The famous $30 T-Mobile plan is 5 GB of unthrottled data, unlimited throttled data, unlimited text, and 100 minutes of talk.

Yup... it's Pretty much the nuts if you have good Tmo coverage in your Area

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When I'm listening to music with Google Play app I don't consistently get the player controls in the notification drawer like I do for Spotify / Pandora / beyondPod. And even when they do show up they disappear once I pause playback, so I can't restart from the drawer later. Anyone have this issue or ideas? I can't remember if I've tried reinstalling, maybe I'll just do that.

Can you briefly explain what the throttled/unthrottled data means? I'm t-mobile and would love to downgrade to 30 a month if its feasible.

For the first 5gb of data you get 4g lte but after your 5gb you get "throttled" which means they slow your data down to 2g. With most plans they just make you pay overages. Here you don't pay any overages but your data becomes much slower after 5gb.

You are describing the plan that costs $70.

The throttling thing is common across all Tmo plans.

ETA: Unless you're ignoring the $40 base cost, which seems like a stupid thing to do...

No, T-Mobile has a plan that costs $30 total, exactly as icepick described. Have to provide the phone yourself or buy it through Walmart, though, can't get it subsidized.

Scroll to the bottom here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

Ooo 100 minutes of talk, I missed that. Interesting. I probably don't break that. I wonder if I could switch and save myself $30/month and get 2 more gigs of data...? (I currently do the $60 for 3 GB).

Most people using google voice/hangouts for voice calls to get around the 100 mins.

Anyone know a good android emulator for windows 8.1? I want to run some apps on my pc.

Bluestacks didn't do it.

How to Run Android Apps Inside Chrome on Any Desktop Operating System

Yea exactly. My talking time is probably no more than 2-3 5-10 minute calls per month anyway. I'm currently paying monthly for my phone right now though, but maybe they'd let me just buy it off?

Yeah you can pay the phone off early. The plan is only for new customers though so I'm not sure if you could get the number ported or what not. Although if you planned to use google voice/hangouts you can port the number to google voice.

TY. Will try.

Well the Sony event seems wildly disappointing. Verizon version of the Z3 with wireless charging; so there's that. But no mention of the Z3C or color availability in the US.

edit: Z3C in all colors on US Site so they'll be available unlocked sometimes I guess?

I'm on Verizon, and I'm still really annoyed. They're calling it a Z3V, but it's basically a Z2 (6 month old phone) with wireless charging added. So, camera has worse low-light performance, the phone is bigger despite having the same size screen, it's an uglier design, and has giant Verizon logos slapped on the front and back. I'm also assuming that it will be slower to get updates since it's a one-off.

Now I'm going to wait to see how the Droid Turbo looks when it's announced. It's either that, the Moto X, or I might just sell my Verizon unlimited data plan and move to a different carrier. I'm getting fed up with Verizon playing games and locking their phones down.

I've had the plan for a year and have gone over the 100 minutes a few times... it's .10/min. You still come out way ahead of using contract plans for 70-90/mo

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Wait, wat?

I know they rounded the edges and yeah there's a Verizon logo on the front (lol at the collective butthurt about this) but this is the first I've heard about the actual specs being different.

Source?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comm...from_the_sony/

The actual specs differences between the Z2 and the Z3 aren't that big. The Z3 improved on the Z2 in the following ways:

-Higher ISO range for low-light photos (12,800 rather than 6400)
-Different lenses for the camera, the Z3 is wider angle but longer minimum focus distance.
-Faster Snapdragon 801 processor (2.5ghz rather than 2.3ghz)
-Brighter screen (max ~6500nits rather than ~440nits)
-Smaller, sexier case with the same size screen - the Z2 is slightly wider, thicker, and taller
-Smaller battery (Z2 is 3200mah, Z3 is 3100mah)

Besides that, everything is basically the same - RAM, GPU, screen size, resolution, camera sensor, etc.

The Z3V is the Z2 body/style, which is obvious if you look at the pics of a Z2/Z3/Z3V. It's actually even slightly bigger than the Z2 to account for the wireless charging. The Z3 is 72mm x 146mm x 7.3mm; a Z3V is 73.4mm x 146.5mm x 8.9mm. Considering they have the same size screen, that's quite disappointing.

The Z3V has the camera and battery from the Z2 as well (as evidenced by the mah spec and the ISO spec).

It's unknown at this point if it has the Z2 screen or the Z3 screen. It does appear to have the Z3 processor.

The edges are rounder on the Z3, making it more comfortable to hold. And just look at the comparison pics - the Z3 is pretty much objectively prettier than the Z2.

Furthermore, Verizon was rumored to be releasing a Z2 like 5 months ago - it looks exactly the same as what they just announced yesterday: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Is-th...erizon_id55725

Comparison pics:
Z2 in middle, Z3 on right:


Z3V:


Size of Z2 vs Z3:
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/siz...ones/8323,8764

Spec source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/com...from_the_sony/
(they link the white papers with the actual specs there)

More info/links:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/com...z2_body_not_a/

So as I understand it from that, the Z3V is a 6 month old phone (Z2) with an upgraded processor to match the Z3, wireless charging and a bigger battery balancing out a worse* (but still good) camera than the Z3 wrapped in a (subjectively) worse body?

Assuming the screen is the same or at least the difference is marginal I think Z3 v Z3V is pretty much at parity, neither being specifically better than the other. I think the factor that might swing it is as I understand it Verizon are really really ****ty at pushing out timely software updates, but assuming you are just comparing a Verizon v Verizon it doesnt matter anyway.

* as I understand it increasing the ISO range will mean it will pick up more light but will produce more noise so a bigger number isnt necessarily a better result, I assume Sony who are good at cameras know what they are doing but I dunno how much this is an improvement or if its a trade off in itself etc

Whelp I'm no longer getting this phone through Verizon (or anyone). Lol me for reading a lot about the z3 and not stumbling across this part.

Not too pissed tho because I'm really only upgrading because I can and not because I need to. Now I'll wait a while longer to see what's coming in early 2015 or whenever. Also might look harder at the Note 4 I dunno.

Correct. It's definitely a #firstworldproblem, but to me the bigger and uglier body is a big deal. I was doing some testing with other people's smartphones a few weeks ago, and found that adding more than ~1-1.5mm in width (as compared to my S3) changed the in-hand feel and one-handed-use more than I expected. The Z3 is 1mm wider than my S3, while the Z3V is 2.4mm wider (the new Moto X is 1.4mm wider). Sure, I'd probably get used to it, but why can't Verizon just get the same damn phone as the rest of the world? Why do they insist on being different?

Verizon has been pretty good about updating the Moto phones recently, and that's probably the direction I'm headed.

As I understand it, there's no downside to have a higher ISO range. It'll only use it when the situation calls for it - where there's not enough light to otherwise capture the image. But also the lenses are different between the Z2/Z3V and the Z3 - I assume Sony improved the lenses for most situations, but I can't claim to know for sure.

I just bought two AT&T HTC One M7 phones.

One of them came with Android 4.4.2 w/Sense 5.5

The other came with Android 4.4.2 w/Sense 6.0

Outside of downloading a 3rd party ROM, is there an easy way to upgrade the 1st phone to Sense 6.0?

Shouldn't it just update itself to sense 6, maybe through their own app store?