Filed under: Cellphones

Sprint still hasn’t quite learned the fine art of not getting shown up by CDMA rival Verizon for prompt releases of the hottest phones, partially on account of Verizon’s tendency to lock up lucrative exclusivity agreements that last anywhere from a few months to life of the model (as is the case with the CDMA Chocolate). Fortunately, as foretold by our friends at Phone Scoop, Sprint’s K1m comes relatively hot on the heels of Verizon’s. Thanks to a different UI and color scheme, the Sprint variant barely resembles its stablemates and it’ll be interesting to see whether customers ultimately do a better job warming up to it. The Sprint K1m can belong to anyone willing to part with $200 and sign on the dotted line — or, as Sprint likes to say, $399.99 minus $200 in “instant savings.”

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

We hate to see a nifty technology like FOTA (firmware over-the-air) getting such a bad rap early on in the game, but in the same breath, our mommies always told us “measure twice, cut once” — and we think that’s an imminently appropriate adage in the aftermath of Sprint’s recent attempt to re-up Fusics already in the field. It seems the firmware update, pushed just a couple days ago to customers’ handsets, quickly and efficiently bricked each and every one of them. The whole situation is a full order of magnitude more frightening than Nokia’s similar experience with the E70, seeing how Nokia’s update was optional and at least required the user to manually perform the upgrade. Naturally, Sprint’s pulled the bogus firmware and is offering a free replacement to affected customers, but it’s still a shame that they’ve cost Fusic owners a trip to the Sprint Store.

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

The 700wx looks to be trickling into Sprint retail locations as we speak, and it seems everything we’ve been told about the device so far has been spot-on: it really is bound for Sprint, the addition of the “x” to the name is legit, and it rocks double the RAM (much to the chagrin of plain ol’ 700w users everywhere), though we weren’t necessarily expecting the big, scary floating head on the box. Still no solid word on an official availability date, but stores who’ve received them have apparently been instructed to keep them under lock and key until Sprint proper starts offering them, meaning the previously-reported August 27 date for business customers still seems perfectly plausible. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a Treo 750 rumor mill to attend to.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, CDMA

If the i880 wasn’t really doing anything for you when it surfaced in the wild, perhaps this here i885 will. Motorola’s upcoming halo iDEN devices will see service on both Nextel and Boost, sporting pleather and faux snakeskin exteriors — pick your poison — and a trick button-operated flip mechanism. (If they’re going to get creative with case designs on us, we can only hope they deep-sixed the standard Nextel “beep beep” while they were letting those creative juices flow.) Besides minor cosmetic differences, the phones’ guts are presumably identical; both should be rocking 2-megapixel shooters, music players, and dual color displays. We’re getting mixed reports on whether these are CDMA hybrids, but even if they aren’t, the pair gives Nextel much-needed love in a market segment they aren’t typically accustomed to servicing.

[Via Mobile Magazine]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel

Moto sure is giving its iDEN-only product line a healthy sendoff before CDMA hybrid handsets start to drop later this year. Besides the upcoming high-end i880 and the virtually indestructible (we’ll eat those words, we’re sure) i580, Nextel looks to shore up their low end by adding the i670, a basic clamshell whose main selling point appears to be its “color display.” Of course, no-frills is a big selling point among some Nextel clientele, so the phone should find its niche. Other features include Direct Talk (off-network walkie talkie) support, speakerphone, and a reasonable $49.99 price tag on two-year contract.

[Via phoneArena]

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Filed under: Sprint-Nextel, Misc

It sure feels like Sprint usually just can't buy a break when it comes to quality customer service. This time around, JD Power's sometimes basement-dwellers have been called out for an automated line that was just a little too ready and willing to dish out customer data to anyone who called in. Basically, you'd call the line, enter any Sprint customer's number of your choosing, and promptly be asked to verify the customer's compu-spoken name and home address --among other juicy details -- while calling another number would spit out their bill balance. Understandably, this raised a ruckus in the user community; to their credit, Sprint patched the system rather quickly and issued a statement to that effect -- but not without going into full CYA mode, pointing out that "this process operated well within the bounds of applicable federal and state privacy laws."

Filed under: Sprint-Nextel, CDMA, Misc

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, CDMA

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

While much of the world awaits 3G to grace their airwaves, a coalition of companies in the wireless industry are putting together a nonprofit organization in the UK this month to promote the development of 4G. The “Next Generation Mobile Networks” group, consisting of founding members KPN Mobile, Orange, Sprint Nextel, Vodafone, and T-Mobile plus add-ons China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, is looking to 2010 for the commercial deployment of 4G devices – that’s less than four years away, folks. We’re somewhat skeptical 4G is going to come together for any substantial population in that amount of time, but just in case, we’re going start compiling our list of things to do with 2.5Gbps of WWAN bandwidth now.

[Via EE Times]

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Filed under: Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, Misc

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, Sprint-Nextel, CDMA

The A640 isn’t new to us, nor is the fact that it’s coming to Sprint, but we thought we’d pay this flip another visit now that it’s gone all official on us. We’ve heard rumors that it packs Bluetooth 2.0, but otherwise the feature list is pretty uneventful, with a VGA camera and Ready Link support in the package. If the A640 speaks to you in ways that other Samsung flips simply haven’t, it’s available for $49.99 on contract from your friendly Sprint outlet.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sanyo, Sprint-Nextel, CDMA

Filed under: Cingular, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless

BusinessWeek writer Olga Kharif paints an interesting portrait of the potential state of the wireless industry following the government’s unprecedented sale of spectrum this summer, called Auction 66, which could see a number of new players enter the voice and data market in the not-too-distant future. Following several years of industry consolidation, highlighted by Cingular picking up AT&T and Sprint grabbing Nextel, we could soon see companies that have traditionally delivered content in other fashions — Time Warner, MySpace-owner News Corp., or Clearwire — offer services that compete directly with the four major carriers. Several players, including Intel-backed Clearwire, Google-backed Earthlink, and a venture between Time Warner Cable, Sprint-Nextel, Comcast, Cox, and Advance/Newhouse Communications have already expressed interest in bidding for a slice of spectrum, while other bidders, which could include a Bill Gates- and Paul Allen-backed contender, will be revealed sometime next month. Unless the established carriers snatch up all the available spectrum, which is highly unlikely, fresh blood in the industry should bode well for consumers, who will likely benefit from lower prices, more services to choose from, and less restrictions on their bandwidth usage.

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Filed under: Alltel, Sprint-Nextel, 1xRTT, EV-DO, CDMA

Looks like “America’s Largest Network” just got larger: Alltel inked a 10 year roaming deal with Sprint-Nextel for CDMA voice, 1xRTT, and EV-DO coverage to complement their own network and their already existent coverage deals with Verizon, and to a lesser extent Cingular, and T-Mo. We’re not sure what this brings their square mileage up to nowadays, but if you’re an Alltel customer who likes to travel, you’re probably pretty stoked, while the rest of you Sprint users get some new friends to share your network with (in addition to Helio).

[Via The Wireless Report]

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Filed under: Software, Sprint-Nextel, 1xRTT, EV-DO, CDMA

Dieting just got a little easier (or a little harder to cheat at, depending on how you look at it) for Sprint customers with cameraphones, thanks to the company's exclusive rollout of that MyFoodPhone service we first spotted nearly a year ago. Although the cost is much lower this time around -- only $10 per month compared to the pricey $150/month it once was -- the service works essentially the same as before, by providing customers with video feedback based on photos they snap and upload of each and every meal or snack they consume. Besides the bi-weekly vids from nutritional advisers, subscribers also have access to an online food journal, where they can log the all-important dieter's stats of weight lost, exercise performed, and calories burned. Sprint is positioning MyFoodPhone as only one part of an overall health and fitness regimen where your Vision-enabled phone can be of assistance, joining other services such as BIMActive exercise tracking, skynetMD medical info, and Hitech Trainer guided workouts.

[Via picturephoning]

Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Sprint-Nextel, Palm OS, EV-DO, CDMA

Alright everyone, it's time for your daily crappy cameraphone pic of the Palm Treo 700p, or what we're now referring to as Palm's worst kept secret to date. Dude who took the shots, GXMONT, was apparently kicking it with an SRR Manager (whatever that is) who busted out this 700p and coolly allowed him to take shots. Lesson to all people who kick it with industry connections: always carry a real camera. Anyhow, according to GXMONT this'll be out early May, which is a couple weeks ahead of schedule by our understanding. 'Nother day, 'nother 700p shot (or two, or ten); funny how silly we're all going to look when it turns out this thing isn't real (yeah right).

[Thanks, Alexander]

Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Sprint-Nextel, Palm OS, EV-DO, CDMA

border="1" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/another700p.jpeg" alt="" />

Alright everyone,
it’s time for your daily crappy cameraphone pic of the Palm Treo
700p, or what we’re now referring to as Palm’s worst kept secret to date. Dude who took the shots, GXMONT, was
apparently kicking it with an SRR Manager (whatever that is) who busted out this 700p and coolly allowed him to take
shots. Lesson to all people who kick it with industry connections: always carry a real camera. Anyhow, according to
GXMONT this’ll be out early May, which is a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/04/05/palm-set-to-announce-treo-700p-for-sprint-on-may-15th/">couple weeks
ahead of schedule by our understanding. ‘Nother day, ‘nother 700p shot (or two, or ten); funny how silly we’re all
going to look when it turns out this thing isn’t real (yeah right).

[Thanks, href="http://www.mobileread.com">Alexander]

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Filed under: Cingular, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless

/>Major wireless carriers planning to partner with smaller providers in order to get discounts on the upcoming wireless
spectrum landrush have just been delivered a major blow by the FCC, with the agency announcing a tighter set of rules
and penalties on a practice that had been popular in past auctions. According to the new rules, smaller carriers only
qualify for discounts if they lease less than 50% of their licensed spectrum to other operators, and those discounts
will be "further examined" for carriers sub-leasing as little as a quarter of their spectrum. Furthermore, if
a carrier goes ahead and leases too much spectrum within the first five years after they’ve obtained a license, they
must repay the entire amount of the discount plus interest. What does this all mean for the consumer? We’re not
completely sure about all the specifics, but we wouldn’t be at all surprised if the increased costs to the major
carriers happen to trickle down to our bills.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, EV-DO, CDMA

We have to admit that we're not big fans of the whole push-to-talk thing -- something about that annoying "chirp chirp" followed by both parties repeatedly querying "where you at?" -- so we were naturally a bit disappointed to learn that Sprint-Nextel will begin releasing dual-network phones that only incorporate iDEN functionality to feed people's nasty PTT habit. As we'd heard last month, Sprint-Nextel will start rolling out a series of these iDEN/CDMA with EV-DO Rev. A handsets near the end of the year, and now the first pictures of two models from Motorola have surfaced. Besides their ability to jump on iDEN for walkie-talkie action, nothing really stands out about these devices; they both incorporate the same function-over-fashion design that we've come to know, if not love, from the Nextel-Moto alliance. PCS Intel reports that these two unnamed handsets could go on sale as early as November, for an unknown price, with more feature-filled (read: multimedia-centric) models popping up in the second quarter of next year.

[Thanks, John R.]

Filed under: Software, Sprint-Nextel

Instead of launching a separate child-friendly handset or just farming out the idea altogether, Sprint is launching their new "Family Locator Service," which involves software to enable existing Sprint phones for tracking. A total of 28 GPS-enabled Sprint phone models can be located with the service, and a bit of downloaded software is compatible with 17 of their phones to track up to four handsets, and even display a child's location on a map. The service is $10 a month, and it's based on software by WaveMarket Inc., which can also be used on your PC. Sadly, we missed the press conference, which somehow managed to involve Sprint getting all defensive about this being a "Big Brother" tool, and stating: "It's not about tracking. It's not about monitoring." Uh, right.

Filed under: Sprint-Nextel

It's the baby Bells (or not so baby Bells) vs. cable in the war for the one bill to rule them all, and it looks like Sprint Nextel is getting friendly with some cable providers to provide the wireless prong of their efforts. They've just announced a venture with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks. The combined services should launch later this year, and will start out slow, but the plan is to offer more TV for your phone, wireless control of your DVR, free calling of your own landline, and various other value-adds. The NY Times reports that research is showing a lack of consumer interest in bundles unless there are decently steep discounts included, so hopefully that's in the works as well.

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, MVNOs

With all those MVNOs cropping up for the youthful crowd, it's about time the seniors got one of their own. The new Jitterbug MVNO will feature a special Jitterbug phone from Samsung with oversized keys, a large display text, and loud audio. There will be a second version that sounds similar to the firefly offerings for children, featuring only three main buttons: one to a Jitterbug operator to help make a call, one for 911, and one to call a dedicated number like that of a relative or perhaps the Home Shopping Network. The new MVNO is powered by Sprint, but sounds to be one of the last for a while since the carrier claims it's not going to be adding many more new MVNOs, and is currently taking a break to get their current MVNOs figured and see how well they do. We'll be sad to see these heady days go of four new MVNOs a minute, but perhaps it's for the best.

Read: Jitterbug MVNO
Read: Sprint holds off on new MVNOs

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Sprint-Nextel, MVNOs, CDMA

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel

If push-to-talk isn’t too sissy for you now that those href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/02/cingular-goes-live-with-push-to-talk/">Cingular kids can do it, Motorola
is prepping a rugged version of their href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/31/motos-i870-antibacterial-widen-phone/">i870 iDEN phone, the i580. The
phone has the same WiDEN connectivity, PTT (of course), Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera, and dual displays of the i870,
though the external display on the i580 is a smaller grayscale one. The phone does lose the external MP3 controls,
though it can still play your tunes off of the internal microSD slot. Of course, the main addition is the rubberized
shell and military grade resistance to rain, dust, shock, and vibration that the new handset includes. The i580 should
be available in Q2 of this year for an undetermined price.

[Thanks, Allen]

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