Verizon Wireless Cell Phone News, Views and Reviews

Next week will be the next phone release for February. The LG  VX5500 is being replaced by the VX5600 Accolade.

Another flip called the "Clout" will possibly replacing the VX8360 which just barely turned a year old. Then somewhere down the road, before LG starts cranking out Android platform devices, like everyone else will be, they have their first Verizon Wireless Smartphone hitting the scene. It'll be called the VS750. It will be running on Windows Mobile 6.5, global roaming support (CDMA/GSM), and is said to be very thin.

February may be a nice month to pick up a Brigade! Make sure you read that clearly, I did not say a grenade. I had to look up the definition so I could see how closely the name might relate to Casio's upcoming (this month) device.

A military unit having its own headquarters and consisting of two or more regiments, squadrons, groups, or battalions. A large body of troops. A group of individuals organized for a particular purpose: a fire brigade; a rescue brigade.

Its finally been announced. We've been hearing about a second Motorola Droid since the first one came out last year. It looks like March is the magic month. The new Motorola device will be called the Devour. It has been referred to as the Calgary. It will be the first Verizon Wireless to feature MOTOBLUR.

• Touch-sensitive navigation pad
• 3.1” capacitive touch screen
• Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, Google Talk™, YouTube™, Google Search™ and Google Maps™ with Google Maps Navigation.
• Android Market™ gives users access to more than 20,000 applications.
• Happenings Widget – MOTOBLUR automatically pushes status updates, wall posts and photo updates from popular social networking sites to the Happenings Widget on the home screen. Customers can flick through the latest updates and fire back responses using the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard.
• Universal Inbox – MOTOBLUR gathers texts, social network messages and e-mails into one home screen widget for quick response.
• Back-Up and Security – Contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed up automatically on the secure MOTOBLUR portal. The portal also allows customers to use the phone’s fully integrated aGPS to help locate the phone if misplaced. Remote wipe easily clears information from a lost device.
• 8 GB microSD™ card pre-installed
• Bluetooth® profiles supported: A2DP, HID, HSP, HFP, AVRCP and GAP

Service plans:

• To get the most from Motorola DEVOUR, customers will need to subscribe to a Nationwide Talk or Nationwide Talk & Text plan and a Data Package for smartphones. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access, and Nationwide Talk & Text plans begin at $59.99 monthly access. A Data Package for smartphones is $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.

Next to hit the scene may be the Google CDMA version of the Nexus One. They are stilll simply saying "Spring". Thanks an awful lot for narrowing it down, VzW. NOT! Anyway, I'm not going to get too wrapped up in that one because it will only be sold on google.com so until that changes, I'm not going to talk about it like its the next best thing since sliced bread.

In my opinion, that's the dealbreaker for me.. I would want to at least see it and try it before I blindly bought it on-line. Not to mention that I have been hearing that Google can't handle the customer call volume through their customer service. Lastly, if you have trouble with it, which is certainly not unheard of on an electronic device, what do you do with it? Ship it back? I'd much rather buy an electronice device from somewhere that I can go to have someone take a look and troubleshoot it before I would have to send it back wiithout a backup. So those are my thoughts on that. If anyone plans to get one as soon as they come out, do tell, and what makes you justify it? Maybe you've heard something I have not.

Next, Samsung, who never seems to be far from a phone release has two on the immediate horizon. The Verizon horizon that is! There will be a replacement for the Knack; called the u320. Lets hope they have done away with the last ones' "Knack" for freezing up. Then they have another WinMo device called either the Marble Q or the Reality. The releases for those are slated for late March/early April. After that they will come out with an Android model for Verizon but that is still just talk.

Maybe March will be a nice month to start a Blackberry diet. The Blackberry Tour 2 aka Essex aka 9650 is due out next month.  The Tour has been a decent selling device over the past few months. Now we can look forward to that same great model this time with WiFi.

That's all the dirt I have to cell!  

Check back weekly for updates.
Mondays: RSS on Verizon Wireless and other industry news
Wednedsays: Upcoming product news