AT&T is looking into the possibility of offering cellphone plans subsidized in part by advertisements, company CEO John Stankey told Reuters in an interview. Subscribers will still have to pay the bigger chunk of their bill, but Stankey said he believes there’s a segment of AT&T’s customer base “where given a choice, they would take some load of advertising for a $5 or $10 reduction in their mobile bill.” The CEO also revealed that the carrier could introduce the subsidized plans in a year or two.

There are other companies already offering ad-subsidized products, such as Amazon with its Kindles and phones. Stankey didn’t go into the nitty-gritty of how the offer would work, but based on what he revealed during the interview, it sounds like AT&T plans to serve individual customers with targeted advertisements. The ad-supported version of HBO Max launching next year will serve as key to the new phone plans, since it will provide the company with new advertising inventory. Apparently, the carrier’s engineers are creating “unified customer identifiers” that would allow marketers to recognize users across devices to serve them with relevant ads.

For the time being, AT&T has reportedly decided against selling its Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment gaming division to another company. According to Bloomberg, the telecom concluded the unit was too valuable to ditch, even if a sale would have helped the company with its $165 billion debt load. 

When news of the potential sale first broke, CNBC reported the sale of the division could have netted AT&T as much as $4 billion. Several prominent video game publishers were reportedly interested, including Microsoft, Take-Two, EA and Activision Blizzard. Bloomberg reports two main factors likely led to AT&T’s decision to scrap the sale.

You no longer need to subscribe to AT&T’s main offerings to get a taste of its 5G service. The carrier’s Cricket Wireless prepaid brand has launched 5G service (via The Verge), providing the faster downloads and reduced lag with lower service costs. You’ll need to spend at least $60 per month for an Unlimited Plan to use a 5G phone, but that’s not surprising given how easily you can chew through data using 5G.

The update also brings 5G to Cricket’s internet-only Simply Data plans, including a new $90 per month plan that offers 100GB at 5G speeds. Service starts at $35 per month for 20GB of full-performance data.

The renders themselves don’t appear to share anything new, although they’re a friendly reminder that offering an Android device with Google apps also means agreeing to the search giant’s policies, including the presence of a Google search bar on one of the default home screens.

The Duo might not be as expensive as you’d expect. While the two 5.6-inch AMOLED screens are clearly its highlights, the new Surface might include modest hardware like a 2019-era Snapdragon 855, 6GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. You’d also get just one 11-megapixel camera for video chats and selfies. As Microsoft has hinted for a while, the Duo could really be focused on the software — it would be more about multitasking for work than competing with the latest high-end phones.

Cinema buffs have something to look forward to from HBO Max. The streaming service is adapting popular Twitter account One Perfect Shot, which shares some of the most iconic compositions in film history, into a documentary series.

Each 30-minute episode will feature a single director dissecting one of their career-defining shot. They’ll talk about some of the things that went into the composition, with modern technology like 360-degree field of view cameras helping flesh out things. In addition to talking about the challenges they faced, they’ll also touch on lessons they learned along the way. Besides their work, they’ll talk about a shot that inspired them. As they go about talking about their craft, the directors will also touch on a single shot that inspired them. Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma and 13th, will narrate the episodes. She’s also producing the series. 

AT&T has hit a milestone in its 5G network rollout. As of this morning, the carrier says that its network is officially available nationwide — in carrier-speak, that means it’s available to more than 200 million people in the US. Specifically, AT&T added 40 new markets today, which brings it to a total of 395 markets that cover 205 million people. That puts AT&T a bit behind T-Mobile, which launched its 5G network nationwide in December of last year. They’re still far ahead of Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) though — Verizon’s “ultra wideband” 5G coverage is still only available in 35 cities around the US.

Of course, “5G” doesn’t mean the same thing from carrier to carrier. Verizon’s ultra wideband network uses the notably faster mmWave technology, while T-Mobile and AT&T primarily use mid- and low-band 5G to achieve their nationwide coverage. Verizon hasn’t deployed anything in those spectrums yet, which is why their 5G network is so limited in range — mmWave doesn’t have nearly the same reach. AT&T and T-Mobile both complement their networks with mmWave, but they’re also much more limited in reach.

AT&T

The email does link to an AT&T support article that mentions the company plans to scrap its 3G network in February 2022. “Once we do, 3G devices and 4G wireless devices that don’t support HD Voice will no longer work on our network,” the page says. However, the urgent tone of the email doesn’t make it clear to customers that they have well over a year to purchase a new phone.

The email has prompted discussion in the AT&T community forum, as users deliberated over whether it was a scam. One poster expressed skepticism, since their Samsung Galaxy S10e was released last year. A commenter replied that the email is a “scam for sure.” However, as Android Police pointed out, AT&T specifically has to whitelist phones that can use its 4G network for voice calling — so an unlocked, relatively new phone like the Galaxy S10e still could run into trouble. Again, though, it wouldn’t be for over a year.

We reached out to AT&T for comment, and they responded with this statement: “This email was one of many planned to keep customers informed about the shutdown of our 3G network in early 2022. It should have included the date that certain devices would no longer be supported. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and will be more clear in future updates.”

Considering the economy is in a difficult spot, we’re hoping AT&T’s future emails don’t try and pressure customers into buying a new phone.

TCL has rolled an update for its first full-fledged smartphone line, which will fix some of the issues users have been grappling with. The manufacturer has also launched promotional offers for the devices, making them both available for 15 percent less on Amazon and Best Buy. That means interested buyers can get the TCL 10 Pro for $382 (original price is $450) on Amazon or for $380 from Best Buy. They could also opt for the TCL c, which is currently priced at $210 on Best Buy and at $212 on Amazon (from $250).

In addition, Best Buy is offering an additional $50 off for those who buy the phone and activate service with Verizon or AT&T. There’s a special discount for Sprint customers activating a new line or a new account, as well. Customers can get the 10 Pro for $330 from Best Buy with Verizon/AT&T service activation or for $280 with Sprint. Meanwhile, the 10L is $160 with Verizon/AT&T service activation on Best Buy or $110 with Sprint.

Don’t expect to find Gone With the Wind on HBO Max for a little while. The streaming service has temporarily pulled the 1939 movie from its catalog to address the racism in the movie. It’ll come back with a “discussion” and denunciation of the racist stereotypes and their historical context, a spokesperson told Variety. You won’t see edits to the film itself, however, as HBO Max parent WarnerMedia wants to acknowledge that the racism existed.

The company didn’t say if anything prompted the event. It comes amid widespread protests against racism and police violence, however, and soon after 12 Years A Slave screenwriter John Ridley called for Gone With the Wind’s removal. It both furthers racist stereotypes and romanticizes the Civil War-era American South, Ridley said.

Streaming companies have to pay mobile carriers — such as AT&T — if they don’t want traffic from their services to affect users’ data caps. AT&T owns HBO, though, so the conglomerate would be paying itself if it didn’t want its new HBO Max service to do so. The company has confirmed to The Verge that data from HBO Max will be exempted from customers’ traditional data caps or the soft data caps that come with “unlimited” plans.

The Verge spoke to an AT&T executive who says that the aforementioned fee is an expense for HBO Max, but is revenue for AT&T Mobility, so the two cancel each other out. If another streaming service, such as Netflix, were to pay the fee, it would only count as a cost. No other streaming companies pay the fee, and therefore, all traffic from Netflix, Hulu and others counts against data caps. This could give AT&T and HBO Max an unfair advantage in the streaming wars.