Tag: AT&T

AT&T has finally started rolling out the anticipated Android Nougat update to the LG G5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 lineup.  The carrier is the last of the major carriers to release the update for the LG G5 while they were second to get the Nougat update out for the S7 and S7 Edge behind T-Mobile.  If you have any of these devices on AT&T, you should start seeing the update roll out to you this week.

For the LG G5, the update is build NRD90U and weighs in a 1.5GB.  For those who keep up with Nougat builds, you will quickly identify that this is Nougat 7.0, not 7.1.  The good news however is that it contains the January Android Security Update.  The update from download to complete install will take about 20 minutes and you’ll want to make sure you get the hefty update down to your phone via Wi-Fi.  You should get a notification on your phone when it is ready for download but you can check manually by going to Settings>About phone.

In all of the chaos surrounding Samsung at the minute, it would have been easy to miss that the South Korean company would be making a limited edition Blue Coral version of the Galaxy S7 Edge.  That color option will only be available in limited markets and fortunately, the United States courtesy of AT&T, will be one of them.  The carrier has added the Blue Coral option to their S7 Edge website, allowing customers or new to AT&T customers select the frankly stunningly beautiful muted blue phone.  While orders are being taken now, it won’t actually ship for another few weeks.  AT&T indicates that it will be shipping between November 18-22 this month.

Price wise, it is what you would expect for the flagship device from Samsung.  To buy it outright is $794.99 while you do have payment options thanks to the AT&T Next program.  For $26.50 per month you can use the Next program which is a 30 month payment option.  You can upgrade after you have paid 80% of the phone (roughly $635).  The AT&T Next Year program offers a 24 month upgrade plan which is $33.13 per month and you can upgrade after you have paid 50% of the value of the phone (roughly $397).

Continue reading after the break…

AT&T has begun pre-orders of the LG flagship Android phone, the LG V20.  The 5.7″ phone that is powered by the Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM will start out at an eye watering $829 putting it higher than the Google Pixel XL and nearly as much as the iPhone 7 Plus.  If you do place a pre-order, it will be shipping out to you at the end of this month and you aren’t actually charged until the phone ships so you do have some time to think about it.

Fortunately AT&T is offering a few promotions to help ease the cost pain.  First, you can pay out the phone interest free for 30 months.  That will cost you $27.67 per month.  If you opt for the 24 month plan, which will allow you to trade the phone in come October 2017, that plan is $34.59 per month.

AT&T has announced that the latest update to the DirecTV app for Android (coming soon) and iOS, you will be able to stream content from the AT&T owned satellite television provider to your mobile devices on AT&T without incurring any data usage or charges.

Even better, you can stream video via your DIRECTV or U-verse App without using your mobile data when you’re on the go with Data Free TV on the AT&T mobile wireless network. It’s easy and automatic after registering and it doesn’t count against your AT&T mobile data allotment.

It is great news for those who have both services as you can watch your favorite show, game or movie on your devices over LTE without having to worry about eating up your data plan for the month.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon have all issued statements regarding the Galaxy Note 7 recall and what their customers can do who have the devices.  Overall they are trying to work with their customers as quickly and as effeciently as possible.  T-Mobile and Verizon have already indicated that customers with Note 7’s can return them for a full refund without any restocking fees while AT&T will clarify what their customers can do later today and Sprint is offering “similar” device exchanges for customers.   Here are the details from each carrier:

AT&T

Samsung has notified us that they have identified a battery cell issue in certain Galaxy Note7s. They have asked all retailers, including AT&T, to stop selling the device. We are in the process of determining the exchange process for our customers and how they can replace their current Note7 as quickly as possible. We will have more information later today.

Sprint

Sprint has suspended sales of Samsung Galaxy Note7 immediately following Samsung’s announcement to discontinue sales of the device globally.

We are working closely with Samsung to ensure those customers who already have purchased the device are taken care of. For those customers that previously purchased the Note 7 we will offer them a similar device until the issue is resolved. Customers should go to a nearby Sprint store to exchange their Note 7 device.

Back in May I posted that Samsung had released their Android Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S5.  AT&T, it seems, just now got around to releasing it.  During the same week that Google released Nougat, the US carrier released Marshmallow for the S5 and S5 Active on their network.  That’s a full three months after Samsung released and just shy of three months since Verizon released it for S5’s on their network.

Come on AT&T, get with the program.

If you have a Galaxy S5 or S5 Active, you should be seeing the update come to you via an OTA update.  The update is about 940MB so you will certainly want to be on Wi-Fi to download it.  Once you have it downloaded, the install including reboots should take about 30 minutes.  So all in, likely 45 minute to an hour to upgrade completely.