Oh! Gizmo

By Chris Scott Barr

It looks like AT&T has hopped on the eco-friendly bandwagon. They have announced a new mobile phone charger dubbed the Zero Charger, which is supposed to be the greenest of its kind. It’s common knowledge that many devices will still draw power, even after their battery has been fully charged. This USB charger is supposed to cut off the flow of energy as soon as your device is juiced up.

To take things a step further, AT&T is delivering the device in a recycled-cardboard container. They’re really hoping that environmentalists won’t have anything to complain about with this one. The only question left is whether it’s as friendly to your wallet as it is to the Earth. We should find out when it hits stores in May.

[ AT&T ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By David Ponce

If you’re AT&T, chances are you’re like a bunch of other AT&T customers: unhappy. But instead of doing nothing about it, some people are organizing a grassroots uprising called “Operation Chokehold”. Maily spearheaded by Newsweek reporter Dan Lyons of Fake Steve Jobs fame, the so-called operation is a digital revolt of sorts that aims to overwhelm AT&T’s network with simultaneous data usage. Writes Fake Steve:

On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!

As Mashable points out, we’re not too sure this will accomplish anything nor whether enough people will participate to make a difference. We’re also wondering just how douchey this could be for other AT&T users who’re just peachy with their service. But there you have it.

What will you do?

[ Operation Chokehold ] VIA [ Mashable ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Lately Verizon has gotten pretty bold with their ads, specifically targeting AT&T’s poor coverage. Of course AT&T didn’t take to kindly to their name being tarnished, and threw quite the fit over it. Now that a little time has passed, they’ve composed themselves and decided to take a new course of action. Rather than complain about Verizon picking on them, they’re trying to actually fix the core issue.

iPhone users can now download the free ‘AT&T Mark the Spot’ app, which will let you report to the phone giant whenever you have connection issues. AT&T will then take the information and use it to determine what parts of their network are in need of an upgrade.

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By Chris Scott Barr

Way back in January we told you that AT&T was rolling out a 3G femtocell for their customers. Of course it’s now September and we’ve hardly heard another word about it. I’ve been anxiously awaiting its release, as I get almost no signal in my house. I’d like to ditch my home phone, but with the unreliable service, I can’t justify it. Thankfully, it seems as though the mobile giant is finally rolling out these devices.

AT&T’s new 3G Micrcell is officially available to the general public, but only in Charlotte, NC. For those in the area, they can purchase the device for $150. There is no monthly fee, however, you will still use your minutes while making calls if you don’t already have landline or DSL service with AT&T. If you have neither and want unlimited calls, you can pay $20 a month (and get a $100 rebate on the hardware).

I’d like to say something about why you shouldn’t need one of these, but in all honesty, there are some places where it’s just not possible to get signal. I live in a rather large town, and I have full 3G signal everywhere except in the small valley where I live. Short of putting in a new tower in the valley itself (which wouldn’t affect enough people to justify the cost) I’ll never get better reception. I’d be ecstatic to get one of these and drop my monthly home phone bill. If you’re listening AT&T, lets go ahead and start rolling these out in Indiana ASAP.

[ AT&T ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I love my iPhone, and some days it feels like it can really do just about anything. That is, until I get a cool little text message from AT&T telling me that someone has sent me a picture message. I then have to open up Safari, copy and paste a code and password (it was barely even possible to do without a desktop in the days before the 3.0 firmware). All of this so I can see a picture of someone laughing, along with a message saying “lets see your fancy iPhone open this!” True story, someone with a crappy little free camera phone sent it to me. They just love the fact that their phone can do something my fancy-pants iPhone can’t. Well all of that is about to change.

Finally, AT&T has announced that the iPhone 3G and 3GS will be getting MMS on September 25th. A bit late from their projected “late summer” release of the feature I think, but I’ll still gladly take it just the same. So, who wants to take bets that AT&T has massive network outages on the 25th?

[ AT&T ] VIA [ MobileCrunch ]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you happen to have an iPhone, or a Blackberry on AT&T’’s network, then you get free WiFi at any AT&T hotspot. That can be rather convenient at times, as WiFi is generally faster than the 3G speeds you would get otherwise. Of course if you’re using any other smartphone, the wireless giant still asks you to pay extra if you want to use one of their hotspots. Thankfully, they seem to have come around.

As of September 14th, all users with a Windows Mobile smartphone (and an accompanying data plan) will be able to get in on the free wireless access. It’s only taken them how long to wake up and offer this?

[ AT&T ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Good news for future AT&T customers. It seems that the wireless carrier is looking out for your best interests, and are going to make sure that your wireless bill is always constant. Rather that have you buy a smartphone without a data plan and charge you for only what you use, they’re going to go ahead and make you buy that data plan. See, now your bill is constant every month.

Yes, every word was dripping with sarcasm. Personally, I wouldn’t buy a smartphone without a data plan, but I’m always using the internet on my phone. Plenty of other people prefer not to pay a good $30 a month for data they may not even want to use. It looks like this will be going into effect on September 6th. The only ways to avoid get stuck with a data plan are to already have a smartphone prior to the 6th (you’ll get grandfathered in), or by buying an unlocked phone.

VIA [ BoyGenius ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Remember yesterday when I told you that the SlingPlayer app was hitting the App Store? That was all good and well, but quite a few people have been upset to hear that there won’t be any streaming over 3G. AT&T stated that such streaming would cripple their infrastructure and cause major issues for customers, however, that’s not the whole truth.

Many people just like me were skeptical of AT&T’s answer, mostly because there are plenty of other ways to stream video to your iPhone. What makes the SlingPlayer so different? Apparently the issue is that AT&T has been hard at work on their own app that essentially provides the same functions, only using their own U-Verse recorder at home instead of a SlingBox.

So the real issue here is that AT&T is worried that they are going to lose money selling their own application. Since SlingBoxes are already somewhat common among the techie crowd, the only way they can compete is to cripple the competition. You could always build a better application that offered more features, but preventing the competition’s software from accessing your 3G network is probably the easier route.

VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By Shane McGlaun

I hate paying full price for stuff, but I am not a big fan of contracts either. When it comes to buying new phones we are all used to paying a subsidized price and being shackled to a 2-year contract or having to pay back some of the supposed cost of your phone.

Subsidized phones are common, but subsidized notebooks and netbooks are still not particularly common in the US. RadioShack was the first to offer a subsidized netbook in America that was dependent on signing a 2-year contract with AT&T for mobile broadband costing at least $60 per month.

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