In the past few days, gadget, phone sites and forums have blown up with news about T-Mobile’s new “game changing” Project Dark plans. While we’ve seen comparisons of the new unlimited plans to the competition and all non-unlimited plans appearing to beat the competition in minutes and/or price, has T-Mobile beaten themselves up a little too much on the lower end? Some say yes, some say no. To help out, we’ve created a small chart (look familiar?) to help compare T-Mobile’s old plans versus their new plans, the non-unlimited variety of course. To make things fair, the Even More Plus plans have not been used in the comparison (as they do not have any phone subsidies or contracts) but subtract $10 from the Even More prices and you’ve got your price anyway.

This chart doesn’t cover absolutely every possible combo of plans and add-ons but should give a brief outline to look at for pricing below unlimited… therefore, your mileage may vary. Adjust accordingly. Individual 1000 at the promotional price has been included as that was a very popular promotion that ran three summers in a row. Add $10 if you want to compare with the old standard 1000 minute rate.

For those who do not remember or never had it, the 1000 minute promotion for $39.99 included unlimited nights and weekends. It is completely different than anything that was normally listed on the website. So yes, it compares

Important Note on Even More Plus. No contracts required on these plans. Phones must be purchased at full retail price but the payments can be split up over 20 months with no interest. If you decide to leave T-Mobile while on one of these plans, remaining balance for the phone must be paid in full but no ETF exists since you wouldn’t be on contract. Exception: People switching from old plans to EM+ plans still have to remain on the contract they previously agreed to. There is a $35 activation fee to switch from an old plan or Even More plan to Even More Plus.

Remember, if you’re on one of the plan combos where you’re saving money now versus the new plans, you do not have to switch and can stay on your current plan as long as you’d like. A few reps have stated to a person in the comments of this article that add-ons such as data will be available to old plans for as long as you have them. Whether this is true or the reps were confused/misinformed (also understandable) we do not yet know, only time will tell.

More on unlimited plans and myFaves after the break (including a myFaves comparison chart)…

Read the full story

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For those of you impatiently waiting for any kind of information on the Blackberry Driftwood, look no further than….. this post, where we have a picture for you. Okay, this is pretty much it, but it’s got T-Mobile branding! So, go ahead and take a look at the picture below… and then smile, knowing full well that the 3G-enabled Driftwood is indeed headed our way.

TmoNews Forums via CrackBerry

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So we know that T-Mobile is about to be offered at Radioshack The Shack (heard the rebranding news?) but what we didn’t quite know is what phones would be offered at their locations at launch. Thanks to BGR’s ninja we know it’ll launch two weeks from tomorrow and there’s a list of 11 devices, both postpaid and prepaid. Here they are:

Postpaid handsets:

Samsung T239 (red)

Sony Ericsson TM506 (amber)

Samsung Gravity 2

Samsung Comeback (red)

BlackBerry Curve 8900

Samsung Behold

HTC myTouch 3G (black & white)

Prepaid handsets:

Nokia 1661

Samsung T239 (gray)

Nokia 2760

Samsung T349

As for the whole The Shack thing? Apparently they are still going to be called Radioshack and will still have all the signage showing so, but they will also be called The Shack… or maybe that’s just “referred to as” The Shack. Hmm… well no matter what they’re called, they’re now a T-Mobile Authorized Dealer.

BGR

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With the recent furor over the Touch Pro2’s rumored pricing, we thought this would be a good time to bring up something that may have long been forgotten by many of you since we first provided the details back in November. Officially announced by T-Mobile in February of this year, the Equipment Installment Plan (EIP) pretty much allows you to lower the amount you pay for your phone upfront and spread it out in 3 other out-of-store payments with no interest charges or extra fees whatsoever.

While the price each person pays in store vs the other three payments will be absolutely different for everyone, here is a [admittedly confusing at first glance] summary from our first article on the EIP:

Either the difference between your credit limit and the purchase price of the phone is charged to your first bill in store -OR- the total purchase price divided by four monthly payments is charged to your first bill in store, whichever is GREATER. The other three monthly payments would equal the remaining balance divided by three and would all be the same.

In a [hopefully clearer] summary [of our summary] your credit history will be looked at, but only to determine how much “credit” they can extend to you. That credit will be the amount you can walk out of the store without paying. Make sense? You pay more up front if your purchase divided by four is the greater amount, irregardless of amount of credit extended.

Oh yes, you can also add extra accessories on to your total for split payments, and whatever else you want to get in store.

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Eagle eyed forums member mobo316 spotted T-Mobile’s user manual(PDF) for the Touch Pro2! For those of you fanatics that just can’t get enough of this upcoming device, settle in for a good read of the manual, chock full of pictures and plenty of how-to goodness. A very interesting tidbit for anyone interested in using a memory card is page 38. Yes, by now we all know there is a microSD slot on the SIDE of the phone, leading… umm… all of us (?) to believe that a memory card could be inserted and removed with relative simplicity, but all is not as straightforward as it may seem. The back cover of the phone must be removed (according to the manual) in order to press down on the microSD card until it clicks into place – Though the card is inserted into the side of the phone. Not having handled the phone ourselves, we are not too sure if this is just to ease the opening of the microSD slot cover (which apparently is a little tough to open without using a firm fingernail, according to TmoNews forum-goers who have demoed the device) or if the back cover must be removed in order to access the extra room necessary to push down on the card. Well… at least the battery doesn’t need to be removed. If you can confirm the actual usage of this slot, please let us know in the comments!

There’s more after the link below.

Read the full story

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We know there are plenty of you who just can’t get enough of the Touch Pro2, and now we have an image that showcases it very clearly with great lighting. The closer we get to August 12, the more pictures we’re sure will be flooding our inbox, but this should help you get your fix for now (if the others weren’t enough)! There’s even a picture with the stylus partly out of the phone for any of you interested in seeing that sort of thing. Speaking of the stylus, those of you who may have been worried will be glad to hear that it’s not just going to be falling out of the phone with any little nudge it gets. According to an anonymous tipster speaking of the stylus, “You need something to catch the end of the stylus to pull it out such as a finger nail or a lot of finger pressure on it. Can’t be knocked out accidentally.”

Other impressions from our anonymous tipster follow…
Read the full story

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Back in June, Touch Pro2 enthusiasts were greeted with a lengthy spec sheet which outlined the anticipated specs of the high end Windows Mobile phone. All was good. Now, a few more tidbits of information have made it into T-Mobile specs… if the new images are to be trusted, that is. For reference/comparison purposes, the previously posted specs can be found at the bottom of this posting.

Of note, battery life has increased on the newer spec list, increasing from 5.5 hours talk time and 8.3 days standby to 8 hours talk time and two weeks standby. We realize these are all relative to manufacturer testing, and real world use is actually a bit lower, but we’re all for better battery life! Interestingly enough, the device seems to be slightly bigger now than previous measurements, now weighing in at 4.59″ (L) x 2.36″ (W) x 0.68″ (T) vice the official spec sheet showing 4.19″ x 2.36″ x 0.67″, but the increase is quite minuscule (just thought we’d point it out!). Other items of note? 288mb RAM (Eat that, myTouch!), an actual mention of including autofocus on the camera as in the OEM version, 3.6″ screen (for those of you not 100% on that), and the inclusion of the Opera Mobile browser alongside IE 6.

[SinglePic not found]
Previously posted specs

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[b]Update:[/b] Sorry, T-Mobile has yanked the videos and they are no longer available
Curious about Visual Voicemail on the upcoming myTouch 3G? Want to see how it will work? Wonder no more as we’ve stumbled across a few videos for you voicemail hounds out there.

Here’s how to check a brand new visual voicemail message from the device:

[Video Removed]

And another video to save it to a memory card:

[Video Removed]

Learn how to listen to your visual voicemail in any order after the break…

Read the full story

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Just a friendly reminder: This Wednesday, July 15th, at 11:59:59 PM our logo contest is coming to an end – all submissions due by the very end of the night, no exceptions! We have had quite a few really good submissions and are starting to see how some of you are envisioning TmoNews, and we encourage you to keep them coming. We do already have our eye on a nice amount, but in order to keep bias out of the way, we are reserving any real judgment until after ALL entries have been received, and you still have time! There is no limit on the amount of entries you can submit (thanks to those that are already submitting multiples, the more the merrier) so if you’ve got any other ideas brewing in your head, get em in image format and send them to tmonews@gmail.com.

We’re still debating on whether or not to pick our top 3 (or fave 5! olol) and place them up on the blog for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. The time for revealing any possible designs for that is not quite yet, but we can tell you that so far we’ve received a plethora of different creative ideas that vary greatly between the categories of cartoony, artsty/artistic, professional, minimalistic, and just plain off the wall crazy. If you think your idea might not be good enough, who knows, you may just end up surpassing the rest and winning the $250 prize!

Need logo requirements and specifics? There aren’t too many, but they can be found here.

Good luck!

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Having owned a T-Mobile Dash since July 2007 and using it as my sole device for the past two years, the recent release of the Dash 3G surely got my attention as a possible new phone upgrade. Faster processing speeds, upgraded looks, a seemingly more ergonomical design, and what surely must be a host of new features were all what I was expecting when walking into a T-Mobile store to check the device out for myself. Being my first Windows Mobile phone, the Dash has certainly given me a positive experience and was able to do much more for me than the previous phones I held before it (Samsung e105, Nokia 3220, Motorola t720!!) so I had high hopes for this newest addition to the Windows Mobile team.

What follows is my [very lengthy] in-store impression of the device. I will be outlining any immediately noticeable changes that Dash users can expect with an upgrade to the 3G version of their device. For those who continue to read on, please keep in mind that I have flashed my Dash to an up-to-date, non-branded ROM with WM 6.1 updates that never made it to T-Mobile’s official ROMs, so my point of view may slightly differ from those of you who are entirely stock. Nevertheless, I will attempt to put forth my opinion based on if I still had that lovely T-Mobile branding all over the place.

For full images and to get a better idea of what Mystic is ranting/raving about head over to infoSync, see their review of the device here!

BONUS: David rants at the end with his iPhone-loving, Windows Mobile hating words of… wisdom? Well, I don’t think we should go that far, more like nuggets of bias and *cough*Apple fanboy-ism*cough*

Read the full story

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