The Cell Phone Junkie

Cricket Wireless announced Thursday they’ll begin selling the iPhone 4 and 4S starting June 22nd. Available in 60 markets, the 8GB iPhone 4 will cost $399 and the 16GB iPhone 4S will cost $499. Both will be available on the $55 per month unlimited plan offered by the carrier, including unlimited voice and text and 2.3GB of data.

Press Release:

SAN DIEGO, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Cricket Communications, Inc., a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless services, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP), announced today that it will be the first pre-paid carrier in the US to offer iPhone to its customers. Beginning on Friday, June 22, Cricket will offer iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 with its $55 per-month, all-inclusive unlimited talk, text and data plan.

iPhone 4S is the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all-new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. iPhone 4S comes with iOS 5.1, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system; and iCloud, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that work with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.

“Our customers want the best products available and we are excited to bring iPhone to our pre-paid consumers with an industry leading $55 per-month service plan,” said Doug Hutcheson, president and chief executive officer, Leap Wireless International, Inc. “Launching iPhone is a major milestone for us and we are proud to offer iPhone customers attractive nationwide coverage, a robust 3G data network and a value-packed, no-contract plan.”

iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 will be available in Cricket company-owned stores and select dealers in nearly 60 markets, online at www.mycricket.com/iphone and over the phone at 800-853-7682. Starting today, customers can receive more information on the launch by registering at www.mycricket.com/iphone. iPhone 4S will be available for $499.99 for the 16GB model and iPhone 4 will be available for $399.99. 

Cricket’s service plans feature all-inclusive pricing and easy-to-understand pricing packages with no service fees or overage charges. For customers, that means a bill that doesn’t fluctuate based upon monthly usage. Cricket’s all-inclusive pre-paid smartphone service plan includes:

* Fair usage policy of 2.3GB per month.

For more information about Cricket’s dynamic service and to check for availability, visit www.mycricket.com. To follow Cricket’s latest news and updates online, visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/cricketwireless and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cricketnation.

For more information on iPhone 4S, please visit: www.apple.com/iphone

Source: Cricket and Phonescoop

Orange UK Thursday announced the new San Diego smartphone, the first device in the UK to run on an Intel Medfield chip. Specs include:

• CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom (Medfield)
• RAM: 1GB
• Camera: 8 megapixel
• Cellular radio: HSPA+
• Screen size: 4.03 inches
• Resolution: 1024 x 600 pixels
• OS: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with Orange apps
• Internal flash memory: 16GB
• Length: 123 mm
• Depth: 9.9 mm
• Weight: 117g
• Length: 63 mm
• A-GPS
• Bluetooth 2.1
• HDMI-out

Orange will be selling the San Diego beginning June 6th for £199.99 when purchased with £10 of pay-as-you-go credit. With a two-year agreement, the phone will be free on plans of £15.50 per month and higher.

Source: Android Central

Samsung Wednesday released details for the Canadian variant of the Galaxy S III. The device  will leave the quad-core Exynos processor behind in favor of a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4. Further, the RAM in the device will be increased from 1GB to 2GB. The S III will be available in Canada starting June 20th, though carrier partners were not announced.

Press Release:

The Samsung GALAXY S III provides Canadians with a more human smartphone experience

Designed for humans and inspired by nature, the Samsung GALAXY S III brings the best combination of power and performance to the Canadian marketplace

MISSISSAUGA, ON, May 30, 2012 /CNW/ – Samsung Electronics Canada, today announces the models details and availability date of the much-anticipated GALAXY S III. Beginning June 20th, the Samsung GALAXY S III will be available through leading Canadian wireless carriers and authorized national retailers.

“We are very excited to bring the highly anticipated GALAXY S III to Canadians so they can experience firsthand, the power, performance and passion that Samsung is known for,” said Paul Brannen, Vice President, Enterprise Business Group, Samsung Canada. “This next generation of the GALAXY S series is sleek and stylish, and offers users features that promote sharing, and are intuitive and powerful, allowing Canadians to enjoy a more human experience with their smartphone.”

Natural Interaction

Smart enough to detect face, voice and motions, the GALAXY S III adapts to the user, providing users an interface that is convenient and natural.

With the innovative ‘Smart stay’ feature, the GALAXY S III recognizes how the user is using their device such as, reading an e-book or browsing the web. By having the front camera identify eye motion the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.

The GALAXY S III features ‘S Voice,’ an advanced natural language user interface, to listen and respond to user commands. S Voice presents powerful functions in regards to device control and commands, such as allowing the user to play a favorite song, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organize schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo.

With ‘Smart alert’ the GALAXY S III will alert the user by catching any missed messages or calls with a vibration to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle. If the user is messaging someone but decide to call them instead, they can simply lift phone to their ear and ‘Direct call’ will dial their number.

Easy and Instant Sharing

The Samsung GALAXY S III is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one user – it wants to share and experience smartphone benefits with family and friends, regardless of location with the following features:

With the new ‘S Beam,’ the GALAXY S III expands upon Android™ Beam™, allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.

The ‘Buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.
‘AllShare Play’ can be used to instantly share any forms of files between GALAXY S III and tablet, PC, and televisions that are DLNA enabled, regardless of the distance between the devices.

The ‘Group Cast’ feature that allows users to share their screen among multiple friends on the same Wi-Fi network; users can comment and draw changes at the same time as co-workers- witnessing real-time sharing on individual devices.

The preloaded ‘Dropbox’ application provides an even more convenient sharing experience, supplying 50GB of free storage for two years for not just image and music files, but now also for video content. With the GALAXY S III files can also be instantly uploaded through data networks without requiring WiFi access.

Uncompromised Performance

With a 4.8″ HD Super AMOLED display, the GALAXY S III offers a large and vivid viewing experience. Samsung Mobile’s heritage Super AMOLED display even enhances to HD and 16:9 wider viewing angles. To ensure faster content sharing and connectivity, the GALAXY S III offers Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth.

The GALAXY S III not only presents features with enhanced usability, but also provides an ergonomic and comfortable experience through its human-centric design. Its comfortable grip, gentle curves, and organic form deliver a rich human-centric feel and design. Available in Pebble Blue and Marble White at launch, Samsung will introduce a variety of additional color options.

The GALAXY S III also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall user experience in entirely new ways, with features such as:
‘Pop up play,’ users can play a video anywhere on their screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web.

An 8MP camera features a zero-lag shutter speed that lets users capture moving objects easily without delay, with the ‘Burst shot’ function that instantly captures twenty continuous shots, and the ‘Best photo’ feature that selects the best of eight photographs, the GALAXY S III ensures users a more enhanced and memorable camera experience.

HD video can be recorded even with the 1.9MP front-facing camera, which users can use to capture a video of themselves. An improved backside illumination sensor further helps to eliminate blur in photos that result from shaking, even under low light conditions.

With Samsung Hubs, users can continually refresh phone content through the ‘Game Hub,’ which provides access to numerous social games, while Video Hub, a new service offering to the Canadian marketplace, brings users high quality TV and movies for rent . Furthermore, Samsung Music Hub will offer a personal music streaming service.

The GALAXY S III will be available for purchase in Canada starting on June 20, 2012. Samsung is pleased to be working with all of the leading wireless providers in Canada, to give our customers a choice of service provider. The SGH-i747 variation of the GALAXY S III will be available from Bell Mobility, Virgin Mobile, SaskTel, TELUS and Rogers Wireless. The SGH-iT999 model will be available from Videotron, Wind and Mobilicity.

Additional Features Include:

Processor:

Snapdragon S4 Dual Core 1.5 GHz
Qualcomm MSM8960 Chipset

OS (Shipping): ICS 4.0.4

Data: LTE (SGH-i747 variation) and HSPA+ 42 (SGH-iT999 variation)

Memory: 2 GB RAM

Dimensions: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm

Weight: 133g

Memory: 16/32GB internal memory (SGH-i747)/ 16GB internal memory (SGH-iT999)

Expandable microSD up to 32GB

Display: 4.8 HD Super AMOLED 1280×720 (306ppi)

Connectivity: NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, MHL Video Out

Camera: 8MP Rear-facing, 1.9MP Front-facing

Battery: 2100 mAh

Other:

TouchWiz with Motion UX

S Beam

AllShare Play enhance functionality

MP3/ACC+/WAV audio player

DivX/Xvid/MP4/WMV/H.263/ H.264 Video Player

Source: BGR

Sony Wednesday announced the Xperia Go and the Xperia Arco S, both running Android. The Go is a scratch-resistant, dust-proof, water-resistant device with a 3.5-inch 320 by 480 reality display and a 1GHz dual-core processor. Other features include a 5MP camera with LED flash, 720p HD video capture, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage with 32GB microSD card support and an included 50GB of Box support. The device will ship with Gingerbread, and will be upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It will be sold in the US as the Xperia Advance, though no carrier partnerships were announced.

The Arco S is a media-focused device that is also water-resistant, and features a 12.1MP camera with f/2.4 aperture, 1080p video recording, 1.3MP front facing camera, 4.3-inch 1280 by 720 HD reality display and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. The device will launch with Android 4.0, and includes 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and has quad-band HSPA+ and GSM. No word if the Arco S will come to the US.

Source: Engadget Mobile