Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video, Wireless

Well folks, we told you just over three weeks ago about “advanced talks” between Verizon and YouTube, and it looks like as of today, the two lovebirds have just tied the knot officially. with their joint service will launch next month. However, there are a couple of points to take stock of: first, it’s exclusively on Verizon, which means it’s going to run on V CAST — costing you an extra $15 a month, that is, assuming you have a V CAST-capable handset. (According to one analyst, Roger Entner, only about 10 percent of Verizon’s 20 million users with such phones have signed up for the service so far.) Second, Verizon’s exclusivity is only going to be for “a short time,” and it’s more than likely that T-Mobile, Sprint, Cingular and friends have already been knocking at YouTube’s door. Third, as you probably know, YouTube is a two-way street (you know, that whole “user-generated” thing we’ve been hearing so much about) and as such, Reuters is reporting that you’ll be able to post videos directly from your handset with the use of a “five-digit short code instead of an email address.” Finally, the Mercury News points out that you won’t have access to all of YouTube, just what Verizon decides that you’ll want via its proprietary YouTube channel. So that means you can probably forget about catching episodes of “Ask A Ninja” on your bus ride home. Still, diluted YouTube is better than no YouTube; we can almost hear thousands of freshly-bought VX9900s flipping open to check out the content already.

Read – Reuters
Read – San Jose Mercury News

 

Permalink | Email this | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

While Best Buy’s been selling mobiles (and holding out on Wii hopefuls) for some time now, the big blue retailer is diverting a bit more fundage towards the cause. Aside from continuing to offer phones and plans in typical stores, Best Buy is opening up a smattering of New York-based Mobile stores to handle your cellular needs (and probably hassle you for an extended warranty as well). While details about the store layout and initial offerings are a bit scant at this point, we do know that nine locales will be opening up in the Big Apple alone, with a red (as in, not black) PRODUCT (RED) RAZR being their “exclusive” offering. The stores will partner with Verizon Wireless, Amp’d Mobile, Sprint-Nextel, and Cingular, and should have a plethora of promotional goodies surrounding each and every door to snag your attention.

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Certainly no secret up until now, the VX9900 (aka the enV), successor to the VX9800 (aka the V), predecessor to what will surely be dubbed the VX10K (aka the Flying V), is now officially out — November 27th, as stated. It can be had for as little as $150 with two year agreement and rebate, and features that fat QWERTY keybord, tiny ass bezel-tastic display, EVDO, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 1.2 with A2DP, OBEX, AVRC, microSD slot, WMA support, and all the V CAST support you’d ever want. Online now (big surprise), ready for ordering.

[Thanks, Tyler and Michael]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

We’d be willing to be more than one of you know the likeness of Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, but how many among us would go so far as to try to break into his phone? Apparently a 27 year old woman by the name of Devon Townsend used a machine at a Sandia National Lab in New Mexico to gain access to Bennington’s Verizon account, and obtained call records and cameraphone shots; apparently she also got access to his wife’s email and went so far as to verbally threaten the poor Mrs. Bennington. Like Chappelle before him, we can understand Bennington not wanting someone playing on his phone, but think he should be glad he made it out of this one relatively scot free. Celebs before have faced the wrath and aftermath of leaked sex tapes to leaked A-list phonebooks, so be glad, Chester, that you still have your dignity.

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Ok, this is just getting silly now. We’ve patiently watched the LG VX9900 make its way from the mouth of our own Boy Genius and onto Verizon’s Backup Assistant page. We then peeped it wee and splayed, caught in the wild, in a hurry, and finally with a bit more clarity. Now, we’ve got these apparent press shots, again, from the coffers of Howard Forums. We promise, no more until Verizon ups and releases the damn thing. Be sure to click the read link for all the pics.

[Thanks, Sam K and Sunny]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Cellphones

We can almost hear the voices of skeptical readers whispering in unison, “fanboy Photoshop,” and we’d normally have half a mind to agree. After all, the bizarre gray exterior (just a reflection, perhaps?) seems incongruent with the rest of the phone, the contents of the external display are obviously faked, and the coloration of the Verizon logo doesn’t make a lot of sense — not to mention that the concept of a CDMA-based MOTORAZR MAXX is a bit… shall we say, new to us. Alas, it turns out the picture’s authenticity is rock solid (not to say it’s not a Photoshop job, but if it is, it’s an official one) seeing how we just downloaded it off Motorola’s official site for press multimedia. We know nothing about it besides what we’re seeing here, but truth be told, the picture alone is a lot to process: Verizon gets a strangely colored variant of a high-end RAZR we didn’t even know existed. It looks like a 2-megapixel cam is in the cards, and if the specs mirror its GSM cousin, we can expect a QVGA display, microSD expansion, and 50 odd megabytes of internal storage — not a bad piece to slot in right above the K1m, if we do say so ourselves. As soon as we catch wind of availability (or catch wind that Motorola is playing an extraordinarily unsportsmanlike practical joke on us), we’ll pass on the good word.

[Thanks, Pioneer]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Cellphones

We figure peeps who’ve placed their orders through Verizon’s site for Motorola’s new gotta-have-it clamshell need a little reading material to pass the time while they wait for the good folks in the shipping industry to make their phones materialize — so without further ado, we present PC Magazine’s take on the Motorola K1m MOTOKRZR (pictured right). While the K1m is undoubtedly a fabulous-looking flip, PC Mag seems to share the same brooding, mildly pessimistic view we do: it’s essentially a V3m in a narrower, shinier package. On the plus side, the new dimensions apparently make the phone both easier and more comfortable to hold against the ear, battery life is top-notch with just over five hours of tested talk time, and the microSD slot means many owners will be able to carry over their investments in memory expansion from prior phones. Sadly, signal strength doesn’t quite match that of its older sibling, and the UI is typical Verizon fare — no Flash here, a la the VX8500 Chocolate — though it does share the Chocolate’s tricky-to-use touch sensitive controls. In the end, it seems the K1m ends up setting the standard once again for mobile industrial design, while simultaneously managing to fall further behind in the spec sheet race.

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Ok, you know the drill by now. HowardForums has a purported shot (on left) of the thinner, sexier successor to the VX9800 communicator, the LG VX9900 we first trolled from the FCC (pic on the right) back in May. We’re still hoping for this QWERTY clam to roll on Verizon sometime this month as reported by our own Boy Genius or sometime between September 29th and October 13th according to the rumor jockeys ridin’ the HoFo. Hell, let’s just say any day now and leave it at that mkay?

[Thanks, Scott and Sunny]

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Networking

In case you haven’t been following the exciting world of telecom regulation lately (and really, why would you?), the FCC recently mandated that DSL providers no longer have to pay into the Universal Service Fund that’s meant to subsidize rural and low-income phone service (and that may induce all kinds of pork-barrel spending, but that’s a whole other story right there). Anyway, the elimination of this surcharge was supposed to be passed along to consumers in the form of lower monthly bills — and many companies, including AT&T and Qwest, did just that — but the sneaky suits over at Verizon and BellSouth decided to keep charging customers almost the exact same fee, though for different reasons. Verizon claimed that it had “developed new operating costs” in the previous year, justifying this so-called “supplier surcharge,” while BellSouth began calling theirs a “regulatory cost recovery fee” — even though the USF contribution regulation no longer existed. Both companies offered up some confusing doublespeak as to why these new, identical fees came into play at the exact same time that the USF fee was withdrawn; ultimately, however, pressure from consumers, the media, and the FCC forced them to retract the charges from customers’ bills and issue credits where applicable. So in conclusion, we’re really starting to see an encouraging trend here: first Dell implements a massive battery recall following tons of negative publicity, then Foxconn stops picking on those “slanderous” journalists in the wake of a massive public outcry, and now the telcos have been forced to mend their greedy ways after everyone got wise to their shenanigans. Therefore, that old adage actually seems to be true: a lot of the time, it’s the squeaky wheel that really does get the grease.

Read- Verizon’s fee
Read- BellSouth’s fee
Read- BellSouth caves
Read- Verizon caves

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Networking

If you’re tired of waiting for DirecTV’s continually-delayed HD DVR, or just one of the lucky few who actually have access to FiOS service (and want to extract every ounce of greatness from it), Verizon is looking to hook you up. Available only to those in its (slowly) expanding FiOS network, Verizon is out to give subscribers a kinda sorta new way to watch television, and, of course, to cash in on the time-shifting craze while the window of opportunity is still open. The presumed selling point of its Home Media DVR is its ability to function as a “multiroom streaming media solution” that enables “up to three simultaneous viewings” of recorded material (whether or not this tidbit is worth $19.95 per month is debatable). Of course, the media can only be streamed to other “Verizon-approved” receivers — whatever they may be — and it’s not yet clear if your Verizon cellphone will be one of those treasured devices. While we can imagine the list of restrictions on this streaming gig are quite lengthy, the company has stated that it will support “DVR-to-PC connectivity,” thus enabling DVR viewing on a networked PC, though there’s no mention of supporting wirelessly connected computers a la Slingbox. Apparently the DVR system will utilize a run-of-the-mill Motorola QIP6416 (dual HD-tuners and a 160GB hard drive) as the “hub” and a Motorola QIP2500 (basic STB that can receive content from the hub), both of which will communicate via MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) technology. While this rigamarole creates more questions than it answers, we’re glad to see progress towards a centralized content viewing / streaming solution, but getting cable companies and the almighty content providers to warm up to the idea of slinging material around on a home network (and beyond?) probably won’t be easy.

[Via Ars Technica]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, GSM, EV-DO, UMTS

Field report tidbits from Engadget's resident mobile insider, the Boy Genius.

What do we have here? Four different SLVR models? Yep! That's right, from CDMA to GSM to WCDMA, the good folks at Motorola have you covered. Starting on the right the first is called the L7i which is simply an update to the L7, the way the V3i was to the V3. It adds a 1.3 megapixel camera, EDGE, more internal memory, the updated UI [though not Juix] and some other miscellany. Next we have a regular L7, you know the phone your grandparents use? The real star of the picture has to be the third L7 which is the 3G model. It has a front facing video conferencing camera (obviously), 2.0 mega pixel camera, world 3G bands, quad-band EDGE, and microSD as well. Finally we have the much rumored L7c that was just finally announced. It is indeed a SILVR SLVR, microSD card support, 1.3 megapixel camera, VCAST, and is coming to... Alltel! Just kidding. Verizon Wireless, holla at me baby!

[Once again, props to Boy Genius! Click on for more images.]

Verizon L7c next to a GSM KR1

You love to you hate it, the infamous Verizon UI

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

Alright, Sprint users: who's pumped to land a SLVR of your own? Show of hands, please. How about you Verizon folks? The handful of you with your arms raised high right now, bursting at the seams with anticipation for Moto's rumored CDMA port of the L7, don't have much longer to wait. Buried in with the goodness that Motorola dropped on us Monday was the official news that the L7c is indeed a real device -- though beyond the fact that it rocks EV-DO, we aren't given much to go by. Exact dates, carriers, thickness -- you know, the important details -- all remain mysteries, though Sprint and/or Verizon will clearly be getting the device, and some duration of exclusivity seems to be a logical assumption. The SLVR's GSM variants haven't managed to rock many boats, but decently-equipped candybars are a slightly rarer breed on US CDMA networks, so we can imagine some level of excitement here. Motorola Q-style pandemonium, probably not, but excitement nonetheless.

[Via Mobile Guerilla]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

It's laid so bare at this point it's almost kind of an open secret, but contrary to what we'd heard earlier (which was a week off), we've got launch dates and prices for Verizon's LG VX8500 Chocolate phone. Starting July 31st you'll be able to snag the phone online, and come August 7th you can get it in stores. The price? Not too terrible: $359 without contract, $249 with 1 year, and $199 for two years committed to the carrier. Might be a little more than we'd originally expected, but outside the Q you're not likely to see a sexier EV-DO device on Verizon for a little while yet.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

It’s laid so bare at this point it’s almost kind of an open secret, but contrary to what we’d heard earlier (which was a week off), we’ve got launch dates and prices for Verizon’s LG VX8500 Chocolate phone. Starting July 31st you’ll be able to snag the phone online, and come August 7th you can get it in stores. The price? Not too terrible: $359 without contract, $249 with 1 year, and $199 for two years committed to the carrier. Might be a little more than we’d originally expected, but outside the Q you’re not likely to see a sexier EV-DO device on Verizon for a little while yet.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

Just in case the last set of pics of Motorola's sleek new Canary KRZR flip phone weren't enough for you, Engadget Mobile's got a few more hands-on shots of Verizon's version of this highly-anticipated handset. So if you're one of the millions of people who will end up buying this followup to the RAZR -- or if you just want to see what all the fuss is about -- head on over to our sister site and check out the full gallery...

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, CDMA

Somebody out there really loves us. An anonymous tipster just sent in a handful of pics of Motorola's impending followup to the RAZR -- formerly dubbed the Canary, and now known by the nearly-unpronounceable series of letters KRZR -- running on Verizon's CDMA network. Nothing here that we haven't seen before, but if you wanted a sneak preview of what this phone will look like in your hand as you watch all that wonderful V Cast swag, now you have a pretty good idea. Click on for a few more shots of the handset that Moto is hoping another 50 million people will decide they just gotta have...

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Verizon Wireless

Field report tidbits from Engadget's mobile insider, the Boy Genius.

Have you been frantically refreshing Engadget Mobile waiting for the next tidbit from The Boy Genius? Are you sweating profusely at the prospect of LG's US Chocolate launch? Boy Genius' latest insider tip is regarding none other than the highly anticipated LG8500 for Verizon Wireless. What'd he dig up? This bad boy will be available on August 14th, nationally. So there.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, LG, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

In what's likely the first salvo of a forthcoming big-ass marketing blitz, Verizon has gone live with its site promoting the VX8500, their carrier-exclusive rendition of LG's KG800 "Chocolate" phone. The first Chocolate and its siblings are fairly ubiquitous now in Europe and Asia, but we've yet to see any of them stateside, so Verizon would probably like nothing more than to see the VX8500 spark RAZR-like pandemonium when it drops in the next few months. The site's being coy about specs for now -- in fact, the only thing you can do is look at the phone and sign up for a release notification -- but as we previously reported, the phone looks to be packing a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSD slot, and a handful of physical changes (like the circular d-pad) that should make it more music-friendly than the original.

[Via phoneArena]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Even though I blasted Verizon earlier today, I am happy to announce that they will be officially carrying the line of LG Chocolate phones that have been making waves overseas.

The Verizon LG Chocolate page doesn't have much information besides a nifty interactive rotatey phone model and a "Tell me when it is available" link, but a previous rumor about the Verizon availability suggested an October 7 release. Given that there is already a product/teaser page up for this phone, lets hope it is sooner. Thanks, Chris. – Travis Hudson

Edit: We got a hot tip straight from an insider's mouth. The anonymous tipster dropped a solid date, August 7. Be prepared, be very prepared. Thanks, T.

Teaser Page [Verizon Wireless]

Filed under: Features, LG, Pantech, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile

Field report tidbits from Engadget’s mobile insider, the Boy Genius.

The Boy Genius dropped another one on us folks, check out this excerpt from a recent Verizon product timeline. Pantech will be launching a Windows Mobile 5 clamshell device — running Pocket PC, suprisingly — come September 4th, the PN-820 we saw in the FCC. That should also be the same day they launch the VX9900, also spotted in the FCC, “big brother to the VX9800 [aka the V] hybrid device with a thinner, sleeker look and feel.” Amen to that, because our major complaints with the V had to do with its thickness and unappealing looks. Oh, and to top it off the LG VX8500 Chocolate phone will apparently have Verizon exclusivity for the life of the handset in the US — though we’re not necessarily sure if that means Chocolate phone exclusivity, or merely CDMA Chocolate. Stay tuned.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

Wireless carriers in this country are no strangers to all manner of legal action, so it comes as little surprise to us to hear that we have a couple fresh lawsuits brewing of the class-action variety. In Cingular’s case, it seems a group of former AT&T Wireless customers are worked up over the degredation of AT&T’s legacy network following the merger, forcing many of them to either deal with the inferior reception, buy so-called “orange” phones and get on Cingular’s network proper — often incurring a transfer fee in addition to the cost of the phone, or leave Cingular entirely and pay the early-termination fee of $175. Verizon meanwhile is taking heat for covertly slapping some of its customers with their roadside assistance option starting in January 2004 at $2 / month, then later refusing refunds when folks got wise to the charge. We dream of one day achieving world peace between human- and carrier-kind — but in the meantime, good luck sticking it to the Man, folks.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Cingular, Verizon Wireless, Misc

Wireless carriers in this country are no strangers to all manner of legal action, so it comes as little surprise to us to hear that we have a couple fresh lawsuits brewing of the class-action variety. In Cingular's case, it seems a group of former AT&T Wireless customers are worked up over the degredation of AT&T's legacy network following the merger, forcing many of them to either deal with the inferior reception, buy so-called "orange" phones and get on Cingular's network proper -- often incurring a transfer fee in addition to the cost of the phone, or leave Cingular entirely and pay the early-termination fee of $175. Verizon meanwhile is taking heat for covertly slapping some of its customers with their roadside assistance option starting in January 2004 at $2 / month, then later refusing refunds when folks got wise to the charge. We dream of one day achieving world peace between human- and carrier-kind -- but in the meantime, good luck sticking it to the Man, folks.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

Here's a feel-good story for all you Verizon users looking for some high-end love: the SGH-A990, Samsung's 3.2-megapixel object of desire chock full o' swiveling QVGA and EV-DO goodness, has officially dropped on your network. Bluetooth -- sans A2DP as best we can tell -- and a microSD slot (for those gargantuan pictures you'll be snapping) are also in the package, but getting yourself atop the Verizon food chain ain't cheap: the A990 will run you $349.99 on two-year contract with a $50 rebate.

[Via Mobiledia]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless has released an updated version of the LG V handset, which is actually the same as the old LG V handset, only now it supports Verizon’s V CAST music service and VZ Navigator turn-by-turn direction service. Even without those fancy new perks, the EV-DO-equipped LG V was a decently feature-packed phone, a 1.3 megapixel camera, full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, and a MicroSD slot. Verizon also still lists the new V as having an “embedded MP3 player” in addition to V CAST Music, which would be a change in strategy on Verizon’s part if true, as they’ve previously removed MP3 support on phones with V CAST (unless you buy Verizon’s logic that the phones do play MP3s so long as they’re convert to WMAs first). You can snag one for $149 with a two-year contract, or $199 for a one-year deal.

[Via MobileTracker]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

For those Q fans in the audience, we've got some good news (especially if you haven't made the jump yet because that $200 price point is still a little high, or because you just can't bear the thought of switching to Verizon). Apparently Ron Garriques, Moto's Executive Vice President, Mobile Devices Business, told Bear Sterns that the Q's sales performance can be compared to the steep, successful initial launch of the RAZR, and that they not only hope to drop the price to $50 after carrier subsidy by the end of 2006, but they'll be launching a UMTS version when Verizon's exclusivity contract on the device ends (as we've been expecting). Yeah, that'd be the same UMTS version that it was supposed to be around from the get go. Still, we're assuming that exclusivity will last a good half year (quite literally a gadget lifetime to wait for us), after which time the UMTS Q will head to some mysterious, unknown network. Guess Ron wasn't too firm a believer in Moto's supposedly newly adopted announce-when-you-ship methodology, eh?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments