T-Mobile USA is teaming with Boku to introduce new carrier billing options within the T-Mobile Mall digital storefront, enabling Android application and game developers to accept in-app payments from the carrier's 34 million subscribers.
T-Mobile USA developer partners may now leverage Boku's 1-Tap SDK for Android to sell a variety of in-app premium content and services, like virtual goods and new gaming levels. Boku's 1-Tap Billing model enables consumers to make digital purchases with their wireless phone number and charge them to their monthly operator bill, sidestepping the need to manually enter credit card information or store financial data on their device.
Boku now partners with more than 250 mobile operators in 66 countries, among them T-Mobile USA rivals Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) and Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S). The firm has raised more than $75 million in venture funding since launching in 2008, and in March closed a $35 million round led by New Enterprise Associates and Telefonica Digital.
Earlier this year, Boku signed an agreement to expand its services to the offline sector, teaming with MasterCard's PayPass retailer network to enable consumers to make payments, earn discounts and receive targeted offers via mobile phone wherever PayPass is accepted.
The T-Mobile Mall is featured inside the larger Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Play storefront and offers apps and games curated by T-Mobile USA. The mall includes Music Hub (offering access to music apps as well as MP3 tracks and albums and ringtones), Game Base (a collection of pre-screened titles) and Apps (highlighting T-Mobile's own applications as well as solutions from selected partners).
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iPhone 5 backplate leaks, showing mini dock and bigger screen - Techradar.com
These could be the backplates for the upcoming model of iPhone. And if they are, then a lot of the rumours we've reported look like they're on the money.
The images were picked up by 9to5mac and claim to be the chassis of the sixth generation iPhone.
The black plate itself appears to be mainly metal – possibly a nod back to the likes of the original iPhone, but there's a strip of potentially glass at the top and the bottom.
This inclusion of metal on the back of the iPhone 5 could be to accommodate NFC technology, which may struggle to make its way through the glass frame found on the 4S.
Credit:9to5Mac
All change please
The smaller dock connector that's had a lot of column inches is present and correct, and the headphone jack has been moved from the top corner of the device to the bottom corner, a la iPod Touch.
We could also be in for beefier speakers on the iPhone 5, seeing as the speaker grills has been redesigned.
There's also a new hole between the camera lens and LED flash. It's not clear what this is, but it could be a new home for the second microphone, used for capturing audio while videoing.
Take me home
The latest image leaks also reveal that the iPhone 5 is set to keep the physical home button – with Apple not fully embracing its multi-touch gesture controls just yet.
The images indicate the iPhone 5 will be the same width as the iPhone 4S, it will be longer, meaning a bigger screen. We're expecting somewhere around 4-inches, so still not coming close to the 4.8-inch display on the Samsung Galaxy S3.
The backplate was offered up by iPhone repair experts iFixyouri. It was the first company to confirm that the iPad would come in white, so these could well be the real thing.
If these backplates are genuine, it'll be welcome additions for the new iPhone, though nothing earth-shattering. We expect the iPhone 5 to land sometime around October, hopefully packing the next iteration of Apple's mobile platform, iOS 6.
Keep up to date will all the news in our iPhone 5 release date, news and rumours article and check out the video round up below.
Via: 9to5Mac
T-Mobile & Orange Everything Everywhere £50-million investment programme - Phones Review
There’s big news today for the UK mobile industry as Everything Everywhere, which runs T-Mobile and Orange has announced plans for a £50 million investment programme, intended to give customers a new service approach. The overhaul will bring several changes to T-Mobile and Orange customers.
The revamped customer service will be the first in the UK to be designed around phone operating systems and the devices that use them. Specialist agents will be highly trained to offer customers advice on specific devices and operating systems such as Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry as it’s acknowledged that smartphone use and growth has completely changed the way people use their phones.
Experts in customers’ digital needs will be able to avoid the need to constantly transfer customers to different departments and will be able to offer advice on technology, devices and accounts. Being switched between departments can be a real bugbear to many consumers so this will be a welcome change. The £50 million will be spent on contact centres, high street stores and customer-facing staff.
Up to 12,000 employees will also be able to receive training at a special Development Academy. Around 7,000 customer service employees will receive training in operating systems and eventually they will be accredited with their area of specialty. It’s hoped that this will create excellent communication skills as well as engagement with the customer and also instill loyalty. Everything Everywhere Chief Customer Officer Jackie O’Leary said, “Being the first in the industry to champion something new is exciting and we are extremely pleased by the amazing feedback we are receiving from our customers, our people and the handset manufacturers and operating systems we represent.”
Trials have already been taking place and have proven to be successful with significant improvements in resolution of customer issues at first point of contact. There was also a double-digit increase in Net Promoter Scores that measure customer service and now the new approach is rolling out across the organisation. The companies previously announced that both would be offering T-Mobile and Orange products across stores.
Is this an impressive step forward by Everything Everywhere? Are you a T-Mobile or Orange customer and happy to hear this news? Do you think customer service needed revamping? Send your comments to let us know.
Apple to Double Down on Secrecy as Alleged New iPhone Design Leaked - PC World
Could it be a coincidence that Cook gave his speech on the same day the photos were leaked? Absolutely. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time we have seen alleged parts of a future iPhone that turn out to be wildly off-base when the real product arrives.
It’s just that the photos of the purported iPhone 5 casings obtained by 9To5Mac match many of the tipped changes for the next-generation Apple smartphone, expected later this year. They show a greatly reduced dock connector at the bottom, redesigned speaker grills and the headphone jack relocated to the bottom left of the phone -- a first for Apple’s phones.
An additional opening between the camera lens and the LED flash can be observed, which 9To5Mac speculates could be where the secondary microphone (used for noise reduction since the iPhone 4) was moved in order to allow for better audio capture during voice recordings.
What about that bigger screen? Well, the photos don’t reveal much about that, if they actually depict an iPhone 5 prototype casing. It appears the parts have the same width as the current iPhone 4S, but it’s taller, which is in keeping with recent reports that Apple is looking to increase the phone’s height in order to accommodate a 4-inch screen and 4G LTE connectivity (along with a bigger battery).
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Romney iPhone app goes viral after ‘America’ misspelled - KDVR.com
A typo on a new mobile app from the Romney campaign was the butt of jokes on social media on Wednesday, May 30, 2012
(CNN) — It’s probably not the kind of thing voters will use to choose the leader of the free world.
But the Web was taking no shortage of presidential potshots Wednesday over Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s new mobile app, which embarrassingly misspelled “America.”
Yes, Internet. Welcome to “AMERCIA.”
“Sorry about the shaking California, that was just the rest of America laughing at Mitt Romney running for Pres. of #Amercia,” wrote a person behind a parody President Obama account on Twitter (referencing a minor earthquake late Tuesday).
The gaffe, presumably by some poor developer hired by the campaign, appears on “With Mitt,” the campaign’s newly released iPhone app. The app invites users to photograph themselves with their choice of 14 pro-Romney slogans such as “I’m a Mom For Mitt,” “Obama Isn’t Working” and “The America We Love,” and then share them on social media.
But one of the slogans reads, “A Better Amercia.” Oops. Somebody didn’t observe the “I-before-C” rule.
The “With Mitt” app was still available in Apple’s App Store on Wednesday morning. The Romney campaign has submitted an update to the app and was waiting for Apple’s approval Wednesday morning. No one with the campaign was speaking on the record about it, but staffers were downplaying its importance in the run-up to November.
Slips of the tongue by political candidates are, of course, not uncommon. In 2008, then-candidate Obama got grief for saying he’d visited “all 57 states.” And Vice President Joe Biden’s free-speaking nature has gotten him no shortage of headlines.
But the Web’s politically minded (many of whom, presumably, don’t consider Romney their top choice), were noting that when a mistake appears in writing, it shows a lack of attention to detail.
“If you’re applying for a job, and you misspell the name of the company you want to work for, you won’t get that job. #Amercia,” wrote a Twitter user.
“#Amercia” was a trending topic (meaning it’s one of the most discussed terms) on Twitter late Tuesday and again Wednesday morning.
The typo has already also inspired its own Tumblr blog, “Amercia Is With Mitt.”
It features photos created with the app and, as of Wednesday morning, included a group of spelling bee champions, Beaker from “The Muppet Show” and Rich Uncle Moneybags, the Monopoly mascot, among its subjects.
And numerous images were popping up on Instagram — one highlight being Bart Simpson having to write the correctly spelled “America” during his iconic chalkboard gag from the intro to “The Simpsons.”
To be honest, the Romney camp is probably more pleased at winning enough delegates in the Texas primaries Tuesday to make him the unofficial GOP nominee than it is worried about a spelling gaffe.
And it’s worth noting that lots of folks who support Romney probably only learned that the app exists because of talk about the typo.
T-Mobile picks Ericsson, Nokia Siemens for network - Yahoo Finance
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- T-Mobile USA on Tuesday said that Nokia Siemens Networks and LM Ericsson AB will supply the network equipment for its new wireless broadband network, a project worth $4 billion.
T-Mobile is commissioning a "4G LTE" network, the same technology used by Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. for their high-speed networks. It will use, in part, radio frequencies handed over by AT&T after the bigger company backed off its deal to buy T-Mobile due to opposition from federal regulators.
In addition to handing over spectrum licenses, AT&T gave T-Mobile $3 billion in cash, which will help finance the upgrade. T-Mobile plans to have the network live next year, covering 75 percent of the 25 largest cities.
Sweden's Ericsson is one of the main suppliers for the LTE networks of Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel Corp., along with Alcatel-Lucent SA of France.
For Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture of Finland's Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG of Germany, the T-Mobile order represents a new chance to get into the U.S. market for network equipment. It got a $7 billion order from Harbinger Capital, a hedge fund, to build a network for its startup, LightSquared, but that project appears moribund because regulators concluded it would have interfered with GPS navigation.
T-Mobile USA is making the announcement on the first day of CTIA Wireless, the U.S. cellphone industry trade show, in New Orleans. The company is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., with 33.2 million devices on its network. It's a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany.
New Deutsche Telekom M2M Marketplace & SIMS - Phones Review
T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom has launched its M2M Marketplace today, and it offers the chance to manufacturers and dealers from across the world to offer things such as apps, software, hardware, and full package solutions that relate to M2M communication.
According to an article on Total Telecom the company will also provide the SIM chips and requisite SIM cards via the M2M platform. The Marketplace will be an attractive channel for companies to push their M2M products besides their own sales channels. Customers will be able to easily compare offers but on an international scale, and meet their individual M2M needs from the wide range that is on offer, or they can purchase a full package solution.
Thomas Kiessling of Deutsche Telekom stated that the “M2M Marketplace makes it easy for our partners to market their offers around the world. Anyone looking for an M2M solution to optimize their business will find what they need on our Marketplace”, and added that it will bring together an international supply and demand for M2M solutions in a simpler way.
The broad range of the M2M industries means that many different partners need to work together to provide individual solutions, and this will support both solution providers and customers alike, who want to optimize their business using the support of M2M.
Companies will provide details of their industry apps, software, and hardware on the portal with an in-depth description and images of the product or screenshots of the web interface. An option of also providing technical documentation will also be available. Offers can be placed in nine segments that include Automotive, Public Sector and Security, Transport & Logistics, Consumer Electronics, Energy, Retail, and Healthcare.
To begin with companies will be able to offer their solutions free of charge until the 2nd of July 2012, and then the usual charges for online sales platforms will apply. To start with the M2M Marketplace will be in English, but other languages are in the pipeline.
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