Remember the HTC Ozone? Of course you do and so does one of our Verizon ninjas because we’ve received word that the Ozone (also known as the XV6175, Snap, Cedar and Willow if you’re so inclined) will apparently be available online starting June 29th with brick and mortal availability to follow on July 13th. Pricing is still something we’ve yet to zero in on but if you’re the sort of person who stands by Big Red and are absolutely dying to get your hands on an all-too-rare WinMo-powered candybar with a full-QWERTY, then something tells us price is no object. Right?
Right on time, the Pearl Flip has made its official debut on Verizon Wireless’ website and is now ripe for the picking. Surprisingly, sort of, the Pearl Flip has already been discounted — selling for $79 after a $70 mail-in rebate and two year contract instead of the announced $129.99. Apparently, Verizon included the Pearl Flip in that $50 price drop when it ended the BlackBerry BOGO promotion. For those who prefer a more personal shopping experience, the Pearl Flip is also available in stores today. Now with the 8230ccccccc out of the way, Big Red can focus on bigger and better ‘Berrys (Tour, anyone?).
While light mobile broadband users are busy eying Virgin Mobile’s new prepaid offering, those of you who travel constantly might be interested in Verizon Wireless’ latest USB stick. Dubbed the USB1000, Big Red’s new mobile broadband dongle packs all the connectivity you can handle — CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A, GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSPA are all accounted for. As for pricing, the stick itself will run $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Global data plans on the other hand, are a bit less attractive: $129.99 per month for 100MB of data and $219.99 per month for 200MB. Both plans will run you $0.005 per KB over the allotment and they include 5GB of data in the US and Canada ($0.05 per MB overage). You can also opt for the standard 5GB/$60 plan and pay $0.002 per KB in Canada, $0.005 per KB in Mexico, and $0.02 per KB for international roaming in over 175 other countries. If you’re a true international man of mystery, you should be able to warrant the expense of VZW’s global plans. Occasional travelers on the other hand, might be wise to examine other options. The USB1000 will be available online starting tomorrow.
Right on cue according to our scoop, Verizon launched two new devices today in the Motorola Rival A455 and the Casio EXILIM C721. The Rival is a pretty standard messaging device that has a full QWERTY keypad, a 2 megapixel and a 2-year contract price of $99 after a $50 MIR. Have at it, tweens. The EXILIM on the other hand, which goes for $279.99 after rebates on a 2-year deal, features a 2.3-inch pivoting QVGA display, 5.1 megapixel camera with auto-focus, flash and 3x optical zoom, GPS and all of the standard Verizon apps that you would expect. Oh, and it also meets Military Specifications 810F standards making is dust and water resistant. So what say you, people — do either of these devices strike your fancy or are you waiting for something bigger and better to come along?
Pending regulatory approval, Verizon Wireless has agreed to sell the remaining 26 divested Alltel markets to Massachusetts-based Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. The companies have entered into a definitive agreement for Alltel properties located in Idaho, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, and approximately 800,000 Alltel customers will be affected should the sale be approved. The big side story here — following the recent agreement with AT&T, each of the 105 divested markets now has a potential buyer. Hit the jump for the full text of a memo sent to all Alltel employees in divested markets from the Management Trust currently operating said markets.
PhoneNews is reporting that Verizon Wireless has approved a firmware update for the xv6850 Touch Pro. As promised by Verizon Wireless late last year, this firmware update will unlock the GPS on the handset, allowing owners to use Google Maps or Windows Live Search instead of the proprietary and costly VZ Navigator. The firmware update also adds Visual Voicemail support to the phone, a feature that requires a $3 monthly fee and EVRC-B codec support which improves call handling. The update is not available through Verizon Wireless or HTC yet but it is being offered early by Phone News. For those Touch Pro owners who have not already hacked their phone to unlock the GPS, hit the read link to obtain the firmware update — at your own risk of course. Samsung Saga and Samsung Omnia owners – hang in there and hopefully a similar update for your crippled handset is right around the corner, too.
The back and forth continues. Following Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam’s comment that the Pre would be hitting VZW shelves “over the next six months or so”, Sprint issued a brief official statement confirming that its Pre exclusivity runs through the end of 2009, at least. While specifics of the exclusivity deal remain a mystery for the time being, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has just elaborated on the situation a bit. According to Cnet, Hesse stated the following at a press event with regard to McAdam’s Pre comment:
*sniff* We thought this day would never come but Verizon has officially announced the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230. Available starting June 19th, Verizon asks that you fork over $129.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate on a 2-year contract. As for the specs, you know the deal: OS 4.6.0, 324MHz processor, external display, vertical QVGA internal display, SureType keypad, 2 megapixel camera with flash, GPS, so on, so forth. Anyone excited? The Pearl Flip is just as cool as the Tour, right?
There’s no question — the HTC Snap was in dire need of yet another moniker. Snap, Cedar and Willow were hardly enough so our pals at Verizon have gone and added another name to the pile… Say hello to the HTC Ozone. With Sprint’s version of the Snap jumping off this Sunday, we had a sneaking suspicion that Verizon’s Snap wouldn’t be far behind. Lo and behold, one of our Verizon ninjas just swooped down and dropped this screenshot on us. So far no pricing or release timing are available but training is set to kick off next week so the release shouldn’t be too far off. Notables from the provided info are Wi-Fi, Microsoft My Phone compatibility, Visual Voicemail, VZ Nav, Internet Explorer 6 mobile and of course the fact that it’s a world phone. Hit the jump for a bigger shot.
Following some comments yesterday from Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam, the Internet exploded. The highlight of course was the un-revalation that Verizon would be adding the Palm Pre to it’s portfolio once Sprint’s exclusivity expires. The part that grabbed everyone’s attention was the time frame however: “six months or so.” Could Sprint’s Pre exclusivity really be expiring later this year? According to a Sprint spokesman, no:
