According to a screen grab posted by VZW E over on HF the Samsung i770 that was supposed to ship last quarter will go on sale this Friday. That’s all, folks.

Get thee to Best Buy as soon as possible if you want to pre-order a BlackBerry Storm, which, as we all know, is the first BlackBerry with a touchscreen. A crisp $50 bill and a smile is all that’s required to pre-order this, Verizon Wireless’ “we’re cool, too!” device.

There’s the small issue of not knowing exactly what the final price will be when it’s released later this month—speculation puts it at between $199 and $299. I, for one, hopes Verizon charges something outrages, like $800, just as a goof.

Presumably all you have to do is inquire about the device once in the store.

We still don’t know one very important thing about the BlackBerry Storm: how much is the thing gonna cost? Vodafone, which carries the Storm in the UK, may have just provided us a few hints.

Pricing plans for the phone have leaked, and the phone itself goes as low as €49 ($62) with the most expensive monthly plan.

That brings us to Verizon Wireless, which, you’ll remember, is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone. If Vodafone is willing to to sell the first touchscreen BlackBerry for as low as $62, how low will VWZ go? Say, $0, maybe? Not likely, but don’t be surprised to see the Storm selling for a tantalizing low amount.

Again, as if I need to remind you, take all of this with a grain of salt. Then, with the same grain of salt, enjoy your weekend.

Why is it that the BlackBerry Storm doesn’t have Wi-Fi? If you believe BoyGenius—and how could you not!—it’s because Verizon Wireless doesn’t want it to have Wi-Fi. That’s a fine conspiracy theory, yes, but consider the following:

• Name one CDMA BlackBerry with built-in Wi-Fi. You can’t.

• Doesn’t VZW require you to have a BlackBerry data plan? So it’s not like having built-in Wi-Fi prevents VZW from making money

Now, whether or not VZW was concerned with battery life and/or performance is another matter, but to imply that VZW is some James Bond villain hoarding all the Wi-Fi is silly, I think.

We just got an e-mail from Verizon Wireless asking us to pass along this message regarding that McCain cellphone tower story. Turns out it has a problem with the Washington Post’s reportage.

The Washington Post story regarding Verizon providing a cell tower to the McCain Ranch is wrong. Verizon received a request from Mrs. McCain, but declined. Subsequent to that, the Secret Service made a legitimate request for a temporary tower for its work and Verizon complied as is required by our contract with the agency. The Secret Service request, made on May 28, specifically said it needed the service urgently and requested that Verizon “explore every possible means of providing an alternative cellular or data communications source in the referenced area and provide any short term implementation of any type as a solution in the interim.”

Now, who do you believe, Verizon Wireless or the Washington Post? I doubt the Post was all, “Let’s make something up!” In any event, apparently the two parties are working toward a clarification/correction of the original story, so if you sit tight there may well be a definitive answer to all of this. We look forward to that day.

Also, and completely unrelated to anything of substance, note the double space after each sentence in the above quote. Isn’t that an old newspaper convention or something?

Did John and Cindy McCain use their telecom industry connections to have a cellphone tower built right by one of their many houses in order to improve signal strength? That’s what the Washington Post implies.

It seems the McCain’s Sedona, Ariz. ranch didn’t have the best cellphone reception in early 2007, so Cindy—what was that word John called her? Begins with a C…—asked Verizon Wireless to construct a tower nearby. After looking into the logistics of constructing a permanent tower, VZW balked, instead opting to install a temporary tower. These types of towers are used when a spike in cellphone activity is anticipated: a big sporting event or, here, a presidential campaign.

AT&T later helped out similarly.

There’s several things going on here. One, when was the last time VZW or AT&T went above and beyond for you, the average person out there? Do you live in an area with spotty cellphone coverage? Too bad.

Then there’s the whole issue of John McCain being a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which overseas the FCC and, by extension, the likes of VZW and AT&T. Is that a conflict of interest?

Now I have to ask: does anyone, really, in their heart of hearts, actually care? Seems like the same old non-story that fills the cable news networks all day long.

Either Verizon Wireless is hurting for money or there’s a guy there who’s job it is to aggravate the blogosphere. Get this: the company is set to charge a $0.03 (three cents) levy per text message sent to its customers. Now, this only affects companies and services—iPhone users won’t be asked to cough up the $0.03 when they text their VZW buddies, for example.

Think of it like this: every time ESPN sends you a sports score update VZW will charge it $0.03. How many of these text messages does ESPN send per day? Exactly. This little levy adds up real fast.

Politicians looking to use text messages to their advantage, like Obama did to announce his veep pick, would also be affected.

VZW says it needs to implement the extra charge in order to cover the costs of doing business. Keep in mind that companies are now being questioned about the sudden rise in the cost of sending text messages.

The ninja was right. Why RIM felt the need to go out and make an iPhone competitor is beyond me.

via CrackBerry

It turns out we’re not the only ones concerned about the (unnecessary?) rise in the cost of sending a text message. This time, though, it’s someone who may actually be able to do something about it.

Sen. Herb Kohl, who’s the chair of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, recently sent a letter to several cellphone companies (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mo) asking them to explain why it costs so much to send a simple text message. He wondered aloud why these companies all decided to raise SMS rates at that same time to essentially the same price, calling it “inconsistent” with the type of competition seen in the rest of the cellphone market.

I don’t think we should expect EU-like prices caps, but at least someone is calling out these companies. There’s no reason that a simple text message should cost 20 cents.

Well, that touchscreen RIM device that we’ve been waiting for is one stop closer to becoming official on Verizon. EngMo received renderings of the Storm 9530 aka Thunder’s packaging and reveals some details that were unsubstantiated in the past. The Storm 9530 will be a world phone and includes a SIM card, an 8GB SanDisk microSD card preinstalled (huh?), but no signs of Wi-Fi.

In the past RIM’s touchscreen device has been called the Thunder and Storm leading some to believe that they’re different devices, but the truth is that the Storm will be the moniker for the domestic version while overseas carriers like Vodafone and our neighbors to the north Rogers will use the Thunder name. Hope that cleared things up.

LG’s Voyager Titanium is Verizon’s latest touch-screen handset, and pretty much the same Voyager previously available in black but with a “lustrous titanium finish” and support for V CAST Music with Rhapsody and Visual Voice Mail.

Read more

Best friends Google and Verizon Wireless are expected to ink a deal that’ll really bring in the green (…) The deal would make Google the default search provider on VZW phones, and VZW will get a cut of search revenue.

Apparently there’s still a few issues being worked out. Google wants to save all the searches on its servers, for one. Imagine Google with that info: “People tend to search for XYZ while on their cellphone, let’s increase the rate for XYZ ads.” And then Google takes over the world, or some such.

Verizon Wireless, the mom and pop cellphone provider, has launched visual voice mail, a feature that rival AT&T has had since last year. Through the power of the Internet, I will point to a video that demonstrates what visual voice mail is.

The service, which costs $2.99 per month, is currently only available on the LG Voyager, though VZW claims it’ll soon be available for other phones. If you’re keen to get the service, you’ll have to head to your local VZW retail store so the kid behind the counter can perform a software update on your Voyager.

via MobileCrunch

Qwest and Verizon made it official: as of now, Qwest will be reselling Verizon Wireless phones and service to its residential and business customers.

Qwest announced plans earlier this year to dump Sprint Nextel, saying that it was exploring other partnership options. As part of today’s announcement Qwest said its current wireless customers (who use handsets and service from Sprint) will be “notified directly about all Verizon Wireless plans and handset options,” but are “not required to do anything at this time.”

Verizon reported another strong quarter, with little thanks to the few remaining landline customers. Verizon Communications, the 51% parent to Verizon Wireless, says its second quarter earnings were up 12%, reaching $1.88 billion, or 66 cents per share, up from $1.68 billion, or 58 cents per share a year ago, even as more landline customers disconnected service. The company reported an 11.4% percent decline in residential landline customers, up from the 10.9% slide in the first quarter.

Which means most of that growth was again coming from its wireless arm: Verizon Wireless reported adding 1.5 million new customers during the second quarter, with the lowest record churn rate (or number of customers leaving for another carrier) of 1.12%. Verizon Wireless said its total revenues were up 11.8% from the same quarter last year, and that its average monthly reveneue per customer increased for the 9th consecutive quarter, coming in at $51.53, monthly data revenue was up 31.3%.

Verizon also said it successfully sold more FiOS services including 176,000 new FiOS TV customers, and 187,000 net new FiOS Internet customers.

Read More

The V750 will save Motorola’s mobile phone unit from going under because it’s military-grade tough and resists shock, vibrations, drastic altitude changes, dust, high/low temps, and solar radiation. The push-to-talk clamshell features a 2.2-inch internal screen and 1.6-inch external. It also has a 2-megapixel camera and supports A2DP devices. Beat that iPhone! The V750 can be yours for $100.

Following last week’s announcement by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, that he wants to end unfair taxes on wireless products and services, Verizon Wireless issued a statement “applauding” the senators work. And sounding like a-know-it-all.

Steve Zipperstein, vice president and general counsel at Verizon Wireless, said in a statement: “Verizon Wireless has always said wireless customers should not be subject to unfair and discriminatory taxes, and this bill addresses that issue directly. On behalf of our more than 67 million customers, we applaud this proposed legislation and commend Senators Wyden and Snowe for this important effort to make wireless services more affordable for American consumers.”

You’re right Verizon, you always have said you hated charging people unfair taxes. Thanks for coming out.

I can’t say that this excites me very much and I doubt it will excite any of you, but BBSync has some exclusive images of the Thunder’s (9500) music player. Apparently the Thunder’s music player will be carrier specific (BOO!) with the ability to purchase songs on the fly. We know the Bold will ship with Media Sync and it makes me wonder why the Thunder won’t have it. Of course, that’s solely based on conjecture, but I don’t see why a Verizon device such as this would play nice with iTunes, anyway.

Other notables include OS 4.7 and a 360×480 touch display that should be glass ala iPhone, It also appears that the Thunder can go into landscape mode for videos. Too bad it’s going to be a CDMA device. I hope, for RIM’s sake, the Thunder is a “World Edition” device.

Dates have not been confirmed for the Touch Diamond or Touch Pro, but they’re hitting VZW sometime this year. Also slated for Verizon is the Samsung SCH-U310, which no one knows anything about. The Motorola Blaze is slated for a September 22 release along with another Moto due in mid-August. The Palm Treo 800w is also slated for release, but no date, yet. Snooze.

Can you hear me now?

No, I’m listening to music thanks to Rhapsody.

That horrendous opening can mean only one thing: Verizon Wireless has joined up with Rhapsody to launch a mobile music subscription service, the first of its kind. The name, V CAST Music with Rhapsody, could use some work, but that’s to be expected. (That’s actually a good idea for an article: on terrible product names.) Anyway, the service, which will run you $15 a month, gives you access to a library of five million all-you-can eat songs. (Or, you can keep paying $1.99 per individual download if you’re so inclined, one for your phone and one for the PC, all DRM-free.)

Subscribers will get to use the service on both their cellphone and PC.

Now, you’ll need a Rhapsody-compatible phone to use the service. These include the unreleased LG Chocolate 3, which will be the service’s launch vehicle, and current “it” phone for VZW, the LG Dare.

You can try it out today by visiting VZW’s Web site.