Gadgetory

the two-year phone contract is going the way of the dodo I'm Bridget Carey this is your scene at update two-year phone contracts are on a path to extinction in the US Sprint announced that by the end of the year it's gonna stop offering customers the option of a two-year contract and subsidize price on a new phone so instead of paying $200 for that new iPhone with a contract renewal you'll have to pay the full cost of the iPhones six hundred and fifty dollars over time in monthly payments Verizon killed the two-year contract last week and t-mobile instigated the change when it ended contracts two years ago now 18t is the last major carrier to keep contracts but even it is slowly pulling back you can only renew a two-year contract in an official 18 t store not at another retail shop like Best Buy to better compete with t-mobile Sprint is also offering a new plan called iPhone forever you lease an iPhone for $22 a month and as soon as a new one comes out you trade it in an upgrade there are benefits to the monthly payment system it's more clear in your bill on what you're paying for the cost of the phone is separated from your service cost which is now cheaper so when you pay off the phone you only pay for the service and if you're shopping around for which carrier has the best deal now it's easier to just compare service plans between each company Sprint is fourth place among US carriers when it comes to the number of customers but it's in third place in terms of coverage according to the latest report from Wireless testing firm route metrics Verizon took the top spot with AT&T following closely behind t-mobile was held back by poor performance outside of the major metro areas moving from phones to Facebook more changes are coming to the social network in particular it wants you to do more blogging on Facebook its beefing up notes yeah remember notes it's changing so you can post a long-form story with large cover photos you can also resize photos within a post and insert links it looks a whole lot like medium shown here it's a place people go to post long-form think pieces and articles it's also similar to how tumblers used now this facebook notes change is only a small test now it's likely you see it and there's a new way to chat over at Google Hangouts the messenger service now has its own desktop website so you don't need to pull up the mobile app or go through Gmail to start a conversation or video call you can find it at Hangouts and Google com Facebook does the same thing with messenger letting you access chat on messenger com that's it for this tech news update you can dive in deeper at cnet.com from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey