We knew this was coming, and sure enough, Sling hasn’t kept us waiting for long. Our beloved readers have inundated our tip jar with the news that the 3G-enabled flavor of SlingPlayer Mobile is now live on the App Store, and from what we’re hearing works very well. The placeshifting app will set you back just under $30, but will allow you to finally take your cable, satellite or PVR content on the move with you. We say finally, 3G streaming has been available on other phones for a Read the full story

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AT&T FamilyMap determines a family member’s phone location and displays it within a map on your iPhone.

A number of techniques are used to determine location. AT&T phones that have A-GPS (Assisted GPS) return the most accurate locations when they have a clear line of sight to GPS satellites. For example, the phone is outside or is in a car near a window. For phones where A-GPS is not available, FamilyMap uses cell tower information to provide the most accurate location possible, which is usually within a few hundred yards to a few miles of the phone’s actual location. This includes iPhones, non A-GPS phones, as well as A-GPS phones that are not in a clear line of sight to GPS satellites.
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FoxNEWS correspondent Clayton Morris is reporting that AT&T outbid every other carrier for the iPad leaving even him surprised.

“Where was Verizon? I thought it would be both carriers. As I reported before the event, Verizon appeared to be on board and was even working out the final details of the partnership.”

Sources at Verizon say that the company is more interested in the lucrative iPhone contracts; however, the two companies are still “very much talking and plan to bring an iPhone and an iPad” to the CDMA network this year after AT&T’s exclusive agreement with Apple expires.

Morris’ sources believe AT&T was able to outbid every other GSM carrier with a $14.99 or $29.99 plan that gives customers 250MB or unlimited data, respectively.
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After we whispered that AT&T might be requiring messaging plans when you purchase select feature phones, we were hit up by a flood of connects. Long story short, it’s true, and here’s the break down:

• Phones that require a messaging plan at time of purchase include: Pantech Reveal, Pantech Impact, Motorola Karma, Samsung Flight, Samsung Impression, Samsung Magnet, Samsung Solstice, Samsung Mythic, Samsung Propel, LG Xenon, LG Neon, and the LG Vu.
• It looks like the minimum monthly cost when buying a “Quick Messaging” phone is around $20. That’s a $5 200 SMS/MMS plan and a $15/month unlimited data plan. It doesn’t look like you can walk out of the door without paying less than $20/mo in features in addition to your Read the full story

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AT&T spent a good bit of its earnings call today talking about its network — not too surprising, really, considering the cozy relationship between dropped calls, subscriber count, and profit. The overall takeaway was that the company is pleased with its progress and continues to improve thanks to the addition of new carriers at existing cell sites (read: increased over-the-air capacity), an ongoing backhaul renovation, and the recent roll-out of 7.2Mbps capability across most of its 3G footprint. In terms of dropped calls specifically, AT&T claims that the statistic dropped network-wide from 1.41 percent to 1.05 percent between December ‘08 and ‘09 — not bad, though the real problems seem to be in key high-density, high-visibility markets Read the full story

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While Verizon suffers a bit on paper, primarily thanks to a spendy Alltel merger, AT&T has some pretty good news to report on the “money” front. AT&T’s $3 billion in earnings are up 26% over the year ago quarter, and particularly hot on the wireless front with 3.1 million iPhone activations, 2.7 million new wireless customers, and 1 million non-phone devices like e-book readers. While the 2.7 million bests the 2.2 million newbies at Verizon Wireless, AT&T gained less customers on Read the full story

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