While AT&T still has not officially announced a launch date or pricing for its 4G LTE-capable Nokia Lumia 900 that debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, Internet-retailer Negri Electronics is now accepting pre-orders for a white variant of the Lumia 900. AT&T and Nokia had said at CES that the Lumia 900 will be available either in black or cyan, and it appears that the white GSM version that’s up for pre-order will lack an important feature found on the U.S. locked version to AT&T: 4G LTE network support. As such, the white import will only function on 3G bands.

As 4G LTE offers speeds up to ten times faster than 3G as advertised by both AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the U.S., lacking LTE support may be a deal breaker for some. Additionally, the Lumia 900 is said to be launching with tethering or Internet sharing capabilities out of the box, a feature where faster 4G LTE speeds will be more useful.

Negri is pricing the phone at $650 unlocked.

AT&T is speculated to be launching the 4G LTE Lumia 900 in March with an aggressive price of just $99 with a two-year contract.

The white Lumia 900 was leaked before and in the past it’s been speculated that Nokia will bring the phone to other parts of the world outside the U.S. without 4G LTE support.

The Lumia 900 has a unibody polycarbonate shell with a minimalist and attractive design, a flat Gorilla Glass AMOLED touchscreen with Nokia’s Clear Black Display technology and no PenTile technology that should lead to crisper displays, and a single-core 1.4 GHz processor with a very capable Carl Zeiss optics with a widescreen large sensor camera. The device also supports a wide-angle front-facing camera for self-portraits and video chats.

Via: Electronista

White Nokia Lumia 900 Now Available for Pre-Orders is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.

Sprint is getting the ball rolling as it preps a number of its Android smartphones to be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. After news that the Now Network was working to ready the delectable frozen desert for the Epic 4G Touch, a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone with 4G WiMax support and a large 4.5-inch display, we’re now hearing a potential launch date for the Google Nexus S 4G smartphone, which is made by Samsung.

The Nexus S 4G may be getting an update for Ice Cream Sandwich as early as today, February 16, according to a leaked screenshot of Sprint’s internal system. A leaked version of the Android 4.0 ROM for the Nexus S 4G was found a few weeks ago.

Sprint has thus far not made any announcements for the exact deployment of the Android 4.0 upgrade for either the Epic 4G Touch or the Nexus S 4G.

In addition to rolling out updates for its existing WiMax 4G smartphones, Sprint will also be launching the Galaxy Nexus smartphone for its next-generation 4G LTE network. The phone was announced with Google Wallet support, like on the Nexus S 4G, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. That phone, like the rival version on Verizon Wireless, will come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is the first version of the Android operating system that will merge the Android smartphone OS and the Android tablet OS. Ice Cream Sandwich brings an overhauled experience, refined aesthetics, and some new features like face unlock.

The Nexus S 4G is a second-generation Google phone, and the first that is available on Sprint’s network. In addition to the Nexus S and Nexus S 4G, Google had launched the HTC-made Nexus One and the third-generation version is known as the Galaxy Nexus.

Via: Android Police

Leak Suggests Ice Cream Sandwich Could Begin Rolling Out on Sprint Nexus S 4G Today is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.

It’s hard to preach it though since my 18-year-old daughter is well above the national average.

On one hand, I think my daughter texts too much, but other the other hand she is saving me money when she texts instead of calling her friends. She is staying within her 2GB data plan and she is only using up about 10% of our minutes. If we didn’t have unlimited texting, I would be in trouble.

According to a recent study about teens and cellphones by OnlineSchools, the average teen texts 3,417 times a month. My daughter is at about 2,500 sent and 2,500 received with a week left in the current month. When they say an average teen texts 3,417 times a month, are they talking about sent and received texts together or only outgoing texts?

How much do you and your family text? I am at about 200 a month and my wife 20-30.

Here is an infographic provided by OnlineSchools that pulls data from Q3 2011 from Neilson.

Some notable numbers are that girls are texting more than boys. This is no surprise. Growing up, girls used the phone to chat with their friends way more than guys. Android is the most popular OS among 18-24 year olds with iPhone coming in at #2.

Texting while Driving? PLEASE DON’T.

I was recently rear ended by a college student in town. I was sitting still at a stop light and when I looked into my rear view mirror, I noticed a car coming and it didn’t look like she was slowing down. I saw that the driver was looking down. While I don’t know for sure if she was texting or reading emails, but I have a good feeling that my life was inconvenienced because of a teen texting while driving. AT&T has a really good campaign urging people not to text and drive. Drivers are already bad enough these days, we don’t need another distraction.

Source: OnlineSchools.com via Phone Arena

Are Teens Texting Too Much? I Think So! is a post by Chris Leckness from Gotta Be Mobile.

We had previously reported that grandfathered unlimited data plan subscribers of AT&T Mobility have begun to receive notices that they are excessively using their data plans with as little as 2 GB of data consumption within the month, and now we’re beginning to hear multiple sources report that they are receiving notices with as little as 1.5 GB of data usage in a given month. As AT&T have migrated to a more profitable and less network straining tiered data plan just before the carrier launched the iPhone 4 with Apple, it appears that AT&T is doing everything it can to make the data experience unpleasant for unlimited data subscribers to force them to switch to a tiered data plan by throttling excessive data users.

So what is a customer to do if he doesn’t want to be throttled to dialup-like speeds? I advocate that all grandfathered unlimited data plan owners consume more data and beat AT&T’s game of the prisoner’s dilemma. Sounds crazy? Well, it actually makes sense once you understand’s AT&T’s game theory behind trying to force us into better data conserving habits.

History:

At the time that AT&T had made the migration to tiered plan pricing, it justified the move saying most consumers never went above 2 GB per month and justified the 2 GB plan at $25, versus the $30 for the unlimited plan, which is no longer offered today. As data needs grow, in recent months, AT&T began to offer a $30 3 GB data plan, which is exactly what the unlimited data plan had cost when AT&T offered such plans.

However, in the nearly two years since AT&T abandoned unlimited data plan pricing, it appears that consumer’s data use is rising, and the reason for AT&T’s strict enforcement of its policy is to manage bandwidth at the expense of offering a good customer experience. According to the Associated Press, which had reported that user Mike Trang is now fearful to use his phone is: “The reason: AT&T considers Trang to be among the top 5 percent of the heaviest cellular data users in his area. Under a new policy, AT&T has started cutting their data speeds as part of an attempt to manage data usage on its network.”

Under AT&T’s policy, if a user is deemed to be within the top 5% of data users, meaning they are using excessive amounts of data, then they will be throttled. Users won’t be charged for overage and won’t be billed additionally for the amount of data they consume, but their download and upload speeds will be throttled, or slowed down. Rather than the 1-5 Mbps that is common with AT&T’s 3G or 4G HSPA+ connections on the download side, users will be experiencing 2G EDGE speeds, which are comparable to yesteryear’s dialup speeds, as the AP reports: “So last month, AT&T “throttled” Trang’s iPhone, slowing downloads by roughly 99 percent. That means a Web page that would normally take a second to load instead took almost two minutes.”

AT&T’s Catch:

The catch here, and AT&T’s strategy for throttling, is that it will not disclose how much data consumed will be needed to place customers in the top 5%. It could range, as it seems from customer reports so far, from 1 GB to 2 GB and more. According to ZDNET “As if the throttling wasn’t chicken enough, AT&T refuses to tell the customers how much data they are allowed before getting lousy dial-up speeds imposed. According to AT&T they are throttling the top 5 percent of data users in a given area. That definition is meaningless to the customers affected, as it’s up to AT&T to determine when a given user enters the top 5 percent club. One day you’re not in the top 5, the next you are. I’ve heard from quite a few who have been throttled, and the magic data number seems to be around 2.1 GB of data usage when the dreaded throttling kicks in.”

Game Theory: The Prisoner’s Dilemma:

That’s the brilliance of AT&T’s strategy because it measures user’s habits against their peers, and given that we are so reliant on the Internet–which is only convenient through a mobile broadband connection as an open WiFi signal is not required–that we are driven by fear of being slowed down “by roughly 99 percent” to 2G EDGE speeds. Here, AT&T is leverage the classic game theory known as the prisoner’s dilemma, which according to Wikipedia is:

Two men are arrested, but the police do not possess enough information for a conviction. Following the separation of the two men, the police offer both a similar deal—if one testifies against his partner (defects/betrays), and the other remains silent (cooperates/assists), the betrayer goes free and the cooperator receives the full one-year sentence. If both remain silent, both are sentenced to only one month in jail for a minor charge. If each ‘rats out’ the other, each receives a three-month sentence. Each prisoner must choose either to betray or remain silent; the decision of each is kept quiet. What should they do?

Basically, if all grandfathered unlimited smartphone owners in the area are measured against each other on data usage. If everyone uses just 1 MB of data per month, hypothetically, and you come in at 1.5 GB of data transfers, you’ll be deemed as an excessive data user. Now, if everyone used 2 GB of data per month, and your monthly transfer clock in at 1.5 GB, you are not an excessive data user.

Conclusion:

For this to be successful, everyone’s action is required to push the data ceiling upwards so that the top 5% of data use would be raised to a higher number. However, because of our fears of 2G EDGE speeds–that our peers will sabotage us out of self-preservation as demonstrated by the prisoner’s dilemma experiment–there will be hold outs, and that’s how AT&T is able to throttle users. We all have a little Mike Trang in us–mobile users who don’t want to experience dial-up speeds, so unfortunately there won’t be an ‘Occupy AT&T’ movement to up the data usage.

If every user consume just a little more data, consumers would not only have beaten AT&T at its own throttling game, but would push the ceiling for data consumption just a little more so that some the best Internet-reliant apps–such as the streaming videos, instant uploads, and others–that depend on a fast mobile broadband connection can find some value now that we actually have a fast enough mobile 3G and 4G network to support those apps.

The Best Way to Beat AT&T’s Data Throttling is to Have Everyone Consume More Data! is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Gotta Be Mobile.

Not content with the 32GB black variant of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus that Verizon currently has on sale? Well, it appears that you might just get another option soon as Droid-Life is reporting that 16GB models in both black and white should be headed to Verizon’s 4G LTE network in the future. How close or how far off is the launch exactly? Sadly, that’s currently unknown.

This isn’t shocking news as a white Samsung Galaxy Nexus has already launched in the United Kingdom.

(Read: Galaxy Nexus Review.)

But it now appears that the white model will be headed to the United States and Verizon may end up offering the white Galaxy Nexus for $100 cheaper than the $299 price tag that the carrier currently has on its black Galaxy Nexus.

The 16GB of storage space would be interesting considering the fact that the Galaxy Nexus does not come with an expandable memory slot.

In other words, you’re stuck with the 16GB’s of internal storage.

It’s unclear as to why a 32GB white model isn’t in the conversation but based on previous reports, it appears that Samsung might be having problems with its 32GB Galaxy Nexus model.

Yesterday, it came to light that Samsung will discontinue the 32GB GSM model of the Galaxy Nexus, leaving the 16GB model as the only option for those looking to get the device unlocked, off-contract.

Needless to say, it’s an odd situation and one that may never get a full explanation.

Would you buy a Galaxy Nexus with 16GB and no expandable memory?

16GB Galaxy Nexus Models Rumored for Verizon is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.

NVIDIA has already told us that there will be Tegra 3 quad-core smartphones on display at the Mobile World Congress which is scheduled to take place in Barcelona later on this month. Thing is, we didn’t know when we’d see the device or devices launch. With new technology of this sort, announcements can sometimes precede actual releases by quite some time. See: Motorola Droid Bionic. Well, turns out, we likely won’t have to wait long before Tegra 3 smartphones hit the market, this according to NVIDIA’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

He has apparently told investors that smartphones rocking the company’s Tegra 3 chipset are expected to ship during the quarter. That means that we shouldn’t have to wait too long after the conclusion of MWC on March 1st to see the first quad-core smartphones hit shelves.

Obviously, this is fantastic news for those of you that are in the market for a new, powerful smartphone.

And while we’re not one hundred percent sure what we’re going to be seeing at this year’s MWC in terms of quad-core smartphones, we have a pretty good bead.

HTC and LG figure to be the prominent companies involved with the announcements.

We’ve heard that HTC will be announcing a high-end quad-core powered smartphone called the HTC Edge/Endeavor that may actually be branded as the HTC One X.

(Read: HTC Edge Rumor Roundup: Features, Release Date, Carriers.)

And earlier today, we got our second glimpse at LG’s rumored quad-core smartphone called the LG X3.

(Read: LG X3 Benchmark Shows Off Quad-Core Power.)

Fujitsu is also rumored to be unveiling its mysterious quad-core smartphone as well.

It’s unclear which of these NVIDIA’s CEO is referring to as far as the release window is concerned but luckily, we only have a couple of days left before we find out what we’re going to be seeing arrive on shelves.

Via: The Verge

Tegra 3 Quad-Core Smartphones Shipping This Quarter is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.

With rumored release dates galore, it was only a matter of time before we heard from someone at RIM in regards to the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 release date that the company promised would be rolling out this month. Unfortunately, we still don’t have a concrete date for the roll out but BlackBerry senior brand manager Jeff Gadway has told PCMag that the update will be coming in February, as promised.

If you recall, we have heard both February 17th and February 21st pegged as possible release dates for the update but it appears now that it might not be rolling out until sometime during the  Mobile World Congress which is set to kick off in Barcelona later this month.

Assuming that that release window is true, that would leave February 27th-February 29th as possible roll out dates for the tablet’s much needed update.

The update will apparently be released Over-the-Air (OTA) which means those of you who own RIM’s PlayBook will be able to install the update without having to plug your device in.

It will supposedly be a massive 400MB in size.

The reason it’s so big is because the update is loaded with a ton of features, features that the tablet has desperately needed for quite some time. BlackBerry OS 2.0 will be bringing essential features like integrated email, calendar, and contacts apps.

While the iPad 2 certainly had a significant impact on the PlayBook’s sales, the absence of  these key features surely played a part in the device’s poor sales as well.

(Read: Lack of Vision To Blame For BlackBerry PlayBook’s Email Issues.)

In addition, OS 2.0 will be bringing support for Android applications that will be available not through the Android Marketplace but through RIM’s BlackBerry App World.

So while the 17th and 21st would be optimal for your PlayBook owners, it’s possible that we won’t see the software arrive until the very last days of the month.

RIM: BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Coming in February is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.

HTC is going to be busy at this year’s Mobile World Congress as its rumored to be announcing two new smartphones called the HTC Endeavor aka the HTC Edge and a device called the HTC Ville. Both devices figure to fit into the company’s new vision for 2012. It now appears that the manufacturer will use new branding to go along with that vision as the HTC Endeavor is now rumored to be launching as the HTC One X while the Ville will apparently launch as the HTC One S.

All along we’ve known that HTC Edge/Endeavor and HTC Ville were just code names for the device so it’s not surprising that they will be launching with different names. It is however a little surprising that they will be launching with similarly branded names.

If true, it looks like HTC might be taking a page from Samsung’s bag of tricks. Samsung, as you well know, launches a vast majority of its smartphones under the Galaxy S umbrella.

Both phones are expected to be launched at this year’s MWC which is set to kick off at the end of February. The HTC One X aka Edge will be the company’s new flagship Android device as its expected to arrive with a quad-core processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right out of the box.

(Read: HTC Edge Rumor Roundup: Features, Release Date, Carriers.)

As for the Ville, it will likely be a mid-range device as it features a dual-core processor with Android 4.0 on board. While the HTC One X currently has no rumored carriers – we’ve speculated that it might be headed to either AT&T or T-Mobile, the HTC One S has been outed as a possible phone for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network.

(Read: HTC Ville Rumor Roundup: Features, Hands-on Video, Release Date.)

We should know more in the weeks ahead.

Via: Pocketnow, SlashGear

HTC Launching One S and One X Smartphones at MWC? is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.

After Path was caught uploading users’ contacts to its servers, Apple was quiet. Later we found out that other apps like Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram were doing the same thing. Apple still said nothing. It wasn’t until today, just a few minutes after Congress sent an inquiry to Apple CEO Tim Cook that the company decided to respond to privacy concerns.

Apple agreed with users, congress and tech pundits, that it is wrong of apps to collect address book information without the knowledge of the users.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD, “apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines.” Apple will soon implement a system that requires apps to ask users if it can access contact information.

In a future release of iOS, presumably iOS 5.1, users will have to allow the Address Book to be accessed just as they currently have to allow location services.

The response came very quickly after Congress sent an inquiry to Tim Cook about the situation. The inquiry said that “this incident raises questions about whether Apple’s iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information ofiPhone users and their contacts.”

The letter was sent by House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Commerce Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chair G.K. Butterfield, and asked questions about the iOS App Store, and the apps therein. Specifically, it asked how many apps in the iOS App Store collected data from the address book, and how many of those apps actually asked for user permission.

Path, along with many other high-profile iPhone apps have since updated their apps to ask user permission to collect address book information. It is curious why Apple hasn’t done anything about the situation earlier, but it’s great that companies are now taking their own initiative.

It would have been nice to see Apple respond to the issue before Congress sent the inquiry, but at this point, any announcement is better than silence.

We hope Apple can get the new update out soon so this issue can be resolved and users can regain control of their privacy as well as their friends’ and families’ privacy.

Apple Will Force iPhone Apps to Ask Permission to Use Your Contacts is a post by Shawn Ingram from Gotta Be Mobile.

A sign that it’s on the way out? Or is Verizon just being nice? Either way, the carrier has dropped the price of the Motorola Droid Bionic today with it falling down to a mere $100 on-contract. In order to achieve this price,Verizon employed the method that it used when it dropped the price of the Motorola Droid RAZR. Specially, it has taken out the microSD card that is usually included with the device.

What this means is that those of you who are going to need memory beyond the 16GB of internal storage that come with the Droid Bionic will have to buy the microSD card separately from the phone.

Many of you probably never exceed 16GB anyway.

But if you do, just know that you’ll have to snag the extra memory separate from the phone.

The Motorola Droid Bionic launched in September of 2011 to much fan fare as it was the first 4G LTE smartphone to feature a dual-core processor. However, because its release had been delayed for so long, its launch was quickly overshadowed by that of the Motorola Droid RAZR which quickly rendered the Droid Bionic as an afterthought.

But don’t let the silence fool you, this is a solid phone that we thought highly enough of to reward it with our Editor’s Choice. Translation: The $99 price tag means that it at least warrants a look, even if it’s surrounded by newer phones like the Droid 4 and Droid RAZR MAXX.

(Read: Motorola Droid Bionic Review: Editor’s Choice.)

There is one headache that comes with the Droid Bionic and all current Motorola smartphones and that’s the fact that they don’t run Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, its latest operating system.

Right now, Motorola is offering no time table for the update, something that we believe is completely unfair to those who bought the device back in September.

(Read: Droid Bionic Owners Deserve Some Android 4.0 Answers Too.)

It will be getting the update at some point though and the Droid Bionic will be better for it.

If you’re interested now that the price has dropped to $99, you can find it through Verizon here. Or, if you’re looking to save even more money and you’re a new customer, you can snag it through Amazon for a mere $30.

Via: Electronista

Motorola Droid Bionic Price Falls at Verizon is a post by Adam Mills from Gotta Be Mobile.