Nokia Launching Lumia 520 On AT&T

Great news for the budget minded cellphone user in the crowd, AT&T will be launching the Nokia Lumia 520 soon in the sub-$150 no contract market (or Free with 2 year agreement if the rumors are true) for use with a standard contract or possibly their new $60 a month GoPhone plan.

It was clear earlier this month that AT&T's new GoPhone plans were designed to get users off that T-Mobile plan and maybe not make it such a simple choice. The problem with their GoPhone plans was the lack of handset selection. Besides a few glorified feature phones and a few low end Android devices, users were forced to shell out $350-500 for a mid-range device.

The Lumia 520 fills the mid-range, low cost device selection quite nicely. It has a 4" WVGA (480x800) display, a 5MP camera, expandable memory slot and some splashy color options. It doesn't have the NFC, the Qi charging and a few of the other big boy options that the 8xx and 9xx series have, but what an option for a low cost device.

The $150 Lumia 520 and 2 years of GoPhone service will set users back $1590. A comparable AT&T postpaid option would be about $3300 a year.

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Twitter Update Rolls Out

An update for the popular Twitter App for Windows Phone is now available in the Windows Phone Store. The update includes some new features, and a few bug fixes. Most notably on the new features is the ability to see a translation of foreign language tweets in your timeline.

It doesn't look like a major rebuild by amy means, but I love seeing new features added to good Apps.

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UPDATED: HTC Launching 8XT On Sprint This Summer

Sprint fans finally have something to cheer about in the Windows Phone front. HTC announced the 8XT coming to the third largest carrier later this summer. The 8XT is the probable successor to the 8X, but has some major enhancements over the original that are worth noting. First, the XT features BoomSound, the amazing sound system found on the HTC One. It also includes a MicroSD slot, which will make music lovers everywhere stand up and cheer. The $99 price tag will also make plenty of people happy.

Now, for the drawbacks, it only features 8GB of internal storage. Yes, with Windows Phone’s infamous “Other” storage, 8GB will fill up very quickly, leaving precious little room for all those great Xbox games that are coming soon – or are already here.

The HTC 8XT will be out later this summer on Sprint, so make sure to check back at www.getsmartphones.info often to see when you can snag one.

Update 7/9/13:  HTC has confirmed that the 8XT will be available on the Sprint network beginning on July 19th. So get your orders ready and enjoy that unlimited LTE data - your Windows Phone will be here soon!

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Phone Insurance For The MVNO User

 

When considering a carrier change, like you are right now, there are a bevy of services that your major carrier offers that you might not want to live without. One of these popular services is “Phone Insurance”. This popular item usually costs between $5-12 a month and carries with it a large deductible if you are needing to use it. Unfortunately, phone insurance is one of the only ways to avoid having to pay $600 for that new Galaxy S IV that you just dropped on the ground and shattered.

ProtectYourBubble.Com offers smartphone and tablet insurance at very affordable rates. I was able to set up my policy in seconds by selecting the state I live in, the carrier, manufacturer, model and payment option I preferred. Within a few minutes, I was able to see that my phone would be covered for $7.99 a month or $143.99 ($5.99 per month) for 24 months. There was a flat deductible of $75 to replace my device if something were to happen to it. Of course, if I had an iPhone, the deductible cost rises to $120 simply due to the cost of the actual replacement.

All this said, customer support response was excellent, the policies seem more than fair and the 10% discount for multiple devices is a welcome sight. Overall, ProtectYourBubble.com does a excellent job of providing a third party service for one of those ‘big carrier perks’ that disappears when you leave the big contracts and bills behind.

Cost: $7.99 per month + $75 deductible = $170.88 for 12 month replacement.

Source: http://us.protectyourbubble.com

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Product Steal: JBL PowerUP Speaker–$149.50

I love a deal and honestly, if I had the spare buck-fifty lying around right now, I would be snagging at least one of these amazing beasts right now. The Nokia, JBL Power Up Qi Charging Speaker is on ‘online sale’ for 1/2 off at the moment. I have no idea how long this will last, but I’m betting they will run out quickly. So grab one right now at AT&T’s Website before they are all gone!

Review: See Spot Run – Spot Mobile That Is

I love test driving services. Is there anything better than getting a brand new SIM card in your hand, popping open that device and forking over $40 to try something that may be one of the worst experiences ever? The only thing better than testing a service, is testing a phone – but more on that later. Today, it’s our friends at Spot Mobile that are in the hot seat. 

Spot Mobile offers a good selection of plans, although a few too many if you ask me. Ranging from $5 for a 90 day Pay As You Go card to $49.99 for an unlimited talk, text and data plan (1GB at 4G speeds), Spot can run with anyone. If you are one that only uses your device around Wi-Fi, you can purchase an unlimited talk and text only plan for $24.99 a month. For those that need just a pick-me-up of data now and again, you can jump on the $39.99 plan with 500MB of 4G/Unlimited 2G data.

Activation: This was a bit of a pain… I was going to port a number in to see how simple the process was. Unfortunately, the instructions online (though the instructions on the SIM card packaging were very blunt – but who reads those?) didn’t tell me I couldn’t start a port online – so I got activated with a brand new number. Oops… Watch that if you want to port your number in – call or have your dealer do it for you.

Coverage and Speeds: The 4G speeds experienced in the Seattle area were just as fast as T-Mobile’s post-paid speeds. The peak speeds seemed to hit right around 15Mbps with averages near 10Mbps. Uplinks were a snappy 3.5-5Mbps. The voice coverage was every bit as good as well. It seemed to match T-Mobile’s Monthly4G plan very well. Even in less than perfect conditions, the signal faired as well as T-Mobile’s regular coverage.

Refill: Once you understand PINZOO.com and how it works, refilling is simple. Just log in, get the 12 digit code and refill online or via your device. Pretty simple and by getting your PIN from pinzoo.com, you won’t have to pay sales taxes.

Overall, Spot Mobile’s $39.99 plan has won me over for now. I enjoy the fact that I am spending less now on a ‘still unlimited’ plan than I was prior to this. In fact, it’s $20 a month less than Solavei, $10 less than Net10 and $5 less than Straight Talk. The service isn’t quite as strong as the voice signal from Red Pocket Mobile, but it’s a very close second.

As a special thank you, www.4gfastdata.com has provided us with 2 Spot Mobile SIM cards to pass along to the first two people that are willing to activate them on their network. You can even use a simple $5 PayGo card with these SIM’s to test drive them, but I recommend trying out that $39.99 plan and seeing how everything works for you. The money you save will be your own. If you want to get one, email smartphonedeals@gmail.com and the first two users to send in their contact info will get one!

Good Luck!