Sprint and McAfee announced that they will partner up to bring mobile security to Sprint’s mobile devices. Sprint will now make it easy for users to access McAfee Mobile Security and Family Protection on their Android devices. With many manufacturers sending out their devices with unlocked bootloaders this added security will be needed on a grand scale.

Sprint’s Press Release Below:

Sprint and McAfee Offer Customers Mobile Security Applications to Help Protect Information on Their Wireless Devices

McAfee Mobile Security Technology Provides Malware Protection, Device Recovery and Backup 

Application Readily Available to Customers in Sprint Zone

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. & SANTA CLARA, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE), August 10, 2011 – Sprint (NYSE: S) and McAfee announced today that they are providing Sprint customers easy access to McAfee^® Mobile Security and McAfee^®Family Protection Android™ Edition software, which will better help them protect the important information stored on their mobile devices.

As the use of smartphones and tablets continues to grow, Sprint is actively working with developers, manufacturers and leaders in the industry to provide solutions that can help protect customers’ information and their devices. McAfee Mobile Security can help Sprint customers protect the important information stored on these devices from loss, theft and viruses. In addition, McAfee Family Protection Android Edition provides parents an application that will allow them to filter inappropriate websites on their child’s mobile device.

Sprint customers using select Android-powered devices can easily download the McAfee Mobile Security and McAfee Family Protection Android Edition applications from the Android Market™ by clicking on McAfee within Sprint Zone or the Sprint Tab in the Android Market. Customers can find Sprint Zone as an icon on their device¹.

The McAfee Mobile Security software is available as a seven-day trial and can be purchased as a 12-month subscription for $29.99. The McAfee Family Protection Android Edition is available as a 30-day trial and can be purchased as a 12-month subscription for $19.99.

HTC has recently filed a trademark for the term “CLOSECONNECT”. This term is just another way for saying “Near Field Communication” and brings up the question, when will this be available on devices?  We have heard a lot of buzz about NFC and all of the features it could add to smartphones from transferring data to paying for items in stores.  What we haven’t heard is of a device that has all of the features ready to use and listed as available.  At any account here is what has been said about the CLOSECONNECT trademark filed.

Computer hardware and software for setting up, configuring, and administering wireless networks; Computer application software for mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, PDAs, and tablet computers used to connect to other mobile devices; Computer software for mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, PDAs, and tablet computers used for the collection, editing, organizing, modifying, book marking, transmission, storage and sharing of data and information; Computer application software for mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, PDAs, and tablet computers used to manage near field communication technology features on those devices; Computer software for setting up, configuring, and administering peer-to-peer networks and local peer-to-peer networks.

We aren’t sure if HTC plans on using this to describe the devices that they offer NFC on although many companies tend to purchase new trademarks for old technologies in the hopes that their term will take off. This is more or less a marketing endeavor for pushing a new name for NFC when talking about HTC devices.  Think of it as searching the internet for something we don’t “search for it” we “Google it”.  This is of course an example at the larger scale but same concept and reasoning behind most of these types of trademarks.

AT&T and Verizon have both moved to a tiered data plan structure. This structure has allowed them to create a more structured approach to data usage to allow more users with less data strain. U.S. Cellular has decided to follow suit.

U.S. Cellular (the 6th largest carrier in the US) will begin their tiered data plans within the next few months that will mirror AT&T and Verizon’s structure. It seems that their data plans will be capped at 2GB with any usage over this incurring extra charges.

Report from FierceWireless:

Subscriber losses continued to plague the carrier, however, and U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon said on the company’s earnings conference call that the quarter was “mixed” and subscriber results were “disappointing.” However, she noted a growing number of customers migrating to the carrier’s Belief Project plans, and said these customers are spending more money on data services. The carrier ended the period with 2.3 million Belief Project customers.

U.S. Cellular has over the first half of this year increased their smartphone portfolio with some great high end Android devices. This being said they have seen a huge subscriber loss during this time even with these new offerings.

U.S. Cellular reported net subscriber losses of 58,000 retail customers, which included a loss of 41,000 postpaid customers and 17,000 prepaid customers. The company said postpaid customers comprised 95 percent of retail customers at the end of the quarter. U.S. Cellular served 5.64 million total customers at the end of the quarter.

We have come to expect all carriers to move towards tiered data. Even with some subscriber loss the increase in revenue from data overages should increase profits. This will allow U.S. Cellular to put themselves back into the game with some increased stability.

We spoke a few weeks ago about HTC unlocking bootloaders on all of their devices. The time has finally came where they have talked about it more as a “coming soon” than “its in discussion”. There is one thing HTC users need to take into account, it may void your warranty if you use it.

HTC’s Statement on Facebook August 3rd:

So how will this work? The Web tool, which will launch this month, requires that you register an account with a valid e-mail address and accept legal disclaimers that unlocking may void all or parts of your warranty. Then plug in your phone to a computer with the Android SDK loaded to retrieve a device identifier token, which you can then enter into the Web tool to receive a unique unlock key via e-mail. Finally, apply the key to your device and unlocking will be initiated on your phone.

HTC has listened to us all and will be making this tool available later this month:

**UPDATE 8/3/2011**

Since our last update, many of you have asked how the bootloader unlocking process will actually work, and in particular why HTC’s most recently released devices still have a locked bootloader. Rest assured we’re making progress toward our goal to roll out the first software updates in August to support unlocking for the global HTC Sensation, followed soon by the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile and the HTC EVO 3D on Sprint. Because unlocking the bootloader provides extensive control over the device and modifications may cause operation, security and experience issues, new devices will continue to ship locked but will support user-initiated unlocking using a new Web-based tool.

So how will this work? The Web tool, which will launch this month, requires that you register an account with a valid e-mail address and accept legal disclaimers that unlocking may void all or parts of your warranty. Then plug in your phone to a computer with the Android SDK loaded to retrieve a device identifier token, which you can then enter into the Web tool to receive a unique unlock key via e-mail. Finally, apply the key to your device and unlocking will be initiated on your phone.

We’re excited to bring bootloader unlocking to developers and enthusiasts, and we feel this new Web tool will meet your needs and continue to provide customers with the best experience. Thanks to the community for supporting these efforts!

We look forward to having the ability to unlock bootloaders on our HTC devices and are happy that there is a manufacturer that looks out for the users and not just their bottom line. Although we do believe that more of us that are technical minded will look at HTC more thouroughly when choosing new devices to play with because of their caring attitude towards consumers.

There are many AT&T customers that have grandfathered unlimited data plans. If you decide to root (or jailbreak) your phone and use tethering apps like Barnacle, you risk losing your data plan and automatically being placed within a tethering plan.  This of course would be for those that tether and are noticed by assumably using insane amounts of data from a mobile device.

In March of this year Ma Bell started sending alerts to those users illegally tethering asking them to upgrade their plan to support tethering. It seems that alerting doesn’t work and providers will be taking more extreme measures. Those found tethering illegally will now automatically be moved into a 2GB tiered data plan with a 2GB tethering package. Not only will those that had a $30 unlimited plan now have less data but they will be paying $15 more as the tiered plan is $45.

Currently there is no known date for when this will take place but we do know it will be soon and those of you that don’t stop tethering may be paying more for less service.  Of course those tethering here and there and using small amounts of data will likely never be noticed but taking advantage of the loophole may kill your chances of keeping unlimited data.

We have been trying to find any way to avoid the automatic upgrade and loss of unlimited data but it seems that the only way around it is to be careful, use very little data when tethered or just stop tethering.  We of course tether all the time but aren’t watching Netflix on the tethered device so should never see it come up as an issue.  However if we do get alerted or even God forbid lose unlimited data we will be sure to let you all know.