T-Mobile Buyer’s Guide: Everything you need to know

Check out what T-Mobile has to offers.

T-Mobile is the third largest wireless carrier in the U.S. with over 72 million subscribers. It provides nationwide voice and data coverage using GSM and LTE technology, primarily on bands 2, 4, 12, and 66.

T-Mobile offers unlimited talk, text, and data plans for individuals and families and carries all of the latest phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, as well as the LG G6. Since T-Mobile only offers one kind of postpaid plan, things are a bit pricey, but T-Mobile’s got solid coverage and decent extras that make it worth it for you to switch.

Here’s what T-Mobile has to offer.

• Individual and family plans
• Prepaid plans
• Bring your own device to T-Mobile
• Best phones
• Best deals on T-Mobile
• How to cancel T-Mobile
• How to unlock a T-Mobile phone
• Finding an alternative carrier that uses T-Mobile’s network

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Postpaid unlimited plans

T-Mobile has just one postpaid plan: T-Mobile ONE. The carrier does not offer plans with tiered amounts of data, nor does it offer a true “family” plan; instead, every plan features unlimited talk, text, and data, as well as Music Unlimited, and the only difference in price depends on how many lines you have on your account.

Note: T-Mobile claims that you have unlimited 4G LTE data, but a small percentage of users, once they hit 30GB per month, will be throttled to slower speeds, and even then it’s only likely to happen during times of congestion.

For a single line, it’s $70 per month; two lines is $100 per month ($50/line); three lines is $140 per month ($47.50/line); and four lines is $160 per month ($40/line).

Keep in mind that those prices don’t include monthly payments on devices.

Everything you need to know about T-Mobile’s unlimited plan

Prepaid plans

Keeping things ever-simple, T-Mobile offers only a few prepaid plans: $45/month for up to 4GB of 4G LTE, unlimited talk and text, and unlimited 2G data, as well as $55/month for up to 6GB of 4G LTE. Each plan also gets Music Unlimited, which lets you stream as much music as you want without eating into your 4G LTE allotment.

There’s also a version of the T-Mobile ONE plan for prepaid for $75, which gives unlimited data along with all the benefits above. Unfortunately, with that plan, tethering is limited to 3G speeds and videos are capped at 480p with no option to disable the Data Saver.

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Bring your own device to T-Mobile

T-Mobile makes it incredibly easy to bring your own phone over, since just about any unlocked phone will work with the network. Before making the switch, you should just double-check it will work on T-Mobile’s network.

Best phones

If you don’t have a phone to bring over to T-Mobile, you can purchase the latest and greatest devices straight through the carrier.

Here are the best phones T-Mobile has to offer:

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

Samsung’s newest flagships are the best Android phones on the market, with their slick design, featuring minimal bezel, curved screens, a new aspect ratio, and industry-leading displays. These phones have huge displays, but they don’t feel huge, thanks to the fact that they’re thinner than other big phones. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ also have phenomenal cameras, both rear and front, offering excellent image quality, thanks to updated processors.

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LG G6

The LG G6 is LG’s latest flagship, featuring a glass back, a dual camera setup, a rear fingerprint sensor, and a whole host of other delightful features. The LG, like the Samsung Galaxy S8, has the new tall aspect ratio, making for a longer screen and a slightly thinner phone. It’s an excellent phone with a great camera setup and it feels sturdy in hand. If you’re looking for great battery life and a fun user experience, check it out.

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Best deals on T-Mobile

Right now, T-Mobile has the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge on sale for only $20 per month with $0 down. The total price of the phone is only $480, down from $600.

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The LG G6 is on sale for $500, down from $650. You put $20 down and then pay only $20/month. Plus, you receive a free LG G Pad X, LG’s stylish tablet.

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How to cancel T-Mobile

The easiest way to cancel T-Mobile, like any carrier, is to simply switch carriers and have your number ported over. Then you’re not having to deal with customer service reps who try to sweet-talk you into staying.

Just remember that you’ll have to pay out anything you owe on devices you bought from T-Mobile. If you don’t want to just switch carriers, then try this:

• Call T-Mobile customer service at 1-877-746-0909 or dial 611 on your T-Mobile phone.
• Head into a T-mobile store near you and chat with a rep.

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How to unlock a T-Mobile phone

To unlock your T-Mobile phone, you’ll first have to make sure it meets eligibility requirements. Your account will have to be in good standing; the phone can’t be reported as lost or stolen, and you can’t have requested more than two unlocks per line of service in the past year.

After that, you can use T-Mobile’s Device Unlock app to unlock your phone. Keep in mind that fees may apply.

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Finding an alternative carrier that uses T-Mobile’s network

If you like T-Mobile’s coverage but aren’t thrilled about it’s lack of plan options or prices, then you may want to consider a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) or “alternative carrier”. These carriers lease coverage from the big carriers and then sell it to you for less. You’ll still get 4G LTE coverage, as well as calling and texting coverage, but you’ll probably find that you’ll pay a lot less.

There are roughly 26 MVNOs that piggyback on T-Mobile’s network, so you have a wide range of options and should shop around to find out which one will cover you and fit your needs the best.

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Updated July 2017: This article was updated with the most recent information on T-Mobile’s ONE plans.

What we’re playing: ‘Wipeout’, ‘Dead Cells’ and ‘Danger Zone’

Welcome back to Gaming IRL, a monthly segment where several editors talk about what they’ve been playing in their downtime. This month, we’ve obsessed over roguelikes, remasters and resource gathering; we’ve sent adventurers into dungeons, only to see them go insane; and one of us searched for the Burnout mode they’ve pined for, only to realize that making a 13-year-old minigame feel relevant is easier said than done.

Danger Zone

Timothy J. Seppala
Associate Editor

When Danger Zone was first announced, I was overjoyed: Someone had finally made a standalone version of Burnout‘s Crash Mode. I hadn’t played the multi-car-pileup-simulator minigame since Burnout 3: Takedown on the original Xbox, so my anticipation was high. Careening through intersections, trying to engineer the most expensive pileup possible, was a catharsis not even the GTA games provided more than a decade ago. But now, having played Danger Zone, I’ve found that my lust for automotive mayhem has barely been sated.

The good news is that the game absolutely succeeds in nailing Crash Mode’s fundamentals. How it does that isn’t surprising: Developer Three Fields Entertainment is composed of veterans Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry, from Burnout‘s original developer, Criterion Games — they know what makes Burnout, well, Burnout.

Online leaderboards and Unreal Engine 4–powered graphics definitely make it feel like a modern game, but for better and for worse, Danger Zone‘s nuts and bolts are trapped in the past. I was initially caught off guard by the complete lack of music. There isn’t even a placeholder song playing at the main menu or a looped butt-rock guitar riff during gameplay, just generic car crash sound effects. To be fair, Takedown is silent as well, and its pop-punk soundtrack is available only in menus and campaign races. But that game came out over a dozen years ago.

Another bummer is that, regardless of whether I was flying off a ramp and onto a busy highway or cruising through a simple four-way intersection, each successive challenge felt the same, because everything in Danger Zone takes place within a simulation. This means you can finally crash into a school bus in a driving game, but the downside is a sense of monotony because everything looks the same: dark, dingy and gray. I realize that the game is a $13 downloadable from a small team, but a little visual variety would’ve gone a long way toward keeping things fresh. Local multiplayer is absent too, which feels like an egregious omission.

I’m having fun with Danger Zone in half-hour bursts, sure, but more than anything, it made me glad I still have my OG Xbox and copy of Takedown.

Dead Cells

Aaron Souppouris
Features Editor

Every time I open Steam, I’m confronted by a rundown of the hours I’ve spent playing each game, and reminded that I probably shouldn’t buy any more roguelikes. I lose myself in these games, and have over a dozen in my library that I’ve sunk more than 24 hours into. The two worst playtime totals are for FTL and Nuclear Throne, which I have somehow played for 271 hours combined. More than 11 days of my life, lost forever. Despite this self-awareness, I just can’t help but find more and more games to dive into. My latest obsession is Dead Cells, a roguelike that was released on Early Access back in May.

I first played Dead Cells way back at Eurogamer’s EGX event last fall, and I was immediately taken with its premise. It essentially blends classic 2D “Metroidvania” gameplay with roguelike traits. It’s probably better described as a “roguelite” — yes, when you die, you start back at the very beginning, but there is some light progression through the many, many unsuccessful runs, with new weapons and items to unlock and upgrade and a couple of skills that will help you gain access to new areas. You start each run with randomized items, and “unlocking” a weapon adds it to the list of items that can be dropped by enemies or found in chests.

It shares some common DNA with another favorite of mine, Rogue Legacy, but what stands out is its fluid combat. Dead Cells really nails the fundamentals, with gorgeous art and sound design, dozens of weapons that all handle differently, and an ever-expanding array of enemy types that combine to kill you in new and imaginative ways. Keeping everything fresh is some light procedural generation: Each playthrough has set levels linked by the same divergent paths, but layouts and enemy placements change with each playthrough.

It’s been only two months, but I’ve already racked up 50 hours in this game. I just can’t recommend it enough. The content and level of polish present in Dead Cells at launch was more than worth the $17 price tag, and with each and every update it’s become a bigger, better game. Once it’s finally complete, here’s hoping for a Switch release so I can be unproductive on the bus as well as at my desk.

Last Day on Earth: Zombie Survival

Rob LeFebvre
Contributing Writer

There’s something about a survival game that just pulls me in. Whether it’s Don’t Starve or even Minecraft, I’m a sucker for a good resource-gathering, craft-making, monster-killing game, no matter what the platform. Mobile game Last Day on Earth: Zombie Survival, by Andrey Pryakhin, is the latest title to get under my skin. The basics are simple: Gather wood, stone, metal and plant materials to build a defensible home, then craft even more complex items (including metal forges, sewing tables and gun workbenches) and upgrade everything as you defend against hordes of zombies or other players. The multiplayer aspect is a fine one, as you only ever seem to run across other survivors when you’re off gathering materials in neighboring woods.

What really has me intrigued is the energy system — you have only 100 energy points to use at any given time (they replenish at the rate of one point every five minutes). Energy allows you to run to nearby spots, including humanitarian drops, a dealer in an RV or even a plane crash. You can walk there for free, but it takes real time. The meta here sees you managing your energy for very focused play sessions: I plan out my travel based on what resources I need and how far each area is, then end up walking back to my home base while my phone is in my pocket. The game has various difficulties built right in, with more tricky zombies to fight off in areas with better loot. Your equipment breaks down over time, including your clothing, so you have to make sure you’ve got enough to survive the many zombie and survivor encounters as you try and fill up your limited storage. Don’t let the free-to-play moniker fool you: This is a game with a ton of depth and would feel right at home on a console or PC.

Darkest Dungeon

David Lumb
Contributing Editor

If my last few recommendations have looked like a clearinghouse for recent indie titles, blame summer sales. But I’m glad I approached Darkest Dungeon during the season of sun, because this game is bleak.

Released in full last year after a long spell in Steam Early Access, Darkest Dungeon is a turn-based team RPG for folks brave enough to send adventuring parties into caverns of doom and probable death. The achingly pretty, Gothic Mignola-style art matches the game’s stressful mechanics: Your heroes are flawed creatures, bearing negative tics and suffering not just physically but mentally. When one character’s had too much horror, they either rise to the occasion … or, more often, break, and break hard, babbling incoherently and tumbling the rest of your party into a stressed-out downward spiral of oft-uncontrollable panic or selfishness. Misfortune might wipe out entire parties, and when your adventurers are dead, they’re dead for good, leaving you to train up new recruits, and maybe care about them a lot less next time.

Darkest Dungeon is exhausting, but it throws a realistic humane wrench into the usual fearless-adventurer equation. Maybe these faulty wretches are who we’d really be if we were passed the torch to delve into the horrors below our known world.

Wipeout Omega Collection

Nick Summers
Associate Editor, Engadget UK

Wipeout is a series that rewards precision. Every barrier on the track is a hazard that, if struck, will wipe precious seconds off your lap time. Periodic boost pads can be hard to reach, but they represent a vital opportunity to overtake your opponent. Jump ramps are a rare chance to flick the analog stick (or mash the D-Pad, if you prefer) left, right and left again, forcing your ship to barrel-roll and boost upon landing. Even a normal hairpin bend can spell disaster if you fail to tap the air brake early enough. Success depends on lightning-fast reactions and dextrous fingers.

I’m in love with the Omega Collection. Before this new remaster trilogy — which combines Playstation 3 title Wipeout HD, its 2009 expansion pack Fury and the PlayStation Vita game Wipeout 2048 — I had never encountered the franchise before. Maybe that’s for the best; on the PlayStation 4 and especially the PlayStation 4 Pro, all three games are ridiculously sharp and smooth. I’m sure the presentation was equally impressive upon each game’s respective release, but here they’re simply breathtaking. The vibrant neon colors, the heart-thumping dance tunes — it’s sensory overload in the best way possible.

What I love most of all, however, is the handling. So many “sim” racers make the fastest cars near impossible to drive. I know it’s realistic, and that’s the appeal, but steering a vehicle that feels like it’s constantly on black ice can be infuriating. I’ve missed arcade-y racers like Blur and Burnout that let you hold down the accelerator and revel in every drift, shortcut and near miss. Wipeout is one of those games. When you master a course and fall into a Zenlike state, taking each corner on muscle memory alone — there’s really no better feeling.

“IRL” is a recurring column in which the Engadget staff run down what they’re buying, using, playing and streaming.

Amazon may take on Blue Apron’s prepared meal-kit service

Amazon’s grocery aspirations go beyond offering a drive-through store, AmazonFresh, Pantry and its recent Whole Foods acquisition. Bezos’ shopping juggernaut is looking to get into the boxed meal service a la Blue Apron, according to British publication The Times. Apparently, Amazon has registered a slogan for “We do the prep. You be the chef,” and the service will offer “prepared food kits” that are “ready for assembly as a meal” according to the application.

If anything, it underscores the ways Amazon is trying to branch out from just selling general merchandise. Blue Apron hasn’t had the best run of business lately, but given that this would just be one aspect of Bezos’ offerings versus the entire company’s focus, Amazon can make it work.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: The Times

South Carolina hit with 150,000 Election Day hacking attempts

More information about the scale of attempted election hacks has been released and it involves a rather surprising target — South Carolina. Donald Trump took the state by 54.9 percent and there was never any doubt that he had the advantage in the historically republican-swinging South Carolina. However, even with almost certain projected results, the state’s voter-registration system was hit with nearly 150,000 hack attempts.

After the FBI sent out warnings to state election officials about the potential for cyberattacks, South Carolina officials met with the agency and later hired a private cybersecurity firm to fix a number of vulnerabilities in the State Election Commission’s systems discovered by the DHS. All but one was resolved by Election Day and while the state didn’t release any data on how many hacking attempts occurred prior to Election Day, its report did show a drop off in hacking attempts after November.

South Carolina was obviously not the only target during the election, but it does speak to how widespread the attacks may have been. Some of the successful election hacks included those of the Democratic National Committee’s emails and Illinois’ registration records, of which 90,000 were stolen. In a report, the Illinois State Board of Elections noted that its IP addresses were hit five times per second, 24 hours per day prior to the election. In all, there’s evidence that hackers attacked voting systems in 39 states.

In regards to many of the other known election hacking attempts, US intelligence agencies have pointed the finger at Russia. But it’s unknown as of now who was behind the South Carolina attacks.

Via: Wall Street Journal

Source: South Carolina State Election Commission

US lifts laptop ban from final Middle Eastern airline (updated)

If you’re a business traveller who wants to use your laptop on a flight originating in the Middle East, things are looking up. The US started to lift restrictions for passengers carrying large electronics like laptops on flights originating in the Middle East earlier this month, including lifting the ban at Abu Dhabi airport, and exempting Emirates and Turkish Airlines from the ban. Now, according to a report by Reuters, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has finally lifted the laptop ban on inbound passengers on Saudi Arabian Airlines, the final airline to be under restriction.

Last March, the US banned most electronics from the cabins of Middle Eastern airlines headed to the US. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ban — which disallowed cameras, laptops and other larger gadgets — was instated in one major airport each in Abut Dhabi, Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Turkey, along with two airports in Saudi Arabia. The ban only affected flights entering the US from these countries. The DHS considered banning laptops on flights from Europe, as well, but has not moved to implement such an order, as yet.

According to Reuters, the ban has been lifted from airlines as they comply with new security requirements for all airlines. As noted in the tweets in the update below, Jeddah has complied, Riyadh has not.

Update: The TSA responded to a request for confirmation via email, saying “TSA issued the attached tweets (below) earlier this afternoon to notify the public and media of the lifting of the laptop ban. The ban was lifted because the airline met additional security requirements necessary. Please note that the ban was lifted from Jeddah, not from Riyadh.”

1: Saudia / Jeddah In’t have implemented the required initial enhanced security measures.

— TSA (@TSA) July 17, 2017

2: Travelers from Jeddah are now allowed to bring devices in the cabin of US bound flights.

— TSA (@TSA) July 17, 2017

Source: Reuters

Listen to tunes in Google Play Music’s search results

If you use Google Play Music on the road, we have good news: you can listen to the latest summer jams faster than ever. In a mirror of an update to the web player from several months back, the streaming service revamped search results field in its Android and iOS apps, centering around “play” buttons for every result it finds. So long as you find what you’re looking for, you can start playback the moment you’ve finished typing instead of visiting a dedicated search results page. Just be aware that it starts a radio station when you hit that button for a song — you may not enjoy this feature so much if you only wanted to listen to one cut.

The results themselves are also cleaner. Before, Play Music would just show a list of plain autocomplete results. Now, it highlights up to three immediately playable results from the catalog (such as albums, artists or songs) and includes a handful of autocomplete results below. This could be a pain if you’re looking for music that rarely turns up in as-you-type search results, but it’ll be much more helpful in the majority of situations when you know what you want.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: Google Play, App Store

Here’s a sneak peek at Nokia’s first high-end Android phone

Finnish startup HMD Global resurrected the Nokia name with a new line of Android smartphones unveiled back in February. Undaunted by lack of carrier deals, they’ve kept releasing more throughout the year, including the Nokia 6 back in June. But a few leaks have revealed images of and specs for the next smartphone in the series, the powered-up Nokia 8, which looks to be HMD’s first stab at a higher-end smartphone. And yes, it will reportedly come with Zeiss optics.

This is the Nokia 8 https://t.co/YUUbFOgbBX pic.twitter.com/xrHBRx4H8I

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 17, 2017

The Nokia 8 first appeared by accident when a company photographer erroneously uploaded a short video containing it and another as-yet unannounced smartphone (possibly the Nokia 9). HMD model number TA-1012 was recently uploaded to the FCC database, making it a likely contender for the Nokia 8 — and giving us a look at its benchmarks. Allegedly, the phone will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor and sport dual rear-facing cameras.

Scandinavian site WinFuture referred to a different model, TA-1004, as the Nokia 8 with a bit lower performance than the TA-1012. Sources told them the phone would retail for just under 600 euros. We’ll find out which is the right model when HMD announces the phone, which is rumored to be on July 31st.

Source: VentureBeat

Twitter porn bots drew in over 30 million clicks

For the past few months ZeroFOX, a social media-focused digital security company, has been looking into a massive pornogrophy botnet targeting Twitter. Dubbed SIREN, after the mythical Greek creatures said to lure sailors to their deaths with song, the botnet campaign reportedly included around 90,000 accounts that produced over 8.5 million tweets.

Each of the associated accounts had a pretty typical set up. Their profiles featured a photo of a woman and a female display name and tweets from these accounts nearly always included a sexually explicit phrase, followed by an exclamation point and an additional phrase meant to get targets to click the shortened URL at the end of the tweet. Once a user clicked on the link, they would be taken through a series of redirects before finally landing on a website that encouraged them to sign up for subscription pornography, webcam sites or fake dating webpages. SIREN accounts were able to attract over 30 million clicks.

ZeroFOX suggests that those behind the SIREN accounts were likely located in Eastern Europe due to many of the accounts’ user languages being set to Russian and a chunk of the display names containing cyrillic letters. It also noted that the tweets’ phrasing was often written in poor English. Some examples include “I want to fondle me?” and “Boys like you, my figure?” which sound a lot like the silly pickup lines produced by neural networks, but dirtier.

Last week, ZeroFOX reportedly submitted all of the SIREN Twitter profiles and URLs to Twitter, which then removed the accounts from the site and blacklisted the URL domains. “To our knowledge, the botnet is one of the largest malicious campaigns ever recorded on a social network,” ZeroFOX said in a blog post. Twitter hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment.

[Image: ZeroFOX]

Source: ZeroFOX

Netflix blows past 100 million subscribers

A year after subscriber growth slowed due to price hikes, Netflix says (PDF) it added more US customers in the last quarter than it has since 2011. The company is now up to 103.95 million subscribers worldwide, up 5.2 million from last count. The company also unveiled a new strategy (PDF) for explaining its spending on content, that’s presumably more appropriate for its abundance of award-nominated shows. In the letter to investors, execs also discussed recent series cancellations, saying “As much as we dislike ending a series early, it consoles us that it frees up investment for another new show, or two.”

Developing…

Source: Netflix Q2 2017 Investor Letter (PDF)

DC security robot says everything is fine, throws itself into pool

Don’t read too much into this, but a security robot face-planted into an indoor fountain inside of a Washington, DC office building today. It’s a coincidence, we’re sure, but maybe this robot just knows what everyone else in DC does. Robots tasked with securing even small areas of our capital can sense what a joke it’s become.

Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself.

We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots. pic.twitter.com/rGLTAWZMjn

— Bilal Farooqui (@bilalfarooqui) July 17, 2017

You can catch even more robots falling down here.