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Filed under: Cellphones

Get ready, Blackberry fans. After weeks of leaks and goofy internal videos, it looks like the Storm’s finally a-comin’ — the first ads for the RIM’s touchscreen wonder aired on CBS tonight. We’re on the lookout for a better video, but even at this low res we can’t help but notice how chunky this thing looks — but we’re totally willing to trade some heft for some sweet, sweet copy / paste action. Video after the break.

[Thanks, Jerry]Continue reading First Blackberry Storm commericals air on CBS

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Cellphones

Get ready, Blackberry fans. After weeks of leaks and goofy internal videos, it looks like the Storm’s finally a-comin’ — the first ads for the RIM’s touchscreen wonder aired on CBS tonight. We’re on the lookout for a better video, but even at this low res we can’t help but notice how chunky this thing looks — but we’re totally willing to trade some heft for some sweet, sweet copy / paste action. Video after the break.

[Thanks, Jerry and deltajam]Continue reading First Blackberry Storm commercials air on CBS

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Cellphones

For those of you who firmly believe that Verizon plus Motorola plus touchscreen equals pure, unadulterated bliss, heads up: we have a bit of information that might be of interest to you. phoneArena has scored a screen shot of what appears to be some promotional material for Moto’s upcoming MING-esque doohickey, the Krave ZN4 — and it looks like we’ll be shelling out about $150 on a two-year contract for the honor of carrying one in our knockoff Louis Vuitton backpacks. Not a bad price for a phone clearly designed to rest toward the upper end of Verizon’s non-smartphone lineup, we suppose, and we’ll admit that it’s looking better in this dolled-up promo shot than it was last time we saw it. Separately, they’ve landed pricing for the Moto VU204, a basic flip that’s probably not going to turn as many heads as the Krave; that one is going to go out the door for $29, and you’ll get three free with the purchase of the first for the ultimate four-pack of mediocrity. We don’t have a solid line on when these are coming to market, but the Krave’s still a possibility for this month.

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Rumors are coming fast and furious today citing unnamed tipsters that Apple is hard at work hammering out a CDMA iPhone for its friends at Verizon to be announced and released next year, the carrier it had initially approached about carrying the device back in 2005. Way we see it, though, 2009 ain’t 2005; Apple’s wielding boatloads more power in the wireless biz than it was before the first model launched, the industry’s economics have changed, and technology roadmaps have been rewritten.

So why isn’t this happening, exactly? First, Apple appears to be having no trouble finding enough customers (carriers, that is) to keep iPhone 3G production at a nice clip. Second, CDMA represents a minute fraction of the world’s mobile customer base that GSM / UMTS does — no matter how big Verizon, Sprint, Telus, Bell, KDDI au, and the remaining CDMA stalwarts may be. Third, CDMA is a dying technology that will be finished off in the early part of the next decade as networks make the migration to LTE and other 4G platforms. Fourth, we have to believe Apple would sooner pour its engineering efforts into advancing the iPhone platform in the same direction as the world’s networks than divert considerable resources to busting out a one-off special.

Might this mythical CDMA iPhone yet exist? Yeah, Verizon’s a huge carrier, and yes, stranger things have happened — but until Steve and Ivan get on stage together at Macworld 2009, we’re not buying it.

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones

There aren’t exactly all that many details left to announce, but Verizon has just gotten official with its late to the party Visual Voicemail service which, for the time being at least, is only available on the LG Voyager. As we had heard previously, the service will run you an extra $2.99 per month on top of your usual bill, and you’ll be able to store up to 40 messages for 40 days, with an option to create up to 10 greetings and 20 distribution lists. Unfortunately, Verizon didn’t take the opportunity to announce any firm plans for a roll-out to any of the other phones supposedly in line to get the service, with it only going so far as to say that additional devices will be getting it in the “coming months.”

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Cellphones

Unless you’ve been camped out under a Rhode Island-sized boulder for the past few weeks, you know that Verizon has announced its intentions to acquire Alltel. During a recent interview with CEO Scott Ford, Talk Business host Roby Brock was able to get a few talking points out of the exec that didn’t involve the most recent transaction. More specifically, Mr. Ford noted that prior to Alltel becoming a private company, it had “tried to buy Sprint three times, tried to buy AT&T Wireless [and] tried to buy T-Mobile.” He continued by saying that “some of those times it went with partners, [while] some of those times it didn’t.” Essentially, Alltel was “doing everything it could to get to a national platform.” Believe it or not, those quotes really are just the tip of the iceberg, but the full spill is entirely too detailed for this space. If you’re curious to know what might have been, break out the reading glasses and hit the link below.

[Via mocoNews]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon Wireless has been slow to catch up with the smartphone data access plans offered by competing carriers, with premium prices and some confusing options, but things are taking a real turn for the better. The new “E-mail and Web for Smartphone” plan goes for a mere $30 a month when paired with a qualifying voice plan, and is available with the SMT5800, XV6800 and the MOTO Q9m, with other devices to hop on board in the coming months. Verizon’s press release is very careful to tout unlimited email and web browsing, not data, and we have a feeling Verizon will be clamping down pretty hard on anybody trying to tether with this plan.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Paul Miller

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Verizon just announced its plans for the open-access “C block” and other chunks of the 700MHz spectrum it purchased from the FCC for almost $10B. As expected, it’s going to provide high speed, 4G services in the form of LTE in the newly acquired spectrum. Of course, the 2010 launch is the same target stated by AT&T. Verizon also claims to have increased its spectrum inventory by about 60%. Before and after auction coverage shots in the gallery below.

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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