6 Nov 2009

You can buy an aircard full retail or off ebay or wherever and sign up for the regular 5GB plan with no contract. This prepay service is for 1. Temporary users 2. those who are scared and refuse to sign a contract 3. People who want to try it out but don't plan on using it very much.

Verizon would love you to to get a small plan, realize how quickly your MBs fly away while doing facebook and youtube, then switch to the normal 5GB $59.99 plan. Its like people who start out on tracfone then get tired of spending $50 a week in minute cards so they finally switch to a monthly plan because they eventually realize its a better deal, even though at first they got the tracfone "Just for emergencies". People don't like to admit to themselves how much they will really use something, because they are trying to rationalize being cheapskates.

5 Nov 2009

Ever heard of the Dare? Very popular phone. This is the upgrade. Very similar but it adds an FM radio, since its a chocolate branded device it has something special for music lovers. Not everyone needs a smart phone, but alot of people want to look cool with a touch screen phone, and this is the phone for them. @oddmanout: To say that LG has shitty phones is kindof unfair. What manufacturer doesn't have a few shitty phones out there? And overall, LG is the top dumbphone manufacturer for Verizon. Ask almost any VZW sales rep what brand phone you should get. Without even qualifying you, they'll tell you if you aren't getting a blackberry, to get an LG.

29 Oct 2009

Basically sounds like Sprint is telling developers "you do all the work".
# Let consumers determine the application winners***Sprint won't put its name on anything
# Be easy to do business with***Sprint won't tell you how to make your apps
# Create a developer’s “Garage” where new innovation happens***Sprint will let you into their garage, where YOU do the innovating
# Use the proven Open Internet model as a guide***anything goes, Sprint washes their hands of it; don't blame problems on them
# Support is best performed by the creators of the content***Sprint doesn't have time or money to help customers use your apps
# Open still requires management***Sprint can decline your app if they don't like it.

How's my translating?

29 Oct 2009

can you put touchflo3D on the Omnia or Palm Treo?
Sense UI is made by HTC so it only comes on their handsets, like touchflo but for Android.

29 Oct 2009

Voice Navigation?
Okay, I know you can speak to it, but does it speak to you, the way VZ navigator or a Garmin does?

20 Oct 2009

Some people are frustrated with the storm because it has no real buttons to type with (not to mention software issues). The point of the storm was that you got the feel of pushing a button. That's been removed from the storm 2. Now it comes with vibrate feedback. The voyager had that. I'll skip the storm2. I'll get a storm 3 if they make it a slider phone with a nice big touchscreen AND a physical qwerty keypad. See Pre, TouchPro2, Droid.
Why doesn't RIM just buy palm? Combine their OS's, use the Pre's screen and the curve's keypad. A device with synergy for your web based stuff and BES for your corporate stuff. And firefox mobile. That would be the ultimate smartphone.

20 Oct 2009

You can bet your booties that this will require $30 data package. Android syncs with google servers. You can't get past thestartup screen on an android device without logging into your google account. All PDA's, or smart phones, or whatever you want to call them, require $30 data. This is no different. Blackberry requires you to have a data package, even though the software doesn't force you to input an email address, whereas android does. Verizon doesn't make money off handsets, they actually lose money by subsidizing handsets. They make their money from data. If they didn't require this device to have data, it wouldn't exist.

20 Oct 2009

Verizon corporate reps get paid for contracts. If you bring in a phone you already own and activate it, you should not sign a contract. The contract is the tradeoff for a discount on a handset. If you activate your own phone with no contract, the VZW rep gets some payout, but less than they would if you purchased a phone from them and therefore got a two year contract. However, VZW reps do get paid and ranked for data features, so even though they wouldn't be too happy that you weren't signing a contract on your phone, they would be more than happy to pop the required data feature on your account. Same with an upgrade. If you buy the phone full retail it isn't considered an upgrade because you aren't getting a discount and therefore aren't signing a contract. it would be an esn change with the addition of the data feature.

Indirect agents or dealers usually get paid only when they sell you a phone. If they activated you with no contract they may not even have a way to ring it up in their system, depending on what software they use. So they would really not be too happy about wasting their time helping you put your own phone on a new account or doing an esn change on an existing account. But again, they get measured and get a small payout for adding a data feature, so they would be happy to add that to your account for you.

The perfect unbranded iphone would be a new kind of trimode: unlocked quad band GSM with UMTS for world roaming, CDMA 1x plus EVDO revA for VZW's voice and data network, and LTE for high speed data. A handset with that many chips inside would:
1. be able to be activated on any major carrier worldwide (except Nextel/boost, or MetroPCS or cricket)
2. be very expensive (due to the number of chips and radios inside
3. probably have alot of issues

2. and 3. sound exactly like an iphone, so who knows, maybe it could happen.
However, apple is dead set agains unlocked iphones, as far as I know, so for something like that to happen they would really have to change their tune.

20 Oct 2009

You can bet your booties that this will require $30 data package. Android syncs with google servers. You can't get past the welcome screen without logging into your google account. All PDA's, or smart phones, or whatever you want to call them, require $30 data. This is no different. Blackberry requires you to have a data package, even though the software doesn't force you to input an email address, whereas android does. Verizon doesn't make money off handsets, they actually lose money by subsidizing handsets. They make their money from data. If they didn't require this device to have data, it wouldn't exist.

19 Oct 2009

Looks good. 2 thoughts running through my mind.
1. Its a motorola, and almost all motos on VZW have stunk for the last few years. Only the RAZR2 was a decent phone. Hopefully they created solid hardware to go along with the new OS.
2. The one thing I can't live without is T9. and I don't mean qwerty text prediction, I mean standard numeric keypad entry T9 like every flip phone (except motorola) has had for years now. Does ANYONE know of a T9 keypad add on for android that could be downloaded on this phone? PLEASE? I love android, but I can't give up T9. Sometimes you just have to type with one hand, and those tiny little onscreen smushed up qwerty's are trash.