Verizon - page 16

Tech bloggers are salivating over the possibility that the Verizon iPhone will create a “Perfect Media Storm” when it is released on February 10.

“These kinds of stories only come along every generation or so,” said one industry expert who insisted on anonymity for this article (and also insisted on ordering Lobster during our off-the-record lunch). “Really monumental tech events expand rapidly across the media landscape until almost every single headline is focused on that piece of news. It is a remarkable and terrifying occurrence, I’ve heard tell.”

Pundits are warning that the Verizon iPhone launch will attract noticeable attention from the Main Stream Media, including obligatory “lining up” segments on local newscasts, and a variety of daytime TV clips. Add to that scenario the brewing social media battles between Apple fan boys and iPhone haters and you have a tech news super cell that is capable of generating Apple headlines for weeks on end.

Even spammers will contribute to the upcoming media tsunami with their unending stream of boorish VeriPhone “opinion pieces” that are nothing more than keyword targeted word salad or repurposed content from legitimate sites. Angry AT&T users could also foment media attention as they publicly bash their aging network.

While no one can predict what the actual Verizon iPhone media storm will look like, expect it to pick up speed starting early next week.

Teaser articles with flashy headlines will appear first, hinting at the raging media storm that will soon follow. Then, as review units are tested, expect a sustained torrent of “under the hood” coverage from all areas of tech media.

Finally, on February 10, the event will make landfall with national news and cable networks cutting together segments comprised primarily of glamour shots of the new phone and happy Verizon customers getting their Apple devices.

What follows is a sampling of headlines sure to appear during the impending Verizon iPhone media storm. Prepare yourself and your loved ones for this type of journalism, as we will see much more of it in the days ahead.

Can You Hear Me Now? Comparing Dropped Call Data on Verizon and AT&T

OVERCLOCKED: Which iPhone Is Faster?

Top Ten Verizon iPhone Tips and Tricks

Which Network Really Has You Covered?

There’s an App for That – A Detailed look at how the app experience plays out on both networks.

Verizon iPhone Ships a “Billion Million” Units – Predictions of units sold in the coming months from tech press and analysts.

I’m returning My Verizon iPhone

Apple Stock: How High is Too High?

Why Android Is The Best Smartphone EVER!

This Guy’s Blog Post is WRONG!

No Way! That Other Blog Post is WRONG! – A protracted back and forth between two tech journalists to elicit links, coverage, and increased attention.

Where is the White iPhone?

How The Verizon iPhone is a Win for AT&T

I Told You So: How I Predicted All of This Over a Year Ago

iPhone, Therefore I Am

The iPhone as Fashion Statement

Why I Hate The Verizon iPhone

Why I’m Leaving AT&T

This Verizon iPhone Top Ten List Goes To Eleven

How the iPhone Reinvented Telephony

One iPhone to Rule Them All

“It almost never happens, but these giant media storms have occurred in the past,” said our source. “This new iPhone is something like the moon landing, really.”

UPDATE: Apple has pulled the Verizon pricing pages. But they were up long enough to get the details.

The prices for the Verizon iPhone are now here. Here’s what we’re looking at.

Launching in the traditional 16GB (MC676LL/A ) and 32GB (MC678LL/A) varieties, the Verizon iPhone 4 will only come in black, which ends speculation for right now that the CDMA iPhone’s debut would afford Apple an opportunity to launch the long-delayed white iPhone 4.

Available talk plans are 450 minutes of talk time per month for $39.99, 900 minutes per month with unlimited calls to five people for $59.99 per month, and unlimited talk time for $69.99 per month.

As previously discussed, data comes all-you-can-eat for $29.99, with an additional 2GB for tethering available for $49.99 per month.

As for text messages, you can either pay-per-use at the rip-off rate of $0.20 per text and $0.25 per video or picture. Plan-wise, you can either opt for 250 messages for $5 per month, 500 messages for $10 per month, or unlimited for $20 per month.

As with the AT&T models, a 16GB iPhone will cost you $199 subsidized, while the 32GB model will cost $299.

Verizon is flip-flopping on unlimited iPhone data plans faster than a fish out of water.

This morning, Verizon’s chief operating officer, Lowell McAdam, told the Wall Street Journal that Verizon’s iPhone 4 customers would be treated to an unlimited $30-a-month data plan. Otherwise, the network wouldn’t be able to compete with AT&T, which has grandfathered a lot of iPhone customers to unlimited plans, even though it now offers only tiered plans.

But not so fast. McAdam now says the unlimited data plan will be a “temporary offer,” and that Verizon will also move to tiered pricing in the not too distant future. Better act fast.

How long do you think the unlimited data window will be? A week? A month? Six months?

WSJ: Verizon iPhone: $30 Unlimited Data (for Now)

It’s not bad. Don’t miss the YouTube comments. Here’s a typical sample:

I can’t wait!!!!!! Finally!!!! iPhone on Verizon!!!!!

I get to dump my crapass Android piece of poop for a real smartphone!

yay

Well we finally got to see the Verizon version of the iPhone 4 (big yawn) and I know many iPhone 4 users on AT&T are excited about a chance to own an iPhone that won’t drop calls (Note my iPhone 4 rarely drops calls and I really mean rarely). Although the iPhone 4 on Verizon isn’t actually here just yet it won’t hurt to get prepared for when it finally gets here.

So considering all the above — what’s the most important thing to know about a cellular carrier?

Coverage and now there’s an app for that, but unfortunately you might have better luck checking a carriers site for coverage versus using this app.

Verizon Wireless appears to be preparing for the sudden onslaught of new customers coming to their network for the Verizon iPhone by making it harder and more expensive to upgrade their phones at the end of two years.

Yup. Sadly, Verizon has quietly discontinued their long-running New Every Two promotion, which allowed any customers who successfully completed a two-year contract to either get a free new low-end phone or rack up credit ranging between $30 and $100 to apply to the downpayment of their next phone.

It’s been commonly rumored that Verizon was the first carrier Apple approach with the iPhone, only to be rebuffed because of Cupertino’s insistence on retaining control over their phone’s branding and bundled software. Heck, we referenced it the other day.

It looks like that rumor’s not actually true, though. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg has admitted in an interview with BusinessWeek that his company was “never in the running” as US carrier partner for the original iPhone’s launch.

If you remember, reports had it at the time that Verizon was the carrier Apple originally came to with the iPhone, only to be snubbed by Big Red because of Apple’s insistence on maintaining full control over the phone’s hardware and software: no bundled apps, no carrier branding. Laughing, Apple went to AT&T and history was made.

Speaking to BusinessWeek, Verizon president and CEO Lowell McAdam makes it clear that Verizon regretted that decision pretty much the second after Apple left their offices: he says they’ve spent the last four years trying to get the iPhone back.

Although there’s still many things we don’t know about about the Verizon iPhone — namely, in the details of their pricing and the generosity of their data plans — one immediate advantage Verizon has over AT&T is that you can tether up to five different devices to the handset’s 3G connection over WiFi, when AT&T only offers one.

For road warriors, that’s a big perk to the Verizon iPhone compared to the AT&T one: you can drive an entire mobile office with just one Verizon device. Another benefit is that AT&T tethering service only works via Bluetooth or USB.

So will AT&T cave and match Verizon’s offer? AppleInsider asked the question, and was told by an AT&T representative that they would not “speculate” on their own plans.

Just like AT&T’s iPhone 4, the Verizon iPhone 4 will feature a Retina display, a front-facing camera, an Apple A4 chip, and HD video recording. Other than the CDMA chip in the Verizon device and the redesigned antenna, the hardware is exactly the same. So, how do you choose the best device for you?

We’ve created a handy comparison chart that will help you identify the difference between the two options. If you’re looking to purchase Apple’s latest iPhone, the chart below will help you choose the best carrier for your device based on price, data allowances, and additional features exclusive to each. Check it out after the break!

Feast your eyes on the new Verizon iPhone 4. Apple’s iPhone 4 has finally hit the largest CDMA network in the U.S.  so now my Verizon friends can stop coveting my iPhone 4 and get their own!

Click the read link to see more images.

[via Engadget]

On one side, an iPhone 4. On the other, an iPhone 4. Spot the difference.

The new Verizon flavored device, left, has a new antenna layout wrapped around its exterior.

This is nothing to do with people moaning about “antennagate”. It’s a functional redesign to allow the phone to work with Verizon’s CDMA network.

It does look, from this photo at Engadget like the mute switch on the Verizon device has shifted a fraction of an inch southwards – which might mean that some cases and covers that fit an AT&T phone won’t necessarily fit a Verizon phone.

Otherwise, the devices appear to be identical in every other respect.

Amusingly, Verizon’s own web pages about the iPhone 4 are chock-full of stock photos of the AT&T version of the device – only the front page has the photo (annotated above) that clearly shows the refreshed antenna layout.

The Verizon iPhone is a truly exciting prospect for us geeks, for most people, it’s not going to be a big deal. It won’t be an all new phone, or substantially different hardware-wise from the current iPhone 4… it’ll just be on a different network, and that the difference between GSM and CDMA technology is profound just won’t matter to most people.

That puts Verizon in a little bit of a pickle: short of blaring on about how much superior their network is to AT&T’s (and they will do just that), what are they going to do to to easily differentiate the Verizon iPhone from the AT&T iPhone and make it seem like a different product entirely?

According to The Wall Street Journal, they’ll offer unlimited data.

Last week, VoIP service Skype crumbled under the strain of holiday calling. In the aftermath, Skype published some support documents to help users out, but then quickly pulled them after it was discovered that not only were they looking to roll out FaceTime-style video chat to the iPhone, but also release a native iPad app… and rounding everything out? A juicy hint about the Verizon iPhone.

Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster has a spotty history of prediction, but we think his latest pronouncement is probably right: if Verizon’s the next network that gets the iPhone, it will only be at AT&T’s expense.

Verizon has been rolling out its new LTE mobile broadband service across America over the past couple months in a move that is thought to herald the introduction of a future 4G iPhone to their network, presumably next year. Either way, right now, there are no Verizon 4G smartphones… instead, they are selling a series of LTE 4G modems, which are regrettably only for Windows PCs… no Macs accepted.

Luckily, it seems that the plucky hacking community has already managed to put themselves together an unofficial workaround to the situation, bringing 4G support to OS X for the first time… at least for the Pantech UML290.

We report with reservations, because this rumor — while titillating — is clearly absurd. That said, if you don’t hear it from us, you’ll hear it from someone more breathless: Mac Daily News is claiming that the Verizon iPhone is coming to a Verizon outlet near you as soon as December 26th.

Last month, Verizon’s CEO said that his network would have to “earn” the iPhone and strongly implied that their upcoming rollout of their 4G network would be what would do it.

Maybe so, but they are off to a shaky start when it comes to servicing the Apple faithful: Verizon has officially launched their 4G network by offering their first LTE modem to the public… but don’t expect it to work on your Mac.

Verizon’s Twitter account might have tipped the forthcoming arrival of the iPhone to America’s biggest CDMA network, but Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is still playing coy about the possibility of a Verizon iPhone.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Seidenberg says that a Verizon iPhone will only arrive “when Apple thinks it’s time.”

We were skeptical of yesterday’s purportedly leaked shot of a new CDMA iPhone running on the Verizon network, but perhaps e’re wrong: a recent Tweet coming from Verizon’s own Verizon Careers Twitter account seems to suggest the iPhone is coming to the network soon.

The evidence is admittedly a bit ambiguous. The operator of Verizon Careers’ Twitter account pimped their recent addition of the iPad to their mobile line-up, and was then asked by Twitter user slink317 for an “iPhone hint?”

Verizon Career’s response accompanied a retweet of slinky123’s question: “yes that is the latest scoop.”

The wording’s pretty strange, but we’re not sure how else to read that besides as a quasi-official confirmation that the iPhone is coming to Verizon sometime soon. Lending some veracity to that interpretation, the Verizon Careers tweet in question has since been pulled.

What do you think? Is the Verizon coming to iPhone, or was this just some low-level drone paid to man a Twitter account making a mistake and openly speculating on Verizon’s iPhone future?

Yesterday was a big day for Verizon iPhone rumors. Hot on the heels of a rumor that Apple was working to create a reprogrammable SIM Module that might open the door to dual GSM/CDMA compatibility comes a perhaps contradictory report from the always dicey Digitimes that suggests that Cupertino has already awarded the build contracts for a CDMA iPhone to two of the biggest Asian electronics makers.

Say goodbye to your iPhone SIM tray. Apple may be looking to get rid of their phones’ reliance upon SIM cards once and for all, instead replacing it with a custom, writeable module that would enable Cupertino to sell iPhones directly to the user without being locked to a specific carrier.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal threw some more sparks at the kindling of the rumored Verizon iPhone, claiming that it was conclusively on track for debut in the first quarter of 2011.

Personally, I wasn’t inclined to believe the rumor. It was only two weeks ago that Verizon’s own CEO said that the iPhone wouldn’t be coming to their network until they had their 4G network in place, claiming that the wireless carrier needed to “earn” the iPhone.

Today, though, I’m ready to change my tune due to two new revelations. The first is that Verizon has announced that they would be rolling out 4G to 38 cities this year, and start showing off 4G-capable smartphones at CES in January 2011. That makes a 4G Verizon iPhone next year possible, even within the Wall Street Journal’s optimistic first quarter timeframe.

Plans have emerged today from people briefed by Apple that the company is to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that will allow Verizon Wireless to sell its popular smartphone early next year.

The new iPhone will be no different externally to the iPhone 4 in shops today, however, internally it will feature an alternative wireless technology called CDMA used by Verizon. According to the same people, the key chip will be provided by Qualcomm, and the device is expected to be released in the first quarter of next year.

A CDMA iPhone would spell the end of Apple’s exclusive arrangement with AT&T in the U.S., a deal that has been in place since the iPhone made its debut in 2007.

The same people have also spilled some beans on the fifth-generation iPhone, which they claim is currently being developed by the Cupertino computer giant. One person familiar with the plan claims that the next model will feature a different form factor from the iPhones currently available, however, it was unclear how soon this version will be available to Verizon.

Spokeswomen for both Apple and Qualcomm have unsurprisingly declined to comment on the matter, and so has a spokesman for Verizon Wireless.

[via WSJ]

First Verizon snubbed AT&T’s 3G coverage in a snarky “There’s A Map for That” advertisement. Then they called the iPhone a Misfit Toy thanks to AT&T’s spotty 3G network. AT&T got hysterical about it, going to court to get the “false and misleading” ads removed from the air. Verizon’s breezy response: “The Truth Hurts.”

Now it looks like the little purse fight between the nation’s two largest cell providers is at an end: both Verizon and AT&T filed for an official dismissal of the case in an Atlanta federal court yesterday. Verizon also asked for their counter-suit against AT&T to be dismissed.