-
29AprOne of the most talked about LG smartphones this spring is the LG Versa VX9600 for Verizon. At first glance, this is simply a sleeker version of the popular LG Dare, but look closer and you’ll find three customizable home screens, LG’s most responsive touchscreen technology yet, and a full featured 2 megapixel camera/ [...]
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29AprAnd so it begins....
As I walked past a nearby Alltel Wireless store today, I happened to notice that the store was completely closed. "Odd," I thought, after walking by yesterday to the sight of hustle and bustle within the tiny building. On the front door, a bold sign answered my question:
"This Alltel Wireless location is closed - please visit us at our new location inside of Verizon Wireless."
The message went on to list the address of the Verizon store they had relocated to (which also happened to be a store I frequent quite often), and so I decided to go visit and have a look at how they were moving forward with the integration. As I was driving, I was thinking to myself "I didn't realize the integration was taking place until the summer..."
As it turns out, in certain markets, Alltel stores have closed and relocated their operations into Verizon stores in a sort of "store within a store" concept. Upon walking in, you see the typical Verizon products and services - red, red, and more red - until you reach the back of the store. The wall suddenly turns to blue, and the familiar Alltel logo appears, along with their products. Devices are out on the sales floor, and Alltel plan brochures were neatly arranged. "It's all part of an effort to welcome Alltel customers and get them accustomed to the Verizon culture," someone told me.
According to sources, the completion of the merger is still slated for the summer.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29AprMobile game publisher, Gameloft, announced Q1 earnings yesterday and their business is growing nicely.
The French gaming firm singled out the “strong performance” of its iPhone games, as well as “solid sales” of Java and Brew games, as helping boost mobile games sales 21% in the first quarter.
Company spokesperson Anne-Laure Descleves said that sales of Java and Brew games, usually played on traditional feature phones, rose 6% compared to the same period last year. Overall, Gameloft reported sales of 30.8 million euros ($40.8 million) in the first quarter of 2009, an increase of 22% from the previous year.
Mobile games accounts for 94% of the company’s annual sales, meaning that the company earned 28.95 million euros ($38.4 million) from mobile games. Console games made up the remaining 6%. Sales of games were spread evenly in its different territories, with Europe accounting for 35% of sales, North America making up 37%, and the rest of the world bringing in the remaining 29%.
North America was Gameloft's strongest growth region, with sales up 57% in Q1.Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29AprVerizon's had a lot going on, from delving into netbooks, to chatting up Microsoft and Apple for new devices.* * That's a lot of fodder for gossip, most of it all in one shot. And predictably, it requires users to partake in the waiting game, to see if any of these actually pan out. Well, at least if/when the device(s) do land on The Network, users will be able to sound off about them. (Well, sorta.)
A new user review feature has been activated on the VZW site that allows customers to rate their handsets. The feature uses a star rating scale (similar to PhoneDog's), with one important difference: The carrier manually approves reviews, which could take up to 2 days.
To rate a VZW phone, users must log into their My Verizon account and pick the handset for review. When the page loads, people can choose from 1 through 5 stars for Ease of Use, Display, Features, and Battery Life. There's also an area for commenting on the device's Pros, Cons, and Comments. Sounds good, and it's great that the company has finally given customers the opportunity to honestly weigh in on its products, but with the long, manual approval process (and a lack of explicit criteria for filtering), there's a concern that Verizon will eliminate all but the positive ones. That would hardly be useful for shoppers, and only serve to tick off would-be reviewers.
I hope that's not the case. But Verizon, I guess only time will tell if you really can hear them now.
[Via PhoneArena]
———————————-
* * VZW IN THE NEWS (summary):
If you saw Aaron's post about Verizon potentially partnering with Microsoft for a new iPhone killer, or saw Noah's poll about whether Apple will join forces with the carrier, then you know that Verizon's been a busy bee.
Seems like the Verizon PR team has been working overtime. The news media have been buzzing about all sorts of stuff, including:
- a USA Today report about a potential VZW-iPhone coupling for either its 3G system or, more likely, on its upcoming 4G/LTE network. (CDMA, it seems, is hardly a contender, given the crazy logistics it would require to make that work.)
- a BusinessWeek story about the carrier courting a cheaper "iPhone Lite" or Apple-branded multimedia gadget, which would be equipped to play music, photos and hi-def vids, in addition to making Wi-fi calls. Sound like the much-rumored tablet that Apple is supposedly prepping for release? Maybe so, but it's hard to say since the deets are coming from unnamed sources, which means they're still in "rumorland" at this point.
- and The Wall Street Journal's coverage of talks between Big Red and Microsoft about a new touchscreen iPhone competitor based on WinMo early next year. (For more details, check out Aaron's post about that here.)
- (I didn't even mention Verizon's foray into netbooks.)
Big Red, you sure do have your hands in a lot of pots. I just hope all this pans out in favor of your subscribers, instead of just getting their hopes up for no reason. But whatever you end up launching on your network, at least users now have some way of reacting to the new device(s). That is, if your new rating system is legit.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29AprVerizon's had a lot going on, from delving into netbooks, to chatting up Microsoft and Apple for new devices.* * That's a lot of fodder for gossip, most of it all in one shot. And predictably, it requires users to partake in the waiting game, to see if any of these actually pan out. Well, at least if/when the device(s) do land on The Network, users will be able to sound off about them. (Well, sorta.)
A new user review feature has been activated on the VZW site that allows customers to rate their handsets. The feature uses a star rating scale (similar to PhoneDog's), with one important difference: The carrier manually approves reviews, which could take up to 2 days.
To rate a VZW phone, users must log into their My Verizon account and pick the handset for review. When the page loads, people can choose from 1 through 5 stars for Ease of Use, Display, Features, and Battery Life. There's also an area for commenting on the device's Pros, Cons, and Comments. Sounds good, and it's great that the company has finally given customers the opportunity to honestly weigh in on its products, but with the long, manual approval process (and a lack of explicit criteria for filtering), there's a concern that Verizon will eliminate all but the positive ones. That would hardly be useful for shoppers, and only serve to tick off would-be reviewers.
I hope that's not the case. But Verizon, I guess only time will tell if you really can hear them now.
[Via PhoneArena]
———————————-
* * VZW IN THE NEWS (summary):
If you saw Aaron's post about Verizon potentially partnering with Microsoft for a new iPhone killer, or saw Noah's poll about whether Apple will join forces with the carrier, then you know that Verizon's been a busy bee.
Seems like the Verizon PR team has been working overtime. The news media have been buzzing about all sorts of stuff, including:
- a USA Today report about a potential VZW-iPhone coupling for either its 3G system or, more likely, on its upcoming 4G/LTE network. (CDMA, it seems, is hardly a contender, given the crazy logistics it would require to make that work.)
- a BusinessWeek story about the carrier courting a cheaper "iPhone Lite" or Apple-branded multimedia gadget, which would be equipped to play music, photos and hi-def vids, in addition to making Wi-fi calls. Sound like the much-rumored tablet that Apple is supposedly prepping for release? Maybe so, but it's hard to say since the deets are coming from unnamed sources, which means they're still in "rumorland" at this point.
- and The Wall Street Journal's coverage of talks between Big Red and Microsoft about a new touchscreen iPhone competitor based on WinMo early next year. (For more details, check out Aaron's post about that here.)
- (I didn't even mention Verizon's foray into netbooks.)
Big Red, you sure do have your hands in a lot of pots. I just hope all this pans out in favor of your subscribers, instead of just getting their hopes up for no reason. But whatever you end up launching on your network, at least users now have some way of reacting to the new device(s). That is, if your new rating system is legit.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29Apr
The UK Government has been pushing its centralised database on Internet and mobile phone communication data for a while, but yesterday, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith went on record saying they had ruled out the idea of creating a single, massive database of all our Internet data and mobile calls, which had generated controversy as being an invasion of privacy.This isn’t to say the plan has been abandoned however, just modified. Much concern arose from the Government’s less-than-steller track record regarding the safety of private data, so instead of creating their own, the burden is to be placed on ISPs and mobile network providers, who will need to store more information on its users activities and calls.
At present, this information is limited to ‘what, when, where and how’ and not actual ‘content’, so not the calls to your mum or what you purchased online yesterday. The case for the improvement of the Government’s ability to prosecute criminals by using this data is a strong one, and one which is difficult to say no to, however to many it’s just another ‘big brother’ watching over them. How do you feel about this?
Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29Apr
American network provider Verizon has been featured heavily in the news this past week, initially for their possible discussions with Apple to take on an exclusive iPhone and now for their chats with Microsoft who could be planning a step into the smartphone market with their own hardware running Windows Mobile, rather than simply selling the software license.
This is something Microsoft have always denied as even a possibility, but the Wall Street Journal says something very different. They have inside information that Verizon and Microsoft are discussing teaming-up to launch a new mobile phone, exclusive to the network, which will run Windows Mobile and feature hardware created by ‘a third party’, but collaboratively designed with Microsoft. This approach can be likened to Google’s involvement with the T-Mobile G1.
Speculation is focused on a Microsoft project code-named ‘Pink’, which previously was suspected to be a software only venture, but now could be the platform with which they will properly challenge Apple’s iPhone and the aforementioned G1. If the project comes to fruition, we should expect the Pink to house the Zune music player software, Windows online application store and since Verizon have recently made the deal themselves, a host of Microsoft Search services.
If the Pink project is indeed Microsoft’s response to its smartphone competitors, it’s something which needs to come sooner rather than later, or they may miss the boat once again. But if the Pink runs Windows Mobile 7 - as they themselves have said 6.5 is a interim system and not a massive leap forward - then it’s a least a year away, giving others a chance to be, once again, one step ahead of the software giant.
Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29Apr
For those who don’t keep up with their telecom manufacturing legal news (for shame!), Broadcom and Qualcomm have basically been hating the hell out of each other for three years. It all started with a little thing like Broadcom blocking the import of every single Qualcomm-chip equipped phone into America. Since “equipping phones with chips” is Qualcomm’s entire deal, this was kind of a problem.
It’s all based on allegations that the Qualcomm chips violated a Broadcom patent (and note that this isn’t “You stole it”, just the modern “We saw it first” version of patents). There followed three years of claims, counterclaims, suits, press releases which could be bottled and used to dissolve paint. Or nuclear waste.
But it seems they’ve all been watching Sesame Street, as they’ve just agreed to put it all behind them and get on with their chip-making lives. True, the statement says “the dismissal with prejudice of all litigation between the companies”, making even a truce sound like an extermination mission in an unnamed South American country, and the way Qualcomm has to pay almost a billion dollars to settle the deal makes it a little less “we agree” and more “we give in”, but at least it’s all over. Until the next chip.
Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29Apr
Welcome to the first annual Dial-a-Phone Obscene Caller Awards! We hope you enjoy the following phoners, unless you’re an alien species deciding whether or not to obliterate Earth, in which case we hope you skip this. We also hope you’re not Alexander Graham Bell because we’re sorry man, you couldn’t have known this would happen.Marathon Award For Obscene Endurance
Georgia trucker Shane Hardy takes this one with a record-setting three thousand five hundred calls over six weeks. That’s over eighty calls a day, a man who can’t go twelve minutes without telling someone to verb his inappropriate noun. Shane puzzled police by making many of the calls from the work phone in his truck, confounding officers who feared being toyed with by some deceptive criminal genius - since the only alternative was someone actually being that stupid.
Many of the calls were made to real estate agents, indicating an alarmingly specific (more…)
Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
-
29AprYou all remember the voice of Sascha, don't you? Well, if you've seen or heard him, you remember. If not, I think this is an appropriate introduction. Dude has a great flare for tech reviews.
Tags: blog, cell phone news, discussion, mobile
Categories
Contributors
Recent Posts
-
07-30-2010
-
07-30-2010
-
07-30-2010
-
07-30-2010
-
07-30-2010
© 2010 Loo-Lee. All Rights Reserved.
SEO Services Entries RSS Comments RSS Login
SEO Services Entries RSS Comments RSS Login
Recent Comments