Verizon & Android news

[Mac]

God no Microsoft with Verizon...please NO

 

[BuckeyeTillIDie]

In true Micro$oft fashion they'd steal all of the iPhones cool features but then manage to fuck them up with a shitty OS.

 

[jwinslow]

In a delusional world, I could hope that the MsPhone would be the one crippled by pre-installed junk and limiting 3rd party software. BUt in reality, not only would they try to do that to the iphone (in contract negotiations), but know they could fall back on MS' future failure if Apple won't budge :(

 

[Dryden]

Photos of Microsoft's new iPhone-killer OS in development.

 

[rocketman]

Photos of Microsoft's new iPhone-killer OS in development.

I managed to crash my iphone pretty bad last night. I was checking the score of the Cavs game on the NBA app. Lebron's awesomeness couldn't be computed, apparently, as the whole thing locked up.

 

[Bleed S & G]

I managed to crash my iphone pretty bad last night. I was checking the score of the Cavs game on the NBA app. Lebron's awesomeness couldn't be computed, apparently, as the whole thing locked up.

Mine will lock up once in a great while on diffrent apps

Stay off of mobile.spankwire.com

 

[OHSportsFan]

Please let the iPhone come to Verizon!

 

[jwinslow]

Gizmodo - AT&T to Buy Boatloads of Equipment and Infrastructure From Verizon - Att verizon

AT&T is planning to purchase the leftovers of Alltel's network, including physical assets like towers, licenses, and 1.5 million subscribers from Alltel's new owner, Verizon, for the tasty sum of $2.35 billion.

In addition to the cash money, AT&T is going to toss in some assets from Centennial Communications, a wireless and broadband provider in the Dirty Dirty (South), which includes 120,000 subscribers, for $240 million. So it's sort of a trade, albeit a pretty lopsided one. Each of the newly acquired customers will have access to everything their new service provider has to offer, from mobile broadband to wireless hotspots.

Just to be clear, this is to the benefit of both companies. They're mostly just making sure there isn't much overlap in rural areas, where neither company can make all that much money. It's certainly not an indication that Verizon's in dire straights of any sort.

We're not totally sure how AT&T is going to work Alltel's CDMA service in with their own GSM: Seems like it'd be a real pain to convert all those customers over to their own service. We'll keep our Confederate readers up to date once AT&T announces what they plan to do with them.

What about Chad?

 

[jwinslow]

The rumor/assumption for the next iphone device has been june for awhile now. However, I'm not sure that we'll know anything about AT&T-Verizon talks by that point (working on a deal for 2010).

Tech Rumor of the Day: Apple | Telecom | Financial Articles & Investing News | TheStreet.com

AT&T is considering a $10 price cut for the iPhone's monthly service plan when Apple introduces the newest version of the phone next month.

There is a "strong possibility" that AT&T will drop the entry-level price to $59 from $69, says Cote Collaborative analyst Michael Cote, an industry pricing strategist. The announcement, he said, will probably accompany the launch of the new iPhone on June 8, during Apple's World Wide Developers Conference.

 

[jwinslow]

For you VZW folks:
Gizmodo - Sprint Basically Confirms Verizon's Getting the Pre in January - Palm pre

Gizmodo - Palm Pre Won't Be Coming to Verizon or AT&T Within Six Months - Palm pre verizon

We knew Sprint had the Pre locked up through 2009, but now Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is trying to make the period of exclusivity seem long enough to convince users to switch to Sprint rather than wait a few months.

Verizon had previously noted that the Pre (along with RIM's BlackBerry Storm 2) would be hitting Verizon in "around six months or so." Sprint was quick to shoot that down, stating that they would definitely have the exclusive rights to the Pre at least through 2009. That evidently wasn't clear enough; if the Pre hits Verizon in January (seven months from now), that's still a short enough timeframe that Verizon users would likely just wait instead of switching carriers to Sprint.

Now, in an effort to shoot down this kind of patience, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse mentioned in an interview that Verizon's timetable is wrong: "They need to check their facts," he said at a press interview. "That just is not the case. Both Palm and Sprint have agreed not to discuss the length of the exclusivity deal. But I can tell you it's not six months."


So all we know at this point is that the Pre and Sprint are locked together through 2009, and probably into 2010, though if we had to guess, we'd say not very far. If this was a year-long deal, they'd be talking it up, so our guess is that we'll be seeing the Pre on Verizon and AT&T in the first couple months of 2010. But that's just our guess.

 

[Dryden]

The Pre looks sweet, and the multitasking absolutely kills the iPhone (currently), but if its true that the battery life is terrible, negative word of mouth will kill this thing pretty quickly. I wonder how much battery life they sacrificed to boast having a sharper, brighter display than the iPhone?

Palm Pre (Sprint) Smartphone reviews - CNET Reviews

 

[jwinslow]

Gizmodo - Ten Things You Should Know About the Palm Pre - Palm Pre FAQ

1) Palm's webOS is tremendously usable. The new concepts they introduce—gestures under the screen, cards to represent running apps, searching for contacts and apps from the main screen—are all intuitive and easy to pick up. The look of the UI is also soothing, with largish icons and largish text, fluid animations and rounded corners. It's definitely a "web" OS in that it takes a lot of cues from web design patterns and motifs.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qocp-1HvFc8]YouTube - Palm Pre Cuts the Cheese Palm pre cheese[/ame]

5) There will be various hardware editions with this OS. Unlike the iPhone, where there's basically only one phone with the iPhone OS every year, Palm's planning on releasing different phones in different form factors all running the same OS. There's already been one leaked: the Centro-like Palm Eos that's heading to AT&T.

6) It works with iTunes. Palm went to the trouble of making the Pre pretend to be an iPod when synced to iTunes, allowing you to transfer your music and video and photos without a problem. Playlists make it over just fine, but song ratings and play counts aren't supported on the Pre. And your DRM'ed iTunes songs won't make it over either, but your MP3 and DRM-free ones will.

9) The screen and multitouch are both high quality. Like I said in the review, the screen is crisp and sharp and clear, and the multitouch seems to track slightly better and quicker than the iPhone.

11) BONUS! The Touchstone charger charges really slowly. If you're looking to charge in a hurry, plug the microUSB charger directly into the Pre. But if you're just docking it at work and want to keep the screen on standby so you can see emails and texts come in, the Touchstone is a decent solution. It does, however, make your phone quite hot.

 

[jwinslow]

Gizmodo - Pre Touchstone Charger's Got Special Powers Too - Palm pre touchstone

Yes I know the Pre is a Sprint device for another 8+ months, but Sprint doesn't warrant it's own thread.

 

[jwinslow]

Gizmodo - BlackBerry Storm Squashes the Palm Pre—According to Verizon, Of Course - Blackberry storm vs palm pre

Verizon is preparing their sales people against the Palm Pre launch, with a detailed feature by feature comparison with the Blackberry Storm. Of course, according to Verizon, the Storm wins (against the iPhone too.) Obviously, they didn't read Matt's review. I wonder what will they say when they get the Pre in six months.

 

[jwinslow]

Gizmodo - Verizon Customers Under Contract Can't Order BlackBerry Tour - Verizon blackberry tour

Sorry, Verizon customers. We feel your pain, we really do. We're getting tired of applauding Verizon's network while bashing absolutely everything else they do. At what point is staying with the Big Red no longer worth the hassle?

Those mid-contract upgrades cost Verizon money, so on kind of a cold, reptilian level, we understand the reason for the rule. But there's also a little thing called "not screwing your customers," and Verizon seems to have a tough time grasping that one. The Tour will be the most desirable phone in Verizon's lineup upon its release (and while we like the Tour okay, it's definitely not in the same league as the Pre, iPhone, or Hero), and yet they're keeping their contracted customers from ordering only this one device.

Sorry, Verizon customers. We feel your pain, we really do. We're getting tired of applauding Verizon's network while bashing absolutely everything else they do. At what point is staying with the Big Red no longer worth the hassle?