Movie theater ejects a woman for texting, and turns her hate-voicemail into a PSA

We've all done it. But, we also judge everyone else for doing it. Don't be perverted; we're talking about texting in a movie theater. And while every theater seems to have an ad/public service announcement warning you not to use your phone, the Alamo Drafthouse in Texas is taking the rule more seriously.

Since 1997, the Drafthouse has had a strict no-phone policy, which they admit has alienated some customers. But the rest of us appreciate it. After a woman was recently ejected for texting, she left an angry, profanity-ridden voicemail with their corporate office. Rather than delete the message, the Alamo Drafthouse decided to turn the hatefully hilarious message into a public service announcement.

Their new PSA will be featured before every R-rated movie, featuring the full, possibly-drunken message. And following the voicemail, the PSA reads "You're welcome! Thanks for not coming back to the Alamo, texter!"

We love our devices. But there is a time and a place, and the movie theater isn't it. Good work, Alamo Drafthouse.

source: AlamoDrafthouse (YouTube) via Forbes

T-Mobile sets up Q&A page about AT&T acquisition

T-Mobile has set up a Q&A page concerning the pending AT&T acquisition. The site looks to help customers by giving information about the potential changeover to AT&T and how that will effect contracts, hardware and services. The site has information about what will happen leading up to the AT&T takeover, but the trouble is that the site has very little information about what will happen after AT&T takes charge. 

Concerning 3G/4G compatibility of hardware, T-Mobile says that they will not be changing their network, so everything will work fine. However, they cannot speak to what AT&T will do, though they assure customers that the AT&T CEO has said that those types of changes will happen over time. The same answer is used in regards to non-contract customers: nothing will change until the acquisition, but after that it is up to AT&T. 

Many of the other answers can be boiled down to a rote response of: The acquisition will take 12 months, and until then T-Mobile and AT&T are separate companies. Unfortunately, these stock responses don't help in answering the real questions that customers have in regards to how things will change after AT&T takes over. Current contracts will be honored, but there are no solid answers as to what will happen when those contracts expire, or how unlimited data plans will convert to AT&T. 

We'll keep an eye out for any real answers, and bring them to you.

source: T-Mobile Newsroom

Cricket Wireless is now selling their version of the Samsung Indulge for $309.99

Although it’s not sprinkled with the LTE love that’s surrounding the version that MetroPCS currently holds, the Samsung Indulge for Cricket Wireless is still nonetheless going to be seen as attractive solution to some customers looking for a decent Android powered smartphone.

Aside from the noticeable Cricket branding, everything is pretty much intact with this one, which is a good thing seeing that it’s regarded as a high-end smartphone for the prepaid carrier. Some of its features a 3.5” touchscreen, 1GHz processor, 3-megapixel camera, 1,500 mAh battery, microSD card slot, stereo Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Powered by the TouchWiz 3.0 interface running on top of Android 2.2 Froyo, it’ll no doubt appease people with all the customary features and apps you’d expect out of any Android smartphone out there.

In terms of pricing, it’s currently available for purchase through Cricket branded retail stores for the value price of $329.99. However, if you want to save yourself a cool $20, you might want to pick it up online where it’s selling for the discounted price of $309.99.

source: Cricket & Samsung

AT&T slashes the price of the Motorola ATRIX 4G in half to $100 on-contract

Dual-core packing handset no longer require you to shell out the customary $200 on-contract price, that’s partly because we’re seeing one model that's seeing its price being chopped in half – literally!

The Motorola ATRIX 4G continues to be the flagship Android powered handset on AT&T’s lineup, mostly because of its innovative qualities and rich set of hardware, but now it’s being graced with one alluring new price point. Originally selling for $200 with a contract, it’s now going for the easier price of only $99.99! At that point, it’s undeniably hard to not resist its tempting gaze – even more when you know it’s packing a wonderful dual-core processor under the hood.

Therefore, if you’re looking to pick up one snazzy phone that’s sure to contend with the upper echelon of devices coming out this summer, then you may want to pick up the Motorola ATRIX 4G, which is uber attractive at $100.

source: AT&T

BlackBerry Playbook 1.0.5 update offers in-app payments, updated Facebook, & more

Unlike the competition, RIM is taking a different approach when it comes to software updates for its new QNX based platform running on the BlackBerry PlayBook. Rather than waiting a long time to unleash a major software update, we’ve been seeing the Canadian company push out smaller ones that bring some goodies in a shorter period of time.

With that, version 1.0.5 of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet OS is now available for download, which brings forth a resounding set of new features and much more. Specifically, it’s bundles in the new Facebook app that was made available not too long ago, but it goes further by offering things like the ability to upload videos, message deletion, and Facebook search enhancements. Secondly, we now find support for in-app payments that brings along some dynamic new possibilities with the tablet.

Furthermore, there are a handful of other enhancements included with the update – like the option to charge the PlayBook when it’s completely powered off, modifying the brightness setting when you click on the battery indicator, and  a pop-up windows that gives you instant access to restart, turn off, or place the tablet into sleep mode.

Considering it’s over 300MB in size, you might want to make sure you have a reliable Wi-Fi connection to download it. All in all, it’s indeed nice, but we’re digging the quick actions that RIM is taking when it comes to releasing software updates with the PlayBook.

source: RIM via Unwired View

Windows Phone 7 is getting 8 new Xbox Live games; available "in the coming months"

Considering that the E3 Expo is being held all this week in Los Angeles, where gaming is the name of the game, it’s a fitting for Microsoft to announce some upcoming games that will be arriving for their Windows Phone 7 mobile platform.

Needless to say, the platform will be getting its dose of gaming with recognizable titles like Angry Birds, Sonic the Hedgehog: Episode I, and Plants vs Zombies all arriving this month, but there’s no arguing that handset owners will be starving for some more as well to satisfy their appetite. Well, they’re going to be excited to know that Microsoft announced 8 new Xbox Live games arriving on the platform “in the coming months.” These include Beards and Beaks, Hasta la Muerte, Let’s Golf 2, Pac-Man CE DX, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, Tentacles, Top Gun and Z0mb1es.

Although we can’t say when exactly we’ll see them arrive, you can check out the video below to get a sneak peek of what they will look like running on a handset. For the most part, all the titles look extremely polished and seem to work perfectly with the platform.

via MobileSyrup

What did you want to see in iOS 5, but did not see anyway?

Apple’s iOS 5 was finally made official after Scott Forstall, vice president of the company’s iOS division, announced it in front of a crowd of privileged attendees. The major iOS release brings along about 200 new features with the 10 most significant improvements demonstrated at WWDC, including better notifications, Twitter integration and iMessage.

However, we suppose that some of the features you were wishing to get added to iOS 5 did not make an appearance at WWDC yesterday. Perhaps, some of you wanted true homescreen widget support, or FaceTime over 3G, or why not even some other changes, more radical than these. Now is the moment for you to share with us what features you wanted to see in iOS 5, but did not see being announced anyway. Feel free to express your opinion in the comments below!

T-Mobile starts a four-day freebie for the HTC HD7, web-only offer

The WP7-laden HTC HD7 with its huge 4.3" display is offered for free on a two-year contract with T-Mobile, starting today.

The promotion can only be obtained online, and will run until June 9th at midnight. The four-day HTC HD7 shopping spree currently undercuts the best offer for this Windows Phone 7 handset, the one on Amazon, by a cool $100.

So, if you are on the market for the WP7 handset with the largest possible screen real estate, T-Mobile has got you covered. Besides the 4.3" display with 480x800 pixels of resolution, the HTC HD7 offers 16GB of internal memory, and a 5MP camera on the back with LED flash, capable of recording HD 720p video.

The HTC HD7 also features a mighty cool kickstand, that pops out from the camera area, which allows you to kick back and relax, while the phone serves its HD video playback duties on the desk in front of you.

Once the WP7 Mango update hits in the fall, this will probably become an even better handset, but you can have a look at our comparison with some other phones from the WP7 gang to make up your mind.

Thanks for the tip, remixfa!

source: T-Mobile

Displays for the HP TouchPad are beginning to appear at Walmart & Best Buy

With the heat of the summer just right around the corner, it seemingly will signal the availability of the upcoming HP TouchPad, but in the meantime, we’re seeing a couple of big bog retailers starting to prepare for its arrival.

Retailing giants Best Buy and Walmart are going to be two well-known players that will sell the brand spanking new webOS powered tablet, and it looks like HP is going to be make sure that their tablet will be getting plenty of face time within those stores. Actually, display stands have already been arriving at stores showing that the tablet will be getting its own dedicated sections – as opposed to being thrown into the usual area reserved for tablets. In fact, one of the display stands in Best Buy is going to be situated right in the computer department with the recognizable HP logo plastered underneath it.

Moreover, we see yet again HP’s presence in other areas like a new “end cap” display at Best Buy showing off the HP Veer 4G. Naturally, it goes to show that HP isn’t holding back one bit and they’re going all out to reserve these spaces to make sure their products get plenty of visibility. Granted that HP’s presence in the smartphone and tablet world might not be all that renowned just yet, we’re utterly confident that it’ll blossom as we swing into the dead heat of the summer season.

source: webOSroundup via PreCentral

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 available tomorrow at Best Buy Union Square, you can get it signed by Ne-Yo

The Wi-Fi version of the thinnest tablet out there, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, will go on sale at 12 p.m. on June 8 at the Best Buy in Union Square in New York City, with general availability nine days later.

The press release Samsung sent us states that the first 200 people who purchase the Wi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will get a free leather case, which would otherwise run you $29.99.

The coolest giveaway, though, will be for the first 50 of the first 200, who will get VIP access to the afterparty concert by the Grammy Award-winning Ne-Yo. The singer will be apparently giving a speech flanked by Samsung and Best Buy representatives at 4pm, and the first 100 that are in line for the tablet at the Best Buy Union Square will get a chance to attend a Ne-Yo live performance, which starts at 4:15pm.

Oddly enough, an autograph session is scheduled for 4:30pm, so it obviously won't be much of a performance, but you can get some street cred taking away a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet signed by Ne-Yo, no?

source: Samsung

iOS 5 tethered jailbreak announced hours after WWDC

Well, this did not take too long. Apple's iOS 5 has already been jailbroken even though the platform's upcoming iteration got announced only yesterday. If you are wondering how this could be possible considering that iOS 5 is not available to end users just yet, a preliminary version of the platform has been made available to developers, which is probably how the jailbreak author performed the exploit.

It is surprising how easy it has been for the jailbreak community to obtain full control over iOS 5. The platform is supposed to feature over 200 new features and tweaks of all sorts, and apparently, defense against jailbreaking is not on the list. It is also interesting what software developers will come up with after obtaining root access to the platform. Let's not forget that iOS 5's notification system has been inspired by a tweak that debuted on jailbroken devices. The jailbreak comes in tethered flavor only, but an untethered solution will most probably come by the time iOS 5 goes live.

source: Twitter via Neowin.net

Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY gets its very own Experience Pack bundle

If you browse through Sony Ericsson's product web page and check out the accessories that the company offers for its smartphones, you will definitely come across a selection of accessory and software bundles called Experience Packs. They usually revolve around a specific theme, such as business productivity, health and fitness, or style and fashion, for example.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY just got its very own Experience Pack as well. Announced at E3 just recently, the bundle features the Sony Ericsson DK300 multimedia dock, a pocket USB cable, a music cable to connect the dock to an audio system, and a choice of three downloadable games by Gameloft.

The list of games that Xperia PLAY owners can choose from includes:

• Assassin’s Creed – Altair’s Chronicles
• Uno
• Real Football 2011
• Modern Combat 2 : Black Pegasus
• Let’s Golf! 2
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction
• Brothers In Arms 2: Global Front
• N.O.V.A. 2 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance
• Eternal Legacy

In order to download the games that you like, you need to use the QR code that comes along with the Experience Pack. As far as pricing goes, the figure is yet to be announced.

source: Sony Ericsson

Samsung TouchWiz UX for tablets overview

Samsung has a new version of its Android overlay, called TouchWiz 4.0. It found its way in the Samsung Galaxy S II for the first time, you can check out our thorough review of this overlay in its phone format.

With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9, however, TouchWiz 4.0 has been given a revamp making it more suited for the larger screen real estate on tablets. Samsung has borrowed the best features from the phone version, like the connectivity switches in the notification area, as well as the resizable widgets, but has added a few novelties that it deemed worthy of a tablet screen.

First off, there is a Live Panel menu, which allows you to freely move and resize widgets on the homescreen. Instead of just lighting up grid cells to guide you where and how you can place the widgets, like in the Galaxy S II, in the tablet version we have a blueish trace that shows you where you can drop it, which is a Honeycomb treat. Then upon long press on the widget itself, the yellow grid appears that marks the directions and extent to which you can resize the widget any way you please. The cool Weather and Date/Time widgets from the Galaxy S II have now moved to Samsung's tablets as well, with a much larger footprint, of course.

Android Honeycomb's navigation bar has received a tiny little arrow in the middle, from where you draw up the so-called Mini Apps tray of Samsung, essentially shortcuts to some functions you are likely to need quick access to, like Calculator, or PenMemo for note taking. Pressing those shortcuts evokes a mini version of the application itself, for quickly jotting down or calculating something. These mini apps appear on top of the existing widgets or the app you are running, and can be moved around as well. Serves a good purpose when you are in a hurry - you can, of course, just as well place shortcuts on the homescreen for the full apps, but the mini versions allow you to still see the screen if you have something going on there that you wish to be able to see, and eerily reminds us of a desktop interface.

Besides their icons given a colorful TouchWiz paint job, most other apps, like Contact, Calendar, Email or MyFiles, have been tailored for the tablet realities, with a navigation pane on the left, and a bigger space on the right for the actual content, like in stock Honeycomb, but with reworked visuals to be consistent with the rest of the UI. The browser color scheme has also been brought in line with the TouchWiz paint.

The Settings menu has the Power saving mode, which we first met in the Samsung Galaxy S II, that allows you to tell the tablet which connectivity chips or interval syncing application to turn off when the battery falls under a predetermined level, and to what level to set the screen brightness then. We also found a dedicated Firewall setting, a tribute to the enterprise capabilities of Samsung's new tablets, which sport hardware encryption, and collaboration with companies like Cisco and Sybase for easier corporate IT management of your slate.

As with most TouchWiz-ed devices, Samsung includes its file browser, called MyFiles, the Polaris Office document viewer, and Pulse news reaser, as well as an eBook app. Two of the four Samsung Hubs were present on our non-final unit – the Music Hub, powered by 7digital, and the Social Hub. Of notable absence are the photo and video editors we had in the Galaxy S II, but the unit we had was a prototype, and we'll keep an eye if Samsung will include them in the final version. The camera interface is also the one we found in the Galaxy S II, with minimalistic font and transparent background in the menu, allowing you to see more of the subject you are framing, while fiddling with the camera settings.

Overall, we found the TouchWiz interface on Samsung's new Honeycomb tablets pretty inobtrusive and pleasant to use.

The best feature that came from the phone version, is the quick-access connectivity toggles in the notification area, and the best new feature we found useful is the Mini Apps tray, which allows you to work on two things at once, firing up mini versions of the most used applications wherever you are in the interface. What we are not very fond of is replacing the Honeycomb music player with the TouchWiz version, which, albeit functional, is visually worse than the cool album cover carousel of the stock music player.

Bear in mind that there could be interface changes in the final retail units of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, but we like what we are seeing so far. We also overheard that the TouchWiz interface will be an optional download once you get your stock Honeycomb tablet from Samsung, but it's not yet clear if you will be able to turn it on and off at will. If you can't turn it off, we hope it won't hinder the performance, or get in the way of timely Android updates on Samsung's tablets. Have a look at a video preview of the tablet TouchWiz interface below:

ViewSonic goes downmarket with ViewBook 730 and ViewPad 7x Android tablets, starting from $250

Thanks to the ommission of certain features, like a dual-core processor and rear camera, which have become trademark for high-end Android tablets, the ViewSonic ViewBook 730 carries an affordable price tag of $250.

ViewSonic ViewBook 730 comes with a stylus

It comes with a stylus, however, so we might be talking a resistive 7" here, but it is not entirely clear from the press release. The display comes at the modest for this size 480x800 pixels of resolution, and the ViewBook 730 has only 8GB of internal memory, expandable via a microSD card. The cheap slate sizes up at 8.19x5.23x0.56" (208x132.8x14.1mm), and weighs 0.96 pounds. The 5000mAh battery keeps it up for eight hours straight, according to ViewSonic.

The ViewBook 730 is powered by a 1GHz processor, and runs Android 2.2 Froyo for now, sporting Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but GPS or 3G are mentioned nowhere in the presser. Two stereo speakers with microphone, a 3.5mm audio jack, a mini-USB, and a mini-HDMI port round up the offering. The HDMI-out port is however capable of pumping out 1080p video to your HDTV.

7" ViewSonic ViewPad 7x dual-core Android tablet

Excited yet? If not, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7x is another upcoming 7-incher from the company, this time with dual-core Tegra 2 chipset and a 4G HSPA+ radio, which will likely start from $400, probably when Google releases Honeycomb for 7" devices. It has front and rear cameras, HDMI-out and DLNA capabilities, as well as some sort of a surround sound technology.

Any of those two, and especially their price tag tickle your imagination?

source: ViewSonic

Gresso makes a $6000 iPhone 4 Time Machine, with six Swiss watches ticking on the back

Not many of us will be lining up for Gresso's newest iPhone 4 back enclosure, but we have to admit that it is a cool concept, if you are into that kind of luxury living.

A $6000 price tag makes the iPhone 4 Time Machine enclosure affordable only to a Wall Street banker with some disposable bailout cash, but if you want to be noticed in a sea of iPhone 4s, that's the price to pay.

The iPhone used to be a unique gadget just a few years ago, but now that so many people have one, it takes six handcrafted Swiss watches embedded in the case's back to make you stand out. The ticking mechanisms show the time in the world's busiest business capitals - New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong and Moscow. "The creation of each of the clock mechanisms for Time Machine takes several hundred hours of labor-intensive process", says the presser, but we wouldn't have thought otherwise.

The six clocks first made an appearance on the back of the LUXOR WORLD TIME luxury phone, where you could adjust one of the clocks for a time you wish, and that might be the case with the iPhone 4 Time Machine case as well, but it's not very clear from the press release.

What's more, the six Swiss-made clocks add only 1mm to the back of a standard iPhone 4, and are protected by mineral glass with diamond coating against scratches. After all, if you have this enclosure, you will want others to see it, no?

The luxury phone maker says that the iPhone 4 Time Machine will be available some time this year, but didn't specify exactly when. We guess it is waiting on iOS 5 to hit the ether like all of us, it would be a shame to out such a piece of art with anything less now, wouldn't it?

Not that Gresso doesn't skimp on features - one of its 2010 luxury iPhone 4 offers had a 16-gigger inside. For that kind of money we'd expect at least a 32GB version to come standard, but perhaps the company would disapprove of our raging consumerism.

source: Gresso

March of Heroes is Gameloft's first title with the Unreal engine to hit iOS and Android

Despite playing the sulky kid until recently in regards to placing its titles on Android Market, Gameloft is undoubtedly one of the best mobile game developers out there. It just revealed a trailer for one of its first games with the Unreal engine graphics technology, and said it will be available for both Android and iOS.

The game is called March of Heroes and is (obviously) a first-person shooter, everyone's favorite genre. The graphics are breathtaking, we have to admit, so we can't wait for this title to hit the application stores.

When exactly will March of Heroes be released, and how much it will cost are minor details that Gameloft didn't consider necessary to tell us. Have a look at Gameloft's official March of Heroes trailer in the video below.

via GSMArena

HTC EVO 3D deals start with $40 at Target, if you trade-in your old HTC EVO 4G

We came across a number of HTC EVO 3D deals ready for the handset's official launch on June 24th (Sprint's Premier customers will be able to order on the 21st).

While most of them, such as Best Buy, RadioShack and Sprint itself are having it for $199.99 on a two-year contract, there are some things you can do to knock the price down, and they are mainly connected with returning your trusted old HTC EVO 4G for the new kid on the Android block.

Best Buy has its buyback program, Sprint values your old EVO 4G at $150, and Radio Shack will knock off $100 off the price with an HTC EVO 4G or an HTC EVO Shift 4G return. If you don't have anything to trade-in, Wirefly has the 3D-enabled handset for $179.99.

The cherry on the top is placed by Target, however - it will sell you the HTC EVO 3D for $50, when you return your old HTC EVO 4G, and in the press release the store chain sent us, it states that with the 5% off you get when you sign for a Target REDcard, the deal becomes the irresistible $40 for one of the hottest Android handsets ever to hit US shores. Amazon hasn't listed its pricing yet, but we have the feeling it won't be long.

source: Target, RadioShack

iCloud beta not working on Verizon iPhones yet, but future software update might fix that

The iCloud is already floating in the sky with some of its features live and running in their beta form. Even though the service will have all its functions accessible later this fall, some iPhone and iPad users can already hop on board and try out iCloud's ability to store music remotely and to sync it wirelessly across several devices. There is one significant detail, however, that Verizon iPhone owners will really hate to hear.

You see, in order to use the iCloud features that are available today, it is required that your iDevice runs iOS 4.3.3 or later. Since Verizon's iPhone 4 is still stuck with the older 4.2.8 version, there will be no way of using the cloud services on it, or at least not until an update comes along.

The list of currently supported devices includes:

• iPhone 3GS
• AT&T's iPhone 4
• 3-rd and 4-th generations of the iPod touch
• any iPad or iPad 2 model

As we already mentioned, all of the devices need to have their firmware updated to version 4.3.3. Besides that, all of the currently available iCloud features can be also used with a Mac or a PC running iTunes 10.3 or higher.

We are guessing that a software update for Verizon iPhones is already in the works, but when it will come remains a mystery for now. Nevertheless, it should not take too long so keep an eye on iTunes for update notifications.

source: Apple via MacRumors