Sprint reports big Q2 loss as it sheds 101,000 postpaid subs

Sprint on Thursday reported greater than expected losses in the second quarter despite modest revenue growth. The nation’s No. 3 carrier pulled in $8.3 billion in its June quarter, up 4% from the same quarter a year prior, but it wasn’t enough to bring the company back into the black. Sprint’s net losses in the second quarter totalled $827 million, 11% worse than the $760 million loss it reported in the second quarter of 2010. On the bright side, however, those losses include $588 million in bad investments and a $52 million tax charge from the state of Michigan, so Sprint would have shown sequential and year-over-year improvements if not for those losses. Sprint also reported its best subscriber churn of late in the second quarter, adding more than a million new subscribers despite shedding 101,000 net wireless postpaid customers. “Sprint’s second quarter results, including our fourteenth consecutive quarter of improved customer care satisfaction, our best ever postpaid churn, more than 1 million net wireless subscriber additions and wireless service revenue growth, validate that our focus on providing simplicity, value and an unmatched customer experience is working,” said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse in a statement. Of note, sprint also announced a deal with LightSquared on Thursday that will see it bring 4G LTE services to 260 million Americans by 2015.

 

Sprint’s full earnings release follows below.

iSpeech Translator for BlackBerry AND the BlackBerry PlayBook

 

From the people who brought you DriveSafe.ly, the application that speaks your text messages, comes iSpeech Translator. Yes, friends, the iSpeech Translator is available for the PlayBook and any BlackBerry smartphone that runs OS 1.0 and higher, in any country, on any carrier. Unless your BlackBerry is half a decade old, you too can run iSpeech Translator. Even better, iSpeech offers a free, fully-functional version of the app.

Okay, enough of the infomercial. iSpeech Translator is an easy to use application that’s designed to make it easy get good translations on the go. In my own experience, the app is rather accurate in its translations, free from the simple errors you often see in machine-translated language. Even native speakers (who speak English as a second language) agree; iSpeech Translator is remarkably accurate.

CTIA 2010: BreezyPrint – One Touch Printing From Your BlackBerry

Printing from a BlackBerry? There are a few companies that offer printing solutions and BreezyPrint is here at CTIA showcasing their solution which looks easy and efficient. BreezyPrint lets print directly from your BlackBerry to any networked printer.

Key features of BreezyPrint:

• The fastest way to print any document from your mobile device
• Works with any printer
• No extra hardware or drivers required
• No IP address or firewall configuration required
• Safe – protected by end-to-end encryption
• Installs in minutes

Head over to their site and try it out now.

New Text’nDrive Safe Driving App Released for BlackBerry

Text’nDrive let us know that the BlackBerry version of their app has released. Text’nDrive reads out your e-mails and SMS text messages. This new app also lets you reply by voice for truly safe driving.

In-car speakerphones, wired connections, Bluetooth headsets, and manufacturer-installed hardware are all supported. Text’nDrive is hoping to help those in states and countries where texting while driving has been banned.

Users may download two versions of the Text’nDrive app (a free version and the $19.95 pro version) from BlackBerry App World or from the Text’nDrive website at http://www.textndrive.com/install. For more information on Text’nDrive’s features and benefits, please visit www.TextnDrive.com.

How To Boot Your BlackBerry Into Safe Mode [from Alliance member http://www.berryreporter.com]

If you’ve recently run into problems on your BlackBerry because of a recently installed application or an accidentally changed setting, you may want to boot your handset into safe mode. Similar to a computer’s safe mode option, your device will start running only essential applications – making it much simpler to delete applications or troubleshoot if the handset is hanging, freezing, or crashing.

To boot your BlackBerry into safe mode, perform a battery pull, holding the Back (Escape) key for the duration of the boot up process. If you’ve successfully entered safe mode, you will get a pop-up notification on your screen, in addition to status text at the top of your screen.

Use Safe Mode if your BlackBerry is on the fritz

Ever install an application and find out that it’s a huge burden to your BlackBerry? If you’ve explored the array of unofficial apps around the net, you might have encountered an issue with one. Sometimes that can cause a number of problems on your BlackBerry — including a reboot cycle or a 507 error which will make it impossible to delete that application. If you’re a user of OS 4.6 or higher, you can start your device in Safe Mode, which will allow you to diagnose and remove problematic applications.

The process is rather simple. You’ll have to pull your battery and then replace it. As your BlackBerry device reboots, the red LED will light up. Once that goes off, press and hold the Escape key (or the Back key, however you refer to it) until you see a dialog which notes that you are in Safe Mode.

You’ll have limited application access in Safe Mode — Phone, Messenger, Messages, and Browser — but you can also delete apps right from the main screen. Hit the Menu key when you have the app’s icon selected and you’ll have the option to delete it. That’s that.

Once you’re done toying around in Safe Mode, just remove your battery again to restart the device back in normal mode. Again, this only works with OS 4.6 and up, which is a shame, because us 4.5 and lower folks could use a mode like that.

Thanks to Al Sacco for the tip.