The future of Verizon lies in bundled apps and global domination, according to C.E.O. Ivan Seidenberg. Verizon’s head honcho appeared last week on Charlie Rose to chat about a range of things, including FiOs, the decision to build a CDMA network, and the future of your cellphone service. If nothing else, it’s nice to put a calm, seemingly rational face to the grotesque anti-consumer corporate monster that we all loathe. Hit the jump for the full interview.
cellphones
Man Uses New Tracking Feature To Hunt For Stolen iPhone
By 6.24.09
On Saturday, Kevin lost his iPhone in a bar in Chicago, and by lost we mean someone grabbed it within seconds of him leaving the bar, but no one had seen a thing when he ran back in to ask about it. Since he had the Find My iPhone service activated on it, and his friend had a Sprint 3G dongle on his laptop, they decided to see whether they could track it down. AT&T and Sprint: working together to fight crime!
By 6.23.09
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If you’ve been a prompt-paying T-Mobile customer for 22 months or more, you can still sign up for their “Loyalty Unlimited” offering—$50/mo for unlimited calling—through the end of this month. [IntoMobile]
AT&T Forcing iPhone Pre-Paid Customers Into Two-Year Contracts
By 6.16.09
“This is a recommendation,” the technical support person told me. “If you decide not to go, it’s okay but we’re informing customers that service will not be up to par.”
Are Cellphone Exclusivity Deals Bad For Consumers?
By 6.16.09
Yesterday, four U.S. Senators sent a letter to FCC acting chairman Michael Copps requesting an investigation into whether exclusivity deals between handset makers and national carriers are ultimately good for consumers, and they plan to hold a hearing on the issue on Wednesday, June 16th. They join a growing number of people and organizations, including the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), who say exclusivity deals benefit no one but the carriers and manufacturers.
AT&T Isn't Going To Reduce iPhone Data Plans
By 6.12.09
For a while now, there have been rumors and speculation that AT&T was considering reducing its data plan by $10 per month in an attempt to be more competitive with other carriers. Today AT&T officially put the kibosh on that scuttlebutt, which is how I write once the cocktail hour kicks in on Friday. Says an AT&T spokesman, “We’ve been very happy with our pricing.”
Sprint Employee Changes Customer's Name To "Pain In The A$$"?
By 6.10.09
Update: Some of our readers who are Sprint customers say they don’t think the screenshots are legit. We asked Sprint for an opinion, and they responded, “We had noticed the post on sprintusers.com earlier today and are tracking down the answer. I’ll get back to you asap.” We’ll post further updates when they arrive.
Think The iPhone 3G S Costs Too Much? Don't Buy It
By 6.9.09
Apple fans around the country are foaming at the mouths over the jacked-up pricing AT&T has announced for the upgraded iPhone. AT&T apparently can’t afford to subsidize the phones for existing customers, because if you currently have an iPhone and more than 6 months left on your contract, you’ll have to pay $417-$517 for the newer model (that includes an $18 “upgrade” fee).
Hey, Don't Freak Out Or Anything But Your Cellphone Might Be Spying On You
By 6.8.09
Newsweek has an article that you should not read if you’re especially paranoid. Why? Because it says that according to a security consultant — the percentage of US cellphones that have been tapped with spyware could be as high as 3%.
Would You Buy An iPhone That Fell In Urine?
By 6.5.09
Our ex-stepbrothers at Gizmodo found a craigslist ad for a barely used iPhone, selling for significantly below list price. There’s just one problem.
AT&T Wireless Customer? Turn Off Phone Purchasing Power To Prevent Unauthorized Charges
By 6.3.09
If you’re managing cellphones for a family or your parents, or let’s say hypothetically you have a boyfriend who says he reads Consumerist but really he doesn’t or else he would have known better, you’ll probably run into stupid subscription and content fees from time to time. You know how people are when it comes to fake “free” offers.
Woman Says T-Mobile Sent Her Kiddie Porn Instead Of Ringtone
By 5.21.09
A T-Mobile customer in Oregon purchased a Modest Mouse ringtone from T-Mobile, but she says what was sent to her phone instead was a pornographic picture of what appeared to be a child. Everyone can calm down, though—T-Mobile assured her that they wouldn’t charge her for it.
Sprint Customer Receives Fake-Looking Phone Bill
By 5.21.09
Update: Lloyd, a Sprint “Customer Experience” Manager, wrote in to let us know that the bill below is indeed legitimate:
Details On U.S. Cellular's Battery Swap Program
By 5.19.09
We asked U.S. Cellular to provide us more details of how their battery swap program works. Basically, it’s not meant to provide a one-off swap of an old battery for a new one; instead, the program is designed so that you can use it repeatedly to refresh your phone’s power if you’re caught away from an outlet and running low on juice.
In A Tight Spot, A Prepaid Phone Can Replace A Broken One
By 5.18.09
Reader Brandi’s expensive T-Mobile Dash broke after only 7 months, leaving her phoneless and sad. The T-Mobile store was unhelpful — as she’d already used her phone discount to buy the now-broken Dash. What to do?
By 5.18.09
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If you own a G1 phone from T-Mobile, Google has added a special barcode scanning feature to its Product Search page just for you. Yeah, you’ve already got other barcode scanning apps, but this one integrates with Google’s search functionality so you can scan and see product search results in Google immediately. [Phandroid]
US Cellular Offering Free Battery Replacements To Customers
By 5.15.09
If you bought your cellphone from US Cellular in the past 18 months, as of this week you can get your phone’s battery replaced for free. We’ve contacted US Cellular to ask them to answer a couple of questions, namely whether the replacement battery is brand new and whether a customer can swap more than once. If they get back to us, we’ll post an update. In the meantime, if you’re a customer of theirs and your phone’s battery is dying, just stop by any US Cellular store to make the exchange.
In Which A TV Reporter Pretends To Be A Total Cellphone Jackass
By 5.15.09
While it is certainly not breaking news that people act like total jackasses when they’re on their cellphones, we nevertheless felt compelled to bring to you the following clip of WGN’s Pat Tomasulo acting like said jackasses on the streets of Chicago.
