Verizon’s new data plans are woefully outdated

On Wednesday, Verizon took the wraps off some changes to its wireless plans it promises will "transform your wireless experience." But really, other than some clever marketing names, the new features aren't revolutionary. In fact, they're outdated.

Carry Your Pet On Your Bike With Pet On Wheels

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As fun as it looks on YouTube, carrying your pet on your motorcycle can be hazardous. That’s why we welcome the carrier Pet on Wheels (POW). It’s a top-case designed specifically for carrying small-sized pets securely and legally on a motorcycle, scooter or bicycle. Made from injection-moulded plastic, it will easily fit pets up to 10 kg (22 lb). There are two ventilation holes, and a little cushion on the inside for your quasi-family member. POW can be installed facing forwards or backwards, and a special hook on the inside lets you tie a leash to prevent your best friend from getting too much adventure and jumping out. Currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, a €99 (about US$110) pledge will get you one, with delivery in April.

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[ Project Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

Qualcomm’s X16 modem could help gigabit LTE work in more places

While our wireless carriers bicker over who offers the fastest service, Qualcomm went and pulled back the curtain on the Snapdragon X16 modem, a dry sounding bit of networking tech with huge implications. With it comes the promise of insanely fast gi...

Wanna Make You Cat Feel Like An Astronaut, Try This U-Pet Bubble Carrier

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He’ll be like a cat astronaut… a catstronaut, you know? No? Ok, before we show ourselves out, you have to check out this U-Pet Innovative Bubble Carrier. It’s a lot like a regular pet carrier, except instead of the usual mesh window that your cat gets to look through, he gets a plexiglas bubble. It’s… totally going to make his experience more exciting, as evidenced by the not-freaked-out-at-all cat in the picture below. Everything else seems to be standard issue pet carrier stuff, with ventilation holes, a soft washable pad, and top & side entries for maximum accessibility. Prices start at $80, but at least one of them is out of stock right now.

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[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

Sprint Launches New Share Plans

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After a brief stint of the “Framily Plan”, Sprint is announcing new plan pricing.

Spring has been in a very slow moving metamorphasis fo the past few years. After being the first carrier to lauch a 4G service with its Wimax network in 2010, Sprint was a pioneer in 4G technology, only to fall behind once competing carrier’s launched their superior netowrks usinmg the LTE 4G technology.
Since Sprint technically had 3 separate networks in the form of Sprint PCS, Nextel iDen, and Clearwire Wimax, it started the Network Vision initiative, which would coincide with an LTE launch and basically replace every piece of equipment on every tower so that all the netowrk base stations could support multiple wireless technologies.

The results have been fairly impressive, although very slow moving, and Sprint has been bleeding customers. So much so, that T-Mobile CEO, John Legere, has predicted that T-Mobile will overtake Sprint as the 3rd largest carrier in the United States by the end of 2014.

Sprint is in need of a big change to stop the loss of customers and start growing in order to maintain its place in the industry. The carrier has begun marketing itself as “America’s Newest Network” due to the many upgrades, and just recently replaced longstanding CEO, Dan Hesse, with newcomer, Marcelo Claure.

The change at CEO also comes with some competitive new pricing plans. Sprint will stop advertising its (off ridiculed) “Framily” plans (although they will still be available) and begin pushing some new family share plans will allow up to 10 lines to share 20 GB of data for $100 per month.

The exact break down of the new “Sprint Family Share PacK” plans aren’t broken down into more granular details in terms of voice and texting plans when combined with the $100 20GBs of shared data, but Sprint has said that 4 users could share 20GBs of data for $160 per month. Equivalent plans at the other carriers would run at $310 for Verizon and AT&T, and $180 for T-Mobile.

Sprint is also promising a credit of up to $350 to offset early termination fees for customers leaving contracts with other carriers. Sprint has been offering a similar deal for years, but the strategy mostly gets credits to T-Mobile, who has put a lot of advertising behind the deal as a part of its “uncarrier” initiative.

Whether or not pricing along will help Sprint turnaround and grow as a carrier is to be seen, but along with its continued network improvement efforts and new CEO, we might be seeing just the first glimpse of a brand new Sprint.

Source: re/code, CNN Money

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