iPhone 7 trade-in programs require two-year contracts
If you’re looking to get your hands on an iPhone 7 in the coming weeks but wasn’t fast enough to secure one when preorders open, there’s still hope. All four major phone carriers have implemented their own iPhone 7 promotions, but despite their seemingly generous offers, there are quite a few caveats that might keep you from cashing in.
All the carriers (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T) are offering special trade-in programs that read nearly exactly the same in print, with differing names the only real thing that separates them. The deal is such that if you trade in your qualifying iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus, you’ll receive credit across 24 months toward your purchase of an iPhone 7.
There aren’t too many stipulations when it comes to the device you can trade in, except for the fact that it must be in “good working and cosmetic condition,” and you’ll only receive a credit of $650 toward the phone of your choice.
It may take a few cycles for the credit to show up, which is normal, but the iffy part is this: You have to keep your line active for a full two years.
While companies like Verizon touted the abolition of contracts, they still seem to be in vogue, just under a different name, “savings” in this situation. The deal may technically make your new iPhone 7 free, but you’re paying with it with your time as a customer at the carrier of your choice.
It doesn’t render the promotion useless by any means, but it does demonstrate the fact that carriers are still pushing many of the same ideas they were when they were still running with contracts. They’re just framing it differently. It’s still a good deal if you want to trade in your existing phone and have no qualms with staying with your current provider, but make no bones about it: it’s still a contract, even if it’s not in name.
Via: 9to5Mac
iPhone 7 Models From AT&T and T-Mobile Do Not Support CDMA Networks
Choosing which iPhone model to purchase this year should be more carefully considered, as both AT&T and T-Mobile models of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus do not support CDMA networks such as Verizon and Sprint in the United States. Apple confirmed the matter in fine print in the iPhone 7 tech specs and on its LTE page.
A customer that purchases an iPhone 7 from Apple’s website and selects AT&T as their carrier, for example, would be unable to later use the smartphone on Verizon, Sprint, or any other CDMA network, even if the device is unlocked. By comparison, all iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models worked on both GSM and CDMA networks.
A customer that purchases an iPhone 7 from Apple’s website and selects Verizon as their carrier, on the other hand, would also be able to use the smartphone on AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, or any other GSM or CDMA network. This essentially means iPhone 7 models from Verizon or Sprint are closer to being a true “world-phone.”
It was previously reported that Apple would switch to Intel modems for select iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models, including AT&T models, and Intel modems do not support the CDMA standard in the United States. That is likely the reason why AT&T and T-Mobile models are limited to GSM networks.
Only Verizon and Sprint models support both GSM and CDMA networks
The same report said Qualcomm would supply modems for the remaining iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus units, including Verizon and Chinese models, and this appears to be the case. Qualcomm modems support both the GSM and CDMA standard, which explains why the iPhone 7 from Verizon and Sprint will work on all carriers.
Qualcomm, which holds patents for WCDMA and CDMA2000 standards, is the main CDMA modem supplier in the United States. The company developed the first CDMA-based cellular base station in 1990, and since then it has licensed its technology to companies like Apple in return for royalty payments.
Until this year, Qualcomm was Apple’s exclusive supplier of modems for LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity, which explains why the iPhone 6s and previous generations supported both GSM and CDMA networks regardless of carrier. But with Intel entering the mix, choosing which iPhone to purchase is now more meaningful.
All iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models supported both GSM and CDMA networks
The lack of CDMA support in iPhones with Intel modems may be short lived, fortunately, as Intel acquired CDMA assets from VIA Telecom in 2015. It is believed that this acquisition could pave the way for Intel to release its first LTE modem with both GSM and CDMA support as early as 2017 or 2018.
Ultimately, the most obvious choice should be to purchase a Verizon or Sprint model, even if you are an AT&T or T-Mobile customer, especially when considering resale value. However, some customers may have difficulty purchasing from another carrier, depending on their current status with their existing carrier.
Apple should also release an unlocked SIM-free model in the U.S., likely based on the Verizon/Sprint model, in a few weeks based on past launches.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tags: Intel, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Qualcomm
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DirecTV now streams many more channels on your phone
AT&T is pushing hard to get you streaming DirecTV on your smartphone. An update to the DirecTV iOS and Android apps mean you can now stream many more of the TV channels you can get at home. In The Verge’s testing, the only big exceptions were most local channels and a handful of sports channels like the NFL Network. Oh, and you now have an easy way to watch recorded shows — you can either download them to watch offline or stream them directly from your DVR.
The move isn’t completely surprising. DirecTV is gearing up to launch dedicated streaming services that won’t require a satellite subscription, and a large chunk of the provider’s existing selection will be available on mobile. It only makes sense to offer a similar mix to customers who do subscribe to satellite TV.
The update doesn’t come without some concerns. AT&T is also promising that DirecTV mobile streaming won’t count toward your data cap if you’re one of its wireless subscribers. While that’s good news if you like catching up on TV during your commute it’s also bound to raise eyebrows among net neutrality advocates. They’re concerned that exemptions like this may violate net neutrality by effectively punishing customers who prefer competing services.
AT&T tells us that it’s “not treating our services differently” than other data and is merely “saying thanks to customers” who use both services (you can read its full statement below). Other companies can do the same through the Sponsored Data program, the carrier says. However, there’s no denying it — this still means that you’ll have to limit your viewing for the majority of services that don’t participate in the program, like Hulu or Netflix, and won’t face that restriction with DirecTV.
“We are not treating our services differently from any other data. This feature is simply our way of saying thanks to customers that purchase both video and mobility services from AT&T. Other content providers can do the same thing through our sponsored data program.”
Via: The Verge (1), (2)
Source: App Store, AT&T
AT&T uses loophole to deny low-income internet discounts
AT&T is using a technicality to refuse its FCC-mandated “Access From AT&T” discount program to families who should qualify for it, according to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). In an absurd twist, the loophole is that its broadband speeds in the affected areas are too slow.
As a condition for AT&T’s merger with DirecTV, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that it offer $5 or $10 internet service to people on the SNAP low-income assistance program. If internet speeds were between 3-5 Mbps, folks would pay $5 per month, or $10 per month for speeds between 5-10 Mbps. So, if speeds are lower than 3 Mbps, do folks then pay $5 per month or less?
Not according to AT&T. When the NDIA asked the company to apply the program to neighborhoods with speeds of 1.5 Mbps, it refused. “AT&T is not prepared to expand the low income offer to additional speed tiers beyond those established as a condition of the merger approval,” the company replied in a statement. As a result, poor families that should qualify for the $5 program must pay $30 per month (and more after 12 months) for a service well below the definition of “broadband.”
The FCC’s order states that “where AT&T has deployed broadband service at top speeds below 5 Mbps, the company shall offer wireline broadband internet … at speeds of at least 3 Mbps, where technically available, to qualifying households in the company’s wireline footprint for no more than $5 per month.” In effect, AT&T is saying that the “where technically available” clause exempts it from providing the low-income program in areas where, ironically, it has failed to upgrade its service.
AT&T told the Daily Dot that “the vast majority of the locations where we offer internet service are able to subscribe to internet speed tiers at 3Mbps or higher.” It added that the 3 Mbps cutoff was “determined by the FCC.” However, the NDIA points out that 21 percent of subscribers in Detroit and Cleveland (above), mostly in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods, have 1.5 Mbps or lower speeds.
AT&T’s response is very unfortunate for tens of thousands of households in the company’s 21-state service territory who may need affordable internet access the most, but who happen to live in places … where AT&T has failed to upgrade its residential service to provide reasonable speeds.
The FCC declared last year that the internet is an essential utility for consumers, not an optional luxury, a decision backed by a US district court. The ruling gives it much broader latitude to regulate internet prices and other aspects of service. Utilities like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon disagree, however, saying the order hurts competition and infrastructure development, and that they’ll battle it all the way to the Supreme Court. (Engadget has reached out to the FCC and AT&T for comment.)
While AT&T may be within its rights to do no more than the FCC requires, the NDIA was disappointed by the decision. “AT&T’s response is very unfortunate for tens of thousands of households in the company’s 21-state service territory who may need affordable internet access the most, but who happen to live in places –- both city neighborhoods and rural communities –- where AT&T has failed to upgrade its residential service to provide reasonable speeds,” it said in a blog post.
Via: Daily Dot
Source: NDIA
AT&T tests drones on its LTE network to prepare for deliveries
If you want drones to deliver packages and food to your doorstep in the future, they’ll need to break free of the limitations of WiFi. That’s one major reason why AT&T is gearing up to test drones on its LTE 4G network, which are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight platform. As you can imagine, it’ll involve figuring out how to ensure drones stay connected to AT&T’s network, even when they’re beyond operators’ line of sight. On top of deliveries, the carrier says its testing could also let drones tackle things like inspections, rescues and exploration.
“Not only do we aim to analyze wide-scalable LTE optimization for safe, legal commercial SUAS use cases with beyond line-of-sight connectivity, but the results can help inform positive developments in drone regulations and 5G specifications as they pertain to wide-scale deployment of numerous drone use cases,” said Qualcomm CTO Matt Grob in a statement.
AT&T will kick off the drone tests this month at Qualcomm’s San Diego headquarters, which houses an FAA-approved drone Flight Center. That’ll allow it to see how the drones work in a variety of environments, including residential, commercial, barren and FAA-controlled spaces.
Source: PR Newswire
Samsung explains how the US Galaxy Note 7 recall will work
It’s been less than 24 hours since Samsung announced its worldwide recall of the Galaxy Note 7, and owners are probably wondering exactly what’s next. The major US carriers have already provided information on what they will do for customers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon), and now Samsung is laying out its plans for direct support. If owners want to exchange for another Galaxy Note 7, they can do that as early as next week. Their other option is to exchange the device for a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge, plus replacement of any Note accessories and a refund of the price difference.
For their trouble, Samsung says it’s offering a $25 gift card or bill credit from “select carriers” when swapping for a new device through the replacement program. Owners should contact the retailer where they purchased the device, or call 1-800-SAMSUNG for more information. Continuing its message from earlier this morning, the company says it has identified “the affected inventory” but it’s still voluntarily replacing devices for all interested owners.
It seems like a lot of trouble and not much payback for owners who have already picked up the phone. While sales of Galaxy devices have been a bright spot for the company this year, we’ll have to wait and see how much momentum is lost because of these problems.
Update: And even with these details, the saga might not be over yet. Consumer Reports has specifically called Samsung out for failing to issue an “official” recall that would involve the US Consumer Products Safety Commission. That would require clearer information about what’s wrong and what owners will do next, but so far Samsung hasn’t done it. According to Recode, officials have “concern” about the process, but have not officially commented on the recall.
Source: Samsung
Court tosses federal lawsuit over AT&T’s data throttling
The FCC may be having some success hauling AT&T out on the carpet for throttling unlimited data plans without clear warnings to customers, but the FTC isn’t so lucky. A Ninth Circuit appeals court has tossed out the FTC’s lawsuit against AT&T over allegedly failing to properly disclose slowdowns to customers. While a district court had ruled that the supposed violations didn’t occur when AT&T’s service was covered by common carrier exemptions from rules on deceptive and unfair practices, the Ninth Circuit sees things differently. It believes that AT&T’s exemption is based on its inherent status as a common carrier, not its activities, and thus that exemptions let the provider say as little as it did about throttling.
AT&T tells us that it’s “pleased” with the dismissal, to no one’s surprise, while the FTC tells Consumerist that it’s “disappointed.” Not that the network is completely off the hook, mind you. The FTC is “considering” its options and may well try to appeal this decision. And again, there’s that FCC case — the Commission could still punish AT&T with up to a $100 million fine if successful. The problem is that the FCC can’t obtain refunds for customers like the FTC can, so you may never get compensation if you were frustrated by throttling you hadn’t anticipated.
Source: Consumerist
AT&T signs up HBO for its DirecTV Now streaming service
Back in March AT&T announced plans for a trio of DirecTV-branded streaming services it will launch later this year, and now it’s stocking the cupboard with content. Disney recently announced that its channels (including ESPN and ABC) would be a part of the subscription packages, and tonight AT&T announced it will offer HBO & Cinemax as well. The deal is part of a renewal of HBO’s agreement for the DirecTV and U-verse services, which AT&T is calling historic because it is an “all-platform” deal covering both traditional and streaming options.
There’s still no word on exactly how much DirecTV Now or DirecTV Mobile will cost (the third element, DirecTV Preview will be a free, ad-supported product) but knowing it will have popular channels is important. Competitors like Sling TV and PlayStation Vue have filled out their offerings over the last year or so, and one way or another AT&T will need to have something for people to watch if they’re going to pay.
The press release notes HBO & Cinemax will also be a part of AT&T’s mobile video offerings, while things should stay the same for DirecTV and U-verse customers. We’ll let you know more about DirecTV Now whenever we hear about it, but all we know is that it’s still on track to launch by the end of this year.
Source: AT&T (PRNewswire)
Galaxy S7 Active Review: #1 in almost every category
Exclusive phones suck. Period. More people need access to a phone like the Galaxy S7 Active, which is currently locked down to just AT&T users like myself. After using the Galaxy S7 Active for a couple weeks, one thing has become clear to me. This phone is the best Android phone… wait, the best phone in general in four out of the five categories I am judging it on.
Build
This phone isn’t aiming to be in the hands of today’s designers or fashion experts, so don’t expect this device to blow you away with how good it looks. Grab a Galaxy S7 Edge if you’re going for a stunner. What Samsung sought out to do with this phone is build a tank of a device that will withstand anything. And they succeeded.
I’ve left this phone in the sink with the water running over it while I fixed myself a drink, I’ve dropped it out my car window going about 25 mph, and I even got bored and buried the thing under half a foot of dirt and left it there for a little while. All of these actions left the phone unscathed and ready for more.
The downside is this is a pretty ugly phone to say the least. The phone is made of rugged plastic that makes no attempt to match the sleek style of the regular Galaxy S7. The navigation buttons stick out too much, and remind me of a messaging phone before smartphones got popular. This phone was built for the outdoors, not for getting compliments.
I can’t tell you the extent of how the glass will hold up after so many drops (however there are videos out there showing some amazing results), but after dropping it out of a moving car window onto pavement with not even a scratch on the glass… I think you’ll come to trust this phone’s durability. Major props to Samsung for creating a phone like this, it easily competes with Motorola’s Droid Turbo 2 and the Moto Z Force.
Display
There’s not much to be said here that hasn’t already been said by Nick Schiwy in his Galaxy S7 review. Samsung continues to make the best smartphone displays in the world, and the S7 Active is no exception. We’re seeing the same panel put on the regular Galaxy S7, which is a 1440×2560 Super-AMOLED display, with an added layer of glass for durability. This added layer does make the regular S7 slightly more attractive, as the Active has slightly worse viewing angles when you tilt the phone to its side. The screen still amazes me with how bright it gets outside and how impressive games and movies look on it, as the AMOLED panel on this trumps all other AMOLED screens on the market because of Samsung providing its latest screen technology exclusively to its own premium phones.
Camera
The S7 Active shares the same incredible camera that the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have, which have been continuously praised as the best smartphone cameras in the world. I used this phone around the same time I was testing the OnePlus 3 and Moto Z Force, and neither of these two truly compare with the S7 Active’s camera.
I don’t really like taking videos on smartphones because the stabilization generally looks bad, but the S7 phones are on a whole new level. While taking 1080p 60 FPS video, I truly realized why so many people love Samsung cameras. The fluidity of 60 frames per second on top of Samsung’s stabilizing mode (which can be toggled, but I don’t see why you would turn it off) creates a video-recording experience I’ve never used before. This phone creates the perfect opportunity to hike, mountain climb or even swim while taking some of the best photos possible on a phone.
Performance
This is the section where I’ll calm down a bit and not give Samsung every award. With the help of AT&T, the S7 Active comes with apps I’ll never use that I’m unable to uninstall. The phone gave me suggestions on what AT&T services I should use like connecting to DirectTV. I was not a fan…
However, I recommend you check out our guides to installing a new launcher to avoid all of AT&T’s services and bloatware if you prefer. These launchers allow you customize your homescreen and hide apps you never want to see again.
Anyway, only after using the OnePlus 3 did I notice a couple jitters when using the S7 Active, and it just wasn’t the same smoothness I was use to, nor the memory management. This phone comes with 4GB of RAM, but when multitasking it feels identical if not slower to switch between apps than my Idol 4S, which only has 3GB of RAM. This is frustrating because memory management has been a problem for Samsung for a long time. I will say, coming from using the OnePlus 3 to the S7 Active is vastly different from someone upgrading to this phone from a device a year or two old. All-in-all, you’re going to be satisfied with the performance on the S7 Active.
Battery
If you’re on AT&T, and you’re sick of your phone not lasting you half-way through the day, you are going to be dumbstruck with how good battery life is on this phone. To give you an idea, the Galaxy S7 Edge has a 5.5 inch screen with a 3,600 mAh battery. More screen size means more power consumption. The Edge has incredible battery life, giving most users around 5 hours of on screen time. The Galaxy S7 Active has a 5.1 inch screen – with a 4,000 mAh battery. This is a huge battery even for phones with much bigger screens. I’ve been consistently getting around seven hours of screen on time, which is ludicrous for me.
Easily, I’ve been making it into the evening of the second day of usage on a single charge with around 8-12% battery left, with heavy usage (not even you can kill my phone this time, Snapchat). There’s not much else to say here folks. Take this thing camping for a night or two, and you might find yourself not needing an extra battery pack at all.
Conclusion
Like I said in the introduction, whether you’re looking for a phone with the best display, best camera, best durability, or best battery life, The S7 Active covers all those areas in one rugged package. Performance isn’t the best out of all the offerings, but with the Snapdragon 820 chip it’s still extremely close to every other high-end Android phone.
Of course, this phone isn’t for everybody (not that a lot of people have a choice, AT&T…) because it’s not the prettiest phone out there and some people may prefer a bigger screen or less ugly navigation buttons at the bottom of the phone, but if looks aren’t an issues for you, you literally cannot go wrong choosing this phone over any other at the AT&T store.
After Math: All of them
This was an interesting week for understanding core concepts. Here are some examples. Every Eddie Bauer store was hacked, all of Twitter’s users now get quality filters, AT&T entirely eliminated overage charges (but only for some of its plans) and the days of a robot-only Uber fleet just got a little bit closer. Numbers, because how else will you know how much you’ve got?
AIVAnet 