Android Community |
- DROID Incredible 2 Gingerbread Update IMMINENT
- Motorola Droid 3 Already Shipping to a Few Lucky Buyers
- Simms22 Releases Android Version 6.6.6 for Quad-Core Jesus Phone
- NASA Updates Official Android App in Face of July 8th Launch
- New Official Galaxy S II Live Wallpapers [Download]
- [Deal] HTC Thunderbolt Only $99 at Wirefly
- HTC Sensation Temp Root Gets More Permanent
- Matt Waddell Starts the Android Day Off Scantastically
- Vizio tablet hits Amazon pre-order for $350
- ASUS delays Eee Pad Slider release: Now due Fall 2011
- Samsung Galaxy S II US launch delay down to carrier disinterest?
- Sony Xperia Arc Unlocked and For Sale in the U.S.
- Google Nexus S Update May be Android 2.3.5
- HTC EVO 3D Whiteout Instructions
- Google Docs for Mobile Now Lets You Share On The Go
- NOOK New York Times Subscribers Given Web-Based Bonus
- Droid 3 Bootloader Locked, We’re Still Waiting for Moto’s Official Bootloader Fix
- T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide Camera Overview [Video]
- Android 3.2 Honeycomb Headed to the Motorola Xoom Soon?
- Verizon Offering 1 Year Contract to Lock Customers Back In
| DROID Incredible 2 Gingerbread Update IMMINENT Posted: 08 Jul 2011 12:13 PM PDT There’s a brand new update out there right this very moment, officially, for those of you with the sweetest little HTC DROID on the market today, the Incredible 2. This update will, as Verizon says, provide several improvements for your device as well as upgrading to the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. Joy upon all joys! This adds to the ever-increasing stack of non-Froyo devices on the market today, growing quick!
This update will not be coming out today, (unless Verizon’s got some sort of strange late-day surprise for us,) but will be coming soon as this update sheet has been literally found on Verizon’s own site. You’ll be getting several new device features including a new Download Manager App, App and Power Management Details — meaning you’ll get a new “Running” tab showing all of your active apps and the storage plus memory being used by each under Manage Applications, Improved Word Selection and Copy Functionality – this being what everyone else has who’re rolling around with Gingerbread – long-press grabbing a word, second press of the sleeked word copying the entire selected set of characters. Great stuff! You’ll also get a few more updates that’re listed in the release above (and in the gallery below if you’d like to see closer.) Support pages such as the one you’re going to be linked to in a moment generally mean that the update is already out, so we’re expecting perhaps a Monday release of this magnificence. A note to make here for those of you who take the strange road in an out of Android: root access will be taken away from you when you update to this newest version, but of course, as always, you’ll have that road back in sooner than later anyway, so just chill and make it happen. Screenshots below come courtesy of our good buddies at Android Police – this is what you’re going to be seeing on your device when this update comes through for you:      Check out the original Verizon link over at… Verizon! )
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| Motorola Droid 3 Already Shipping to a Few Lucky Buyers Posted: 08 Jul 2011 11:39 AM PDT It appears that a few that ordered the Droid 3 and chose 1 day shipping are already receiving the dual-core packing smartphone on their doorsteps. A few users over at HowardForums are now starting to take pictures and play with the new phone and they’ve posted some pictures and impressions for those interested.
I only read a few pages deep but from initial thoughts they seem to love it but mention it is a bit heavier than the Droid 2. That is to be expected when it has a larger screen, larger battery, and a few improvements like the front facing camera and dual-core CPU. He has some comments on the Verizon handset if you’d like to check it out. The Motorola Droid 3 has been in the news a lot the past few days but Verizon never made any sort of announcement until it was already online and apparently shipping to some. This makes us wonder if even Verizon doesn’t consider this phone a big deal. They had commercials and everything for the Thunderbolt and Droid Charge. The lucky member at Howard Forums that received the phone early mentions that it has 512mb RAM and scored 2250 in Quadrant out of the box. Not bad compared to some of the recent Tegra 2 phones and the Sensation 4G scores around 2200 out of the box for me. Head to the source for more pictures and information. [via HowardForums] )
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| Simms22 Releases Android Version 6.6.6 for Quad-Core Jesus Phone Posted: 08 Jul 2011 11:34 AM PDT Yesterday we bore witness to a supposed leak photographed by Mister Blurrycam himself, one that showed an update to the Nexus S to be version 2.3.5. While this isn’t outside the realm of reality we do admit, there’s a bit more to the story than simple numbers and nonsense. There has been a report that there will soon be an update to the Nexus S that may well have no version number upgrade at all, but will bring additional NFC support, 4G widgets and several bug fixes, but now let’s talk about Simms22 and his magical machine.
If you’ll think back a few weeks ago, you’ll remember the epic tale of Simss22 busting the crap out of some benchmarks with his very own ramped-up Nexus S device. During this time it was revealed, or rather it was made clear, that tests like these, like many things inside the Android world, can be fudged to epic proportions. Have a look here at the deadliest of massacres:
Now for the image we saw yesterday ala DroidLife. This image shows an Android version 2.3.5, again not outside the realm of reality as it’s 2.3.4 at this very moment, but as Simms shows above, the results for this particular info screen on your Android can be changed to whatever you like with Root Explorer running amok on your rooted devices. The grains of salt should be flowing heavily through your mind whenever you see a device showing an Android number saying its the next big thing – just remember that!
And if you’re Simms22, our forum leader, keep it clean man, Jesus is watching! )
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| NASA Updates Official Android App in Face of July 8th Launch Posted: 08 Jul 2011 11:12 AM PDT This is sort of an odd situation where a gigantically important group like NASA will have an official app for the masses, and with a launch of such epic preparations this morning, it just makes sense for you to get re-interested in space travel via your best buddy Android. The following app is one that we’re going to take a quick look at for you and encourage you to take part in a group that makes history every single day they’re active. Space travel from your Android handset – who knew!
What you’re going to be able to do with this utterly FREE app is take a look at images, first of all, from NASA’s massive memory banks. You’ll be able to see images from NASA IOTD, APOD, and NASAImages.org. On that same line, you’ll be able to see NASA Video from the past in simple to view list form, launches, announcements, documentary sorts of situations and more! Information on what NASA is up to will be available for you including mission information, launch dates and times, and countdown clocks. It gets really rather interesting when you find that you’re able to get current visible passes for the international space station, you see you can get ISS and Earth orbiting satellite tracking information, and of course, the most important thing of all: NASA Twitter updates! Connections to Facebook, NASA live TV, maps of actual NASA centers, and featured content are all par for the course here. This app was last updated YESTERDAY which means you’ll be grabbing the very newest bits of info from the source here be it info about today’s launch, tomorrows tracking of the astronauts on the launch, and the re-entry, whenever they decide that is. All that said, head to the Android Market today and grab yourself a copy! )
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| New Official Galaxy S II Live Wallpapers [Download] Posted: 08 Jul 2011 10:29 AM PDT Well would you look at that, some cool live wallpapers were found in the Samsung Galaxy SII’s most recent build. There’s a lovely Beach scene and some forward-thinking green windmills so you can harness the power of the wind. They of course also work with GPS coordinates, see what time of day it is, and change weather based on what it is outside your house. They can also read your mind and talk to you if you’ve got anything interesting to say. Download them now!
It’s always fun to see new live wallpapers come out with new devices – regular wallpapers are neat, but heck, they don’t move, you know what I mean? With the Galaxy S II we were basically guaranteed some new miraculous magnificence, and indeed we were given such a thing – and now, courtesy of our good pal Rawat sitting pretty at XDA Developers, we’ve got just the ticket. Both of these live wallpapers are available for download from the following sources: We’ve already tested them both and they seem to work rather well, but take caution as always, as they aren’t official distributed the way you’d normally wan to be sure of getting such a thing from. That make sense to you? Or are you one of those hacker types who likes to see the HTC Sensation get a temp perm perm temp root? Hacks galore!
In related news, the Galaxy S II might not even be coming to the USA at all through official channels – are carriers just not interested? Read more about that back earlier this morning. [via XDA Developers] )
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| [Deal] HTC Thunderbolt Only $99 at Wirefly Posted: 08 Jul 2011 09:51 AM PDT Wirefly is famous for offering great phones at low prices occasionally. Back in June they had 20 Android phones all free. Obviously with a deal this good there has to be a catch right? These offers are only with a new 2-year contract. If you’ve been eying a new Thunderbolt you can get it now for only $99 as long as you sign a new 2-year contract.
Good deals like the one above don’t always last that long so you’d better hurry if you’re going to jump on this latest deal. The Thunderbolt is still an amazing phone and those blazing fast 4G LTE speeds sure help out its cause. As always Wirefly offers free FedEx shipping so you’ll be getting it pretty fast if you decide to order. If you are having a hard time deciding you can see our Thunderbolt hands-on and unboxing for a better idea, or our man Burnsy wrote up a review after using the Thunderbolt daily for the past 3 months. You can see that entire review here as he explains why he still loves the phone and why you will too. Head over to Wirefly and get your own. [via Wirefly] )
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| HTC Sensation Temp Root Gets More Permanent Posted: 08 Jul 2011 09:30 AM PDT I know calling a temp-root perma-root or permanent doesn’t make all that much sense but if you read on you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Recently the guys from TeamWin were able to temp-root the HTC EVO 3D and Sensation but users randomly are losing that root, and it is gone after a reboot as well.
We are all still waiting patiently for HTC to send out an update to devices and unlock their bootloaders so rooting and custom roms can go back to being a much easier task. For now little tricks like this one will have to due. A dev named Eugene373 figured this one out and here’s what he had to say.
This is not a true and complete perma-root method but it will make things easier for the time being. Users not having to redo the temp-root method over and over will be much appreciated until we find a better cure. Hopefully those HTC updates aren’t far off, I’m still hoping for a update sometime in July but we will see. Hit the source link below for more info and the install files for this perma-temp-root method. [via AndroidSpin] )
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| Matt Waddell Starts the Android Day Off Scantastically Posted: 08 Jul 2011 09:14 AM PDT Just when you think we’ve seen enough of these little monsters (blasphemy!) we get a whole new way of peeking at them. A fellow by the name of Matt Waddell has appeared in our official Android Community Google+ feed* with images of our most beloved Android toys, some from the first sets that is, scanned with a flatbed scanner instead of photographed the way we’ve come to expect from our own best read reviews. Look at them! So very epic!
These little buggers, incase you need a refresher or just have not been aware until now, are official Google-approved toys made to represent the Android brand in toy form. They’re designed mostly by one fellow by the name of Andrew Bell and they’re created by his associated toymaking brand DYZPlastic, then distributed by his associated store: Dead Zebra. We’ve covered everything from this first set to the latest expansion including a set of four heroes and villains that will be release later this month at SDCC. Have a glance at the collection below and feel free to use them as your own lovely Android device backgrounds. I’m sure Matt Waddell will be proud that his work is being spread like butter after such a moment of brilliance. Furthermore, good thing these toys are made so well or they’d look rather busted up under such detailed light! Joy to the manufacturing! *Don’t have access to Google+ yet? Get access now while you win an Android tablet via our bigtime Tabletpalooza contest!           [via Matt Waddell on G+] )
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| Vizio tablet hits Amazon pre-order for $350 Posted: 08 Jul 2011 07:07 AM PDT Vizio’s 8-inch Android tablet has gone up for pre-order at Amazon, offering a 1024 x 768 capacitive touchscreen, Honeycomb OS and the ability to control HDTVs and other A/V equipment via an integrated IR emitter and universal remote app. The slate was announced back at CES 2011.
Pre-orders through Vizio itself began at the start of the month, with the tablet expected to begin shipping on July 18. There it’s $399.99, versus the $349.99 that Amazon is asking, though when you buy direct you get it with a 16GB microSD card and a special folio case that also works as a stand. If you can do without those accessories, though, you can save $50, and we imagine many would-be buyers will be looking for the cheapest option. Your money gets you front and rear facing cameras and WiFi b/g/n, though Amazon isn’t saying when it expects the slate to ship. [via NetbookNews] )
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| ASUS delays Eee Pad Slider release: Now due Fall 2011 Posted: 08 Jul 2011 02:54 AM PDT ASUS has updated its expected launch window for the Eee Pad Slider, with the company now claiming the Honeycomb slate with a QWERTY surprise won’t launch in the UK until sometime this autumn (aka fall). Previously, ASUS had promised an August release for the Slider, having already delayed the Android tablet at least once.
Unveiled alongside the Eee Pad Transformer back at CES 2011, the Eee Pad Slider has a 10.1-inch touchscreen and NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset, but also includes a sliding/tilting QWERTY keyboard. Unlike the ‘board offered for the Transformer, which can be detached or turn the tablet into a netbook of sorts, the Slider’s hides behind the body of the slate itself. Reports back in February suggested the Eee Pad Slider would go on sale in mid-April, though unspecified delays have pushed that back. There’s no official word from ASUS as to its reasoning, but we’ve heard some talk that the hinge mechanism could have presented issues. )
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| Samsung Galaxy S II US launch delay down to carrier disinterest? Posted: 08 Jul 2011 01:29 AM PDT Samsung’s Galaxy S II remains one of our favorite smartphones here at Android Community, and with sales passing 3m worldwide in the first 55 days of availability, its absence from the US market is increasingly frustrating. According to a new report from Korea, however, that may not change any time soon; Chosun Ilbo claims that US carriers like Verizon are dismissing the Galaxy S II because Samsung’s CDMA expertise lags behind that of Motorola and others.
According to the paper, Motorola “makes phones that work best with the American mobile protocol CDMA. That means US telecoms have a better alternative.” Although the Galaxy S was the best selling Android device in the US at one point in 2010, carriers are supposedly less inclined to pick up its successor because HTC and Motorola are offering more compelling CDMA options now. “When the Galaxy S smartphone was launched last year, no competing new models by Motorola and HTC were available” the paper suggests. “As far as US telecoms were concerned, the Galaxy S was the only alternative to the iPhone last year. But the new model faces much tougher competition” Samsung has not confirmed the rumors, but an unnamed executive from the company did admit that “negotiations with American telecom companies have dragged on” while European sales flourish and the Canadian carriers are gung-ho about the handset. [via GottaBeMobile] )
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| Sony Xperia Arc Unlocked and For Sale in the U.S. Posted: 07 Jul 2011 03:33 PM PDT For now no carriers in the U.S. are carrying the Sony Xperia Arc smartphone with those thin curves but it can be your right now. Sony is now selling the Flagship Xperia Arc in the online store for the low low price of just $599. The unlocked quad-band 3G handset just hit Sony’s store and it will ship starting tomorrow July 8th according to the site.
The Xperia Arc is no slouch and is a pretty stellar device. You can see our sister site SlashGear full review. It has a 4.2″ display with the Sony Bravia engine, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 512mb ram, Qualcomm's 1GHz MSM8255 processor and more to keep things moving quick. We will see this device picked up by U.S. carriers sometime soon most likely but for those that can’t wait just head over to the Sony store and grab it early. Like we mentioned they are offering it for $599 and that isn’t exactly cheap but then your not signing a new contract with anyone and it being a quad-band 3G phone, you can use it on whatever carrier your heart desires. [via Sony] )
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| Google Nexus S Update May be Android 2.3.5 Posted: 07 Jul 2011 03:12 PM PDT Recently we have been reporting that the Google Nexus S will soon receive an OTA update. Apparently the build will be version GRJ90 and new bits of information are claiming that the Nexus S may in fact be upgraded to Android 2.3.5 as well. Some of the features include NFC Support, 4G widgets, and bug fixes.
One reason that this may in fact be Android 2.3.5 is the update will bring support for the NFC Secure Element that is needed for Google Wallet. Our friend over at Droid-Life had a tipster send him the above image and even though the build number is older than what we are expecting (GRJ85) it could be an earlier version for development purposes. Although if anyone has messed around with Android in the past all it takes is a rooted phone and something like Root Explorer and you can easily edit the build.prop to show any build number or android version you’d like. I once made mine Android 4.0 just for kicks, so this news could very well be what is coming soon but I’ll take it with a grain of salt for now. [via Droid-Life] )
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| HTC EVO 3D Whiteout Instructions Posted: 07 Jul 2011 03:11 PM PDT So you’ve got a brand new HTC EVO 3D in your sights, but you’re thinking you want to take a trip down the color-based new world of Android casings that’s exploding all over the landscape these days. What will you do? Here’s what a fellow by the name of Zoidpilot over on XDA Developers did – simple and not at all destructive, right? Wrong! But you can’t make an EVO omelet without breaking a few cases, right? Also you’ll need Pop Tarts, but we’ll get to that later.
This whole adventure was born of an Independence Day death drop, aka this fellow’s EVO decided to jump out of his pocket and “commit suicide” on July the 4th, 2011. Read the entirety of his painful experience below this paragraph. He took this experience as a way to have his device be reborn, however, and now we’ve got a white EVO. For the win! Have a look at how this situation started:
His instructions for doing this mod are super basic, and if you’ve ever popped the back off the EVO 3D you’ll know there’s not much to it, so without further ado, here it is in a nutshell: 1. Take the back off the phone – IMPORTANT              Supply list – if you need em: Have a look at the making-of photos above and answer us this: would you do the same thing with your device now that battery covers are more often than not consisting of the whole non-screen bulk of the device? Could be a win! And the Pop Tarts bit? The creator of this masterpiece says they’re essential for a fully poptastic complete job. Yummy! [via XDA Developers] )
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| Google Docs for Mobile Now Lets You Share On The Go Posted: 07 Jul 2011 03:00 PM PDT The mobile version of Google Docs has been updated with new features and some visual improvements. With many new features like sharing on the go, or being able to sort documents things are pretty solid on Google Docs right about now. They explain it as being able to sort, narrow, and share all your documents right from your list. Pretty neat huh?
To get started is simple, just go to docs.google.com right in the browser of your device. Press sort to organize the list of docs visible in the mobile browser, or press narrow by to specify the list of docs you'd like to see, just like the picture above shows. These features have already been implemented and are live right now so you can start sharing right away. Sharing is a core feature that I’ve been waiting to see come to the mobile front and now it is here I must admit it works great and sure is convenient. If you have any suggestions or issues you can head to the support forums. [via Google Blog] )
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| NOOK New York Times Subscribers Given Web-Based Bonus Posted: 07 Jul 2011 02:27 PM PDT All those of you lucky enough to already have gotten access to The New York Times on your Barnes & Noble NOOK device, be it the original NOOK, the new generation NOOK, or NOOKcolor (aka NOOK Color), will now be given access to NYTimes.com – joy of joys! For those of you that don’t know, the NYTimes.com website is a subsciption-based website the same as their physical paper and their ereader based papers are. What this announcement does is give those already subscribing to the NOOK-based NYTimes complete access to the NYTimes.com website as well. What a deal!
This should follow as NYTimes subscribers already have essentially the same content as is delivered on NYTimes.com, only this way they’re able to get the content outside of their ereaders. This should prove to be a selling point for those subscribing in the future as well, as this deal works for all those subscribing from now on to the NYTimes on their Barnes & Noble tablets. You can access The New York Times with your NOOK NewsStand as you would any number of other fabulous bits of content. Those of you subscribing starting today or if you’ve had a subscription to The New York Times before now with your NOOK device will receive an update as to how you’ll be able to get access to NYTimes.com from now directly on the device. This update will thrill the masses, that much will certainly be true. As of you who haven’t yet experienced the NOOK magic, I suggest you take a look at our Week With NOOKcolor series on our sister-site SlashGear, as well as some hands-on with the all-new NOOK too. Full of kicks!
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| Droid 3 Bootloader Locked, We’re Still Waiting for Moto’s Official Bootloader Fix Posted: 07 Jul 2011 02:05 PM PDT Motorola’s Atrix may have just gotten its bootloader unlocked through a bit of trickery, but it looks like that unlock screen won’t be on the new Droid 3 any time in the immediate future. An eager owner of the OG Droid, looking to bump his phone up to version 3 of the original Android 2 phone asked on Motorola’s own forum whether the bootloader was unlocked. Ten minutes later a forum moderator confirmed, no such freedom will be granted.
The epic tale of Motorola and the bootloaders reached a an interesting turn a couple months ago when Motorola promised it was working on a compromise to allow unlocking bootloaders for those so inclined. After the recent discovery of an engineering build for the Atrix which allows unlocking its bootloader, I for one was hoping that solution was nearer than further. But alas the Droid 3 is as locked as the Droid 2 or Droid X. Looking forward to a brightside, there may be some hope for the Droid 3 before too long. It took almost 3/4 of a year, but the Droid X and Droid 2 have recently gotten CyanogenMod support thanks to 2nd-init, and hopefully it won’t take that long to get the work-around ported to the newer Moto devices. Also worth keeping in mind is that the Atrix bootloader unlock method does mention that it will void your warranty so Motorola is definitely working on an unlock solution. Whether or not it will be making its way to devices any time soon, its too soon to say. So the saga continues, does this affect your view of the Droid 3 any? )
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| T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide Camera Overview [Video] Posted: 07 Jul 2011 02:03 PM PDT T-Mobile is teasing us with another video showing just how amazing the 8MP camera will be in their new myTouch 4G Slide. For more pictures of the actual hardware check this out. T-Mobile claims this phone has the "most advanced camera of any smartphone."
T-Mobile wants you to replace your digital camera with the beastly shooter on the rear of this phone, we wont know if that is a true possibility until we get some hands-on time of our own. For now here is a list of the specs we can expect from the camera alone, not to mention that qwerty keyboard and dual-core 1.2 Ghz processor the phone also has. -8 MP camera: with 1080p video recording This short video (below) will show all you curious readers what you can expect from the camera on the myTouch 4G Slide, as well as all the options and features they have added into the camera app. Don’t worry though, we will be getting the device soon and will be sure to post our impressions as soon as possible. Recent reports suggest the phone may launch on or around July 27th so we will wait and see. [via YouTube] )
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| Android 3.2 Honeycomb Headed to the Motorola Xoom Soon? Posted: 07 Jul 2011 01:46 PM PDT We have heard a few little bits of Android 3.2 Honeycomb before, most recent being the Hauwei MediaPad 7 coming with Android 3.2 and that is about the last we heard. Reports suggest that along with many bug fixes Android 3.2 will also support 7″ tablets on Honeycomb.
New information is now supporting that the Motorola Xoom might be seeing an OTA to 3.2 in “the next few days”. It would make complete sense because the Xoom was and is the first Honeycomb tablet and should at least get updates first for a while like the Nexus One received. The latest comment in the Android Open Source Project by a Google employee states just what I mentioned above, that it will be coming in a matter of days. Here is the official remark he made:
That is all we have heard regarding this so we will have to keep our ears open and report anything else we hear. Hopefully along with this update comes official MicroSD support as well as a few other things we’ve had to root and flash to get working. Maybe soon the Xoom will get that hardware upgrade to 4G LTE, but I think Verizon and Motorola might have forgot about that. [via Android Central] )
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| Verizon Offering 1 Year Contract to Lock Customers Back In Posted: 07 Jul 2011 01:31 PM PDT This comes as a little surprise does it not? From this leaked email it appears Verizon is trying to lock in a few of those subscribers that are walking around off-contract and have yet to sign a new 2-year contract with Verizon. Maybe they don’t want to lose then, or any contract is better than nothing so they are now offering 1 Month of service free as well as a 1-year contract extension for select customers.
Our friends over at Droid-Life got word of this email floating around and I just had to share with everyone just in case. It doesn’t appear to offer any discounts for phones or anything so the only incentive I see is the 1 month of free service. Is that one month free worth locking yourself in for an entire year? I don’t think so, but that is just me. I’d keep waiting and use my upgrade on that Droid Bionic that is around the corner. I think Verizon would have more luck if they offered this 1-year contract plan with maybe $100 off any smartphone or something along those lines, but I might be dreaming as that will probably never happen. With technology and hardware moving so fast I almost don’t want to sign ANY 2-year contracts and would rather just buy my Android toys outright. I think a carrier should offer 1-year contracts all the time and find a way to make it work. The offer appears to be by telephone and customer support only, online and local stores are not participating. Feel free to call if you’d like. [via Droid-Life] )
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