T-Mobile launched its myFaves service back in October of 2006, a service that's proven popular with customers -- and apparently, it's gaining popularity with other carriers 'round the world, too. In Canada, Telus unveiled a program whereby five numbers of your choosing get unlimited calling and texting in May of this year; sounds familiar, right? Yeah, it is -- same deal as myFaves, actually -- and that probably wouldn't have riled up T-Mobile. The Deutsche Telekom division doesn't deal much with Canada, after all, and a little international copycatting never hurt anyone, right? Indeed, we figure Telus probably would've gotten away with the promotion had they not decided to call it... wait for it... "My Faves." Now yes, we understand that the "M" is capitalized and they've used two words instead of melding them into one, but come on. Needless to say, T-Mob is less than pleased with the branding and has filed a trademark infringement suit in federal court up in the Great White North with the intention of getting Telus to go with something a little less familiar (say, "Fy Maves," for example). For what it's worth, Telus jumped on the Canadian trademark for its service a month before T-Mobile did, but we're pretty sure the whole prior art concept might apply here.

We're fans of cross-carrier calling plans like T-Mobile's myFaves calling feature, but we get even more excited when unlimited text messaging comes along for a bargain price. That's just what T-Mobile is now supplying, as subscribers of myFaves calling plans now have access to unlimited SMS and MMS for $9.99 per month. This is a $5 per month discount off T-Mo's $14.99 price for non-myFaves customers, so this discount is a very nice 33 percent decline. Word is that the promo will be available now until September 12th.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Those hangin' on with T-Mobile Germany ought not have anything to complain about these days, as just after getting word of the HTC Kaiser coming your way, now you'll be able to call five of your most favorite pals for (likely) zilch. That's right, the myFaves feature that we Americans have been abusing utilizing for some time now is reportedly headed to Germany, and while it was noted that specific handsets would be necessary to run the specialized software, that's just a fantastic excuse to upgrade, right? More details, particularly around price and availability, are expected to be divulged at IFA next month.

$40 seems to be the sweet spot for T-Mobile, seeing how the carrier just added a pair of plans to keep its 300 minute myFaves plan company at that all-important price point. First up is a 1,000 minute plan (obviously not featuring myFaves) that features unlimited nights and weekends but no mobile-to-mobile calling. If anytime minutes are priority numero uno, though, you can forego the unlimited nights and weekends in exchange for an additional 500 anytime, bringing the total to 1,500. Additionally, the carrier added another plan another $20 up the food chain: a 1,000 anytime minute plan with myFaves, offering no nights/weekends or mobile-to-mobile, for $60.

Well look at what our favorite (and speedy) parcel carrier dropped off at our door today -- it's the BlackBerry 8800 for T-Mobile. For your viewing pleasure, we took some unboxing pics of T-Mobile's latest 'Berry in all its svelteness. Even though the specs are nothing new, we'll run 'em down one more time -- quadband GSM / EDGE, expandable memory via microSD, myFaves support, and BlackBerry's reliable network. Make sure to check out more pics after the break!

T-Mobile is dead, long live T-Mobile. October 2006 is looking to mark some major changes for the States' fourth-largest carrier, dropping their corporate branding in favor of what you see above -- a decidedly... well, bubblier font, along with a fresh slogan, "Stick Together." The color scheme (pink, and lots of it) carries over, but the spokesperson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, does not. On a related note T-Mobile is taking the opportunity to launch their myFaves service (reminiscent of Alltel's My Circle) which lets customers place calls airtime-free to five folks of their choice, regardless of carrier. It seems a little sketch that they're restricting the use of myFaves to certain handsets with special firmware -- but with plans starting at $40, we suspect plenty of folks will be willing to pick up new hardware to get in on the action.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It hasn't been too much of a secret that T-Mobile has been planning something big and it had nothing to do with UMA. We have had some bits of information roll in about the big pink T launching something similar to Alltel's My Circle, very hipply dubbed "My Faves." This would allow their customers to place and receive calls to any predetermined number of their choice, as much as they want. Not a bad deal. Now the catch, you have to get a new phone because the service needs "special" software to enable the feature. (Good thing for you Pearl users that this handset already includes the extraordinary functionality).


[Via Pin Stack]

Check out more pics after the break