Tag: Phones

Verizon Delays Android 2.1 OTA Update

March 18, 2010

Computer/ Tech Related

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Way back in January, Motorola and Verizon announced that there would be an over the air software push to the Motorola Droid, upgrading it from Android 2.0.1 to 2.1 “soon.” Three months later, and two days ago – we finally heard of a 3/18 release date. Not so much.

This newest version of Android’s OS has new widgets, multitouch, 5 home screens instead of 3, a 3D app drawer (which I think was pulled from the Droid but works on the Nexus One) and live wallpapers (which thye we’rent going to include but decided to). Official notice from Verizon:

The 3/18 OTA software update will not happen as planned. A new date will be communicated as soon as possible.”

While you’re “delaying it,” you might as well add in the new Google Maps 4.1 that was just released yesterday -I heard it’s got some killer improvements. Actually, if they were smart, this should be the reason the update wasn’t released.

Verizon Wireless has you by the balls

June 19, 2009

Computer/ Tech Related, Rants

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I love Verizon to death because their service is decent, but their phones are WEAK. I want to be able to use an iPhone, an Android, or the Palm Pre – or anything revolutionary like that. I don’t want the crappy ass Blackberry Storm which sucks and forces me to to spend an extra $25/month for a data plan. I certainly don’t care that the Storm 2 is coming out. So what does Verizon have that’s semi cool? Nothing.

Last December, I was going to get the LG Dare or Voyager but then decided to keep my money. Why? When I looked at the phone, it was all eye candy. The software on the phone was unchanged from my current phone, which is over 2 years old. You’d think LG would learn from Apple and Palm to release something revolutionary where you can download open source apps. You know how many Verizon Wireless phones have Wi-Fi? One. And it’s over $300 because it’s a Windows Mobile Smartphone. It’s because they want to make you pay $40 more per month for their data plan, not connect to Joe’s wireless network for free.

Verizon Wireless’ CEO Lowell McAdam is a liar, a fool and doesn’t know how to keep up with the coolest technology. He complimented Motorola, which is struggling to turn around shrinking phone sales. Why are the sales shrinking? Because they’re making phones. No one wants phones. Everyone wants smartphones – for cheap, and with a lot of features. McAdam also said that Verizon Wireless would carry the Pre within six months. This is a downright lie, since Sprint’s CEO disclosed the exclusive contract with Palm to keep the Pre on Sprint only until the end of 2009. “We like what we see and we will, in fact, be bringing Android devices to the marketplace in the near future,” McAdam said. You better – because we’ve had it. And when you say Android devices, we mean smartphones. Not a stupid flip phone from 2004 with Android software and crippled Wi-Fi.

It all comes down to money and corporate contracts. They were too cheap to pay royalties to Apple for the iPhone. The huge marketing campaign and fuss was over the Storm, and it was a flop. Sprint grabbed the Palm Pre. Apple is releasing the iPhone 3GS, which has its own userbase. You fail Verizon – get your shit together, because I’m not a fan of your phones right now.

posting from a blackberry storm

November 25, 2008

Useless Update

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This is difficult. Full review later

Edit 2: As you can see I had some typing difficulty from the Storm. So… Verizon’s latest iPhone weapon (following the LG Dare and LG Voyager ). Looking at the feature list, it seems like a sweet smartphone. I think that RIM had the right idea behind it, but they didn’t come through. First of all, there is no wifi. The browser does not have flash. The scrolling is really annoying and it doesn’t support multi touch zooming, like the iPod touch/ iPhone. In general, scrolling and zooming was very clunky. The keyboard is impossible to use. I liked where they were going with the clicking touchscreen where you actually have to push the keys, but it really doesn’t work well at all. It took me a good 10 minutes to be able to log into this blog and post the one line of text you see on top. Oh, and did I mention lag lag lag? When you rotate the phone, it takes a good 2-3 seconds to realize that and change the display angle. Starting apps is also laggy and it’s really difficult to navigate your way around the phone. The potential was there, and on paper, it looks sick. Actually, the whole phone looks good – it just doesn’t function well. Not worth it. Sorry.

Shut Up About the Stupid iPhone Already

January 11, 2007

Computer/ Tech Related, Rants

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Within 2 minutes of Apple’s announcement of their iPhone, it immediately became the most popular tech discussion of 2007. Every other story (without exaggeration) on news sites such as digg.com is about this stupid phone. If you did not hear about the iPhone by now, you’re living in a fantasy bubble, but to clarify for some of our less technology inclined friends, Apple has introduced a phone that integrates touch controls, a widescreen video iPod and internet capabilities.

Here is why the iPhone sucks: Take into consideration the following question: What is the purpose of a cell phone? The proper answer is to make and receive calls. Studies have shown that people are not interested in streaming videos and extraneous features. Smartphones/PDAs such as Blackberry could be useful for business executives, but for the average person, a normal phone is sufficient. When released, the iPhone will only be available to Cingular customers, which is very disappointing. Also, Cisco owns currently holds the trademark for the name iPhone, so this should be an interesting legal battle. Apple thinks they can pretty much make any product with the name i_____, but there has to be a limit at some point. The only reason this phone is so popular is because of the Apple brand name. If LG or Sony were to release a similar device, it would probably fail, because few people have use for so many extra integrated features. The market hype and current consumer satisfaction with the company put it in an excellent position for future profit and growth. If Apple suddenly started making toilets, and called them iPots, within one week of hitting the market, they will become the fastest selling, most popular toilets on earth. Imagine one of those bad boys, with an iPod dock and integration…

So I’m listening to music and then a phone call comes in… It gets interrupted? A person defending the iPhone would argue that you can’t listen to an iPod and talks on a cell phone at the same time. But they are wrong. Suppose you get prank calls, or want to ignore the caller? If I want to listen to music, I’d rather have a dedicated MP3 player. This leads to the next feature – internet. This is actually a halfway decent idea. The only possibly downside to this is Cingular can charge a lot for internet access on these phones. Also, Cingulair doesn’t have the best network. Verizon’s EVDO is much faster for internet speeds.

Speaking of Verizon, their “Get It Now” video on demand service is the definition of failure. No one wants to pay $10 extra per month to see some pixelated, day old news video on a 2 inch screen. However, if iTunes is enabled on an iPhone, it is suddenly “well worth it” and people would be able to download music and videos right to their iPod/phone (whatever you want to call it).

I am sick and tired of hearing about this phone. Shut up already!!! Yes, Apple is creative and made an innovative new device, but they also have a blind, ignorant user base that supports them fully without much research. I am not saying Apple makes inferior products, but people should look beyond the Apple name. I am usually interested in the latest technology, but there has to be a dividing line somewhere between utility and “lets see how much crap we can pack in to this phone just to impress people.”

Eventually, Apple will run out of creative ideas and should quiet down for a while. Right now, they’re booming.

From my Phone

April 18, 2005

Useless Update

2 Comments

I am posting from my new LG-vx80 00 phone.0. I an currently in the Catskills in a house with n o phone, internet, or tv. I hope this works bec ause it’s hard to type. Anyway, let me go for now.