Tag Archives | Verizon Wireless

ZOMG! Has Verizon Only Doubled iPhone Sales?

Posted by Ed Oswald on February 16, 2011 at 1:32 pm

There’s almost a degree of absurdity to the amount of armchair quarterbacking going on when it comes to Verizon iPhone sales. It appears as if nothing short of  armies of consumers descending on Apple and Verizon stores would stop the opining masses from predicting doom and gloom.

BGR has what it claims are internal numbers showing that the launch of the iPhone on Verizon has “failed” to meet expectations. Here’s the numbers from five selected Apple stores (including two “prominent” locations): Continue Reading →

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The Glorious Minimalism of the Backside of the Verizon iPhone

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 13, 2011 at 11:08 am

At the moment, I’m walking around with two iPhone 4s in my pocket: my personal AT&T phone, and a Verizon iPhone lent to me by Apple for review. (More thoughts on it coming up.)

As everyone reading this knows by now, the two flavors of iPhone are close to identical. So much so that I keep getting confused about which one is which–at least until I turn them on, whereupon I can check out the carrier identifier in the upper left-hand corner.

Without turning the phones on, I could examine the slightly different placement of the antennas and mute switches. But there’s a more obvious difference that I’ve found quite handy: The Verizon iPhone has way less fine type on its back, and is missing an entire row of regulatory logos.

By happy coincidence, I just read an Ars Technica piece by Casey Johnston that explains the stuff on the back of iPhones, and helped me figure out why there’s so much less of it on the new Verizon model.

Continue Reading →

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Verizon iPhone 4 Launch: Why the Lack of iLines?

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 12, 2011 at 10:44 am

I went to my local Apple Store yesterday night, in the wake of yesterday’s release of the Verizon iPhone 4. It was an utter mob scene.

Of course, it’s almost always an utter mob scene in there–and tonight, it was no more crazy than usual. I commented on the lack of Verizon-induced insanity to a salesguy. “We’re surprised ourselves,” he said.

When Apple releases a new iPhone, there are supposed to be hordes of folks willing to show up at the crack of dawn and wait for hours to get their hands on one. Everybody knows that. But this time, it didn’t happen–across the country, people did show up to buy Verizon iPhones, but not in droves.

Why the startling degree of normalcy? A few theories…

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TeleNav Coming to Verizon iPhone

Posted by Dave Z on February 8, 2011 at 2:47 pm

TeleNav, my favorite iPhone navigation app, is headed to Verizon. And, unlike its AT&T brethren, it’s coming in at a reasonable price point. Assuming I make the jump in the next week or so, this will be one of my first purchases. The AT&T Navigator branded TeleNav app currently runs $10/month or $70/year, whereas an annual subscription to the new app on Verizon will run only $22. Guess that’s what happens when you take out the carrier middle man. As you might expect, this dual platform approach has raised some questions regarding carrier control and the possibility of platform “fragmentation” – which TechCrunch counters as BS. But, any way you slice it, Verizon iPhone owners will have a compelling navigation experience available to them shortly. Yet for those looking for an inexpensive or free turn-by-turn GPS app, I continue to recommend MapQuest.

(This post republished from Zatz Not Funny.)

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Motorola's Xoom Looks Good, But I'm Not So Sure About the Price. Or the Advertising

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 7, 2011 at 9:23 am

Engadget has uncovered what seems to be a Best Buy ad that lists Motorola’s upcoming Xoom tablet at $799.99. The price doesn’t come as a stunner–it appears to confirm an earlier rumor–but it’s disappointing, at least if you’re rooting for at least one an Android tablet to emerge as a best-selling archrival to the iPad.

Don’t get me wrong–$800 isn’t an absurd price for a device with the Xoom’s specs. It’s got a dual-core CPU, a 10.1″ display at 1280-by-800 resolution, 1GB of RAM, two cameras, and an SD slot, and will get 4G wireless soon after release. All those features make it an upgrade from the current iPad, at least on a purely technical level. If you were contemplating buying the priciest version of the iPad–the $829 model that has 3G wireless and 64GB of RAM, but a slower CPU, a smaller and lower-resolution display, 256MB of RAM, no cameras, and no SD slot–an $800 Xoom is a plausible alternative.

Continue Reading →

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The Verizon iPhone 4 Reviews Are In. I Bet You Can Guess the Overall Gist

Posted by Harry McCracken on February 3, 2011 at 8:53 am

The Verizon iPhone 4 doesn’t hit stores until a week from today. But if you’re interested in whetting your appetite, read one or more of the reviews which started hitting the Web yesterday evening. They vary in length, comprehensiveness, and attitude, but in many ways they’re remarkably similar. Everyone points out that the AT&T and Verizon flavors of the phone are largely identical. Everyone mentions AT&T advantages, such as international capability, the option to talk and use data at the same time, and–when 3G coverage is strong–the faster data. Everyone talks about the Verizon network’s robustness and discusses the new hotspot feature. And everyone reports a good experience with the Verizon version and gives it a thumbs up–often decisively so over the A&T one.

As usual, the last paragraphs of the reviews often serve as the most concise summary of the overall take. So here they are–along with links to the reviews in their entirety.

Continue Reading →

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Verizon's iPhone 4 Tethering Reality Check

Posted by Ed Oswald on January 26, 2011 at 2:12 pm

Much ado was made over the hotspot feature of Verizon’s version of the iPhone 4. However, some who may have thought the carrier was going to make this a standard feature may want to think again. A Verizon spokesperson has confirmed to Macworld that the tethering functionality would be an optional, extra-cost feature.

Verizon will charge an additional $20 per month, which will give the user 2GB of data to use (additional usage is charged at $20 per 1GB). This will be a separate data plan altogether, and follows pricing for tethering on other smart phones on the network that have the capability. While the charge may dampen the enthusiasm a bit, it’s better than AT&T’s tethering offering, which also costs $20 a month, but takes data of your iPhone data plan. That means you only have 2GB to use overall before you’re socked with overage charges.

I wonder if AT&T will respond by changing its own tethering plan, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

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