Amazon joins the Lumia 900 pre-order party – 1¢ for new customers

AT&T and Walmart on Nokia Lumia 900 pre-orders. Honestly, any time there are hot sales going on, Amazon usually gets itself into the mix, so it is no surprise that we just heard Amazon dropped the Lumia 900 down to a penny for new customers. Right now both the black and cyan versions can be pre-ordered from Amazon Wireless. New AT&T customers opening an individual or family account are eligible to purchase this handset for 1 cent.

Existing customers looking to extend their contract will be charged $119.99 and those looking to add a line to a family account will be charged $139.99. As we told you yesterday, Walmart is allowing existing customers to purchase the Windows Phone handset for just $49.99 with a new 2-year contract, so those of you in that category are better off with the Walmart deal. The no contract price is still $499.99, but most people can dodge sales tax by going through Amazon, so that may be an advantage for some.

CES 2012: Keynote Highlight - The Latest from Windows Phone:

AT&T Galaxy Note Modded To Work On T-Mobile 4G

In the recent days, Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note in the US, but the device was available from AT&T US mobile carrier network which was some what made unhappy for T-Mobile users. However, today there’s a good news for them too to use Galaxy Note on the said carrier as well with some trick made.

One of the guys from the XDA Developers forum has modded the AT&T’s Samsung Galaxy Note handset to work on T-Mobile’s 4G network. While the Galaxy Note on AT&T comes with HSPA+ bands that will work on T-Mobile’s HSPA+4G network, although the device is locked to AT&T, and now the device has been modded to work with T-Mobile.

This mod has been done without the need of custom ROM, instead a hacked T-Mobile radio was loaded onto the Samsung’s Galaxy Note device using a custom bootloader. Early reports indicate that signal is considerably weaker than both an unmodified Note and a standard T-Mobile Android phone, but voice, text and data are all possible. For more details about the AT&T Galaxy Note working on T-Mobile 4G and how it has modded, pleased visit the Official XDA-Developer forum link here.

Samsung Galaxy Note (AT&T) LTE smartphone live from CES 2012:

Siri, how come you are the star of the two new Apple iPhone 4S ads?

The two latest ads for the Apple iPhone 4S have something in common. Both star Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant. The first spot shows how Siri can come in handy during a road trip, which coincidentally is the name of the ad. Siri can help you with directions, find a place to eat, and tell you which gas stations are within walking distance.

The second ad shows a young man starting a new band. He enlists the help of Siri to find a place to buy a guitar, learn the chords to a couple of songs including "London Calling" by The Clash. Siri also shows the kid how to play a Bm9, and puts a possible name for the band, "Migraine Headache" on a list. The kid has his personal assistant send an email to a pair of his groupies to tell them that his band will be playing the garage that night. Lastly, this poor deluded kid asks Siri to address him as "Rock God" and Siri says she will comply.

If you were wondering how Siri responded so quickly to the questions in the commercials, when in real life you find yourself waiting endlessly for a response, it is all done through the magic of television. In the fine print at the end of the ad, you might have caught the phrase "sequences shortened".

Apple - iPhone 4S - TV Ad - Road Trip:

Apple - iPhone 4S - TV Ad - Rock God:

Samsung Exhilarate announced for AT&T; LTE-powered, eco-friendly smartphone for under $50

Here is a smartphone that is built with the environment in mind – the Samsung Exhilarate. Constructed from 80 percent recycled post-consumer materials, the device successfully meets a number of sustainability standards. That is why it has been given a Platinum certification by UL Environment – a group of folks that determine how “green” a certain product is.

At the same time, the Samsung Exhilarate should deliver a decent Android experience, and while we are not expecting to see any spectacular hardware under its hood, its front is occupied by a 4-inch Super AMOLED display. Both a front-facing and a rear camera are on board, along with an LTE radio for speedy access to the internet. The Samsung Exhilarate is planned to launch on AT&T in the forthcoming months, and getting your hands on one will not cost you more than $50.

Pantech Burst, Pantech Element & Samsung Exhilarate Affordable LTE Phones Announced at CES 2012:

HTC Titan II landing March 18th

We’re sure you’re probably still trying to get over the possibility of the Nokia Lumia 900 launching with AT&T for a mere $99.99, but the news regarding AT&T isn’t over just yet. And in fact, it appears we’re hearing some additional juicy news that should no doubt get many AT&T customers extremely excited in the coming months.

This time around, it’s in regards to that other 4G LTE Windows Phone – you know, the HTC Titan II that made its debut during CES. According to a leaked Q1 2012 roadmap obtained by BGR, it mentions that AT&T is tentatively planning to launch the HTC Titan II on March 18th for $199.99 with a 2-year agreement. Of course, at that price point, people will look at the possible $100 price attached to the Nokia Lumia 900, but still, it has some advantages – like having a wickedly larger display.

Meanwhile, it’s also being reported that the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD, Samsung Exhilarate, and the gorgeous Sony Xperia ion will all be coming out sometime at the end of Q1 – though, exact dates and pricing weren’t mentioned. Interestingly, we’re also being introduced to a new tablet from Sony that AT&T will be planning to launch in the future, however, it’s looking to be an HSPA+ enabled tablet as opposed to offering 4G LTE. Dubbed as the Crystal, the report indicates that AT&T will have it priced at $409.99, but it’s unknown if that is its on-contract or outright pricing – albeit, we’d figure it to be the former.

Well,It seems that AT&T has many things in store for Q1, which should no doubt keep AT&T customers very content. Knowing that the HTC Titan II will be sporting a $200.

HTC Titan 2 Hands On:

AT&T breaks smartphone sales record in Q4, still posts a loss

AT&T released its fourth quarter results today, along with their full year results. There are some pretty interesting numbers - like record sales of both iPhone and Android phones.

In fact, smartphones are enjoying an explosive growth on AT&T's network. Compared to last year's Q4, sales of smartphones were up almost 60%, beating their previous record by a whopping 50%. Compared to Q3, the final quarter of 2011 saw twice as many smartphone sales.

In specific numbers, that's 9.4 million smartphones sold in Q4 of 2011, 7.6 million of which were Apple-made. AT&T is saying that the majority of them were the new iPhone 4S model. Android were also pretty hot, with sales doubling compared to the same quarter last year.

By the end of 2011, over half (56.8%) of AT&T's post paid subscribers had smartphones, which isn't surprising since 82% of post paid subscribers that got a new phone in Q4 went for a smartphone. It's also interesting that AT&T's revenues per subscriber with a smartphone are nearly double those per feature phone subscriber.

AT&T also managed to sell 311,000 tablets during the fourth quarter of 2011, though they didn’t give a platform breakdown for those.

Anyway, as far as money goes, AT&T's consolidated revenues for Q4 2011 were $32.5 billion, a modest 3.6% increase year-over-year. Despite all the positive numbers, the communications giant posted an operating loss of $9 billion, compared to a $2.1 billion operating income for Q4 2010.

For the final quarter of 2011 AT&T posted a net loss of $6.7 billion. A big part of that loss is attributed to the failed T-Mobile deal, which resulted in AT&T paying T-Mobile USA $4 billion (as stipulated by their merger contract).

For the full year 2011, AT&T had a revenue of $126.7 billion and net income of $3.9 billion, compared to a revenue of $124.3 billion and net income of $19.9 billion for the full year 2010.