Motorola has done it again! Introducing a new Droid RAZR! This one was launched last Thursday by Verizon and has the likely moniker of “DROID RAZR MAXX.” As with any other mobile carrier, the handset is available at a discounted price when a new two-year agreement is signed. The asking price is $299.99. With that kind of out of pocket investment and a signed contract, this writer would highly recommend consumers to shop around for an unlocked cell phone. These unlocked cell phones empower consumers to break free service provider long term contracts and permit to negotiate a plan that best meets your lifestyle needs at the lowest price.
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Compared to its predecessor, the DROID RAZR, this latest Motorola is housed in a thicker frame (only slightly). After that the differences are nominal. In fact, Droid-Life affirmed rumors that each of these devices runs on exactly the same software. Even the Android versions for both the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX are the same kernel, build number, and baseband version. The community forums have some miffed participants that accuse Motorola of simply charging customers for a new battery, but this streamlined user of software should actually make things easier on the manufacturer, carrier, and consumer.
Discover the Droid RAZR MAXX in this insightful video :
Smartphone manufacturers are known for making slight changes and rebranding devices. This allows the newest handsets to accommodate tech changes by tweaking the software versions from the old to the new device. Some examples of this are the DROID 2 and DROID R2D2. The silver lining is that as the DROID RAZR and RAZR MAXX, it will all be interchangeable which permits tech-savvy users to take advantage of a wide range of custom ROMs.
Alas, with the slight variation in size, all accessories may not be interchangeable. But with the internal specs unchanged, peripheral devices and more technical accessory purchases should meet the system requirements of both smartphones.
Due to an inadequate supply of parts there has been a widespread shortage of HTC Unlocked (Incredible) Android devices according to Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam. While having been unable to stockpile enough key components such as the WVGA capacitive display assemblies manufactured by Samsung, entire shipments of the HTC-made Android smartphone are selling out within hours of their arrival at retail stores. According to McAdam the shortages are so severe that Verizon Wireless has had to pull way back on the number of deliveries in order to focus on online sales. If there had not been such a shortage of handsets the Incredible would have easily outsold its predecessor the Motorola DROID. Roughly 100,000 units of the Incredible were sold in the first two days this device was on the market. Verizon’s website claims that orders for the Incredible will be fulfilled by June 3rd.
It appears that the demand for the Droid Incredible has far exceeded Verizon’s expectations. This is good news and bad news for the cell phone manufacturer. Of course it is great news that their new Android device is such a big hit with consumers but it is unfortunate that they are unable to keep these smartphones in stock due to an inadequate supply of parts. The HTC Google Nexus One Android gadget was predicted to be one of the hotter Android devices on the market when it was released but I am willing to bet that many industry experts did not foresee this shortage of units. Nor did they ever think these devices would be selling out within hours of being delivered to stores. Hopefully Verizon gets their act together quickly so that everyone who is eagerly waiting to get their hands on one of these new smartphones can do so before June 3rd as Verizon mentioned.
Verizon Wireless appears to be setting out to clobber the competition when it comes to selling the Unlocked Palm Pre Plus Phone. According to their website it appears that Verizon has already lowered the price of the Pre Plus to just $30 on a two year contract. This is a substantial discount over Sprint and AT&T who will be charging $149 not to mention AT&T has not even started selling the device! There has been no word on whether or not this discounted price will last or if the lowered end model Pixi Plus will eventually fall to free with a contract. If you are looking for a cheap way to get in on the future of HP it looks like this is as good of a chance as any.
The Palm Pre Plus is one of the better, lower priced smartphones on the market today. Packing features such as Palm webOS, 3.0 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, QWERTY keyboard, Touch Screen and 3G Mobile Hotspot it is easy to see why many consumers are eager to pick up this new mobile device. Now it appears that with Verizon’s generous pricing structure consumers will be able to grab this device at an exceptional value.
The various other devices by Palm Pre have been great sellers in the past as well. Perhaps spotting a chance to gain a few more members of their network Verizon jumped the gun by lowering the price substantially over their competitors to cash in on all the people who will be looking to purchase this particular Palm device. This looks like a good decision by Verizon as they will be sure to gain a few new customers for their network via this very affordable smartphone.
Starting today Verizon Wireless is rolling out the webOS 1.4.1.1 update to Pre Plus and Pixi Plus owners. The update is a modest 11mb in size and includes minor bug fixes including one that addresses the “sticky key” problem many users have been experiencing. Pinch to zoom is also being expanded into Docs and PDF, WiFi to CDMA hand-off is going to be more consistent and battery life while using Bluetooth has also been improved. The update is over the air and should arrive to the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus within the next 48 hours. Below is a full list of updates that are included with webOS 1.4.1.1:
· Easier to use Bluetooth.
o Improved battery life when turning off Bluetooth without unpairing a device.
· Displayed time feature is more accurate.
o Automatic updates for Daylight Saving Time.
· Easier connection management.
o More consistent EV-DO connections when switching from Wi-Fi to CDMA.
· Better Touchstone charger integration.
o The screen will now turn off and display the lock icon and time after the Pixi Plus is docked with the Touchstone charger.
· Newly taken photos and videos do not overwrite existing ones.
o Improved picture display when cropping a picture for a contact.
· Improvements:
o Pinch to zoom now works in more applications.
o The onscreen volume slider now appears correctly.
o The forward gesture now works in the browser.
o The back gesture now returns to the file list screen in certain applications.
o The shutter sound is more responsive when taking a picture.
o A single press of the power button now reliably wakes up the display.
o The LCD reset issue has been resolved.
Eventhough AT&T’s own Ralph de la Vega mentioned all the way back in November 2008 that you would be able to tether your iPhone to your personal computer and use it as a modem “soon” it looks like we are still quite a ways away from seeing this functionality. Even with many iPhone carriers around the world deploying this tethering feature as soon as Apple had it ready it seems that AT&T’s silence is saying more than they want it to. Tech website Engadget reached out to AT&T and received this feedback concerning iPhone tethering on the AT&T network:
“We understand that there is great interest in tethering but cannot provide any details at this time. We know that iPhone users love their devices and mobile broadband, and that they’re likely to embrace tethering just as they have other features and apps – by using it a lot. iPhone tethering has the potential to exponentially increase traffic, and we need to ensure that we’re able to deliver excellent performance for the feature – over and above the increases in data traffic we’re already seeing – before we will offer the feature.”
While it does make sense for AT&T to ensure their network can handle the increased load that would accompany iPhone users being able to use their phone as a modem for their personal computers they better hurry up and figure out a solution quickly or risk losing business customers to Verizon. Verizon recently announced that their Palm Mobile Hotspot app would be a free add on with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus that is sure to draw the attention of many business customers and frequent travelers that would benefit from being able to use their mobile device as a mobile hot spot while on the road.
If you are currently in the market for a new cell phone you should look into Verizon Wireless’ Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. The mobile phone company has just announced a price reduction for two of their more popular phones. The Pre Plus will drop to a price of $49.99 while the Pixi Plus will be even lower at $29.99. If you are in the market for more than once cell phone these two devices also qualify for Verizon’s popular buy one get one free offer as well. Of course both handsets will require a two year agreement to get these prices but at these prices that is a no brainer. Also, to further entice consumers Verizon has dropped the price of the webOS mobile hotspot service to $0 (down from $40) for both new and current customers. The mobile hotspot offer is not going to be advertised on the web right away however customers will be told of the free hotspot promotion when they purchase the other mobile devices.
This appears to be a fantastic deal that Verizon Wireless is offering. The Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are two of their more popular phones. If you are on a budget and looking to get a great smartphone you certainly can not go wrong with either of these devices. Throw in the fact that you can also get a free handset when you purchase one can lower the price dramatically if you were to split the costs with a friend or family member. The addition of the mobile hotspot is just icing on the cake and truly makes this a deal that you can not pass up.
When it comes to wireless carriers and wireless data one might think that AT&T transmits to largest amount of wireless data. Well if this is the case then you might find the results of a recent study published by ABI Research to be quite interesting. According to their study ABI Research says Verizon is actually the largest provider of wireless data with Sprint coming in second also beating out AT&T.
The two companies, Verizon and Sprint, combined to handle 63% of all wireless data in 2009. This 63% equates to 16 billion MB more data than AT&T. ABI claims these numbers have more to do with AT&T’s smaller 3G coverage and the prevalence of data cards on the two EV-DO networks. However, ABI is predicting that AT&T will be able to overtake Sprint by 2012.
The recent findings of this study by ABI Research are pretty interesting. Like many others I would have expected AT&T to lead the way in wireless data sent with the iPhone and growing list of smartphones that they offer. Apparently the type of coverage a network can provide can have a huge impact on the amount data that is transmitted via their network. As we all know AT&T’s network can be unreliable at times so it would make perfect sense that Verizon and Sprint would be able to send more data through their network.
With plans already under way to improve their wireless network AT&T is taking to necessary steps when it comes to having a leading wireless network. When all of these changes are in place I expect AT&T’s wireless data numbers to increase substantially as they are likely to attract new unlocked cell phone customers with a better cell phone network.
Vonage has recently announced that a new version of their Vonage Mobile app will be coming to the Android platform. This new version of the Vonage Mobile app will only be available to Android users on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks. Vonage Mobile allows customers to make voice over IP calls using a W-Fi network which can significantly reduce the costs of making international calls.
When asked about the upcoming availability on Sprint and Verizon devices Vonage reps were unsure when those devices would be supported by the new app. While the Vonage reps were unable to offer a timeline for those two networks they did mention that Vonage was looking to expand the product to more devices. Reps would also not comment on the possibility of Verizon’s new deal with Skype being one of the reasons why this new Vonage app is not available on Verizon Wireless devices. This new Vonage app is already available for iPhone OS devices which includes the iPod touch as well as BlackBerry devices.
While Vonage may not be that great of an alternative to long distance carriers for your land lines this app certainly is great news for people that are looking to lower the costs of their international phone bills. As one of the leading VoIP companies around Vonage can offer you great service at an affordable price. Being able to use Vonage’s services over a Wi-Fi network on your mobile device is an excellent addition to any new smartphone. With the increase in popularity of Android devices it makes sense that Vonage would focus on getting a new mobile app available for those devices. With the success they have seen from their iPhone and BlackBerry apps it will be no surprise when the Vonage Mobile app becomes a huge success for Android users as well.
Coming this spring Verizon Wireless consumers will have the chance to bill online content directly to their cell phone bills. Verizon is set to utilize Danal’s BilltoMobile service that will allow mobile device users to charge any online content they download right to their Verizon bills. A secure connection and integration between Verizon Wireless and Danal will provide features important to online consumers and merchants, including robust subscriber authentication and fraud protection, among others.
The mobile payment service will feature a $25-per-month spending limit for these purchases, along with content and parental controls for individual accounts, giving account owners the ability to manage their BilltoMobile usage. When available, customers with text messaging-enabled phones will be able to shop quickly, securely and conveniently for Verizon Wireless-approved content at online stores, including game sites, social networks and virtual worlds. Users will also be able to purchase subscriptions to popular online games.
The BilltoMobile payment service is simple for consumers. To conduct a transaction, consumers click on the BilltoMobile button during checkout at a participating online Web site and then input their mobile numbers and mobile billing zip codes for subscriber authentication. A text message is then sent to consumers’ unlocked mobile phones with a one-time passcode. Once consumers input this passcode into the online checkout window, the transaction is completed. The entire process takes about 15 seconds, and there is no pre-registration or links to credit cards or bank accounts required.
This sounds like a great addition to power unlocked cell phone users on the Verizon network. The BilltoMobile program will offer consumers a safe and quick way to purchase products or online content directly from their mobile devices. This is just another step in the direction of being able to use your mobile devices for much more things than just making phone calls and sending text messages.
On the heels of their recent announcement regarding the upcoming rollout of the highly anticipated 4G network Verizon Wireless’s CTO Anthony Melone has targeted next summer as the time frame for the carrier’s first LTE handset release. While the aforementioned 4G network is expected to be ready by the end of this year all of us tech junkies will have to wait a little longer for the first unlocked cell phone handset.
It should be well worth the wait though as these new mobile devices are expected to have the same downloading and uploading speed as your home computer. In the current test markets in Boston and Seattle engineers were blown away by the results they were seeing which is a great sign for the possibilities to come. Also, videos will be able to be seen in 1080p high definition which should really revolutionize the way people consume video content on their mobile devices.
There is one bit of bad news that is expected to come with the awesome power of the new 4G network. It appears that Verizon and even AT&T are headed down the path of eliminating unlimited data plans and moving to a tiered structure. While it does make sense for these companies to charge people for the amount of data they download or even upload it is still a bummer that we finally get some great internet speeds on our mobile devices like the Blackberry Pearl but will have to pay more to fully enjoy them.
