Verizon to require all future smartphones to be LTE

This isn't overly surprising, but Verizon is officially putting its foot down.  It will only sell smartphones that use LTE technology, effective immediately.  The exact term uses was "a hard requirement" which seems pretty definitive.  While this might sound restrictive I am having a hard time thinking of recent smartphones released on Verizon that weren't LTE.  The only two that come to mind are the Droid 3, and iPhone 4S, and I'm sure there are a couple of Blackberry phones I'm forgetting.

Click to read more ...

Verizon finally officially announces the Motorola Droid 4

Motorola and Verizon just issued a press release announcing the Motorola Droid 4.  The Droid 4 will run on Verizon's LTE network, and feature a five row QWERTY keyboard.  It also holds the title for the thinnest LTE QWERTY phone.  The keyboard is said to have edge lit keys, but without having the device in my hands I can't say for sure just what that means compared to normally lit keyboards.  We have been seeing leaks and rumors for this phone for months, and it is great to see if finally be made official.

Click to read more ...

Droid 4 pictured in Best Buy promo

The still unannounced Motorola Droid 4 just made an appearance in a Best Buy promo picture.  The picture can be found on the Best Buy reward zone website along with an upgrade offer to reward zone members.  It certainly seems as though Best Buy was under the impression that the Droid 4 would be available by now, so the question is, why isn't it?

Click to read more ...

Your Verizon bill is going up in 2012

Droid life was able to find a juicy little leaked document from Verizon.  The document outlines a new $2 fee added to your monthly bill.  It looks like the only way to avoid this fee is by signing up for monthly auto-pay.  The monthly fee looks like it will go into effect on January 15, 2012.

Click to read more ...

It's Official the Galaxy Nexus will be available December15 for $299

Verizon might have made all of us gadget freaks wait and sweat it out, but they finally made the Galaxy Nexus official.  Via Twitter, and press email Verizon announced that the Galaxy Nexus will be released on December 15 for the now normal price of $299, with two year contract.

More good news for those of you who are upgrading, and planning on doing so this holiday season.  Verizon is extending it's double data plans through the holidays.  So now you can use your free WiFi hotspot twice as long, if they haven't disabled that feature.

Enjoy everyone!

AT&T turns on 4G LTE network in San Francisco

For all you AT&T 4G fanatics in the Bay Area your time has come.  Engadget is reporting that last night AT&T flipped the switch on it's 4G LTE network in the area.  This is most likely just to test out the system, and not official or stable at this point.  It seems that both SF and NYC are going to be next on the list for LTE service.

Click to read more ...

Motorola officially announces two new Droid tablets, and a white RAZR

Even though we've seen the Xoom 2 tablet in action already, Motorola and Verizon just officially annouced two new Droid branded tablets.  These tablets are known as the Droid Xyboard 10.1 and 8.2, named after their screen sizes of ten and eight inches.  Not to be left out in the cold the Droid Razr is also now available in white.  None of the products annouced are new to us, but are either re-branded or recolored to make a new device.  We have seen the Xyboard tablets before as the Xoom 2 and Xoom Media Eddition.

Click to read more ...

Galaxy Nexus to be $299 on Verizon, if it ever gets released

The WSJ is reporting that the phone we have all been lusting over, the Galaxy Nexus, will be priced at $299 on Verizon.  We still don't know when we will be able to give Verizon our money, but at least we now know that we will have to sell at least one kidney to afford one.

Click to read more ...

Verizon's LTE Network is a year old!

Verizon's ultra fast 4G LTE network has just reached one years old today December 5.  In just a year Verizon's LTE network is now covering around 185 million people, in around 160 markets.  That is a pretty substancial roll out in just a year.

What might be even more impressive is just how quickly phone makers are invovating LTE devices.  The first Verizon LTE device was the HTC Thunderbolt measured .52 inchs thick, and the most recent offering, the Droid Razr, is only .28 inches.  In less than a year phones are almost half as thick, and have longer battery life.  The evolution of Android devices is speeding along, and it taking LTE along for the ride.

Click to read more ...

A Small Blog's quest for review products

As you may or may not know but this is a one man blog operation.  The lofty goal of this blog was simple, get some sweet products to review because I love gadgets and I would do what it takes to get those gadgets.  I knew that it wouldn't be easy to talk a big company to send me a very valuable product to review, and honestly I’m a bit surprised I had the chance to review any products at all.  The question is how does small blog get products to review?  I don't really have much of an answer, but I will tell you what I've tried, and maybe if anyone reads this they can offer any help they can too.

Before I go too far in depth I want to say that my blog experiment has been a success.  Mostly due to the fact that I was able to review some products, which was goal, but I have hit a dry spell as of late.  I did not start this blog with a goal to make money from it, nor did I expect some professional blog to notice me (I wouldn’t mind that, but wasn’t part of the plan).  I still get excited to see when the site receives page views, even if 90 percent of them are from me checking to see if anyone has viewed the site.

Click to read more ...