Sprint may soon make an offer to acquire MetroPCS. This comes after Wednesday's announcement by Deutsche Telekom of their intention to acquire MetroPCS for the purpose of merging it with T-Mobile USA. At this moment, Sprint is still weighing its options in making an offer. A merger of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS would hamper Sprint's efforts to play a larger role in the consolidation of the wireless industry. Interestingly, this is not the first time that Sprint has considered buying MetroPCS, with Businessweek reporting:

The company abandoned plans earlier this year to buy MetroPCS after Sprint's board rejected the transaction, which may have cost as much as $8 billion including debt, two people familiar with the plan said in February.

Sprint would need to beat Deutsche Telekom's current bid of $1.5 billion. One obstacle that Sprint would face in making an offer would be the breakup fee which MetroPCS would need to pay. If MetroPCS were to back out of the merger with T-Mobile, it would owe T-Mobile $150 million. Sprint would have weigh this when putting together their bid, perhaps including an added $150 million in order to offset the fee.

One advantage for Sprint in all of this is the iPhone. With last year's iPhone 4S, the iPhone finally came to Sprint. Both Sprint and Metro PCS are CDMA carriers, and a merger would give 9 million MetroPCS customers access to the iPhone. Conversely, T-Mobile USA is a GSM carrier, and, in addition to hardware integration difficulties, is the only one of the four major US carriers that does not carry the iPhone, at least officially. If Sprint were to acquire MetroPCS, it would also allow for an aggressive expansion of Sprint's fledgling LTE network, giving them coverage in cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Both MetroPCS and Sprint utilize LTE band 25, making MetroPCS compatible, at least in part, with LTE on the iPhone 5.

What are your feelings on this? Which network should buy MetroPCS? Would it make a difference for either Sprint or T-Mobile? Let us know below in the comments.

Source: Businessweek

Since the early days of the iPhone, we've received a steady stream of complaints about how alerts are handled when you're on a call. Namely, you can have the phone to your ear, chatting away, when suddenly a text message comes in and the tone and/or vibrate goes off full blast into your ear and rattles through your skull. Since push notifications launched for 3rd party apps, especially the trumpeting horror that is Game Center, it's only gotten worse. If you're not used it to and expecting it, it can make you want to drop your phone and start stomping. That's only mild hyperbole, mind you, as that's exactly what several significant others have told us, with rage-filled eyes, after it happened to them for the first time.

While some people may want to make absolutely sure they don't miss an important alert while on a phone call, and are willing to pay the price in low-yield skull trauma, others would pay a significant amount of money for the option to turn it off.

So how could Apple cater to both types of users? The new Do Not Disturb Settings panel is tempting. But Do Not Disturb is model or timer based. A persistent settings wouldn't make sense there.

But there are already several similar, persistent switches in Settings > Sounds. You can already choose to turn off "Vibrate on Ring" and "Vibrate on Silence", but you may want those on at all times when you don't literally have your iPhone pressed to your ear. Adding an extra toggle, for "Mute All Alerts When on a Call" would be grand. "Notification sounds and vibrations will be temporarily muted when you're on a call". (See the mock up at the top of this post.)

Apple could implement it using the same proximity sensor that currently tells iOS to turn off and disable multitouch when you've got your iPhone to your face.

It seems small, but it's the small things -- the buzzing flies and water droplets -- that drive us crazy in the end, and this seems like a rather simple one to fix.

Sure, adding "just another setting" is never the best answer. Except when it is.

Nexia Home (formerly Schalge LiNK) has been my go-to system for home automation for quite some time. I first checked it out quite a while ago, and more recently, Georgia got to test the setup for herself. While the Nexia system gave us an indoor camera (both wired and wireless), thermostat, lamp module and door locks -- it was still lacking in the sensor department. All that has changed now however as Nexia has recently released both a door/window sensor and an indoor motion sensor. Both of these really add some great versatility to the whole setup, and with the addition of an outdoor wireless camera (due out in the coming weeks), Nexia is staying on top of their game.

No matter if you already have a Nexia system or you're just starting out, adding the new devices to your setup couldn't be simpler. I won't dive into setting up the entire system since we've been down that road already, but we'll check out how adding the new sensors makes the Nexia system even more awesome.

You will obviously need to choose where you want to use your new sensors before you get going. Depending on your system you may have more than one door, window or room that you want to monitor. If you're already using a camera or lamp module inside, you can create scenes that will record video or turn on your lights when the corresponding sensor is triggered. Any time something is triggered, you can also choose to receive an email or SMS. There are a load of combinations and triggers with which to setup your Nexia system. I've wasted hours tweaking my scenes to get them just right, but I still find myself rearranging them constantly.

From UPS drop-off to "up and running" was only about 15 minutes for the new sensors (setting up a new system is a much longer task). For the motion sensor you just need to pop off the outer cover and install the battery. From there, enroll the sensor with your bridge using the provided instructions. Once it's enrolled it will show in your dashboard and it's ready for mounting using the included double sided tape or screws.

The door/window sensor works in the same manner -- tap the button to enroll the sensor, wait for it to be accepted then find a door or window you want to monitor and install both parts of the sensor. Done and done.

For my setup I chose to use the door/window sensor on my patio door and the motion sensor in my foyer. I setup a scene through my Nexia dashboard so that when the motion sensor is triggered my lamp module turns on and my camera records for two minutes. I also get a text message sent to my phone letting me know that my scene was triggered. This is all setup for late-night hours so I don't get constant triggers all day long.

The patio door sensor is just a great way to let me know if my patio door is opened without my knowledge when I'm away. I'm sure it will come in handy when my daughter starts romping around a bit more as well.

Of course all of this can be viewed and controlled from your iPhone with the free Nexia app. The app lets you see the status of your sensors, activate your door lock, view your camera, turn on your lamp modules, setup scenes and much more.

The door and window sensor is available for $49.99 while the motion sensor will run you $69.99.

Contest: If you're not ready to spring for a Nexia system just yet, you're in luck - we have one to give away. Just leave a comment here and you'll be entered to win a Nexia Home Starter Bundle that includes your choice of lock (deadbolt or lever), lamp module and bridge. You'll also get a new door/window sensor and motion sensor. The contest ends Monday at midnight.  Good luck!

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Mark Zuckerberg took to his very own college-grown platform this morning to announce a mind-dwarfing milestone -- over 1 billion people now actively use Facebook every month.

If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you.

Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.

I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.

For those keeping score, that's 1/7 of the world's human population. That's us, our mothers, fathers, and grandparents, our children and grandchildren, our friends and lovers and neighbors and classmates and colleagues past, present, and future, and those annoying jerks who keep adding us to groups and inviting all to events. It's unprecedented.

Facebook hasn't achieved this staggering user base without controversy or conflict, without serious privacy concerns and savvy market moves. They haven't achieved it by being altruistic or sacrificing their for-profit, corporate nature for some higher social purpose. But they've achieved it.

For many people, Facebook is the web, and increasingly, Facebook is mobile. It's where we upload our photos. It's how we send our messages. It's how we plan our events. It's how we game. It's how we shield ourselves from relatives and acquaintances who might otherwise actually think about picking up the phone and asking us how we're doing.

Some of us have killed our accounts. Some of us have gone back. Some have rinsed and repeated that cycle several times. Some of us have found love or civic voice or long lost family. Some of us have been caught playing PayolaVille while in class, or at work, or while covering a major event on television. Some of us have like-minded individuals for chat and comfort and hope, or wrong-minded individuals to rally against. Some of us have tapped on profile pics only to discover, repeatedly, that people look hotter at really small pixel sizes.

But above all, indisputably, it's THE social network.

So cheers on the first billion, Facebook. Try not to spend us all in the same place.

Source: Facebook

Rene and Georgia talk iPhone 5 and iOS 6 gripes, from scuffs and scratches to battery life to iOS 6 maps, and much, much more. This is the iMore show!

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• iPhone 5 review
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If you've ever loved, loved, loved an amazing Retina-quality wallpaper you found online -- except for one tiny little thing! -- 2048px has figured out way to help you. They've taken their carefully curated selection of some of the best wallpapers from around the web, and added a new tool called Homescreen FX so you can customize them right on your iPad.

Polished tools allow you to add textures and effects to any 2048pixels wallpaper and watch your creation evolve in real-time. Best of all, 2048pixels 2.0 and its amazing new Homescreen FX are engineered down to their core to feel like a native app in Mobile Safari on your new iPad. After you tap and swipe to customize the perfect wallpaper, just one tap will instantly download your personalized work of art.

So, basically, you can browse their collection, pick a wallpaper you like, and then you can hit the FX controls at the top left. You can pixelate or add blur, and texturize with lines, grids, or grains. Then you can apply the finished wallpaper straight to your iPad.

2048px is a straightforward tool that simplifies the sometimes complicated task of customizing the look of iPad. And it does it with style. Check it out.

Source: 2048px

Google has added Street View, its panoramic ground-level mapping service, to its iPhone and iPad web app. That should hopefully ease the pain currently being experienced by iOS 6 users who found Street View missing following the September update. When Apple ditched Google as their mapping data provider and created the new, and controversial iOS 6 Maps app, they lost Street View and instead offered Flyover, which is nowhere near as useful. Thankfully Google has added a nice feature for iOS users.

Street View allows you to visually inspect a location, move down a street, turn around, and zoom into place you were planning to visit. If you were unsure what a building, shop, or restaurant looked like, Street View could help make sure you recognized it when you got there. And now, when you visit Google Maps in Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, you will see the familiar symbol of a person that you can click on and it takes your straight to Street View.

It works very well and the Google web app does offer a nice alternative to Apple's own native maps app. Of course it is still nowhere near as good an experience as the previous native Google Maps app that we had with iOS 5. It will help to ease the pain while waiting for Apple to improve its offering or Google getting a dedicated Google Maps app into the App Store. Either way, it all helps!

You can also create a short cut to the Google Maps web app right on your iPhone home screen. Selecting this option will give you a rather bland, black and white Google Maps icon on your home screen with a red push pin, but it's better than nothing.

The 2012 Presidential Election is just around the corner and what a better way to follow the campaigns than with your iPhone and iPad! Whether it's seeing what the news is saying, checking facts, viewing maps with live polling data, or a neutral source with information about both candidates, iMore has got you covered!

WP Politics for iPad

WP Politics is an iPad app by The Washington Post that will keep you informed about the political news that matter, but also claims to help separate truth from spin and reality from rhetoric through interactive tools, maps, and more. Some of the features of WP Politics includes the latest news, the Fact Checker, a "Candidate Tool" that illustrate where Obama and Romney stand in relation to one another, and interactive polling map, and a "Campaign Files" archive that allows users to quickly sort and view the last 48 hours of content by candidate, issue and content type. With a $2.99 premium subscription, you can see content that's older than 48 hours old in the Campaign Files, access the "Insider's Corner" that offers politically-oriented blog content including Ezra Klein's Wonkblog and Chris Cillizza's The Fix, and more.

• Free - Download Now

NBC Politics for iPhone and iPad

The NBC Politics app for iPhone and iPad delivers the power of NBC News' political reporting – anytime, anywhere. NBC News' political experts cover every angle of the political landscape to give you the latest news and best insights and analysis from Capitol Hill and the White House to the campaign trail. Features include video of the latest agenda-setting interviews and reports from "Meet the Press with David Gregory," "The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd," "Andrea Mitchell Reports," and NBC News' entire line-up of news broadcasts and platforms, a Battleground Map (iPad only) that gives you the tools to test potential electoral votes outcomes, a Tip Sheet that gives a round-up of the day's most memorable, must-know moments and headlines, live election results, details about both Presidential candidates, and more.

• Free - Download Now

Settle It! PolitiFact's Argument Ender for iPhone

Settle It! - PolitiFact's Argument Ender is a free iPhone app that lets you look up Truth-O-Meter fact-checks from PolitiFact.com to verify the "facts" being thrown around by the Presidential Candidates. You can check facts by searching name, keywords, and subject, browse the Truth-O-Meter ratings by person and subject, share your finding to Facebook and Twitter, and take the PolitiFact Challenge to test your knowledge.

• Free - Download Now

2012 Map: The Presidential Election App for iPhone

With 2012 Map: The Presidential Election App you can view live maps that are updated daily with the newest polling data; "Historical" maps that detail every election, from 1789 through 2008; and a blank map that you can customize from scratch. You can tap states to change their colors or tap and hold to see their details including percentages for each candidate, electoral votes, and previous winners, and share your scenario on Facebook and Twitter.

• $1.99 - Download Now

USA Election 2012 for iPhone

USA Election 2012 is a non-partisan iPhone app that will help you make an informed decision about who to vote for in the 2012 Presidential Election. You can view up to day polling information, info on the economy and jobs, experiment with a map to play out different scenarios, and keep informed on election news with a customizable RSS feed.

• $0.99 - Download Now

Your favorite apps to follow the 2012 Presidential Election?

These are just a handful of the many different apps available that are dedicated to this year's Presidential Election. Did we miss your favorite one? If so, please let us know in the comments below!

Starbucks has finally updated their iPhone app to offer support for Passbook, the new Apple app introduced in iOS 6. Starbucks had originally claimed that this update was coming at the end of September so, although late, it's great that it's finally here. However, it's disappointing that although this update does support iOS 6 and Passbook, it does not support the iPhone 5's larger screen.

With the new Starbucks update and Passbook, you can now use Passbook to pay with your Starbucks card. The pass shows the current balance on your card and one of the generic Starbucks card graphics. As a Gold Card member, I was hoping that my pass would look a little different, but that is not the case. Paying with with your Starbucks card was, and still is, a feature of the actual Starbucks app, but Passbook is much faster. You can also receive notifications when you're near one of your indicated favorite Starbucks locations.

I'm disappointed that this update to the Starbucks app does not include support for the iPhone 5's larger display, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm excited to make a special trip to Starbucks tomorrow just so that I can use Passbook for the first time. What about you? Do you plan on adding your Starbucks card to Passbook?

Found an interesting article you want to share with iMore? Have a burning question about that feature you just can't figure out? There is ALWAYS more happening just a click away in the forums. You can always head over and join in the conversation, search for answers, or lend your expertise to other members of our community. You check out some of the threads below:

If you're not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now!

The 2012 Presidential Debate is about to begin and you may be looking for ways to follow along with your iPhone or iPad. Whether you're on the go, don't have access to the television networks broadcasting the event, or simply enjoying using your iPhone and iPad, iMore is here to present you with options for watching or listening to this year's Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

YouTube

ABC News will be streaming the debate live on YouTube. You can either use the new YouTube app on your iPhone, or visit YouTube with Safari. The YouTube app is not yet optimized for the iPhone 5 or iPad, so if you're on one of these devices, you'll definitely want to use Safari.

• Free - Download Now

Ustream

On Ustream, PBS will be providing their own live stream of the Presidential Debate on the PBS NewsHour Stream that you can watch on your iPhone or iPad with the free Ustream iPhone and iPad app. On your iPad, you can also choose to watch the live stream in Safari on Ustream's website -- Ustream's website does not fully support the iPhone, though. This is unfortunate, because just like YouTube, the Ustream app does not support the iPhone 5, yet. So if you're using an iPhone 5, I do not recommend watching the Presidential Debate on Ustream.

• Free - Download Now

NPR

Not as interested in watching the Presidential debate as you are hearing it? NPR News will be streaming the audio of the debate to local NPR stations as well as their iPhone and iPad apps. NPR will also include commentary and chat during the debate on their website.

• Free for iPhone - Download Now
• Free for iPad - Download Now

Watching the debate now? Feel free to leave your personal commentary about it in the comments below!