By Wailin Wong | Walgreens has launched a new text-messaging service that lets customers know when their prescriptions are ready, the drugstore chain said Tuesday. The prescription text alerts, which are available in English or Spanish, also notify consumers of changes in status to their orders. Mobile phone users can sign up for the service at any Walgreens pharmacy or by visiting www.walgreens.com/gomobile, a website that also allows consumers to sign up for a separate service to receive deals and coupons via text. In addition, Walgreens has launched mobile applications for the BlackBerry and Google’s Android platform. These new applications follow the previous release of the company’s iPhone application in the fall. That program has been updated with new features, including the ability to view a prescription history and search for the nearest store using the phone’s GPS function.
Filed under: Wireless
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Walgreens to text you when your drugs are ready
Customers see delays while ordering new iPhone
T-Mobile to offer free phones Saturday
Associated Press | Wireless carrier T-Mobile plans to give free
phones to customers who sign up for group calling plans at its retail
stores on Saturday — just days before rival At&T will start
selling Apple’s latest iPhone.
T-Mobile said Tuesday that throughout Saturday, beginning at 8 a.m.,
new customers will be able to get free handsets of their choice by
signing up for a “family plan,” which is a calling plan that has at
least two users.
New strategy exec at Motorola’s mobile devices unit
By Wailin Wong |
Motorola Inc. has hired a former financial analyst and telecom executive to lead strategy for its mobile devices and home business, which is scheduled to be split off from the rest of the company early next year.
The Schaumburg-based company said John Bucher will be corporate vice president of strategy for the division and report to co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha. In a statement, Jha said Bucher’s technical and management experience “will be instrumental to our strategic planning process as we chart our future course as an independent company.”
IPhone on T-Mobile network as soon as fall?
Associated Press | The iPhone will be available on other cell phone networks as early as this fall and will likely come first to T-Mobile USA, one analyst who follows Apple Inc. closely said Thursday.
Get the full story: IPhone on the T-Mobile network as soon as fall.
Tellabs says it hasn’t lost AT&T business
Reuters | Communications equipment maker Tellabs Inc. on Thursday denied speculation that it was losing business from top U.S. phone company AT&T to a rival, and said orders were strong.
Competition had increased, but there were “no degradations” in the relationship with AT&T, Tellabs Chief Financial Officer Tim Wiggins said, adding that he was seeing stronger orders than expected.
Motorola’s Jha says Droid’s sales are strong
Reuters | Motorola Inc. is seeing strong demand for its Droid phone at Verizon Wireless, despite the popularity of rival HTC Corp.’s Droid Incredible, co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said Wednesday.
Motorola completes $138 million debt buyback
By Wailin Wong |
Motorola Inc. said Tuesday that it has completed one debt buyback of
$138 million and increased the size of its repurchase program to $500
million from $400 million.
In late May, Schaumburg-based Motorola announced it had launched two
offers to buy back up to $400 million in outstanding debt. One, which
involves bonds due in 2097, expired Monday. The $138 million tendered by
bondholders in the offer represents about 55 percent of the $252
million outstanding in the 2097 series.
New details leak on Motorola’s Droid Xtreme
From PC Mag | Goodbye Shadow, hello Xtreme. New images and details have surfaced of Motorola’s Droid Shadow phone — now branded the Droid Xtreme — which was previously alleged to have been lost in a Verizon gym last week.
Get the full story: pcmag.com.
Sprint to launch Evo 4G phone today
By Wailin Wong |
Mobile streaming video fanatics, take note: The first phone in the U.S.
to run on a fourth-generation network launches today.
Sprint, the only carrier in the U.S. with its 4G network up and running
for consumers, is expected to launch the Evo 4G on today. The phone is
manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC and uses Google’s Android
operating system.
Sprint launched its 4G network in Chicago in November and the city is
one of roughly 30 markets with the technology, which is designed to
deliver residential broadband-like speeds even when consumers are on the
go. The 4G network is also meant to be stronger and more reliable than
3G, allowing for data-intensive activities such as streaming
high-definition video and online gaming with sophisticated graphics.
Do you know how fast your broadband is?
Reuters | Four of five U.S. broadband users are unaware of the
speed of their connections, the Federal Communications Commission said
Tuesday.
A similar survey conducted by Abt/SRBI and Princeton Survey Research
Associates International from April 19 to May 2 also found that one in
six American mobile phone users have been shocked by surprise fees and
charges in their monthly bills.
IPad online usage more than doubles in May
Visitors check out iPads at an Apple store in Madrid, May 28, 2010. (Reuters/Susana Vera)
From ComputerWorld | According to data from web metrics firm Net Applications, the iPad’s online usage share more than doubled in May, and spiked significantly over the weekend after Apple launched the tablet in Europe, Japan and elsewhere.
Net Applications announced Tuesday that the iPad’s share was 0.09% in May, about two-and-a-half times that of April. In other words, of every 10,000 devices connecting to the Internet, 9 were iPads. By comparison, Windows XP powered 6,253 of every 10,000 systems on the Web last month.
Get the full story: computerworld.com.
Motorola ups value of stock awards for co-CEO
By Wailin Wong | Motorola Inc. has sweetened the terms of the employment agreement for
co-Chief Executive Greg Brown, increasing the value of stock awards he
will receive when the company completes its planned separation into two
independent businesses.
Motorola has targeted the first quarter
of 2011 for the split, with Brown leading the enterprise mobility and
networks business, which makes network infrastructure, as well as
communications gear for public safety agencies and businesses. Co-CEO
Sanjay Jha will lead the other company, comprising mobile phones and
cable television set-top boxes.
Chinese maker of iPods apologies for suicides
Associated Press | The head of Foxconn bowed deeply several times and apologized Wednesday
for a spate of suicides at the factory that makes Apple iPods and
iPhones, promising the electronics giant will try to stop more deaths. But the usually media-shy executive, Foxconn Technology Group Chairman
Terry Gou, cautioned there was only so much his company could do.
Get the full story: Chinese maker of iPods apologies for suicides.
Wal-Mart to start selling iPhone 3GS for $97
By Kristin Samuelson
| It looks like Wal-Mart’s big, yellow smiley face is continuing to roll back its prices. Starting today, Wal-Mart is dropping the price of the brand new entry-level, 16-gigabyte iPhone 3GS to $97 with a new two-year contract. The new price is $100 cheaper than its previous price.
Get the full story: The Problem Solver.
