Today, we're all winners: FCC Approves Unlicensed Use Of “White Spaces” Spectrum

 

Think wifi on steroids. Everywhere. This could be a big deal. Read about it here.

Verizon backs down - no rate hike coming

 See my original post here. Verizon has decided not to impose the 300% rate hike on text messages sent from short codes. Woo-hoo! According to one article it was because of the strongly worded e-mail I sent to Verizon Wireless's CEO (and other public outcries). Kudos Verizon. Here's hoping it's a permanent decision.

Attention world: the touch screen isn't what makes the iPhone cool

LG Voyager, Samsung Glide, Samsung Instinct, LG Dare and all you other handsets and handset manufacturers out there trying to play catch-up to the iPhone, here's a tip for you:

Simply making a touch screen handset with movable icons isn't going to cut it. It makes you look like you're trying to rip-off the iPhone, which, let's be honest, you are. And at first glance that's an understandable thing to do: there's a radically different phone that is getting everyone excited so, naturally, you want to do the same thing.

By trying to mimick the iPhone, you aren't creating something different. You're creating something like the iPhone, which means you're always going to be in a second place, "me-too" position. Instead, focus on creating something innovative of your own.

You can react to trends or you can start them. The same thing goes for advertising and any number of other industries. So how do you start a trend?

"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse.'"- Henry Ford as quoted by Steve Jobs.

Know what people want before they do. Much easier said than done. However, with the resources of these huge, multi-billion dollar companies you'd think they'd step back and do something original and innovative. It worked wonderfully for Motorola with the RAZR (until they got lazy). So why don't more companies try to do it? Are they too focused on immediate, quarterly results to invest in something lasting? Or do they try and they just can't quite swing it? What are your thoughts?

Image courtesy of CrunchGear.

How do you view your cell phone carrier?

I posted a new poll in the upper right corner of the site. Please take a moment to vote. I'm interested in how you view the services provided by your wireless provider. Do you see them as a source for original content (perhaps Verizon offers video clips from the sporting events that you can have access to for an extra fee each month, in addition to your voice service)?

Or do you see them as more of just a pipe to give you voice and data services?

Or do you see them some other way entirely? I'm honestly curious so let me know on the poll and in the comments.

Giving credit where it's due

According to TUAW:

"As Mark Siegel from AT&T explained to me yesterday, "AT&T wants to be as fair as possible to customers who very recently purchased an iPhone." Thus, if you purchased an iPhone from an AT&T store AFTER May 27, 2008, you have the option of returning the phone to an AT&T store between July 11, 2008 and August 1, 2008 for the new iPhone 3G. Those customers will also be refunded the difference between the price paid for the 2G iPhone and the iPhone 3G."

I must say I'm impressed. Especially because they're refunding the difference in the two phones. Well played AT&T, well played.

Will the iPhone soon be on T-Mobile and Verizon?

Something fishy is afoot. One thing I neglected to mention in my overview of the 3G iPhone is that the notorious revenue-sharing deal between AT&T and Apple is no more. (Up to this point, it was speculated that AT&T was giving Apple a monthly payment for each iPhone subscriber.)

So...why is AT&T still the exclusive provider of the iPhone? What's Apple's incentive to stay with them? Seems like a raw deal for Apple because they're still severely limited as to their potential market.

Don Reisinger over at CNET speculates the relationship between the two companies may be over in the relatively near future. He has some good points, so check out the article.

My speculation is that the (rumored) five-year contract isn't quite that long. In fact, I wonder if maybe the contract wasn't based on length of time, but quantity of phones sold. A wacky idea, I know. But it may explain a couple of things:

1. AT&T would be reassured in the beginning that they'd have a guaranteed number of new subscribers from this unprecedented arrangement.

2. AT&T says it will only gives kick-backs for the first year. Apple doesn't hit the 10 million mark in that time frame, so they lower the price and make it more difficult to unlock the phone so they can hit the target number and get out.

For what it's worth, I think T-Mobile may get the iPhone before Verizon (despite the larger Verizon customer base) simply because the hardware is ready to go. CDMA phones suck a lot more juice than their GSM counterparts, something Apple will have to address, especially if a CDMA phone is going to be using 3G and GPS.

Absurd? Possible? Likely? "You're a freak and should write about something else"? Sound off in the comments.

T-Mobile sues Engadget for using magenta in their logo

Seriously. No joke. See here. Apparently the higher-ups at Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile USA's parent company in Germany) don't want Engadget to use "their" color of magenta because such usage "could lead to confusion in the marketplace."

I'm not sure how many people are confusing Engadget Mobile with T-Mobile. Are people trying to sign up for cell service with T-Mobile through Engadget Mobile? If you are, you're stupid. Almost as stupid as the people who think people are that stupid. Like the higher ups at Deutsche Telekom.

Meanwhile, Engadget Mobile has taken a page out of my father in-law's book by taking it a step further. They changed their logo today to this:

Others have taken up the cause of thumbing their noses at Das Man by trying to get as many people as possible to use the color magenta that has DT's panties in a wad. Here's my contribution to the cause:

Thanks to Veronica for the tip.

AT&T works in more places billboard - hacked

Freaking brilliant. Every day I feel better and better about unlocking my iPhone.

For those of you not in on the joke, click here.

Image from here via Digg.

Get out of your AT&T Wireless contract free!

Looks like it's a drop-your-carrier-free-for-all now that AT&T is also raising the cost of their text, picture and video messaging to a whopping 30 cents each. I remember the good ol' days when incoming texts were free and outgoing only cost a nickel. *sigh*

Nostalgia aside, this bump in prices constitutes a materially adverse change to your contract which means that extra dime they're charging you for that text means you don't have to pay the $175 early termination fee if you want to bail and head to the next, less-evil carrier.

A couple things to note:

1. You can't have a text messaging package/bundle. If you have one, cancel it.
2. When you call to cancel your account, cite the text messaging hike as the reason.
3. Like my experience with Verizon, I'm sure they're going to try to make you feel cheap and stupid for canceling over a lousy dime per message. Remain firm. They have to let you out. And if it's not a big deal, why are they bother with the rate hike?
4. This may be a good way to negotiate a better deal on your plan. See what they can give you as far as retentions go.
5. There are a few more significant steps/details you should check out over at Consumerist.

Good luck. And if anyone decides to jump ship, please shoot me an e-mail/leave a comment and let me know how it went.

(I also covered this as a tip on my other site, LivSimpl.)

Death Star/AT&T logo courtesy of Gizmodo.

Get out of your Verizon Wireless contract free!

They've raised their text messaging rates from 15 cents per message to 20 cents per message for those who don't have a bundled plan. This constitutes a "material adverse" change to a contract which means, in plain English, they changed the contract which means you're no longer obligated to uphold your end which means you can get out of it without paying the early termination fee of $175 per line.

This really works. I got my sister out of her Verizon contract last time they bumped up the rates. It was something like 75 cents more for one of those extra fees they tack on.

They said that it was so small, what did it matter? I said, "If it's such a small deal, why are you bothering to add it to my bill?" They offered to credit us the 75 cents per month back. I was insistent that it was a material change and we were tired of being nickled-and-dimed and we wanted out. I was nice about it, but firm. It worked.

So if you want to stick it to the man, now is the time to do it. Actually, the time to do it is 60 days within the time they send you notification. Better to do it sooner than later.

More details can be found here.