By: Juan January 31st, 2012
Since the iPhone 4 and 4S became available on Sprint back in October of last year, there has been no official app for Sprint users to monitor their usage, while AT&T and Verizon users have apps for this purpose. That is, until now.
Sprint Mobile Zone will allow users to manage their online accounts, access special promotions and other Sprint news, and more. However, the account access seems to be just a web portal; still, it’s better than nothing.
In addition to providing customers with account access, the Mobile Zone app features “Device Info,” which both Sprint customers and non-customers can use. This part of the app will reveal battery statistics, data connection information, and other available resources. If you ever need to know the location of an Apple or Sprint store, there is a locator feature in the app, as well as links to Sprint support and Apple Care.
By: Juan January 31st, 2012
The retailer forecast fourth-quarter earnings of just 11 cents to 13 cents a share. Wall Street had expected 37 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
RadioShack said weakness in the Sprint business more than offset sales growth from its partnership with Verizon Wireless (VZ.N), rising revenues from AT&T Inc (T.N) and higher sales of tablets and e-readers.
“We are disappointed that these positives were overshadowed by significant declines in our Sprint business,” said President and Chief Executive Jim Gooch.
RadioShack shares dived 18.4 percent to $8.35 in after-hours trading from a close of $10.23 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Radioshack’s problems with Sprint come less than a year after the retailer severed ties with Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile in favor of No. 1 U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless, citing the underperformance of that partnership.
For its part, Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) is coping with ballooning costs after taking on Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone 4S and trying to stem customer defections.
Anthony Chukumba, an analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, said it appears Sprint is getting stricter about the credit scores people need to apply for its wireless plans.
The other major issue plaguing the retailer is its growing reliance on revenue from wireless.
“Wireless is a double-edged sword,” Chukumba said, underscoring that margins in the wireless business are lower than RadioShack’s core business, particularly with the iPhone.
By: Juan January 30th, 2012
For as long as there has been advertising on the Internet there has been a fuzzy line dividing subterfuge and acceptable tricks to attract clicks. The problem of distinguishing between the legitimate and illegitimate now appears to have extended to smartphone apps as well. Symantec, the world’s largest maker of computer security software, announced that it had discovered 13 apps containing a Trojan horse it called “Android.Counterclank” that could steal information from users. A number of the infected apps, it said, were available on the Android Market. The threat was described by a number of sources including eWeek:
Symantec counts anywhere from 1 million to 5 million combined downloads of the malware, spanning 13 different application titles. Android.Counterclank is a variant of the Android.Tonclank Trojan horse. Like Tonclank, Counterclank steals information and may open a back door on Android smartphones and tablets for perpetrators to conduct other malicious actions. However, Counterclank may also be exploited to download more files and display advertisements on mobile devices. Counterclank latches on to the main application in a package known as the “apperhand.” When that package is run, a service with the same name may be seen running on a compromised device.
By: Juan January 27th, 2012
If you were planning to get either the HTC EVO View 4G or RIM’s Blackberry Playbook tablet from Sprint, you might want to hurry as a purported leaked internal document has shown that both devices have been put up on the chopping block and have been marked with an EOL (End of Life) status. For those unfamiliar, this means that both devices will be gradually phased out in favor of newer devices, possibly their successors?
Shipments of the HTC EVO View 4G And the Blackberry Playbook are expected to start winding down and eventually no longer be available on Sprint, which means that replacements for your device may no longer be available, which could mean that there is a chance you could have your device replaced with an upgrade, but we guess that’s really up to the discretion of Sprint. However if both devices are still on your shopping list, you might still be able to find them in stores although that would mean you’ll be buying them for its RRP, as opposed to being subsidized on contract.
By: Juan January 27th, 2012
According to a leak obtained by SprintFeed, we can expect to see the ZTE Optik arrive in early February with a $100 price tag. You’ll still have to sign a two-year agreement with a minimum rate plan, but things could be worse.
Hardware for the 7-inch ZTE tablet is impressive for the money and includes a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 16GB storage, and 1GB RAM. Running Android 3.2 Honeycomb, its additional specifications include a 5-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, microSD expansion, and 4000mAh battery.
For connectivity, the Optik offers 3G support as opposed to Sprint’s WiMAX or 4G LTE network. I suspect this won’t matter all that much to the user-base as most tablet owners I speak with tend to prefer Wi-Fi anyhow.
Assuming the leak is true, we can look forward to seeing the ZTE Optik arrive online February 5. Sprint’s retail stores are expected to offer the budget-friendly tablet one month later, on March 11.
By: Juan January 26th, 2012
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227022
This is a great article shared by one of our members. Check it out, let us know what you think!
By: Juan January 25th, 2012
Clearwire exceeded 10 million subscribers in the fourth quarter but still needs to raise more money to build its planned LTE network, a task that could be funded in part by an upcoming $300 million stock offering.
The U.S. WiMax operator, which powers Sprint Nextel’s 4G services, released selected preliminary fourth-quarter results on Tuesday before posting final results in the coming weeks. Wholesale and retail customers reached 10.4 million, most of those from wholesale partners, primarily Sprint.
While Clearwire estimated it had a net gain of 900,000 wholesale customers in the quarter, an 11 percent gain from the third quarter, it said aggregate WiMax network use by wholesale subscribers grew at twice that rate. Heavier data use on smartphones led the trend, with customers using 30 percent more data compared with the previous quarter. In the full year 2011, total data use by wholesale and retail customers grew 165 percent.
Sprint is the only major national carrier still offering unlimited monthly data use on smartphones, without throttling. But like other operators, Sprint continues to look for more capacity to meet continuing rapid growth in demand. It will continue to sell WiMax devices with two-year contracts at least until the end of this year and expects to use Clearwire’s WiMax network at least for the next few years. But both Sprint and Clearwire also plan to build LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks to further expand their capacity and be able to tap into a large expected market for LTE phones, tablets and other devices.
By: Juan January 24th, 2012
Sprint recently made an announcement that it will release the new OTA updates for the software of HTC EVO 4G, Samsung Epic 4Gand HTC EVO Design 4G. However, none of the updates will include the popular ICS or Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Instead, the recent updates will bring about small changes in the three phones and their security patches and battery life.
It is good to see the efforts of HTC, Sprint and Samsung to put new updates on their three phones. Yet, a lot of people are still wondering if the devices will ever be update to Android 4.0. It may be safer tp assume that the EVO 4G will soon end its stint on Gingerbread but there is no reason for the two HTC devices to not have an update to Android 4.0 in the upcoming months.
By: Juan January 24th, 2012
CEO Dan Hesse has been named the first recipient of the L.Joseph Thomas Leadership Award, the highest honor the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University bestows on its most accomplished alumni leaders. Hesse, a 1977 graduate of Johnson, accepted the award Thursday evening at the annual Alumni Awards Recognition dinner in New York City.
Dan was selected because of his exceptional demonstration of vision and leadership, sound business sense, and commitment to community. These qualities make him a role model for future generations of leaders in both business and other professional pursuits.
The L. Joseph Thomas Leadership award was established in honor of its namesake, who is stepping down after a five-year term as dean. “I am privileged to name Dan Hesse, MBA ‘77, as the recipient of this award in its inaugural year,” said Thomas, the Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean of Johnson at Cornell University. “Dan was selected because of his exceptional demonstration of vision and leadership, sound business sense, and commitment to community. These qualities make him a role model for future generations of leaders in both business and other professional pursuits.”
By: Juan January 23rd, 2012
The future is looking less than rosy for Apple’s iOS mobile platform, if new research reports by analyst houses Ovum and IHS iSuppli are to be believed.
Ovum’s second annual developer survey, released today, states that Android could replace iOS in terms of importance to developers within the next 12 months, and that momentum is growing behind BlackBerry OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.
According to Adam Leach, devices and platforms practice leader at Ovum and author of the research, some developers are starting to focus their efforts on web-based standards such as HTML5, which can be used to build cross-platform applications. However most developers are still using vendor-specific distribution channels, such as the Android Market, to deploy applications.
