Sprint Nextel

SprintFeed provides a screenshot of Sprint’s internal systems showing a blackout of some kind due to a major phone launch. The dates September 30th to October 15th fall in line with all of the recent rumors and Sprint’s Galaxy S II gets released next week so that ain’t it. Yeah, Sprint. Welcome to iPhone.

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Bloomberg (adds to the) reports that Sprint will differentiate itself from AT&T and Verizon iPhone offers by offering a truly unlimited plan.

Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, plans to begin selling the device in mid-October under a deal with Apple for the next model, the iPhone 5, said the people, who wouldn’t be identified because the plans aren’t public. Becoming the country’s only operator to offer the device with unlimited data service for a flat fee may help Sprint draw customers from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which already carry the phone, they said.

Sprint, probably because it has to, offers reasonable plans without data capping or tiers.  Its subsidiary Virgin Mobile would be even better with its $35-$55 unlimited plans.

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BGR reports that Best Buy’s internal sales forecast is expecting an iPhone 5 on Sprint with pre-sales beginning the first week in October.  That lines up with our earlier report, though as both we and the Best Buy statement mentioned, launch dates are subject to changes.

We first reported news of a Sprint iPhone 5 back in June which followed clues in April when Apple beefed up its cellular engineering team in Kansas City, which is Sprint’s HQ.
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Update: This appears to be a mistake

Discovered by This is my next, an internal Best Buy document points to an ‘Apple Fixture Installation’ Friday, October 21st. Interestingly, this date lines up with the mid-October range that’s being tossed around for the iPhone 5 release.

This is my next’s source says that a manager being at the store at 6 A.M. to open the doors is out of the ordinary, seeing as they usually get there at 7 A.M. The source also said that this similar procedure happened with the iPhone 4 launch. Best Buy managers have a meeting scheduled on October 10th to talk “upcoming BIG release dates”. Sounds fishy, huh? If these reports and precedent are correct, we can expect the device to land early Friday morning.

Apple is rumored to be hosting a press event at the end of September where they’ll announce the iPhone 5, and officially release iOS 5. You’ll remember our report that Apple will release the iPhone 5 October 7th, which is also a Friday. In terms of carriers, WSJ is reporting that Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint will be getting their hands on the device.

Also, of note: October 23rd (Sunday) will be the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the iPod. Video after the break:

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What’s interesting here is that the button isn’t wider as originally prognosticated. In this scenario,it is actually shorter to make room for the bigger screen.

Earlier today we broke the news that an iPhone icon in the Photo Stream beta software had some new dimensions including a more edge to edge screen and an elongated button, which coincidentally matched the earlier rumors.  One obviously possibility is that this device is a larger-screened iPhone 5.  However, we’ve received word that of the two new iPhones coming out from Apple, this device might actually be the smaller, cheaper iPhone that is set for release at the same time.

One was called the “upgraded one, the iPhone 5” and the other, “a new smaller one”.

To that end, we’ve got a mock up of what something like that would look like using current iPhone sizes, and the dimensions offered up by the icon (above) if it is a smaller device.  If it is the bigger device, or at least bigger-screened device, It could look like the below:

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This would be a nearly 4+ inch screen, nearly the size of the Galaxy S line.
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While it may seem obvious, Sprint is telling its dealers not to discuss the possibility of an upcoming iPhone 5 according to SprintFeed.

If the nation’s third largest carrier wasn’t getting the iPhone, would they put in such harsh lockdown measures?  Why not instruct employees to tell customers to look at a nice Blackberry or Android instead?  Color us skeptical.

Earlier this month, the WSJ reported that Sprint would be getting the iPhone 5 at launch.  That followed our report a month earlier that Sprint engineers were preparing for the iPhone 5.  In May, an Engineering job had been advertised for an iPhone technician to work in Sprint’s HQ city, Kansas City.

T-Mobile is also likely to get access to the iPhone 5 later this year, though they already have 1 million iPhones on their network.
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Last Month, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo told an investor conference call that the Verizon iPhone would be a World phone.  The CFO was also the first to reveal the Verizon iPad.  Many think that the current Verizon iPhone’s inclusion of a worldphone-capable Gobi chip from Qualcomm is a preview into the future of the iPhone line.

Again, today  Shammo told the Reuters Global Technology Summit a bit more:

While Verizon has sold fewer iPhones than some analysts expected, Shammo said he was happy with sales of the “six-month-old phone” that only works in some countries.

When the next iPhone model launches Verizon will be able to offer it at the same time as AT&T. Verizon’s version will also work in as many countries as AT&T’s iPhone, which has global coverage, Shammo said.

Some customers held off on buying the first Verizon iPhone because they were waiting for a model that supports Verizon’s high-speed wireless service, which runs on a new technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE).

Shammo said that even if the next iPhone does not support LTE, Verizon will have enough high-speed alternatives to sell.

That’s a pretty good clue that the next iPhone won’t be LTE, which Apple CFO Tim Cook all but revealed himself at the last earnings call:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZNxjBKI0fI&w=640&h=385]

Clear discontinued the iSpot personal 4G hotspot for iOS devices yesterday.  The iSpot was easily hacked to work like its more expensive counterpart with all computers and even had trouble with some iPads without hacking.

Clear recently dropped the price of the iSpot by 80% and will continue selling them until they sell out of retail inventory.

Sprint (who own 54% of Clear) is also about to announce a new Mifi device which may also account for the iSpot discontinuation (below).  One major drawback of the iSpot is that it only works in the few spots that have Clear 4G, it doesn’t drop down to 3G if you leave a 4G area.  The new device, which also uses Sprint’s 3G network, does.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZNxjBKI0fI&w=640&h=390]

If you are the adventurous type and want 4G wireless (and it is available in your place of residence), you now have a few more options, thanks to your friendly neighborhood hackerz.

If 4G WiMAX from Sprint is what your are after, you can pick up the Clear iSpot for $100 and connect all of your (up to 8 ) iOS devices to it for $25/month (deal!).  However a simple hack allows you to take it a bit further and connect those bandwidth-heavy Macs (and PCs and Androids and Linux if you are into that sort of thing) to your $25/month iSpot.  The hack releases the MAC address restrictions which ironically include the latest batch of iPads…yes that’s right, it will only work as intended if hacked.  Be warned however that Sprint could take it all away with an over the air update to their little iSpot…unless you are savvy enough to change your Mac MAC address.

If, for whatever reason, you were after Verizon’s USB 4G Wireless service on your Macs, you are officially out of luck.  However, a hack developed within the gardens of Howard Forums allows one of the two USB Modems (Pantech) to work on the Mac.  Verizon is said to be working on an official Mac version of the drivers for both modems so this would just be a holdover until the better drivers/setup come along.

Now, is anyone thinking about replacing their Broadband connection with 4G Wireless?
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