Virgin Mobile USA today announced that it will begin selling the iPhone 5 next Friday, June 28, offering the device on its no-contract Beyond Talk service plans. The plans start at $35/month for 300 minutes plus unlimited text and data, although the carrier begins throttling data speeds after a monthly soft cap of 2.5 GB. A $45/month plan offers 1200 minutes, while a $55/month plan adds unlimited calling, and customers can earn a $5/month discount on their bills when they sign up for automatic payments.
As for the iPhone itself, Virgin Mobile is offering a $100 discount off of Apple's standard unsubsidized pricing, selling the 16 GB iPhone 5 for $549.99 with the 32 GB model priced at $649.99 and the 64 GB model at $749.99.
We noted last October that Apple had Virgin Mobile-specific iPhone 5 models ready to go, although it was unclear at the time when they would be released and it remains unknown why it took approximately nine months after the device's launch to appear at the carrier. The iPhone 5 has been available through other prepaid carriers such as Cricket since as long ago as September.
Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below.
Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more.
Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1.
Release Date
Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important.
Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped.
The new ...
Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year.
Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors.
...
Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out.
Processor and Performance
Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas.
The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device.
The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...
But its on Sprint Network right? So, it's worthless. Sprint has almost no LTE, this doesnt do WiMax, and their 3G network can't even achieve 56K modem speeds.
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If only there could be a quality prepaid carrier using the Verizon network...
Or have I missed something? Sprint and therefore Virgin coverage in my area is crap.
there used to be a decent amount of Pre-paid carriers on Verizon and AT&T. Straight Talk used to be almost exclusively Verizon in the beginning. But AT&T and Verizon saw how many people were using those cheaper services so they kicked them off their networks. Verizon did it a long time ago. AT&T just recently told Straight Talk to quit selling AT&T sims.
So, now all pre-paids are on T-mo or Sprint. Sprint is terrible coverage and terrible data speeds. T-mo has good data speeds as long as you are inside a city's limits. Suburbs, not so much. And their coverage area sucks. You spend most of your time roaming on AT&T network at edge speeds.
Holy ****. Is there NO WiFi in his life or does he just insist on streaming YouTube HD 24/7? The wife & I SHARE 1GB/mo and barely use 75% of that bc WiFi is everywhere.
Kid is a gamer and always seems to be watching walk-through videos on YouTube -- and Google still hasn't figured out how to stream mobile videos at an appropriate quality for the connection and device.
Hmm... If only the people who develop Android could somehow work with the people who run YouTube... Maybe if they were owned by the same company... <scratches chin> /s
But its on Sprint Network right? So, it's worthless. Sprint has almost no LTE, this doesnt do WiMax, and their 3G network can't even achieve 56K modem speeds.
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there used to be a decent amount of Pre-paid carriers on Verizon and AT&T. Straight Talk used to be almost exclusively Verizon in the beginning. But AT&T and Verizon saw how many people were using those cheaper services so they kicked them off their networks. Verizon did it a long time ago. AT&T just recently told Straight Talk to quit selling AT&T sims.
So, now all pre-paids are on T-mo or Sprint. Sprint is terrible coverage and terrible data speeds. T-mo has good data speeds as long as you are inside a city's limits. Suburbs, not so much. And their coverage area sucks. You spend most of your time roaming on AT&T network at edge speeds.
There is hope as AT&T AIOwireless.com pre-paid service is supposed to roll out nationwide with substantial discounts over their post paid service.
So 'Unlimited' actually means 2.5GB. I don't understand how carriers are allowed to use terms like this. What's unlimited about 2.5GB? It's probably plenty for most but thats not the point.
