Sprint Killing Unlimited Data For Hotspot And Tethering

Sprint’s major differentiating factor from the other iPhone carriers is that they still offer unlimited data plans — which both Verizon and AT&T killed after getting the megapopular smartphone. Now it looks like they might be cutting back on that, for tetherers at least.

If you tether with a Sprint smartphone, you now have a hard limit of 5GB:

Currently, if you use your phone’s Mobile Hotspot add-on, the Mobile Hotspot data usage is combined with your phone data usage. Effective on your next bill following notification, your monthly mobile hotspot on-network data usage will be limited to 5GB of 3G or combined 3G/4G usage dependent upon device capability. Additional data use above 5GB is $.05/MB. Your monthly off-network data limit will continue to be 300MB, which is a combination of phone and Mobile Hotspot data usage.

The situation’s even worse if you have a mobile Broadband plan, as you will now have to switch to a 3GB, 5GB or 10GB plan.

Plus, existing plans won’t get grandfathered in. Even you already have an unlimited plan, this will cut you off.

We hope this isn’t the first indication that Sprint might cut back on unlimited data for the smartphone as well.

[via Engadget]

Verizon Sold 2 Million iPhones Last Quarter

AT&T has already activated 1 million iPhone 4S’, and activated 2.7 million of the iPhone 4 last quarter in a gangbuster term. But what about the competition? Verizon has just announced their quarterly earnings, and they did extremely well, but not quite as well as AT&T.

Big Red sold two million iPhone 4 units last quarter, still 700,000 short of the number hit by AT&T. However, quarterly earnings were up massively, $1.38 billion up from $659 million a year ago.

Verizon also cited lower than hoped for iPhone sales on the back of expectations of the iPhone 4S. When pressed for numbers on how the latter sold, they would merely say that they ran out on the first day, but now how many units they’ve put in consumer’s hands all told.

While the 700,000 phone gap between them and AT&T may seem large, the previous quarter saw one of 1.3 million phones, so the division between the two is closing. Now that Sprint’s in the mix too, I wonder if that’ll influence things at all…

FX Photo Studio Just $0.99 This Weekend

Everyone loves a good photo filters app and FX Photo Studio is a highly rated app that offers over 194 high-quality photo effects. Also included are a vast array of sharing options to share your photo creation. The app is 50% off this weekend, but the deal ends on Sunday evening.

FX Photo Studio is available on sale for $0.99 in the App Store.

Verizon activated 2 million iPhone 4 handsets last quarter

Verizon has announced their Q3 2011 results and in the accompanying conference call revealed that they sold 2 million iPhone 4 handsets last quarter. As to iPhone 4S, unlike AT&T, who’ve already boasted about a million activations, Verizon offered only:

On Oct. 14, the Apple iPhone 4S became available on the Verizon Wireless 3G network.

The current quarter should be interesting.

Source: Verizon, AllThingsD

OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPad 2 only $49.95 (50% off!)

For today only, the TiPb Store has the OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPad 2 on sale for only $49.95!. That’s full plate armor protection — get them before they’re gone!

Shop OtterBox Defender Series Case for iPad 2 now!

TomTom updated, now optimized for iPad

TomTom, the GPS enabled navigation app has just been updated and it now includes an optimized version for the iPad. The app is now a universal binary so there will be no need to pay for an additional navigation app for your iPad if you already have it on your iPhone.

• Make the most of your iPad, with a full-screen display that shows you driving view and Advanced Lane Guidance images at the same time. Purchase connected services in-App or easily transfer your existing subscriptions (cellular connection required). When you want to go bigger, move your TomTom App to iPad.

• Because roads are constantly changing, on average 15% of roads change every year, your TomTom App update comes with the latest and most up-to-date map.

• Your TomTom App is quicker and easier to use than ever. See driving view with one touch from anywhere, access guidance options in a tap, and switch between different route types more easily. It’s a simpler way to enjoy TomTom navigation on your iPhone or iPad.

A word of warning to those still using TomTom with an iPhone 3G — This will be the last version of the app to fully support it. Future versions should still work but any new features added will not be supported.

TomTom is available for the iPhone and iPad for $49.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

T-Mobile US says they’re waiting on Apple, AWS-capable iPhone

While Apple has launched the iPhone 4S on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, and is even about to launch on regional carrier, C-Spire, T-Mobile says they’re still waiting for their turn, and for a version of world’s most popular handset that runs on their rare AWS high speed frequencies.

T-Mobile thinks the iPhone is a good device and we’ve expressed our interest to Apple to offer it to our customers. Ultimately, it is Apple’s decision. The issue remains that Apple has not developed a version of the iPhone with technology that works on our fast 3G and 4G networks. We believe a capable version of the iPhone for our 3G and 4G networks would offer an additional compelling option for our customers on a fast 4G network. However, the iPhone is not the only option to experience the benefit that smartphones offer.

Note: When T-Mobile talks about 4G, they mean HSPA+, not the truly next-generation LTE. Like several smaller carriers in the US and Canada, T-Mobile operates their higher speed network on the AWS frequencies, which means the current iPhones can’t run on them. (An unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile can only run on their older, slower, 2G EDGE network.)

Maybe Apple doesn’t want to complicate their current one-model-rules-them-all strategy of a single GSM/CDMA world phone, and simple adding AWS to the radio stack isn’t an option, or maybe they’re waiting to see how the AT&T-Mobile merger pans out before deciding.

All we know for sure is that T-Mobile customers remain among the increasingly smaller group without access to a fully functional iPhone on their carrier of choice.

Source: T-Mobile