| Home | Reviews | Blog | Buying Guides | Tips & How-to | Mobile Business | Mobile Life | Best Deals | LAPTOP Magazine |
"I have played with the Iphone, kinda cool but I dont like Itunes and I want a card slot, I own an older IQue 3600, still works, and an HTC Mogul, good but needs the rest of the drivers. I would love to get a hands on thi..."
-- don on Video Of Garmin Nuvifone In Action
On Monday, Verizon Wireless announced that it has partnered with Rhapsody to offer a DRM-free option for downloading music. The new alliance will allow users with the LG Voyager, Dare, and other handsets, to download a track on their phone, and another DRM-free track on their computer using Rhapsody’s software.
Once you’ve purchased a track on your phone, you can open up Rhapsody and download another copy.
Here’s how:
Remember that series of odd but unforgettable Guinness commericals that featured two paper cutout Irish brewmasters who kept yelling “Brilliant!” all the time? They might love the LG Decoy even more than the beer.
Why? Because LG has just made it much easier for heavy talkers to go hands free by integrating a Bluetooth headset right into a phone. You don’t have to worry about schlepping around a separate charger or go through a confusing pairing process.
I actually saw this concept a couple of years ago during a Plantronics press event, and I’ve always wondered why no one ever brought it to market. So when the LG Decoy showed up this morning (which supports all the usual Verizon services like V CAST Music and Video, as well as VZ Navigator), I was excited to see how well it worked.
Here’s my quick take.
Verizon Wireless is poised to acquire Alltel, and its 13 million subscribers, for $28.1 billion, in a merger that’s set wrap up by the end of the year. Alltel customers will be able to use Verizon’s network, including all of its over-the-air content and available devices, and vice versa. That also means that the “IN Networks” for calling customers on the same service are combined too, so calls to your girlfriend on Alltel should technically be free under those rules.
Verizon Wireless likely had its eyes on Alltel to gain access to its 57 mostly rural markets that Verizon Wireless had not yet tapped into.
In other news, if my math skills serve me correctly, the merger also means that Verizon Wireless now has a larger customer base than AT&T. As of AT&T’s April Q1 earnings report, the company stated it had 71 million subscribers. Verizon Wireless has 67.2 million subscribers, and combined with Alltel’s 13 million, that’s a total of 80.2 million subscribers.
The merger also means that Alltel subscribers will piggyback on Verizon Wireless’ 4G plans for its LTE rollout over the next few years.
Yesterday I wrote a post about Garmin’s $99 offer that will give BlackBerry users unlimited access to its GPS software for the lifetime of the device. One commenter asked if BlackBerrys from carriers such as Verizon Wireless that have locked down GPS software could still take advantage of Garmin’s offer.
There’s a two-part answer: you can, but it’ll cost you. Of course, Garmin isn’t the villain here. The carriers are trying to push their own navigation solutions (e.g., VZ Navigator) by locking down the GPS capabilities of phones including some versions of the Curve and phones in the 8800 series.
Here’s the official response from Garmin:
“Customers with locked-down GPS can still use Garmin Mobile, however it will require them to have an independent Bluetooth/GPS receiver, such as the GPS 10x. They can also use a third-party GPS/Bluetooth receiver with our maps. If their BlackBerry has a locked GPS, it’ll be slightly more than $99.99 because they’d have to buy the one-time-purchase $99.99 maps and a GPS/Bluetooth receiver (the GPS 10x is $99.99).”
Earlier this morning, Verizon Wireless announced that it has joined the LiMo Foundation, and that it has taken a seat on the board of directors. LiMo was created in 2007 by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone with the goal of creating an open mobile Linux platform for mobile consumer electronics.
In late November, Verizon Wireless announced that its network would be open to qualified handsets and other consumer electronics that met its standards. Then in March of this year, the FCC revealed that Verizon Wireless had won the coveted C-block of the 700MHz spectrum, which by law, is required to remain an open network. Given the tensions between Verizon Wireless and Google, it doesn’t shock us that the carrier has chosen LiMo, first, over Google’s Android platform in its quest for openness. Here are the highlights from today’s press conference.
The Samsung Glyde was announced for Verizon Wireless today. The $249 phone, after a $50 rebate, has a 2.8” haptic touchscreen and a full QWERTY keypad that slides out from under it.
We liked the messaging capabilities of the Samsung Glyde, but were frustrated by its confusing and often unresponsive touchscreen and user interface. The LG Voyager costs $50 more and offers a second display, an onscreen QWERTY keypad, and support for V Cast Mobile TV. And the upcoming Samsung Instinct at least tries to be innovative with its easier-to-customize favorites menu and voice-activated local search, although that phone lacks a physical keyboard.
As of April 30th the HTC Touch—dubbed the XV6900 by Verizon Wireless—will be available on store shelves. We originally heard that the white touch-screen smart phone would be available when we were at CTIA in Las Vegas, but we wanted to refresh you on the specs:
Windows Mobile 6 Professional with custom HTC UI
EV-DO data connection
Bluetooth v2.0 with stereo support
microSD slot for up to 8GB of additional storage
256MB ROM/128MB RAM
2.8” TFT-LCD touch-screen with LED Backlight, 240 x 320 resolution
3.98 x 2.34 x 0.56 inches
Talk time/Standby: 210/250
As you can see, the phone is nearly identical to Sprint’s HTC Touch, but this time around it has a white paint job. You can grab it for $349 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Verizon Wireless says that an additional $100 will be applied toward the XV6900 if you qualify for a voice and data plan.
Not only is the Touch late to the party, it doesn’t rock Windows Mobile 6.1, and unlike the identically priced Sprint version, this device doesn’t support video streaming or over-the-air music downloads. Personally, I’m more keen on the unlocked HTC Touch Dual, which should be coming soon.
Verizon Wireless announced a new “E-mail and Web for Smartphone” data plan today for SMT5800, XV6800, and Moto Q 9m owners. While current “E-mail & Messaging” subscribers pay a minimum of $79.99 for 450 minutes and unlimited data access for e-mail, the new plan will give customers full access to unlimited Web browsing as well and will cost $69.98, for total savings of $10.01 per month for added features.
The plan doesn’t include SMS messages, though, so plan on dropping another $15 per month for unlimited IN messaging and 1,500 outgoing messages. However, at that point you’ll be paying $84.98 when you could be paying $99 for unlimited SMS, Web, and e-mail with 450 minutes. In some respects, Verizon Wireless is just offering a Web/e-mail plan for smart phone users that don’t SMS much.
Engadget Mobile suggests that users don’t tether their smart phones’ Internet connectivity with a laptop while subscribing to this plan either, noting Verizon Wireless’ choice to call the plan “E-mail and Web” instead of “Unlimited data.”
Verizon Wireless says that the plan will be available to owners of other smart phones in the near future.
Verizon Wireless has taken the largest chunk of the 700-MHz spectrum. Others have claimed shares too. But what does it mean to you—the average cell phone user? Will your service miraculously be improved? No more dropped calls? Will you get amazing new cell phones that can illuminate the Eastern Seaboard? The answers: No, no, and maybe.
We asked John Jackson, a wireless analyst at the Yankee Group, how it would shake out for the people.
What does the claiming of the 700-MHz spectrum do for the cell phone users of America?
It’s perfectly unclear actually, and the short answer is really nothing. We have been having discussions about it internally and trying to figure out that answer. It’s kind of the same thing, but just more of it.
How does it affect Verizon customers, if at all?
I think for Verizon the big news will be in the open-access provision. Verizon had a conference earlier this week about the open access of its network. If you think about the manifestation that people can now build a device that will hang on Verizon’s network, the impact is significant. Let’s say you want to build a smart phone and have lots of cool applications running on it, or even if you want to put that G or Z phone on it you now can. You can see a time where whiz-bang or clever phones that have all kinds of cool applications on them cost $500. So I guess for Verizon consumers you are going to see innovation, but the open question is if you will choose to afford it.
Featured Sponsors |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
