
"BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless today announced it will be expanding its portfolio of prepaid offerings to include a new 3G Prepaid data package that lets customers access unlimited data on select 3G Smartphones and Multimedia phones for $30 monthly access. Multimedia phone customers also have the option of selecting a new $10 monthly data package for 25 MB per month ($.20/MB overage). These new prepaid data packages will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications Store today and online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning Sept. 28."
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Verizon still has Windows Mobile devices (Although perhaps not for long), yet those don't get in on this $30 a month prepaid unlimited data offer. I'm not sure what their reason for snubbing WM here is - I can't imagine it costs them any more money to add it to the other smartphones in their line, and perhaps they just didn't mention the WM devices in the press release. Perhaps some brave soul should test it out when it becomes available!
However it looks like most, if not all, of the Android offerings do (Oh yea, those blackberries and palm devices are eligible too...). Not a bad price if you just want a non-contract data device lying around. Anyone Android-fan going to take Verizion up on their deal?
"So lets say you're in midtown Manhattan and you notice a building is on fire or something really important happening, you can send a "warny" out and people using the same network and in the area will get the notification/alert on their device. You can also subscribe to your favorite "zones" or areas of interest, for example if you want to follow any "warnies" in your hometown while you are away."
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WMExperts has unearthed, from what I can tell, is a unique and somewhat peculiar geolocation-leveraging app for Windows Phone 7. There are not a lot of details on the developer's site yet, but the idea behind the app appears to be that you can send out "warnys", or alerts, from your phone that can be picked up by other phones in nearby proximity, or by phones that are "watching" the area you are sending the warny about or from. Alternatively, you can receive warnys from particular zones that you want to "watch". There are waryns pre-canned for particular topics (like a famous person arriving in a particular area) or you can create your own warny topic. Sound confusing? Well, head over to the link and have a look at the demo video from the developer. The Windows Phone 7 on screen interaction looks interesting (see the maps integration), and the potential is quite intriguing. Do we need more information bombarding our inboxes? Maybe, and if you are a future Windows Phone 7 user you may have to decide.
"The name is the HTC 7 Trophy and it received approval from the Global Certification Forum (GCF), which is a partnership between OEMs, operators and the test industry to basically certify phones. It's usually a Europe/Asia thing and obviously not the U.S."
WMExperts are speculating that the 7 Trophy will have Windows Phone 7 onboard, but at this stage nobody really knows. On the other hand, the "7" moniker and the release timeline is about right for a WP7 release. Better yet, the original conception of the previous HTC model codenamed Trophy had a front QWERTY keyboard, which would make the 7 Trophy a real departure from the touchscreen-only devices that have been outed so far. Hit the link for further details.
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I'm thrilled to announce the newest member of the Thoughts Media family: Android Thoughts. As you can guess, this site will be covering Android in all it's forms - phones, slates, etc. The site is being led by none other than our very own Jon Westfall; he'll be handling all editorial duties on the site, similar to how Apple Thoughts works. Android has exploded in popularity over the past 12 months, surpassing even the mighty iPhone in terms of daily activations according to some. It made sense to cover Android as part of what we do here at Thoughts Media, but I wanted to find someone who was passionate and interested in all things Android...and that person is Jon Westfall. Please go read his welcome message on the site to find out how Android Thoughts was born - and subscribe to the RSS feed and Twitter stream. And, above all, if you're interested in Android as a platform, contribute, share, comment, and become a part of that new community.
"According to Business Insider, Microsoft says that Android's hidden manufacturing costs are much higher than their own $15-per-unit Windows Phone 7 license. They have some very good points, but others are not so good. Here are their arguments..."
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Go check out the article and tell me what you think - is Microsoft right? Are the costs of a "free" operating system higher than most people think? I think there's definitely something to be said for an off-the-shelf experience that doesn't require customization to work properly, but thus far, the deficiencies in Android's offering hasn't exactly been slowing down the adoption rate...

Microsoft has officially released Windows Phone 7 to manufacturing. This means that carriers have in their hands a final version that they can use to load onto devices. Unfortunately, we still have no information on exact release dates for Windows Phone 7. Current rumors suggest the release date will be some time in October, but nothing definitive has been discovered.
In addition to information that the OS had been released to manufacturing, Microsoft also revealed that there are multiple small improvements that made it into the released build. One of the more interesting features resolves a problem where Facebook contacts were automatically imported into the phone when a Facebook account is added. Now, Facebook contacts are matched to existing phone contacts and those that aren't found are not added. More Facebook functionality has also been added into final build, such as the ability to comment on contact's walls, and the ability to ‘like' someone's posts. I'm sure that there will be many other small features that are discovered when the phone is finally released.



