As reported here on Cell Phones Etc. and across the Web, here’s your daily brief on what happened in the world of mobile phones this Thursday, June 23rd 2011.
Telus Makes It Simple To Terminate Contracts, Replace Your Feature Phone
Taking a page from its own playbook, Telus Mobility has extended its Clear and Simple Device Upgrade program to the logical conclusion of contract termination. Now, if a customer chooses to cancel their service, they must pay only a $50 administrative fee and the remaining portion of their phone’s subsidy — it could still result in a lot of loonies, but the amount decreases monthly according to a fixed schedule. Similar to Rogers, Telus offers its customers early upgrades by allowing them to pay this unrecovered subsidy and commit to a new contract.
Engadget
Rogers Releases Two Unlimited U.S. Text Message Plans
A couple weeks back Rogers posted a “coming soon” notice on their site regarding a new $10 Unlimited U.S. text message package. Today, this has been released along with a new $50 Unlimited offering. Here are the details: The $10 Unlimited U.S. Roaming Text Messaging Pass gives you Unlimited sent/received texts in States, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The fine print states that this plan “is only valid for 2 days: from 12:00am EST on the purchase date to 11:59pm EST the following day”. The $50 U.S. Roaming Text Messaging Pass allows Unlimited sent/received texts but Rogers says it “expires one month after the date of purchase”.
MobileSyrup
ThinkGeek Now Selling The FastMac U-Socket, The USB Wallplug
Most gadgets charge off USB nowadays so it only makes sense to have a wall outlet with a couple of outlets. ThinkGeek has you covered with the FastMac U-Socket USB Wallplug. The standard 110 volt socket has two 5.0V 2100mA outlets playing wingman. ThinkGeek has them in stock and shipping for just $24.99
CrunchGear
Google Sites Simplifies iOS And Android Viewing With Automatic Mobile Rendering
The search giant just added automatic mobile rendering to make your website more mobile-friendly when viewed on an iOS 3.0 or Android 2.2+ device. A new setting to “Automatically adjust site for mobile phones” can be activated in the site management page, at which point pages designed for desktop viewing will be displayed in a much simpler web format, so readers won’t need to pinch-to-zoom just to see a page’s content. Google also added mobile versions of the site list, sites search, and browse sites categories, for easy access from your smartphone.
Engadget
40% Of European Smartphone Buyers Intend To Buy An iPhone Next
Yankee Group is set to release its European Mobile User Study next month and the research firm has just provided a quick glimpse into its early findings. Reportedly, 40% of European smartphone buyers plan to purchase an iPhone as their next device. 19% plan to purchase an Android powered device, 17% have their eye on a BlackBerry, and 15% plan to buy a Nokia smartphone. “These findings highlight the continued strength of Apple in the European smartphone market and, in particular, its phenomenal brand appeal,” Yankee Group research vice president, Declan Lonergan, said.
BGR
