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Sprint announces new mobile plans which cap tablet and hotspot data

Sprint has just announced it’s moving away from offering unlimited plans for all devices but phones starting today. The shift will take the form of new tiered data plans that are in-line with what’s available for AT&T and Verizon. Sprint will be issuing 6GB for $50 per month and 12 GB for $80 per month to all new and existing customers. Sprint noted in its announcement that its new plans are cheaper than the alternatives at AT&T and Verizon, and technically, they are correct. What was unclear was whether Sprint Read more

Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile USA launch Deployed Military Programs

Sprint-owned Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA are each launching a Deployed Military Program to allow service men and women to keep their accounts and phone numbers intact while deployed overseas. When a customer wants to participate in the program, they simply contact Boost or Virgin Mobile Customer Care and will then be directed to dedicated agents working on this initiative. The account will be identified as requiring no Top-Up or payment during the deployed period, and any automatic payment activity will be removed. The customer will be asked to Read more

YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus hits 3 million download, gets fresh cash from CrunchFund and the Tech Coast Angels ACE Fund

It wasn’t that long ago when we told you YouMail surpassed 1 billion calls answered. Now the company announced a new milestone, surpassing of 3 million organic downloads. What’s more, they can boast having had 75 million distinct callers interact with the company’s service at one point or another. But that’s not all, YouMail also announced new investors, CrunchFund and the Tech Coast Angels ACE Fund, bringing the total investment raised since 2007 to nearly $13 million! According to the company’s CEO Alex Quilici, the new cash will be used Read more

Fuugo releases cool new video app for Android devices

Finnish company Axel Technologies has obviously been busy in its Labs, and has cooked up some cool new TV and video applications for consumers to use: Fuugo Video 1.0, which is available as a free download from the Android Market and fuugo.tv, aggregates various content services, such as Break.com and YouTube, making it easy to find and enjoy content that interests you. iOS versions (iPhone and iPad) are coming shortly too and so does support for additional social media features, and more content sources. Fuugo TV on the other hand Read more

AT&T offers Square-like accessory and an accompanying mobile payment service from Intuit to small businesses

AT&T is teaming-up with Intuit to provide small business with a simple solution for accepting credit and debit card payments while on the go. The two companies collaborated to offer Intuit GoPayment for AT&T, an easy-to-use mobile application and Square-like credit card reader to anyone with an iOS and Android-based device who needs to accept mobile payments. Best of all, the new service comes with automatic signup and pre-approval for the majority of AT&T customers and is available via AT&T’s nationwide small business sales force and call centers. Interested business Read more

China’s location-based social mobile app Jiepang teams-up with Starbucks

While the rest of the world checks-in with apps like Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla – China has its own mobile social location-based service called Jiepang. The company is now teaming up with Starbucks to allow coffee drinkers to win some cool badges and real awards for checking in at more than 200 Starbucks stores in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The game is already on and will last through December 17th. When the number of badge issued hits 20,000, the Christmas rewards will be unlocked, and those who have Read more

Infographic: Mobile dating booming

Mobile dating services build on the success on their online/desktop predecessors, providing on-the-go singles with an easy way to meet, chat, flirt and, who knows, maybe even fall in love. The following infographic was prepared by AreYouInterested.com, which pulled data from more than 50,000 singles who use the mobile dating app every day. Some of the more notable findings include: 4 out of 5 people surveyed prefer mobile dating to online dating sites. Nearly 600 online dating profiles are viewed each minute on AreYouInterested.com… and the average person looks at Read more

Tapjoy gets a whole new site, launches personal app marketplace

Tapjoy, which by this point we knew for their mobile ad efforts, announced the beta launch of a “new kind of personal marketplace” to “forever change” how consumers find, share and engage with mobile applications. The new Tapjoy personal app marketplace delivers customized app recommendations based on user’s likes and dislikes, what apps he or she is currently using, what apps his/her friends are using, and other factors. And that’s just one part of the equation. There’s also the so called “Mobile Value Exchange” where users select personalized advertisements with Read more

iPhone 4S users suffer major Siri outage

It looks like Siri is undergoing its first major outage today, as iPhone 4S users take to the Web to complain. Attempting to use the service only results in a kind message from that nice robot lady saying: “Sorry, I am having trouble connecting to the network.” So, if you’re noticing that Siri hasn’t been working, don’t worry, you are not alone. It hasn’t even been a month since the iPhone 4S was released, yet people are already discovering they can’t live without Siri. A quick search on Twitter makes that evident. Read more

New mobile payments company GeoPay launches in Kyrgyzstan, raises initial round of private funding

There are no doubts in my mind mobile payments market is set for an explosive growth. Judging by the success of services like M-Pesa and the recent launch of Google Wallet, there’s a ton of money to be made by providing mobile financial services to people all around the world, whether they live in developed or developing countries. A new entrant, GeoPay, announced plans to launch a full-scale mobile money transfer service in Central Asia in December 2011, as well as the establishment of a local office in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Read more

BBM Music goes live, here’s why it sucks

After a beta period spanning a few months, RIM’s music service, BBM Music, is now live. For five bucks every month, you can fully realize the poor taste of your friends, or at least the few that still own a BlackBerry and are also willing to subscribe. Let me walk you through how it works, because it’s just a little stupid. First off, the streaming music service is available solely on a BlackBerry smartphone – there’s no web or desktop client. Even secondary sharing is practically nonexistent, with no options Read more