Tag Archives: Unlocked
HTC One available from its online store, 32GB unlocked model priced at $575
Alongside its developer model, HTC now has an unlocked One for the rest of us. The fetching 4.7-inch 1080p device is in stock at HTC’s US store with 32GB of storage and the same powerhouse specs we saw earlier: 1.7Ghz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 4-megapixel “UltraPixel” cam and Android 4.1.2 with Sense 5. You’ll also get a SIM-unlocked model, but unlike the 64GB equipped, $ 650 developer edition, it won’t come with a liberated bootloader — though it’ll cost a touch less at $ 575. So, if you’ve been biding your time for a carrier-free version of the svelte aluminum-bodied handset, you can place your order at the source.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC
Via: GSM Arena
Source: HTC
T-Mobile brings LTE to unlocked iPhone 5s with new carrier update
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6 things I want to do with NFC (Smartphones Unlocked)
S Beam on the Samsung Galaxy S3 makes terrific use of NFC.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Tapping your phone on a console to pay for fries and a Coke is cool. Yet until the stars align, it’s not how you’ll be using NFC, the near field communications standard that gets devices talking to one another quickly and in a very short range.
Instead of using NFC to replace your credit card, it will increasingly become your passcode, your key. Best of all, it can be used to program one tag with a certain set of instructions that can launch specific actions when read by another NFC-enabled device.
In other words, just one tap of an NFC smartphone on the right tag can launch an app, a map, and share photos and documents.
NFC has been sitting around in phones for years, waiting for people to figure out how to use its charms. This past CES and MWC, device-makers have begun showing more smartphones, laptops, cameras, and appliances built with an embedded NFC chip.
The problem is, some of these NFC-enabled devices just don’t work. There are software and hardware hurdles to overcome, but for the first time since NFC landed on an unsuspecting phone, there’s the real possibility for NFC pairing to meld into a way of life.
Here are the ways I’d want use the protocol. Some already exi… [Read more]
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Crave: gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. – CNET
How to sell your phone for cash (Smartphones Unlocked)
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
In last month’s Smartphones Unlocked, I shared what happens to your smartphone when it ceases to be yours.
Although I listed resources for getting rid of your phone (and took a poll of what CNET readers usually do with their old handsets,) it’s high time I offered up some tips for how to go about selling your phone…or any other consumer electronic, for that matter.
Don’t count on a Hawaiian vacation for your efforts, but depending on how much you hoard or how savvy you sell, the dollars could really add up.
1. Raid the closet
When’s the last time you’ve slid open desk drawers or checked under the bed? Chances are that you have at least one ancient flip phone hiding out in a closet somewhere.
Holding onto a phone you’re no longer planning to use makes good sense. You never know when you or a family member or friend will need a spare, but at some point when you upgrade to the next big thing, you can turn the one you’ve got into cash.
When you add up the old cell phones, cameras, and laptops you have at home, you might find a nice little stash to sell.
2. Don’t stress if it’s broken
How much money would you expect to get for a cruddy old model? Through many Web sites and trade-in programs, the answer is: nothing…. [Read more]
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Crave: gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. – CNET
Your smartphone’s secret afterlife (Smartphones Unlocked)
A Green Citizen technician swaps out a broken iPhone screen.
(Credit: CNET/CBS Interactive)
A blue mat, a fine-tipped screwdriver, and a dozen itty bitty screws. This is Titus Green’s workspace, set within a warehouse that processes 2 million pounds of unwanted electronic waste each year.
Green, 22, and his team at San Francisco Bay Area e-waste collection center Green Citizen, refurbish 30 cell phones a day to put back into customers’ hands.
If you don’t chuck your electronics down the trash chute (and please don’t,) the most likely cycle is that the phone will be refurbished and resold, one way or another.
Of the appliances that come through Green Citizen’s doors — computers, old phones, even an ancient sewing machine — 21 percent will get a second chance at life. The remaining 79 percent of unwanted cables, motherboards, and TVs are too ancient or too broken for anything beyond tossing individual parts into scrap bins.
Four ways to ditch your old electronics
From there, towering bins containing circuit boards here and batteries there ship out to certified partners that either turn the parts into some other electronic, or smelt metals and other materials out of phones — like copper or silver, for instance. In addition, certified e-waste recycling centers deal with noxious chemi… [Read more]
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Crave: gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. – CNET
Unlocked iPhone 5 could arrive in Apple’s Web store tonight
iPhone 5.
(Credit: CNET)
Apple will begin selling an unlocked version of the iPhone 5 tonight through its online store in the U.S. according to a new report.
Citing retail sources, 9to5Mac says Apple will quietly kick off sales of the unlocked device on its online store this evening, later doing the same at its retail stores.
The news comes as supply of the iPhone 5 is easing, with new orders from Apple’s online site shipping in one week, down from the nearly month long delay shortly after the product’s launch in September.
By selling it unlocked, it means that users can insert nano-SIM cards from any supported carrier for use on the network, as opposed to the locked phones, which are tied to the carrier they purchased the phone from. The feature comes at a cost: unlocked buyers pick up the full price of the iPhone, which is expected to start at $ 649, versus what is typically the subsidized $ 199 entry price on contract.
This would not be the first time Apple has offered an unlocked iPhone in the U.S. Apple did the… [Read more]
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Crave: gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. – CNET
