T-Mobile will raise its monthly soft-cap to 50GB

T-Mobile will raise its monthly soft-cap to 50GB

Ever since smartphones began demanding more data, smartphone providers had no choice but to implement a soft data cap or deprioritize heavy data users in favor of those who use less data. Currently, T-Mobile throttles customers who use more than 32GB of data within one billing cycle. Other carriers are in the general ballpark area of 25GB to 30GB for a soft-cap. According to a leaked internal document obtained by T-Mobile will begin implementing a new soft-data cap of 50GB per billing cycle. T-Mobile calls this its Fair Usage Threshold. The new data soft-cap is to become effective September 20. T-Mobile likely has no doubt that it can handle the extra capacity. T-Mobile is likely doing this to get people to switch from legacy plans over to T-Mobile ONE, not to mention to entice people to switch to the magenta side. If youre on a legacy plan, you are likely to save if you switch to T-Mobile ONE. After all, T-Mobile has made new perks and promotions only eligible to ONE customers in hopes of this.

Read More

More than 80% of new Apple Watch preorders are cellular models

More than 80% of new Apple Watch preorders are cellular models

One of the most notable Apple analysts, Ming-Chi Kuo, had predicted that about 30% to 40% of pre-orders of the new would be for the new cellular enabled version of the new Apple Watch. Well, on Monday, the KGI Securities analyst estimated that the LTE-enabled version of the Apple Watch Series 3 accounts for between 80% and 90% of all Apple Watch Series 3 pre-orders. Pre-orders for the new Apple Watch, Apple TV 4K, and the and all opened this past Friday, September 15. While iPhone 8 and 8 Plus supply isnt scarce this year as folks are likely waiting for the to drop, but Apples new always-connected smartwatch is flying off the virtual pre-order shelves. In fact, most Series 3 + Cellular models are backordered 3-4 weeks as of Monday with initial batches shipping on September 22. The Apple Watch Series 3 is going to spike growth for the smartwatch industry. Weve already seen Samsung do well with its smartwatch platform and improvements are noticed, but Google really needs to step it up if it wants a future with Android Wear 3.0. |

Read More

Samsung to build its own 1,000 fps camera to challenge Sony

Samsung to build its own 1,000 fps camera to challenge Sony

Sony was the first to build a mobile the Motion Eye camera on the Xperia XZ Premium and XZs (later XZ1 too). Now chatter from Korea suggests that Samsung Semiconductors is looking to build a similar camera in November, ready to use in the next-generation Galaxy S phone. The advantage of on-chip memory is that the camera can store many frames fast enough to shoot 1,000fps or so for slow-motion video. Streaming those to the main RAM will be too slow, so Sony built a three layer chip pixels, control logic and memory. Samsungs design is reportedly slightly different. It uses a traditional two layer chip to which a DRAM chip is bonded. Apparently this is to avoid infringing certain patents. While Samsung's design is not as sophisticated as Sony's, the company has an advantage it has in-house factories that produce both image sensors and memory chips. Sony has to rely on Micron for the 1 gigabit memory chip. Currently, Samsung uses a mix of Samsung and Sony-made sensors on its phones. For example, Korean Galaxy S8 phones come with a Samsung image sensor, the US models have a Sony sensor. The S9 could use all-Samsung sensors if this pans out. (in Korean)

Read More