Hasta La Gadget!

What happens when you punch the phrase “Droid” into a Costco sales terminal? If Boy Genius Report‘s sources are right, you see the Motorola Droid 2 Global ring up (in black and white!) for $199.99. Considering we’re also seeing the 1.2GHz quad-band worldphone on a Verizon rebate sheet, it’s a pretty safe bet the handset’s coming out soon — and if Verizon also lists the phone for that price, it could be the death knell for the A955. (We’ve gotten several tips today that the original Droid 2 has been marked for end-of-life at Best Buy.) There’s also a T-Mobile Comet pictured above, also known as the Huawei Ideos, a low-budget Android smartphone whose $149.99 price will almost certainly be free of two-year contracts. Of course, in the spirit of Costco you probably won’t get off that easily — subliminal messaging will surely compel you to purchase the $24.99 Ewoks and Star Wars Droids Adventure Hour on DVD.

Droid 2 Global appears in Costco database for $199, T-Mobile Comet at $149 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though Verizon famously turned down the original iPhone before Apple ultimately signed a deal with AT&T, the company’s outspoken CEO — Ivan Seidenberg — has been very careful over the past couple years to note that he’d love to eventually have an iPhone in his lineup. With Verizon Wireless boss Lowell McAdam tapped to take over the top job next year, what’d be a better swan song for Seidenberg than to finally pull it off? Fortune‘s new profile of the longstanding chief exec and elder statesman is reporting in very matter-of-fact terms that a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 will be a reality on Verizon in “early 2011,” lining up with most of the rumors the interwebs has been generating over the past few months.

The piece details the phone as the culmination of literally years of careful discussions between Seidenberg, McAdams, and Steve Jobs; Verizon’s guys claim that Jobs acknowledged in late 2007 that the two companies had “missed something” by failing to partner up. The first visible fruit of those talks is the MiFi-bundled iPad that just launched, but that’s clearly a minor stepping stone on the way to an actual handset. Fortune reports that Jobs has voiced his concerns over CDMA in the past and the fact that it doesn’t work in nearly as many countries as GSM does, but the story goes on to say that the first model on Verizon’s shelves “probably” won’t be dual-mode and presumably won’t have compatibility with the company’s shiny new LTE network, either. If true, that’ll make for an interesting battle for the spotlight in the first few months of 2011 as an EV-DO iPhone wages war with a number of LTE phones — some of which look downright gorgeous — and might put Verizon in the awkward position of having to heavily push two almost diametrically opposed handset and platform initiatives. Furthermore, it’s hard to deny that a Verizon iPhone would stress the carrier’s network in ways it’s never been stressed before; they may be prepared for it, but there’s no way of knowing until it all goes down and they get a sense for uptake and conquests from AT&T. Translation: McAdam looks to have a busy 2011 ahead of him as he transitions into the new office.

iPhone locked for early 2011 on Verizon, says Fortune originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s October 28th, and Verizon’s full suite of data plans have changed just as foretold — if you want to save a few bucks, you can revise your megabyte-munching lifestyle right now. There’s no need to fear for unlimited 3G smartphone data, as it’s still available for the usual $29.99, but that plan’s no longer required when buying a new Droid, as you can opt for a new $14.99 plan if you can bare to live with just 150 megabytes. We’ll spare you the full breakdown on mobile broadband plans — as you can find it at our original post right here — rght down to that promotional 3GB MiFi and Fivespot plan for $35 a month.

[Thanks, Cody W.]

Verizon’s tiered data plans go live, including $30 for a smartphone buffet or $15 for 150MB originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did we say Verizon would dole out $90 million in credits? It seems we spoke too soon, because the US Government is taking its cut of the carrier’s apology after charging for data that customers didn’t actually use. Verizon says it’s settled with the FCC for $25 million and will cut a check to the US Treasury, and put the remaining $52.8 million towards the bills of 15 million affected customers in the form of $2 to $6 credits each. Verizon’s not taking any blame in the matter, mind you, as it says the original data charges were “inadvertent” and caused by software pre-loaded on some phones. Yet another reason to ditch the bloatware, we suppose. PR after the break.

Continue reading Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees

Verizon sends $25 million settlement to FCC, credits customers $52.8 million for wrongful data fees originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were just handed this image with very little detail other than the fact that we’re looking at “a future LG high end Android phone for Verizon,” but we can deduce a few things: one, and perhaps most notably, you can just barely make out an LTE logo toward the bottom of the back. That likely makes this one of the six-odd LTE phones Verizon has publicly said are slated for the first half of next year. Secondly, it’s got an HD camera of some sort — probably indicating either 720p or 1080p capture — and finally, it appears to have a huge, mirrored display and possibly a front-facing cam in the upper right. Looks like there’s also a WiFi logo on back (of course), but can anyone make out the other two logos there? And more importantly, can anyone wait for this to launch?

Update: It’s been proposed that one of the logos might be for DLNA, since LG’s a major DLNA player — most recently with its PlayTo service on the LG Optimus 7.

Exclusive: future LG Android phone for Verizon sports LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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