Recent Comments:
HP's Obsidian becomes iPAQ Glisten, officially comes to AT&T {Engadget}
Nov 24th 2009 2:19PM Looks exactly like my 2007 Motorola Q9h with BB keyboard graphics. Way to go HP!
http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Consumers/Products/Mobile%20Phones/MOTO%20Q9h%20global/_Images/Static%20files/B2C_MOTO_Q9h_CA-EN_lg.png
Don't shop drunk: Verizon's $350 ETF is now live {Engadget}
Nov 15th 2009 5:25PM You must not have read that the $15 for Exchange access was only for certain corporate contracts. There's no $15 premium for individuals (though you do have to pay more for the email+data package)
Don't shop drunk: Verizon's $350 ETF is now live {Engadget}
Nov 15th 2009 5:22PM Good lord... what are you even talking about? If you don't like the terms, DON'T SIGN THE CONTRACT. It's very simple. There are still choices out there, e.g. AT&T and TMO both have month-to-month non-contract services which allow you to bring any GSM phone out there onto their network. If you're not looking for the phone subsidy, you shouldn't be signing any contracts. But if you are and you do, then expect to be held to the terms. Honestly what do you expect?
Don't shop drunk: Verizon's $350 ETF is now live {Engadget}
Nov 15th 2009 5:13PM @bjsguess
"If not, then the raise in ETF is purely punitive in nature"
Well, there you go, you've answered your own question. It's exactly punative. It's a contract after all, and whatever the circumstances were for you exiting the contract early, they are entitled to penalize you for doing so. So what if you *choose* to move and no longer have great service in the new location - that's somehow the carrier's fault and they should lose the revenue you promised them when you signed the contract? About the warranty, did you not read your warranty before you bought the phone, and that's why you didn't realize how long it would be in effect? Or did you read it and decided you could handle the risk of it breaking outside the warranty but within your contract period? Either way, again that was your decision, and you made it at the time you signed the contract.
Believe me, I'm with you that ETFs can't be exobanent and would prefer to see the ETF at month 23 be closer to $0, but I don't agree that it should be exactly $0. There *should be* a penalty for breaking a legal contract. What's wrong with you people who think you should just get everything for free...
That said, I think there should also be mandated charges to telecom operators, cable companies, etc who you have signed these contracts with but they fail to hold up their end (service outages, etc). Call your congressperson to ask for sensible rules for both sides. But don't expect to be able to sign contracts and then be shocked by being held to them.
Don't shop drunk: Verizon's $350 ETF is now live {Engadget}
Nov 15th 2009 5:12PM @bjsguess
"If not, then the raise in ETF is purely punitive in nature"
Well, there you go, you've answered your own question. It's exactly punative. It's a contract after all, and whatever the circumstances were for you exiting the contract early, they are entitled to penalize you for doing so. So what if you *choose* to move and no longer have great service in the new location - that's somehow the carrier's fault and they should lose the revenue you promised them when you signed the contract? About the warranty, did you not read your warranty before you bought the phone, and that's why you didn't realize how long it would be in effect? Or did you read it and decided you could handle the risk of it breaking outside the warranty but within your contract period? Either way, again that was your decision, and you made it at the time you signed the contract.
Believe me, I'm with you that ETFs can't be exobanent and would prefer to see the ETF at month 23 be closer to $0, but I don't agree that it should be exactly $0. There *should be* a penalty for breaking a legal contract. What's wrong with you people who think you should just get everything for free...
That said, I think there should also be mandated charges to telecom operators, cable companies, etc who you have signed these contracts with but they fail to hold up their end (service outages, etc). Call your congressperson to ask for sensible rules for both sides. But don't expect to be able to sign contracts and then be shocked by being held to them.
Don't shop drunk: Verizon's $350 ETF is now live {Engadget}
Nov 15th 2009 4:55PM @eogueri
You people who get all worked up about the ability to use your phone outside of the country must not travel very much or know much about technology. First, it's INCREDIBLY expensive to roam out of country with any of the carriers, so if you're planning to do more than just leave your phone on while you're vacationing, you'll want to get a SIM card in that country (data roaming charges can be hundreds and hundreds of dollars for only a few days of "normal" traffic when you were at home). Then putting that SIM card into your current phone is on the whim of the carrier of whether they'll unlock the phone for that (TMO is pretty good about it but not ATT). Finally, you should know that the bands used in the US are different from those used in other countries for the most part, and I'm not aware of any phones from either TMO or ATT that is a quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900) quintband UMTS (850/1900/2100/1700/900 are all in use).
In general I agree w/ you that it'd be nice if all these weren't still roadblocks but there are so I just travel w/ a spare unlocked GSM phone to use with a prepaid local SIM I buy when I get there.
AT&T responds to Verizon's 3G ad campaign -- by bragging about EDGE {Engadget}
Nov 12th 2009 8:35PM @Terry
What are the actual speeds you're talking about when you say that EDGE is as fast as Rev 0? I just don't get where that's coming from when the spec speeds for the two are totally different (3x different). I'm a little new to Verizon/CDMA so curious if they've got some slow implementation on the backhaul side or something that you're referring to. EDGE is not fast, like 250kbps in the best case.
AT&T adds Verizon's Island of Misfit Toys holiday ads to lawsuit, demands they be yanked off the air {Engadget}
Nov 12th 2009 7:39PM I'll say it again - AT&T simply can *not* claim that their customers don't know what 3G is. They basically introduced America to the term via a zillion broadcasts of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnJL5YbMs7U&feature=PlayList&p=BDC817C781E5C229&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=16
AT&T adds Verizon's Island of Misfit Toys holiday ads to lawsuit, demands they be yanked off the air {Engadget}
Nov 12th 2009 7:20PM @Jack:
The problem with your (and AT&T's) argument is that you're saying AT&T customers are not aware of the difference between EDGE and 3G, and therefore they're being misled by these Verizon ads. I don't see how you/AT&T will win that argument when AT&T themselves have spent so much time/money educating those same consumers that there is a difference between the two, and referring to "3G" specifically in their own advertising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnJL5YbMs7U&feature=PlayList&p=BDC817C781E5C229&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=16
AT&T can't claim their consumers are ignorant to this difference when they've educated them about that exact issue. Verizon has every right to assume these users are knowledgable, then show a map comparing the two services. They never say that there is "no service" in the white areas, just that it's not 3G.
AT&T adds Verizon's Island of Misfit Toys holiday ads to lawsuit, demands they be yanked off the air {Engadget}
Nov 12th 2009 6:53PM @ThreeDee912
Where are you getting that EDGE is the same speed as EVDO Rev 0?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bandwidths
EDGE Evolution isn't the same as EDGE and I've never heard of AT&T deploying anything but plain vanilla EDGE, which caps at 250kbps real world. Even AT&T only claims to get about those speeds: http://developer.att.com/developer/index.jsp?page=toolsTechDetail&id=7600078
EVDO Rev 0 I believe is in the range of 600-1000kbps. A 4x difference is pretty substantial.
