Android World: AndroidGuys

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

AndroidGuys

T-Mobile CEO announces restructure in email, says “difficult decisions” made this week
Samsung adds four T-Mobile devices to Android 4.0 update list
Smule brings popular Songify app to Android
Virgin Mobile USA now offering $149 LG Optimus Elite
HTC intros Desire C, a budgeted Beats smartphone

T-Mobile CEO announces restructure in email, says “difficult decisions” made this week

Posted: 15 May 2012 11:50 AM PDT

T-Mobile plans to cut a number of jobs as part of a restructuring plan, according to a leaked company email written by CEO Philipp Humm. Without saying how many will be affected or where the jobs will come from, Humm advises that some "difficult decisions" will be made in the coming days. We might be reading our own things into the email (below) but it sounds like some middle management spots will be scrapped or consolidated. At least it's not a bottom-up shedding of sales reps from retail stores. We'll find out the rest of the details as things come to light in the next couple of days.

Dear colleagues,

Since the beginning of the year, T-Mobile has stressed that 2012 is a rebuilding year for the company. A vital step in that process was announced in March with the consolidation of our call centers. This week, T-Mobile is taking the second essential step. We are announcing a new structure that further aligns our costs with our revenue realities, enables teams who support our field organization to act and react with greater speed and effectiveness to customer and market opportunities, and better positions us to return to growth.

The new organization required difficult decisions that will impact some of our employees. This week, news will be shared personally with employees and teams who are directly affected by the restructuring. Changes will include some position eliminations and changes to individual roles and responsibilities. It is important to emphasize these impacts to employees result from business decisions. We have tremendous employees here at T-Mobile and we truly wish we could retain all our talent, but our business realities require hard choices. For affected team members, we are providing generous transition support including severance, assistance with COBRA continuation coverage, and outplacement services. As mentioned in the March announcement, customer service representatives in the remaining 17 call centers, technicians in engineering, and frontline employees in our T-Mobile corporate-owned stores will not be affected.

Our rebuilt structure enables T-Mobile to realize significant savings, allowing us to invest in future growth — in particular modernizing our network to LTE, repositioning the T-Mobile brand, and aggressively pursuing the B2B segment where we plan to add 1,000 positions over the next few years. We gain the agility to put resources where the current opportunities are, grow in areas where potential is greatest, and act on emerging opportunities quickly and rationally.

The restructuring provides a sustainable organizational model, centered on our T-Mobile Values, with the following attributes:

A greater focus on driving Customer Delight by reducing the layers between working teams and executive leadership, and shifting and consolidating groups in the field sales regions and the FSC to minimize redundant work — resulting in more effective coordination and communication.

A renewed emphasis on Best Place to Perform and Grow:
Enhanced people manager spans of control (number of direct reports), enabling faster decisions, more ability to execute, and more empowerment of employees at all levels.
Evolution of our leadership model from player-coach, where more time is spent on daily tasks than on planning and guiding, to leader-coach, where time is focused more strategically on coaching, developing, delegating, and motivating.

We approached the restructuring process and decisions with care, rigor and cross-functional alignment. A team comprised of top leaders, with support from industry-leading subject matter experts, worked closely together over the past few months to develop an effective and sustainable structure. We strongly believe the organizational principles we applied are lasting ones. More details on the new organizational structure will be shared in department and team communications this week and more broadly after that.

I want to assure you we will move through the communications this week very thoughtfully, but also as quickly as we can while preserving the quality of the conversations that need to happen. As always, our T-Mobile Values will guide our actions.

Thank you for your patience as we work through what will be a difficult week. Thank you for your continued commitment.

With sincere appreciation,

Philipp Humm
CEO & President
T-Mobile USA

Source: The Verge

T-Mobile CEO announces restructure in email, says “difficult decisions” made this week originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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Samsung adds four T-Mobile devices to Android 4.0 update list

Posted: 15 May 2012 09:52 AM PDT

Some of you T-Mobile users may recall that Samsung seemingly skipped your carrier a few weeks back when they announced which U.S. devices would see an Android 4.0 update. For reasons unknown, Samsung listed a handful of smartphones and tablets from the other three big players but neglected to mention T-Mobile. Today sees things getting a bit more clear on that front as the company adds four devices from the Magenta-clad carrier.

If you own one of these two smartphones or two tablets then you'll be glad to know that Samsung plans to issue Ice Cream Sandwich to your device.

Samsung Galaxy S II (SGH-t989)
Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G (SGH-t769)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (SGH-t869)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (SGH-t859)

Samsung adds four T-Mobile devices to Android 4.0 update list originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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Posted: 15 May 2012 08:33 AM PDT

Sorry iPhone users, we just picked up yet another one of your popular apps! Today sees Smule bringing their insanely addictive Songify to Android, dropping it in the Google Play store at the ever-attractive FREE price point. If you're not familiar with Songify, it can be summed up quite easily: It turns your voice and speech into songs. Ever see the AutoTune The News guys on Youtube? This is the official app that they use. All you do is start talking into your handset and then it magically creates songs out of your recordings.

There are a couple of free backing tracks available when you launch the app, however there are a bunch that can be purchased within the app. You can either earn coins through use of the app or buy them outright. For $2.99 you can pick up 200 coins and remove the in-app advertising at the same time. That rate should be good enough to score 3-4 songs, depending on which you opt for. Depending on how much you want or need, you can spend anywhere up to $99 for 790 coins!

About Songify:

Turns speech into music, using sophisticated artificial intelligence
Developed with the Gregory Brothers, YouTube celebrities of Bed Intruder fame
Downloaded 9 million times, with 120 million songs created on iOS
Offers special Android-only features, such as the ability to create ringtones and share your songs via SMS or Google+
Songify will be Smule's first app on Android
Part of the Smule family, with 45 million installs and 500 million songs created

Check out Songify in action:

Watch an eHarmony customer express her love of cats in "Can't Hug Every Cat."
Listen to people Songifying with their dogs in San Francisco in "A Day in the Dog Park!"

Grab Songify from Google Play store for free today!

Smule brings popular Songify app to Android originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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Virgin Mobile USA now offering $149 LG Optimus Elite

Posted: 15 May 2012 07:44 AM PDT

Virgin Mobile USA today announced the successor to their Android-powered Optimus V smartphone in the form of the Optimus Elite. Powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the handset runs $149 and features some admirable specification for consumers who want to avoid contracts. Hardware includes a 3.5-inch HVGA screen, 800MHz processor, 5-megapixel camera, NFC, and the rest of your standard Android options.

"Our customers fell in love with the LG Optimus V™, so bringing another great device to our lineup of Android™-powered devices from the Optimus family goes right along with our promise of A Higher Calling™," said Jeff Auman, vice president for Virgin Mobile USA. "LG Optimus Elite offers full integration of social networking apps, Microsoft Outlook Exchange email, and advanced messaging capabilities. Combined with our awesome Beyond Talk monthly unlimited data plans, customers can realize true savings with no contract and no surprises."

The LG Optimus Elite is available immediately and can be paired with rate plans that start (300 minutes of voice and include unlimited messaging and data) as low as $35 per month. Should you pick one of these up you will want to download and install Box so that you can take advantage of the 50GB of free cloud storage and sharing!

Press release

Virgin Mobile USA now offering $149 LG Optimus Elite originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

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HTC intros Desire C, a budgeted Beats smartphone

Posted: 15 May 2012 07:14 AM PDT

HTC today introduced their next Android smartphone, the entry-level Desire C, and putting it on the calendar for early June. Features include a 600MHz CPU, 3.5-inch display, 5-megapixel camera, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, and 25GB of free Dropbox storage. Not the high end stuff you might expect in your second Android device but it's more than enough for a first-time buyer.

Powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and running HTC Sense 4.0, the Desire C also provides users with the Beats Audio optimization that is found in recent HTC models. Considering that one of the most popular uses for a smartphone is listening to music, the Desire C should be a decent package for those graduating from feature phones.

T-Mobile UK has already announced support for the Desire C, offering it as a free smartphone to customers who agree to a £15.50 rate plan. Additionally, it can be purchased for £169.99 for those not wanting to sign a contract. Other carriers expected to carry the HTC Desire C include Vodafone, Orange, Virgin Media, Three, and O2.