during the month, if you happen to go over your pre-paid amount.

There is a major downside to Project Fi, however, and that’s that you can only use a few phones with it. Those phones include the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, and the Nexus 6P. If you’re fine with that, however, we would argue that Project Fi is the best choice on this list.

Cricket Wireless

• Uses AT&T network
• Prices range from $30 to $60 a month
• Unlimited data plan available
• You can bring your own compatible phone

Cricket Wireless is owned by AT&T, and as such, it uses the AT&T network. While you can bring your phone to Cricket Wireless, the company also has a number of phones on offer — and some of them are offered for free to those that port their old phone number over to the network.

Like some of the other MVNOs on our list, Cricket Wireless also offers unlimited data, but what you’ll be paying for is a certain amount of high-speed data. Plans start at $30 for unlimited talk and text with 1GB of data, and go up to $55 for unlimited talk, text, and data. That’s not a bad price at all.

Virgin Mobile

• Uses Sprint’s network
• Prices range from $35 to $60
• Unlimited data plan available
• You can bring your own compatible phone

Virgin Mobile has been around for some time now, and operates in countries all around the world. In the United States, it’s a pretty solid option, though not necessarily better than some of the others on our list.

There are three main single-line plans on Virgin Mobile, and they all include unlimited talk, text, and data. The first costs $35, and will get you 5GB of LTE data. The second comes at $45, and will get you 10GB of LTE data. The third and final offers unlimited LTE data.

Republic Wireless

• Uses Sprint and T-Mobile networks
• Prices range from $15 to $90 a month
• No unlimited data
• You can bring your own compatible phone

Republic Wireless has gained a lot of notoriety over the past few years, and for good reason. It was among the first companies to offer calling over Wi-Fi, which essentially means that customers can do away with having to buy minutes in favor of only using data.

Still, there will be times when you don’t have access to Wi-Fi, and Republic Wireless has a number of plans to help with that. The cheapest plan is $15, and allows for unlimited talk and text, but no data. Don’t be fooled by Republic Wireless’ claim to offer “unlimited Wi-Fi data” — the company has no control over how much you’re allowed to use over Wi-Fi. The first plan with cellular data comes at $20, and you’ll get 1GB of data. Plans go up to $90 a month, and for that, you’ll get 10GB of data.

FreedomPop

• Uses Sprint and AT&T networks
• Prices range from free to $35
• No unlimited data plan
• You can bring your own compatible phone

FreedomPop is an MVNO known for offering a basic free plan to those who want it. That plan, however, isn’t really enough for most people — you’ll get 500 texts, 200 minutes, and 500MB of data a month using it. Still, most customers will want to upgrade to FreedomPop’s paid plans, which start at $11 a month for unlimited talk and text, plus 500MB of data. These range up to $35 a month for unlimited talk and text, plus 4GB of data. That’s not too shabby.

FreedomPop also offers family plans, which could be a great option for more than one person. Through the family plan, you can get 1GB of shared data for free, or anywhere up to 25GB of shared data for $160 a month.

PagePlus

• Uses Verizon network
• Prices range from $10 to $80
• Unlimited data plans offered
• You can bring your own compatible phone

PagePlus is one of the few MVNOs that uses the Verizon network, which means you’ll get pretty good coverage around the country. Not only that, but it’s also one of the few to offer unlimited data. The company offers two different types of plans. For starters, you can get a no contract monthly plan, which starts at $12 a month and gets you 250 minutes, 250 texts, and 10MB of data, and ranges up to $70 for unlimited talk, text, and data. However, only 10GB of that data will be on 4G LTE speeds — after that, you’ll be throttled to 2G.

PagePlus also offers a pay-as-you-go calling plan, and prices for that start at $10 for 100 minutes, and range up to $80 for 2,000 minutes. PagePlus has a decent selection of phones, too, including recent devices such as the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8. You can also bring your own, if you prefer to do that instead.

Tello

• Uses Sprint network
• Prices range from $2 to $63 a month
• No unlimited data
• You can bring your own CDMA-compatible phone

Tello, which uses the Sprint network, is arguably the cheapest MVNO out there, and it prides itself on being totally customizable. You can buy minutes, text, and data in chunks, meaning that you can technically get a 200-text plan for as cheap as $2. There are also plans that allow for unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 5GB of data, but those will set you back $63 a month.

Tello also has a number of pre-built plans you can go for — like its “Economy” plan, which costs $13 and nets you 100 minutes, 200 texts, and 500MB. There’s also a “Delta Savvy” plan, which costs $52, and gets you 200 minutes, 200 texts, and 5GB of storage.

AirVoice

• Uses AT&T’s network
• Prices range from $5 to $50
• No unlimited data plan
• You can bring your own compatible phone

AirVoice is relatively standard as an MVNO, and makes use of AT&T’s network. The plans range from $5, which will get you unlimited talk, text, and 25MB of data for five days, to $50 a month, which will get you unlimited talk, text, and 5GB of data. The company also offers unlimited international texts in all of its plans, which might be a big advantage for some people.