Hasta La Gadget!

You won’t be able to hear him for much longer, folks. Paul Marcarelli, aka “Verizon Guy,” is being let go. As it turns out that wasn’t even his character’s name, VZW settling on “Test Man” when scripting the early shots. Now that company is “taking its ads in a different direction,” a direction that apparently does not include Mr. Marcarelli. But, based on the tales he recounted to The Atlantic, that may be a good thing. Paul once heard someone say “Can you hear me now?” at his grandmother’s funeral — as her body was being lowered into the grave. Yup, it’s time for a role change.

Verizon Guy gets let go, turns out that wasn’t his name anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon may have left it out from the get-go, but it looks as if eager HTC Thunderbolt owners needn’t wait another day to test out a video-enabled version of Skype. For those outside of The Loop, there was quite the back-and-forth going during the early days, with Verizon announcing at the 11th hour that its flagship LTE phone would be shipped sans Skype. It’s still unavailable in the bona firde Android Market, but a build has appeared from the ether and seems to be humming along just fine here at Engadget HQ. Hit the source link if you’re feeling froggy, and let us know in comments how things work out.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: So we just happened to have a Thunderbolt on hand, and gave Skype’s mobile video chat a try. We came away quite impressed — video is as good as can be expected from the handset’s 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, and the experience on WiFi and LTE is virtually indistinguishable. The app even worked on 3G, though that reduced the picture quality to the point of being almost unusable.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Skype with video calling leaks for HTC Thunderbolt, celebrations unsurprisingly erupt (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so maybe you’ll care, but you’ll still opt for the two-year option once your contract is up. That’s according — more or less, anyway — to a Verizon Wireless spokesperson, confirming to our inquiry this afternoon that the carrier’s one-year contract option will be eliminated on April 17th. The reason, as you might expect, revolves around historical customer preference. That’s a fancy way of saying that most customers prefer the stout hardware discounts that are available with a lengthier two-year agreement, and barring that, they can still choose month-to-month, prepaid or a rival. Not that VZW would encourage the latter, but hey — America’s about options, man.

Verizon Wireless killing one-year contracts on April 17th, assumes you won’t even care originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in case you’re still dissatisfied after taking a peek at one leaked Verizon screenshot today, well… here’s numero dos. The folks at Droid-Life managed to get their paws on a couple of monochrome sheets that look more like VZW promotional material than anything else, and if Sprint’s Simply Everything plan thought it had the whole market locked down, it might just have another thing coming. Best we can tell, the impending (?) ‘Unleashed’ pricing options will allow customers to choose a contract-free $50 / month unlimited calling and texting plan, with “Mobile Web” access thrown in as well for featurephones. ‘Course, you’d have to pony up extra for legitimate data on a legitimate smartphone, but it’s hardly a bad place to start — particularly for those who are growing increasingly tired of locking themselves into two-year agreements. Hard to say if the carrier is planning to actually implement any of this, but why waste the intern’s time mocking it up, right?

[Thanks, Mio]

Leaked Verizon Unleashed pricing sheets detail $50 unlimited talk / text plans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you had any doubts about HTC’s Incredible S making it to our shores, they’re probably dissipating as we speak — not only has the phone obtained Verizon’s shiny red checkmark, it’s now got the robotic eye of Sauron staring at us with ferocious intensity. PocketNow obtained these pictures of the likely Droid Incredible 2 without naming so much as an anonymous source, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Verizon’s way of reminding us that the handset is rapidly on its way to market. You’ll find two more pictures at our source link.

Update: Android Central got hold of some new shots of the actual phone itself, which shows off its model number ADR6350 and firmware 2.2.1. Thanks, Bla1ze.

HTC Droid Incredible 2 struts its stuff in leaked press shots? (Updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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