It’s About Time Verizon - No Contract Service

The only reason I have ever disliked Verizon was the fact that you had to sign up for a contract regardless. I was given a Palm Treo 700w back before it was even launched. That seems like ages ago now, but it was a big moment for Palm and Windows Mobile. Anyhow, the Palm Treo 700w Microsoft provided me with had no service. Without signing up for a contract, I was unable to get Verizon to activate this phone. I ended up signing a 1 year contract to use this phone. I ended up using it for only 2 weeks too.

Well, if the tipster that reported to BGR that Verizon is going to allow month to month customers starting September 21st is right on the money, then it changes everything. Maybe a little late for my case, but it’s good to know that what other carriers do affect companies decisions.

Here is a list of details about the upcoming offer:

• Available to Consumer, Corporate Liable, and Employee Liable customers (excludes Federal Government customers)
• Any current voice &/or data calling plan and equipment available
• Customer credit checks apply.
• Device Initiation Fee and/or Activation Fee must be charged (no exceptions)
• MTM customers are eligible to accept any applicable promotional offering but must agree with the contract term associated with the offer (i.e. they will no longer be a MTM customer)
• Customers are not eligible for equipment discounts if they do not agree to a one or two-year minimum term
• Corporate and employee liable customers are eligible to receive accessory discounts on month to month agreements
• MTM customers can terminate their service at any time (effective on their next bill cycle date) without incurring an early termination fee
• New Customers: Use Month to Month as the contract term
• Existing Customers: Use Upgrade Reason Code UN only

Source: BGR

A Long Time Coming. The Treo 700wx Gets An Update

Chris posted back in June that the Ancient Treo to get Windows Mobile 6 will get an update. It has been a long time coming and I can imagine there are a few folks that ditched their 700wx to get a 6.0 device and now they find out that they could have had it if they waited a little longer.

Well, it is here and those of you that still have a desire to get the most from your treasured 700wx then check out the support site to get the Treo 700wx Updater 1.24 for Verizon Wireless smartphones.

Rising Text Message rates

In my uninformed opinion, I’d call some of this an excuse to “assist” users into buying unlimited plans and to offset users preferring to send SMS messages instead of using more expensive voice minutes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee is asking the nation’s top four wireless carriers to justify the “sharply rising rates” they charge people to send and receive text messages.

In letters to top executives at Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl said Tuesday that he is concerned that rising text messaging rates reflect decreasing competition in the wireless business.

Kohl chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. His inquiry comes as European Commission regulators are threatening to impose a cap on roaming fees for text messages sent by Europeans traveling outside of their home nations, in an effort to force prices down by as much as 70 percent.

Kohl said he was concerned that consumers are paying more than 20 cents per message, up from 10 cents in 2005. This increase, he said, “does not appear to be justified by rising costs in delivering text messages,” which are small data files that are inexpensive for carriers to transmit.

Kohl said he is particularly concerned that all four of the companies appear to have adopted identical price increases at nearly the same time. “This conduct is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace,” he wrote.

Kohl also noted that these rate hikes have occurred during the industry’s recent consolidation, which has reduced the number of national wireless carriers in the U.S. to four from six. That consolidation continues, he said, as the large national wireless carriers buy out smaller, regional competitors _ as evidenced most recently by Verizon Wireless’ planned acquisition of Alltel Corp. for $5.9 billion plus the assumption of $22.2 billion in debt.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, said it will respond to Kohl’s letter once it has had a chance to review it. And Sprint said “we look forward to responding to the Senator’s inquiry about the text messaging options we offer our customers and we will fully cooperate with his request.”

T-Mobile, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, and AT&T did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Link

Samsung SCH-I760 Windows Mobile 6.1 Update Online

Samsung has released a software upgrade for the SCH-I760, which is recommended to be installed. This update includes an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1 and numerous software additions/enhancements/corrections. The update may take up to 10 minutes to complete if the system is already set up.

• Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1
• Windows Mobile 6.1 includes new features such as Threaded SMS, Domain Enrollment, and updated “Vista 32bit” looks.
• Several software fixes & enhancements have been applied. A detailed list of some of these updates can be found at the end of each FAQ page.

Download For Windows Vista 32bit

If you need more info, visit Samsung’s Website. Thanks to Tracy at MWW. I posted this last week, but reposted today because I got official word from Samsung PR today.

Windows Mobile 6.1 for the Samsung SCH-i760

Gear Diary has the goods on an update for the Samsung SCH-i760 that Jack reviewed last year. This was a super cool WinMo phone that hit Verizon last year. It’s good to see older phones get the upgrades!

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Video and Photo Quick View at the Samsung Glyde

I get dozens of of emails asking me to take a look at some fancier, non Windows Mobile phones like the Blackberry and others. That said, i’ve taken the time to look at a couple. The experience when trying one of these phones out is weird at 1st since I am a noob to the new OS. Anyhow, the Glyde is a fancy, touch screen “feature phone” and I really enjoyed carrying it for a few days. I missed having my push email, but the phone experience was very nice.

Read on for the video and some more photos…

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Verizon Roadmap Leaked

Over at Phone Arena someone slipped what appears to be the Verizon roadmap for the rest of the year into their inbox. Now I wonder how THAT could have happened? Mail delivery is becoming more and more insecure these days. Of course, they are then sharing the information with their many readers.

A lot of gems are in the pipeline for Verizon subscribers it seems, including some that we know very little about.

Here is the information according to Phone Arena’s sources:

• UTStarcom Touch Diamond and UTStarcom Touch Raphael (already announced for Sprint).
• Samsung SCH-U310 (Nothing known about this one…surprises are not like Samsung) .
• Motorola Blaze will have a model number ZN4, and is expected to be in stores before 22nd September. ZN means it will be a multimedia phone.
• Motorola VU30 will appear earlier than the Blaze, during mid August.
• Nokia 2605 will wear the Mirage name, and is expected in stores on August 8th.
• Nokia 7205 Intrigue is mentioned without a date.
• Palm Treo 800w.
• Samsung SCH-U430 for late August.
• Samsung SCH-U440 for the 8th of August.
• UTStarcom TXT8010 in August.

Check for any updates and note the ongoing discussion at Phone Arena.

LG Dare Released on Verizon

It’s kind of neat how I just got a hold of the Samsung Glyde on Verizon and they announce this one today. The Mobile Phone world is rotating quicker than the Earth is right now. Too many phones too fast. Overload…

This is another touch-screen device that people are going to really like I think. <sarcasm>Seems this new “touch-screen” is catching on. Hmm… I wish Windows Mobile phones would get on board with this new touch-screen fad too. </end sarcasm>

Anyhow, you can grab this new phone at Verizon for $199.99 plus contract and some other fees and such.  I didn’t “DARE” say iPhone once in this post.

Verizon Wireless and LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) today announced the highly-anticipated LG Dare™ is now available through Verizon Wireless’ online store. This summer’s must-have phone dares to be different with its bold looks and advanced capabilities – boasting a spacious three-inch touch-screen with handwriting recognition, a superior 3.2 megapixel camera with face detection and flash, and unique photo editing capabilities.  The phone will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores, including those in Circuit City, on July 3. 

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Ancient Treo to get Windows Mobile 6

According to Treo Central, it looks like the Palm Treo 700w will be getting an update to Windows Mobile 6 this summer. The Treo 700w was quite a story in 2006, but it’s time has passed. The Palm Treo 700w was the 1st Windows Mobile Powered Palm device. It was a big step for Palm and Microsoft.

The updates will be released sometime this “Spring and Summer,” according to the slides. Update 1.24 for the Verizon Treo 700wx will update the OS to Windows Mobile 6 Professional! WooHoo! That’s great! However, it’s too bad that Sprint isn’t getting the update. Also, Palm is going to put Windows Mobile 6 on the device even though Windows Mobile 6.1 is already out.

Disclaimer : I mean no harm calling the Treo 700w ancient. :)

Centro to Verizon. Yep, It’s Official, Centro Invades….

…all the Major US Carriers except T-mobile. All the Soccer moms in the US have the best value in smartphones available to them on their carrier now. The Centro isn’t just for soccer moms though. The Centro is selling like hot cakes to all demos.

Today Palm and Verizon announce that the Palm Centro can be purchased for use on Verizon’s network… Here are some facts about the launch.

Palm has sold over 1 million Centros through Sprint and AT&T and now it will be available on Verizon’s netword Friday, June 13th… Friday the 13th. When the Centro was 1st released, I called it, but it really goes without saying that this Centro is an entry level "smartphone". The numbers show that now, the 70% of Centro owners are 1st time smartphone buyers. The price makes this easy to accomplish. You can grab the Centro on any of the networks now for $99.

BlackBerry Thunder, the new Touchscreen BlackBerry!

As reported over at Boy Genius Report, the newest BlackBerry will jump on the touchscreen bandwagon with the all-new BlackBerry Thunder.  Though very few details are known about it as this time, some things are known, such as:

-The picture in question, leaked to Boy Genius Report, shows a device that looks a great deal like some were expecting: a tablet shape with a relatively large screen.

-No keyboard, not even a sliding one, appears in the picture, and neither does a trackball. There are, however, a full collection of standard control buttons.

-It is expected to be released at some point before the end of this year. The the leaked image has the Verizon Wireless logo, which means it will run on CDMA wireless networks, but a wide variety of carriers are likely to eventually offer this model, including ones that use the GSM standard.

Technorati Tags: BlackBerry,Verizon,Boy Genius Report

Fun Facts from Verizon….

The other day, Chris Ziegler posted some fun facts from a Verizon presentation filled with some neat “fun facts” that for what ever reason most people tended to gloss over quickly.  But then one person happened to look carefully and noticed a little fun fact that will make owners of the i760 very happy campers!

No, it was not that the i700 was in the works but rather a renewed breath of life for their i760 with the very definite hint that a 6.1 upgrade would soon here.

Check out the gallery here at Engadget Mobile

Google’s Android vs. LiMo Foundation

Yesterday, Verizon jumped on board with the LiMo foundation to join others with their open, hardware-independent, Linux-based operating system for mobile devices. This seems to be viewed as a true parallel to Google’s Android OS.

Mobile Crunch brings a side by side comparison for you to see where the development of both platforms are including info on who is backing which. Is this going to be like the HD war that just ended?

If you are interested, Greg Kumparak does a great job comparing the two over at Mobile Crunch. For more info on LiMo, head over to www.limofoundation.org.

MOTO Q 9c – It is nice, really nice!

I would never have imagines me saying that a smartphone was nice, really nice but the experience I have had with the Q9m has been nothing less than extraordinary.  The Q9c promises to enhance that experience and as of today you can get it on Verizon at a pretty good price!

The Motorola Q 9c operates on the Windows® Mobile 6 Standard OS and promises to make your life more manageable and productive. This elegantly slim smartphone is VZ Navigator capable and allows you to manage multiple Email accounts and utilize Documents To Go for Windows Mobile. It is also equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, an optimized full QWERTY keyboard with trackwheel, and an expandable miniSD™ memory card slot which supports cards up to 8GB in capacity. Bluetooth Stereo Wireless Technology and BroadbandAccess Connect also add to the Q 9c’s impressive list of capabilities.

Specifications

Dimensions: 4.6″ (H) x 2.6″ (W) x 0.47″ (D)
Weight: 4.7 oz
SAR: Ear –1.30 W/kg, Body –0.51 W/kg
Battery: 1170 mAH Li–Ion
Usage Time: Up to 273 Minutes OR
Standby Time: Up to 212 Hours

Save an additional $50 with a mail–in rebate! (Rebate not reflected in price)!

Read more after the break

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From a Pebble to a Boulder

Don’t you just love the naming structure companies choose?  We’ve seen the Pebble now we are seeing from the FCC that Casio has a Boulder.  Phone Scoop caught the latest G’zOne phone from Casio on the FCC site and it is called the Boulder. Other than the fact it will be a ruggedized clamshell device offering EVDO wireless data and Bluetooth there is not too much say about it … yet!

We will have to wait and see what else comes with this G’zOne phone but it it will be offered by Verizon Wireless.