Technology News: 2016

Thứ Tư, 27 tháng 7, 2016

Mark your calendars for Netflix return of 'Gilmore Girls,' 'Black Mirror'

If you've been mourning the sharp and sassy mother-daughter relationship of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore ever since "Gilmore Girls" was canceled in 2007, it's time to call your mom and load up on coffee and junk food. Netflix on Wednesday announced the premiere dates for its original content, and the "Gilmore" revival is one of them.

Fans can trek back to Stars Hollow with the Gilmores beginning November 25. That's the day after Thanksgiving, so now you have another item to be thankful for over the holiday turkey dinner.

The show will pick up on the lives of Lorelai and Rory nearly a decade after the original show ended, and offer four 90-minute episodes. And a brief clip shows that Luke's and the Dragonfly Inn are still up-and-running, and so is Lorelei's bizarre brain, as she and her daughter argue about whether Amy Schumer would like her.

Schumer even got in on it with a tweeted response in the affirmative.

But before the Gilmores start leading where we will follow (theme song reference!), Netflix will be premiering additional original content. Creepy "Twilight Zone"-like series "Black Mirror" returns for its third season October 21. Since that show's first episode -- about a British prime minister being forced into sexual congress with a pig -- ended up having a creepy real-life tie-in, viewers may want to watch these episodes with an eye to the newspaper.

Other Netflix original series coming soon include "Chef's Table: France," the Chicago-set series "Easy," Ashton Kutcher's comedy "The Ranch," rom-com "Lovesick," hostage-negotiation docu-series "Captive," and a Cuban-accented reboot of Norman Lear's 1970s classic "One Day at a Time."

Tech firms call on lawmakers to invest in STEM ed, reform immigration

Tech companies called Wednesday for the federal government to invest in more STEM education and reform immigration policies, recurring themes the industry hopes to influence in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Representatives of Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon said they face difficulties finding qualified staff, a handicap they believe other US companies face and that threatens the strength of American industry. The issue is so widespread that it affects fields outside of technology, including pharmaceuticals and health care, they said.

"This is no longer a Microsoft, Facebook or Amazon issue," Brad Smith, Microsoft's chief legal officer said at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's panel in Philadelphia, where the Democratic National Convention is being held. "Companies are only as good as the people we hire."

Silicon Valley has warned that the lack of rigorous STEM -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- education in the country has the potential to make US companies uncompetitive. Technology groups have also started programs to get young people, as well as women and minorities, interested in the field.

President Barack Obama unveiled in January a three-year, $4 billion budget proposal to provide states with money to train teachers, equip classrooms and develop classroom materials for STEM education. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has also called for more funding for STEM education, including more school technology courses, grants for teachers pursuing STEM subjects and financial aid for students studying computer coding and related subjects.

David Zapolsky, Amazon's general counsel, acknowledged that companies have an obligation to invest in training for their employees to ensure their skills are up to snuff. But the government, he said, also needs to invest in preparing students for careers in technology.

The panel also included Erin Egan, a chief privacy officer for Facebook, who added that affordable broadband access is also an important component to ensuring a prepared workforce.

"Infrastructure is a key pillar this agenda," she said.

The participants also called on the government to reform immigration laws so that people who come to the US for education can stay and work after they complete their degrees. Like STEM education, immigration reform is a key item on Silicon Valley's agenda.

Samsung sees profit rise on sales of Galaxy S7

It appears Samsung's Galaxy S7 is still the phone to beat.

The world's largest smartphone maker on Wednesday reported its strongest earningsin two years, fueled in part by sales of Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Samsung said net income rose 2 percent year over year to 5.85 trillion won ($5.1 billion) for the three-month period ending June 30. Analysts were estimating net income of 5.64 trillion won, according to Bloomberg. Revenue for the second quarter rose about 5 percent to 50.94 trillion won ($45 billion), Samsung said.

Despite a sluggish smartphone market overall, Samsung said operating profit for its mobile division rose to 4.32 trillion won ($3.8 billion) during the period. Strong sales of its high-end Galaxy S7 phones lead the way, the company said, but it was also bolstered by sales of its mid- and low-end phones.

Apple, Samsung's main rival, on Tuesday reported a continuing decline in iPhone sales

The key to unlocking large-scale glasses-free 3D might be...the Nintendo 3DS? (Tomorrow Daily 398)

Another Magic Leap demo popped up recently -- the company's CMO showed off anaugmented-reality shopping app to Alibaba's CMO at an event in China. We still don't know what the hardware looks like, but we continue to be curious about Magic Leap as it develops its AR experience.

We're also briefing you on MIT CSAIL's newest project: glasses-free 3D for movie theaters. Instead of using images that require special glasses, this would specifically target each individual seat in a theater and give the ticket holder their very own unique 3D view.Of course, you can find us everywhere on social media. Like, follow and heart us as you desire!

Google’s CEO sums up his AI vision: “Hi. How can I help?

Sundar Pichai, who takes the I/O stage for the first time since becoming CEO in October, says he’s on a “journey” from mobile to AI. Good thing he has an assistant.

From the windows lining the wall of Sundar Pichai’s light-filled office in the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, you can see the twin spires of Shoreline Amphitheatre, just a short walk away.

The outdoor arena is where Pichai is hosting, for his first time as Google’s CEO, over 2,000 Googlers and 7,000 developers at the company’s I/O conference. After holding the confab inside a San Francisco convention center for the past seven years, Pichai wanted to bring the gathering back to Google’s backyard on I/O’s 10th anniversary. He’s keen to celebrate the community around the company’s Android software, Chrome browser and search engine, and introduce the next chapter of Google’s vision for artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

But right now, Pichai is peeved.

After a week of getting a first look at the products being unveiled at I/O, which starts Wednesday, we couldn’t help but notice a lot of new takes on existing products. There’s a messaging app (which suggests comparisons to Facebook Messenger), a voice-activated speaker and smart home control hub (sort of like Amazon’s Echo), a video chat app (think Apple’s Facetime) and a new hardware and software system for VR built around a smartphone (shades of Samsung Gear VR).
o be sure, Google’s executives described interesting new ideas and technologies behind each product. But there’s no entirely new product that someone else hasn’t done already.
The famously mild-mannered Pichai — his Businessweek cover in 2014 was captioned “Google’s Soft Power” — bristles at the idea Google is somehow “following” its tech brethren. He takes a few minutes to tamp down his annoyance, and then calmly explains the “journey” he started taking Google on since becoming CEO of the most important division of parent company Alphabet.

“It’s important to understand we weren’t the first company in search,” says Pichai, 43, tall and wiry, whose salt-and-pepper beard adds a touch of gravitas to his boyish smile. “Larry and Sergey did search because they saw a chance to do something different.”

It was the same for email, online maps and Web browsers. The different take worked, with Gmail, Google Maps and Chrome each boasting a billion users. “There are areas where we will be ahead, and there will be areas where someone points a way and we do it,” Pichai says, crediting the Amazon Echo for generating interest in smart home hubs. “That’s how it works.”
But Google isn’t just creating a slew of new products. It’s how they’ll riff off each other that gets Pichai animated during our hour-long conversation. Each new thing — from the Allo chat app to a smart home speaker code-named Chirp — boasts artificial intelligence and machine learning that allows it to serve as a playground for Pichai’s new “Google assistant.”

It’s as if Google is transferring its very essence from that sparse white homepage into every piece of tech you own (your phone, car, smartwatch) and online service you use. Unlike today’s search box, this assistant will learn about you from your behavior. It will know you’re a vegetarian, so won’t recommend steakhouses for dinner. It will understand context: If you’ve just bought Golden State Warriors tickets, the next time you mention Curry, it will know you’re talking about Steph and not Thai curry.

All that, says Pichai, signals profound changes in the way we use information
Think of it this way: For pretty much the entire time people have been online, the Internet has been a tool, like a hammer or a library card. You use them when you need them. But a hammer will never automatically build you a house — let alone one with a Craftsman exterior because you’ve been reading up on early 20th century architecture. Google wants to be that overachieving hammer.

“It’s Google asking users, ‘Hi. How can I help?’” Pichai says. “Think of it as building your own individual Google.”

The idea of a digital assistant isn’t new. Apple teased the world with an online concierge named “Phil” almost three decades ago as part of its vision for a “Knowledge Navigator. ” Today, Apple has Siri, Microsoft has Cortana and Amazon has Alexa. And in the movies, Tony Stark has Jarvis.

Google has been doing this for years, too.
Google Now pops things up on your phone when the service thinks they’re relevant, thanks in part to Google’s Knowledge Graph, which understands a billion entities — people, places and things — and the relationships among them. Pichai now wants that know-how in even more places. He also thinks Google has the competition beat because of its heritage as a search company that’s been “organizing the world’s information.”

“There is no better engine of answering any question that you have,” says Rishi Chandra, vice president of product management for Google’s line of devices for the living room, including the Chromecast audio and video streaming stick. “We fundamentally believe that.”

So does the rest of the world, which queries Google more than a trillion times a year. That’s about 3 billion searches a day. A decade ago, Google translated two languages. Today, it’s talking to folks in over 100 languages and translating more than 140 billion words every day.
Here to serve
While Pichai has been talking up AI and machine learning for a while, I/O 2016 is Google’s first showcase for products with the assistant baked into their DNA.

Chirp, the smart home speaker now officially called Google Home, will likely get outsized attention. Unlike Amazon’s Echo, Google Home’s physical design can be customized so it blends in with your furniture. Its interchangeable parts means you can pick, say, different colored fabrics if you want it in your bedroom or metallic finishes if it’s going to live in your kitchen.

You’ll be able to ask it anything using the trigger words, “OK Google,” Pichai explains. One of the phones in his office, hearing him say that phrase, dings and leaps into action. But the company may add more code words in the future, like “Hey Google.” (In the Google app on Android devices in the US, 20 percent of searches are now by voice, he adds.)

Google Home lets you request anything you’d type into the search box. It will also tell you if your flight’s delayed, your package has arrived and what’s next on your calendar. It can dim your lights, put on a movie, and work with other gadgets, like Google’s $35 Chromecast. That means you can sync up music to speakers in different rooms or queue up “Broad City” on your TV.
It will also understand different accents as well as commands from kids, whose precocious questions aren’t so easy to follow. “I can’t train my kid to talk to a device,” says Chandra, laughing. “My kids are going to say what they want to say. It really has to feel like a natural, two-way conversation.”

And Google Home will offer the same privacy preferences people already have with old-fashioned Google Web search. "It’s all the same rules, privacy and control,” says Scott Huffman, Google’s vice president of engineering for search. So you can do things like clear your search history.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has another unit that’s building smart home products. Nest, which was acquired in 2014 for $3 billion, makes Web-connected thermostats, smoke detectors and security cameras under the guidance of former Apple iPod chief, Tony Fadell. So it begs the question why Google Home, which is compatible with Nest’s products, isn’t made by Nest.
The reason, Pichai says, is because Google is interested in bringing computing to several distinct contexts. “Your phone, your wearables, your car, and your home,” he says. Google Home is more about that than anything else.

Google’s big challenge with Home isn’t the tech, says Gartner analyst Brian Blau. It’s getting the device on customers’ radars. One reason for the Amazon Echo’s success is the fact that Amazon can prominently promote the $179 smart speaker on its site. And when people visit Amazon’s homepage, they’re already jonesing to spend.

“You have your pocketbook out when you go there,” Blau says. Google just doesn’t have that captive audience when it comes to selling devices.

Allo there!
The messaging app, Allo, also features AI smarts. It joins the next-gen chat service scrum that’s already being fought by Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and Kik.
When you’re chatting with a friend on Allo — it culls your phone’s contacts list so you have people to talk to — the software automatically recommends “Smart Replies.” If a friend asks you to dinner, one of Allo’s suggested responses is “What time?” The more you use Allo, the more Smart Replies will start to sound like you. So if you have a favorite emoji, you can bet it will start to show up for you.
Like Facebook, which has a chatbot assistant it’s been testing called M, Google’s virtual helper will be front and center in Allo. There are a few key differences. Facebook’s M, which is being tested with “a few thousand” people in California right now, is overseen by a team of human workers who step in if a task is too complicated for the bot, like ordering food from a restaurant without an online ordering system. The assistant in Allo is entirely machine operated and is open to everyone.

Pichai says these AI steps are just the first in a long process because the computing challenges are so difficult. There are privacy concerns that need to be balanced, and questions answered about the cultural and societal impact of all this mind-reading tech.
Google is showing more future vision at this year’s I/O than it has before because it wants developers and users to understand what it aims to deliver — and to get them to buy into its ecosystem.

“Just like we’ve built search for a while, this is something we’re looking at building for many years,” Pichai says. “It’s a broad journey.”
What would Sundar do?
Alphabet’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin continue to show confidence in Pichai’s leadership. Last month, the duo let him write the company’s annual founders’ letter, marking the first time in Google’s 17-year history that someone other than Brin or Page, who was CEO before Pichai, has penned it.

Right outside of Pichai’s fishbowl office, a T-shirt hangs on the back of a chair that conjures up Apple’s visionary co-founder Steve Jobs. The shirt has a drawing of Pichai soulfully looking off in the distance, shielding his eyes, presumably, from the sun’s rays. It says “WWSD?” for “What would Sundar do?”

While he’s been considered Page’s heir apparent for years, Pichai doesn’t remember the exact moment when he knew he’d take over. There wasn’t a conversation where Page handed him the proverbial keys to the kingdom, he jokes. “It only happens like that in movies.”
Instead, his rise has been gradual. Born in Chennai, India, Pichai attended the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur before earning master’s degrees from Stanford and Wharton. He first interviewed for Google on April 1, 2004 — the same day it launched Gmail, which Pichai thought was an April Fools’ joke.

He served as a product manager in charge of the browser search bar before initiating development of Chrome. His successes started to stack up and, in 2013, he took over Android from its dynamic but polarizing founder, Andy Rubin. He got oversight of the rest of Google’s Web products two years later, and was tapped as CEO last year.

His team credits his intimate knowledge of Google’s products as a key reason he’s been able to make formerly siloed projects work together. “He deeply understands platforms,” says Hiroshi Lockheimer, who took over as Android chief. “He's always been the leader that I've looked to get guidance from.”

Outside of Pichai’s office, a complex art installation features twinkling lights overhead, like an artist’s interpretation of neurons speeding around the brain. It kind of looks like a starfield. We ask Pichai to pose for a portrait beneath it. The setting seems fitting because, with Page and Brin off contemplating the future of Alphabet, Pichai is now Google’s north star.

AI-first

Pichai now faces attacks on multiple fronts. Regulators in the European Union allege that Google abuses its dominance to keep competitors down. When asked about it, Google points to a blog post from its general counsel, Kent Walker, who wrote that Google “takes these concerns seriously,” but also believes its model helps phone makers keep costs low.

And Google’s rivals are circling. Regina Dugan, the former DARPA chief who led Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP), left the company in April to lead a similar effort building experimental hardware for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Pichai insists ATAP is alive and thriving. All the group’s projects continue, including Ara, a fan favorite that lets people build smartphones from components that snap together like Legos. ATAP is hosting a session at I/O this week to share other news.

As he deals with those external forces, Pichai is also focused on shifting Google’s journey from “mobile-first to AI-first.” That will mean changing the very soul of the operation: Google.com.

Google’s homepage, the cash cow that accounts for the majority of Alphabet’s $74 billion in sales, isn’t going anywhere, at least anytime soon. But expect Google.com to get more personalized. One early sign of change: After Amit Singhal, Google’s longtime search chief, retired in February, John Giannandrea, the company’s AI boss, took over.

And consider this: When you Google “Sundar Pichai,” the results show his Wikipedia entry, his Twitter feed (@sundarpichai) and then recent news about him. We ask him stuff you wouldn’t get at first glance in a standard Google search.

His favorite emoji: the simple, classic smiley face.
He’s Team Hard ‘G’ in the great GIF pronunciation debate.
He thinks the most impactful Alphabet moon shot is the self-driving car project.
Nuclear fusion is the most fascinating technology Google isn’t working on. (We double-checked: Google isn’t working on nuclear fusion, but he’s open to helping others who are by offering things like cloud-based computational services.)
He no longer memorizes phone numbers, as he did when he was a kid, because they’re stored in the many (he doesn’t know the exact number) phones he uses at any given time.

If the journey goes as planned and the assistant is really as “assistive” (Pichai’s word) as Google wants it to be, you could find answers like that in the not-too-distant future. What would a “Sundar Pichai” Google search look like in his AI-first world?

Hiroshima wants Pokemon Go players to go away

Add Japan's Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to the growing list of inappropriate Pokemon Go-playing venues that includes the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The park commemorates the dropping of the first atomic bomb at the end of World War II, and city officials are hoping to avoid Poke-scavengers wandering through the annual ceremony to remember bombing victims on August 6.

The Associated Press reports that officials asked the game's developer, Niantic, to delete Pokestops and other virtual sites before the ceremony date, but the company told the AP it would not make any discussions with a third party public.

Elsewhere in Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) also this week asked Niantic to remove all Pokemon from zones affected by the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown to keep players from wandering into dangerous areas. Previously, an organization in Bosnia issued an alertreminding Pokemon Go players not to venture into minefields.

Nintendo's augmented-reality game has become a worldwide megahit, scoring over 75 million downloads in less than a month. The obsession has spread to pretty much every corner of the globe, leading to some awkward moments for Poke-players wandering onto an Indonesian military base or off a cliff, among other fails.

The phenomenon is so widespread it's also being used to draw attention to other important happenings, like the civil war in Syria and the US presidential election, with candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton name-checking the game on the campaign trail.

Twitter says it's having trouble competing for advertising dollars

Twitter's competition is eating its lunch.

The company didn't phrase it that way Tuesday when it forecast third-quarter sales of $590 million to $610 million, well below analysts' estimates of $678.2 million.Twitter put it this way, instead: "First, there is increased competition for social marketing budgets," the company wrote in its letter to shareholders to shareholders. And second, "We're still priced at a premium CPE [cost per engagement] relative to others."

In other words, rivals like Facebook and Snapchat are getting a bigger share of companies' advertising dollars, largely because Twitter is more expensive.

Shares fell more than 11 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

To attract advertisers, the company said it plans to put greater emphasis on mobile video. That ties into recent a deal to live-stream 10 NFL Thursday night games this season. In addition, Twitter will stream National Basketball Association stream pregame shows, broadcast some games from the Pac-12 conference and live-stream Major League Baseball and National Hockey League games. Twitter will also be the home of a nightly sports-highlights show called "The Rally."

The company on Tuesday also reported a 1 percent increase in the number of monthly active users in the second quarter, rising to 313 million from 310 million. Profit minus some costs, such as employee stock compensation, was 13 cents a share, beating the 10 cents a share estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Second-quarter revenue was $602 million compared with analysts' estimates of $607 million.

Goodbye, Philae: Rosetta's comet lander lost forever

Everything about the Rosetta comet mission has been epic. It took 10 years for the spacecraft to reach Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which it did in 2014. Rosetta then sent its plucky little lander Philae down to the comet's surface, but a faulty thruster landed it in shadows. Unable to charge itself properly, Philae floated in and out of contact. The Rosetta team last heard from Philae way back in July 2015. It's been silent ever since.

The ESA announced that the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on Rosetta will be switched off on Wednesday. The ESS enables communications between Rosetta and Philae. This severs the final thread of hope for contact from the lander. The move is aimed at conserving power on board Rosetta as it nears the final days of its comet-studying mission.

Rosetta is scheduled to wrap up its mission by descending to the comet's surface on September 30. The comet is currently heading away from the sun, which saps the spacecraft of the solar power it needs to continue operations. There is a sense of poetry to Rosetta rejoining its lander on the comet. It may mark the end of Rosetta's activities, but scientists involved in the mission will stay busy for years studying the data sent back by both the craft and the lander.

Xbox One S 500GB, 1TB bundles to launch on August 23

Microsoft will officially launch the 500 gigabyte and 1 terabyte editions of its new Xbox One S console on Tuesday, August 23.

Xbox One S buyers will have a few choices over which bundle to buy, according to a blog posted Tuesday by Matt Lapsen, general manager of Xbox Devices Marketing.

The Xbox One S Halo Collection bundle comes with either a 500GB drive or a 1TB drive, a matching Xbox Wireless Controller and the Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: The Master Chief Collection games. The 500GB edition runs $299, while the 1TB version goes for $349

The $349 Xbox One S Madden NFL 17 bundle is available only with a 1TB drive and includes a full-game download of Madden NFL 17, seven Madden Ultimate Team Pro Packs and one month of EA Access. For a limited time, customers who buy the Madden NFL 17 bundle will get a promo code good for 20 percent off their next order at NFLShop.com.

Microsoft has tried a variety of schemes to lift Xbox One sales, including cutting the price, bundling free games and selling a cheaper Kinect-free version of the console. The Xbox One S embodies a new approach. By throwing in support for 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray discs and 4K streaming services, the new console aims to to challenge both gaming consoles and Blu-ray players for consumer dollars.

By supporting 4K (3,820x2,160-pixel) resolution, the Xbox One S will display more vibrant colors and darker blacks. The higher resolution works with movies and TV shows natively but will handle games as well by upscaling them to 4K. The new console also supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) for video and gaming, which means certain content will look better due to a higher contrast ratio.

The Xbox One S also comes in a 2TB edition that will launch on August 2. This edition is available in two varieties -- a $399 Limited Launch version with no free games and a$449 Gears of War 4 bundle. The different Xbox One S flavors are currently up for preorder through Microsoft, Best Buy, Target, Amazon and GameStop.

The 1TB bundle for both Madden NFL 17 and Halo will be "available in very limited quantities at select Microsoft Stores and microsoftstore.com," Lapsen said. Consumers looking for that storage option may want to preorder at this point. The 500GB and 1TB bundles will initially be available in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand from Microsoft and select retailers, according to Lapsen.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

T-Mobile bulks up as new customers gobble pizza freebies and more

Never underestimate the power of free pizza.

When T-Mobile in early June launched its freebie program, which gave away pizza, streaming movies and, for some, shares of the company, it likely didn't have a sense of how quickly its customers would embrace the idea. Its T-Mobile Tuesday app crashed on launch day. The free pizza giveaway overwhelmed partner Domino's, and the pizza chain backed out of the program.

Not that any of this halted T-Mobile's momentum. The carrier replaced Domino's with a $15 voucher for a Lyft ride and earlier this month said that blockbuster hit game Pokemon Go wouldn't count against its customers' data for a year.

The perks offered through T-Mobile's Un-carrier campaign continue to lure in new customers and foster loyalty among existing ones through the brand. The latest evidence: the company's second-quarter results, which saw a gain of 646,000 net new postpaid phone customers, or folks who pay at the end of the month. The turnover rate for postpaid customers, meanwhile, fell to a record low 1.27 percent.

The Un-carrier campaign has helped T-Mobile lead the industry in growth, at times outstripping all of its competitors in the critical metric of new phone customers. Its success underscores how little gestures, including free pizza, can have a big impact on a company like T-Mobile, which remains a much smaller rival to telecom giants Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

3/ OMG @TMobile customers slammed @dominos stores!! They saw 3x & 4x in a typical day and can't handle the volume. pic.twitter.com/jVvDGAqduS

-- John Legere (@JohnLegere) June 15, 2016

In comparison, Verizon said Tuesday that it had added just 86,000 phone customers. AT&T lost 180,000 postpaid customers in the period.

While T-Mobile wouldn't say specifically how its T-Mobile Tuesday app benefited the company, Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert noted that "Un-carrier 11" was the most talked about move, garnering 6.6 billion social impressions.

In total, T-Mobile logged 1.9 million total net additions, helped by its prepaid and wholesale business. Its total postpaid customer growth of 890,000, which includes connected devices like tablets, actually fell from a year ago and the first quarter. The company blamed the result on "the absence of iconic device launches in the period."

It's likely Sprint also had an impact. The company, in the middle of its own turnaround effort, on Monday said it signed up 173,000 customers, reversing losses from a year earlier. It has been aggressive in promoting service plans that promise to halve your phone bill.

In a sign of continued momentum, Legere said T-Mobile had already added 25 percent more customers in July than Sprint did in the second quarter. Executives said the hype over Pokemon Go (Legere is on level 8 of the hit game and a member of Team Instinct) and its related promotion likely drove interest in its T-Mobile Tuesday app, which has been downloaded 5 million times.

T-Mobile expects continued momentum throughout the year, and raised its 2016 forecast for postpaid net new customers to between 3.4 million and 3.8 million, up from a prior range of 3.2 million to 3.6 million.

The nation's third-largest carrier posted a profit of $225 million, or 25 cents a share, on revenue of $9.22 billion.

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Thứ Tư, 27 tháng 7, 2016