AT&T hinted that it was shaking up its GoPhone plans later this month, and it's making good on its word. As of June 21st, customers using the prepaid service will have access to the same LTE service as their subscription peers; AT&T will mark the occasion by selling the Samsung Galaxy Express to GoPhone users at $250 off-contract. The simplified smartphone plans are here as well, although they're better than previously expected. The carrier is dropping all data add-ons except for the $5 / 50MB pack, which is only available for a $25 monthly tier with 250 voice minutes and unlimited messaging. However, it will only cost $40 a month for a plan with 200MB of data and 500 minutes, and a $60 plan will offer 2GB of data with unlimited voice. AT&T's new strategy won't appease some data lovers, but those trying to avoid long contracts and harsh upgrade policies should be happy.Update: To be clear, this is the official launch of LTE -- some customers have had the faster service in advance. The plans should be new.AT&T GoPhone Customers Can Surf the Nation's Fastest 4G LTE Network with Prepaid PlansNew 4G LTE GoPhone Device Offers Blazing Fast Speed on a BudgetBeginning June 21, AT&T* GoPhone customers can enjoy the affordability and simplicity of a prepaid wireless plan on the nation's fastest 4G LTE network.** AT&T is adding to its lineup of GoPhone devices with the introduction of the 4G LTE-capable Samsung Galaxy Express™.New and existing AT&T GoPhone customers can bring their own 4G or 4G LTE smartphone or choose a GoPhone device to connect to AT&T's nation's largest 4G network. AT&T 4G and 4G LTE service is available with any of the new GoPhone smartphone plans, which include:* $60 a month for 2 GB of data, unlimited nationwide calling, and unlimited messaging - now double the data at a lower monthly price. Additional data is available for $10 per 1 GB.* $40 a month for 200 MB of data, 500 minutes of nationwide calling, and unlimited messaging. Additional data is available for $5 per 100 MB.* $25 a month for 250 minutes of nationwide calling and unlimited messaging, with an optional data package of 50 MB for an additional $5 a month.* All GoPhone monthly plans include international texts from the U.S. to Mexico, Canada and 100 other countries."AT&T GoPhone customers can make the most of their smartphones on our fast 4G LTE network, and with our new prepaid plans, they're getting even more value and data at an attractive price," said Mark Collins, AT&T Mobility senior vice president of data and voice products. "With the addition of the Samsung Galaxy Express, customers get the latest capabilities and speeds from their wireless experience, and we'll be adding more exciting devices to our GoPhone lineup."The Samsung Galaxy Express is available on June 21 for $249.99 online and at any AT&T company-owned retail store or GoPhone distributors. The Galaxy Express is all about sharing. Samsung's S Beam™ enables consumers to share large files - photos, videos, music and more - with any other S Beam-capable device. Additional features include:* 4G LTE* Operating system: Android, Jelly Bean* 1.5 GHz dual-core processor* 4.5-inch Super AMOLED® Plus display* 5-megapixel rear facing camera with 720 p video recording capabilities at 30 frames per second* 1.3-megapixel front facing camera with VGA video recording at 15 frames per second* Internal memory/storage: 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage with support for up to 32 GB microSD cardAT&T GoPhone monthly plans are also available for quick messaging and basic phones, with several plans to choose from. For $35 a month, basic phone customers can get 500 minutes of nationwide calling, unlimited data and unlimited messaging.AT&T GoPhone smartphone customers can also choose a $50 unlimited talk and text plan with Wi-Fi data only.For more information on AT&T GoPhone and a complete listing of plans, visit www.att.com/gophone.
In each issue of Distro, Editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
One major press event going on means we need to get our game faces on. Two happening simultaneously? Hoo boy, that raises the stakes. This year we had full teams on the ground in both San Francisco and Los Angeles for the dueling media extravaganzas that were E3 and WWDC. In one, we learned a lot about two incredible new gaming systems and saw dozens of fantastic new games. In the other? Two new important operating systems, one new laptop and a new desktop that even Mac haters will have to admit is quite a thing.We'll start with WWDC, since I was actually there for that one, and the biggest news of the day was the long-awaited unveiling of iOS 7. Apple reps were merciless in their ire toward the former versions' skeuomorphic tendencies, poking fun at the green velvet, the mock stitching and the faux surfaces that previously played such a big part of the iPhone and iPad experience. Now things are rather simpler -- and a bit more abstract.iOS 7 is typified by a somewhat more muted color palette and a cunning use of frosted, semi-transparent overlays for things like the keyboard and the new Control Center, which slides up from the bottom of the display with a flick of the thumb and lets you quickly toggle things like WiFi and display brightness. Multitasking is far more comprehensive; a double-tap of the Home button showing you webOS card-like views of all the running applications.WWDC 2013: iOS 7
Apple 13-inch MacBook Air review (13-inch, mid-2013)
I think it looks beautiful, personally, but I can't help being disappointed by the lack of new functionality. Siri got a few new commands, sure, and overall it'll be a nicer OS to live with, but I was really hoping for a new keyboard, a handful of new gestures and, most importantly, a lot more extensibility for developers. There are a zillion new APIs for them to learn, but Apple still didn't announce in-app integration for Siri, for example, or support for third-party keyboards. Maybe there's still time to shoehorn something in before it all launches this fall.I confess to thinking that "Mavericks" is an odd moniker for a pretty predictable set of new features ... but the promise of significantly improved battery life from better CPU management is certainly promising.OS X Mavericks was the other big unveiling, a rather less spectacular, but solid update to Apple's venerable PC operating system -- and the beginning of a new naming scheme that will highlight favorite locales around California. I confess to thinking that "Mavericks" is an odd moniker for a pretty predictable set of new features, including tabbed Finder windows and better multi-monitor support, but the promise of significantly improved battery life from better CPU management is certainly promising.Paving the way for that is the new Intel Haswell CPU-equipped MacBook Air, which was surprisingly the only laptop unveiled at the event. (We'd expected the Retina MacBook Pros would also see a refresh.) The new Air is virtually identical to the old, having only faster SSD storage and the new class of CPU. The result? Far better I/O performance and hugely improved battery life. The 13-inch Air logged an amazing 12 hours and 51 minutes on our battery rundown test.
Finally, there's the new Mac Pro, a cylinder of polished black aluminum containing a 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with DDR3 RAM and PCIe storage. As the machine is rather svelte, expandability will be mostly external, enabled by a whopping six Thunderbolt 2.0 ports. Perhaps best of all? It'll be assembled here in the US. No pricing or availability was announced, but it won't be cheap, you can bet on that.Not so fast: the PS4 doesn't include the $59 Eye camera, while the Xbox One includes Kinect.Moving on to E3, we finally got all the details on this fall's gaming powerhouses: the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Well, almost all the details. The Xbox One will launch in November for $499, while thePlayStation 4 will launch "this holiday season" for $399. Instant victory for Sony? Not so fast: the PS4 doesn't include the $59 Eye camera, while the Xbox One includes Kinect. Not only does that reduce the price delta between them, but it also means that Sony's camera likely won't see much support in games, while Microsoft's should.PlayStation 4 DualShock 4 and PS4 Eye (GDC 2013)
See all photos20 PHOTOSXbox One hands-on
See all photos41 PHOTOSThat said, Microsoft's handling of rights-management issues is definitely drawing a lot of ire. The Xbox One will need to phone home over an active internet connection once a day for any downloaded or locally copied games to keep working. This has, unsurprisingly, resulted in a lot of hate online, to which Microsoft's Xbox chief Don Mattrick had this to say: "We have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity; it's called Xbox 360." Cute. The PS4, meanwhile, has no such restrictions built in, but Sony did leave room for game publishers to add their own restrictionsif they like.And that's all I have time to cover this week, dear readers, but there's plenty more to be found in this week's issue of Distro. We have Sean Buckley's feature on the evolution of E3, Ben Gilbert's look at the sad state of the Wii U and Joseph Volpe sits down with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma to find out what's in store for Nintendo's future. We've also got a review of the new MacBook Air refresh and plenty of news and impressions from the E3 show floor. Ross Rubin looks at the policies of the PlayStation 4 in Switched On while Joshua Fruhlinger weighs in on which horse he's putting his money on for the console fight in Modem World. And, if that weren't enough,Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson does Q&A. Enjoy -- but watch out for the creepers.
Just what the heck is the HTC Fetch? Well, it's certainly not a phone. In fact, it appears to be some sort of tracking device according to a filling withTaiwan's NCC. Unfortunately, beyond some broad strokes describing the device in a US trademark filing, we're left with only our imagination to figure out how the Fetch might work. Apparently it's a "portable multifunction electronic tracking device for assistance in locating mobile phones, smartphones, cellular phones, portable computers, tablet computers..." The list goes on and on. We do know there's both a hardware (potentially Bluetooth-powered) and software component, and that while there's a lot of talk about finding lost phones or laptops, HTC also sees the potential for "tracking and locating people." Now it's just a waiting game to find out if the company has any intention of actually selling tracking accessories.
In case you're interested, June 20th is a Thursday. It's more than that toFacebook, though: apparently that is the day the social network will show off a new product, or as the company puts it, a "big idea" coming from a small team. As to what this particular event -- to be held in Menlo Park -- could bring to the table, you now know exactly as much as we do; with recent talkregarding Facebook's interest in building an RSS reader, that rumor would certainly be a good stab in the dark. What's even more odd, however, is the method by which the press is receiving the invitation: the good old-fashioned postal service. Let us know in the comments if you have any particular theories on what it could all mean.
