T-Mobile Un-carrier Next and a word about the LG G6 | CES 2017 Daily (Day 2)

Two of the biggest stories this day of CES 2017 had absolutely nothing to do with tangible products. That plus a whisper from Toshiba and a total tease from Xiaomi, all in this recap of yesterday’s action in the desert.

Un-carrier Next

T-Mobile announced the next evolution of its Un-carrier campaign. What’s the major brag to customers? The company is wrapping in taxes and fees into its advertised billing rates for service — a $70 per month plan will cost $70 per month on the bill as opposed to somewhere near $85 with the typical extra charges.

The “Un-contract” feature officially locks in the price of your T-Mobile ONE plan while still subjecting you to any changes for the duration of your holding of the plan. KickBack credits customers who use 2GB or less per month $10 on the next bill. The network will also stop offering data bucket plans under the Simple Choice name.

All these changes will take effect January 22.

After letting the public know of these changes, CEO John Legere let the press and investors know that the company’s still open to making a move or being moved upon in this time of industry consolidation.

Hardware

• LG officially confirmed that it has dropped its modular “Friends” accessories line for the launch of its next flagship smartphone, the G6. That’s expected to happen around MWC time.
• Fossil-owned fitness brand Misfit launches its first smartwatch with a touch display and GPS, the Vapor.
• A cousin to LeEco, Chinese company Coolpad has launched into the US market with a metallic mid-ranger, the Conjr. It’s up for pre-orders now and includes free Beyerdynamic earphones.
• The Alcatel A3 XL. Yeah, not really a sexy name, but this editor’s colleague Adrian doesn’t think so. It’s a extremely light MediaTek-powered phone running Android Nougat destined for the APAC, EMEA and Latin America regions.
• There’s a white Xiaomi Mi MIX at CES. If you don’t remember what the Mi MIX is, take a look at the black one that launched over a month ago. It’s only available in China.
• The Toshiba Portege X20W is the latest in a string of convertible Windows 10 PCs getting the limelight at the show.

Coverage

• We were briefed by ZTE on all of its branches from the Android Nougat push on the Axon 7 to the Project CSX vote winner, the Hawkeye, to the dual-camera Blade V8 Pro.
• Juan Carlos Bagnell interviewed German company Lofelt and felt the subwoofing power of the Basslet. No, it’s not just a haptic bracelet.

The post T-Mobile Un-carrier Next and a word about the LG G6 | CES 2017 Daily (Day 2) appeared first on Pocketnow.

from Pocketnow http://pocketnow.com/2017/01/06/ces-2017-daily-day-2