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I tend to rag on Sprint a ton, and I think in a way it’s justified. They were long the stale bread of the mobile world, and lately have started to grow mold. Their customer service is reprehensible, and their service isn’t nearly as strong as their two largest competitors, AT&T and Verizon. Even after they hired a new CEO, Dan Hesse, they still didn’t see much improvement. In fact, their stock is down upon news of staff cuts and customer losses, the loss of executives, and a class action suit.
Read the rest of Sprint CEO: “If we can’t be different, we can’t win”…

Early termination fees have been an overreaching issue in the wireless industry over the past six months to a year.This is best exemplified by a class action suit against Verizon. Well, it turns out Consumers Union decided to call 12 AT&T reps to get some answers regarding these fees. It’s an exercise I’ve tried before, but less with the intention to bait a rep into a false answer. In any regard, they found that two-thirds of the reps (eight, for those of you with out a calculator handy) got the information wrong.
Read the rest of Know your rights with early termination fees…

If the AT&T service in your area doesn’t include 3G service, well, it might soon. AT&T is going to lengths this year to bring the high-speed wireless data service to more and more cities. Right now, they’re looking at 80 over the course of the year, which is (obviously) more than one per week. This will bring AT&T’s total 3G coverage to around 350 major U.S. cities. This will not only bring a higher level of service to a greater coverage area, but will lay the groundwork for their 4G network, which will utilize LTE technology.
Read the rest of AT&T has big 3G plans in 2008…

Over at Gizmodo, they’re sampling the initial Android prototypes. For those of you unfamiliar, this is a platform being created by the Open Handset Alliance. It’s supposed to be revolutionary, but it doesn’t exactly look that way right now. Anyway, give the site a visit and check out what’s up. There’s a video of a device running Android (looks a bit like the Mac OSX doc at the bottom), and a picture of Qualcomm’s test model.

Gold album. Platinum album. Double-platinum album. Mobile album. Yeah, that last one doesn’t seem to fit in really well. But it might just be the direction we’re headed — or one of them. Verizon Wireless has announced a deal with producer Timbaland to create the world’s first “mobile album.” Of course, there could be an older mobile album that none of us know about — but I know that if there is, someone will email me with it and call me an idiot. Anyway, it will be available exclusively through V Cast, and will be dropping throughout 2008.
Read the rest of Verizon working with Timbaland to make music…

If you have purchased a cellphone in the last year or two, there is a strong possibility that you are able to load custom wallpapers onto your device. A quick search on Google will show you that there are approximately a quarter million indexed pages that are willing to provide you with new exciting graphics for your phone.

Some of the available resources offer free wallpapers which you can download either to your desktop or directly to your phone (data charges will apply), while others require a one time or ongoing financial commitment. The paid resources tend to have higher quality graphics available and in larger quantities. Although finding free high quality wallpapers for your phone is tough, there are some out there.

There is another option available for individuals who are the slightest bit confident using a computer and some free software to modify graphics files. These people have unlimited resources for finding and changing any image they desire into a one of a kind wallpaper for their cell phone. Even if you feel you do not have the requisite skills to create your own wallpapers, please do give this tutorial a shot. I think you may surprise yourself!
Read the rest of Guide to creating a custom cell phone wallpaper…

Oh Sprint. It just seems you can’t do anything right nowadays. It’s even gotten to the point where listing your inadequacies seems like a low blow. But now you’re entangled in a lawsuit, and if the allegations are true, I can’t really feel bad for them. Apparently, they’re being dragged into court because they defrauded their wireless customers. Well, every carrier does that, so what makes Sprint so special? All kidding aside, the case stems from them extending customers’ contracts without their permission.
Read the rest of Sprint entangled in class action suits…

So it’s time to get intimate with your lover. You’ve got your room lined with candles, and you’re kissing your partner ever so passionately. It’s almost time to get down to business when the matter of contraception becomes imminent. “No worries, honey,” says the male. “I’ve been talking on my phone for three hours a day, every day this week.” Delighted, his partner leaps into his arms, and they — well, we don’t want to get into too many details. The c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n could be reading. But in any regard, a new study has “shown” that a high level of mobile phone usage can lead to lower fertility rates in males.
Read the rest of Mobile phones: The new contraceptive…

Can you hear me now? No? How about now? Still no? That about sums up what people think about cell phone call quality. A recent study shows that about 40 percent of calls don’t meet industry standards for quality. Ouch. But honestly, did you think that it would be otherwise? Yeah, this isn’t 2000, when there were probably seven or eight dead zones in your town. But I’m still amazed at the number of calls that drop or fade out while people just move about their houses.
Read the rest of Alert the press: Cell phone call quality poor…

The device hadn’t been out for six months by the end of 2007, but Apple’s iPhone has moved into the No. 2 spot in the U.S. smartphone landscape. Of course, that’s by platform, really. From what I’m reading, it seems like the iPhone could be the single most used smartphone in the U.S. However, the competition here is Research In Motion, which offers a number of BlackBerry smartphones, and Windows Mobile phones, which covers a whole slew of devices. The iPhone covers 28 percent of the smartphone market, ahead of Windows Mobile at 21 percent, but behind RIM at 41 percent.
Read the rest of iPhone making impact on smartphone market…