Posts filed under 'Verizon'
Welcome to MobileMammoth, where we highlight A New Mobile Website Every Day.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.
Or, if you subscribe to our email feed from our home page, you will be automatically entered to win one of our now-famous MobileMammoth T-Shirts!
Our free text messaging tool is also very popular. Enjoy!
There was some very exciting news about the mobile web from two major companies in the last week. Verizon stated on Tuesday that they are opening up their network for use by mobile application developers, and Google announced they will be bidding on the wireless spectrum that the television networks will no longer be using.
As these game-changing events continue to reshape the mobile industry for the better, mobile phone users will start to enjoy the true promise of the the mobile web. And the revenue pie for the mobile carriers will grow beyond expectations.
December 3rd, 2007
Thinking of getting someone a cell phone as a gift for Christmas or Hanukkah this year, but not sure what’s popular? There are quite a few models to choose from, and it’s not easy to tell which phones are hot and which are last years news. To offer a little help, we thought we’d offer up the cell phone models getting the most buzz so far in 2007 (yes, we’ve included the iPhone).
But we want your opinion. What cell phone model would you like to receive as a holiday gift this year? Cast your vote below!
Which mobile phone would YOU like to get as a Holiday gift this year?
October 10th, 2007
March Madness is upon us, and if you haven’t used any of the mobile score alert services yet, now is a great time to start.
We posted a recent article on getting Super Bowl Scores on your cell phone, and many of the services mentioned there also provide NCAA basketball score alerts.
Update: We Found a Free Option for Sports Alerts!
While the CSTV service described below does an excellent job, it does cost money. And who wants to pay?
So we dug deeper and found a free, yet very reliable, mobile sports alert service from 4INFO. They have a simple demo of their service here. As you’ll see on their site when signing up, they have an interesting mobile alert service for the NCAA tournament this year. You can select to receive updates from your favorite team, or select the “Tournament Pass” option.
Single Team:
Select your conference, then your team, and elect to receive scores at different game intervals. It also includes an Update Trigger, which provides an update in the last few minutes of the game that it considers to be a potential upset.
Tournament Pass:
This option includes an upset alert, as well as an updated final score at the end of each remaining NCAA game. A great way to follow your standings in your tournament pool.
Again, the only cost comes from your carrier’s text messaging fees. So test it out on the remaining NCAA tournament games and let us know how it stacks up.
(OK, now back to the paid option that we originally wrote about…)
Best Premium (Paid) Option for NCAA Mobile Alerts
However, the one service that offers the most cell phone alerts for all college sports is CSTV. I started using CSTV to follow my alma mater and a few other schools in 2004, and I consistently received the halftime and final scores of those games via a text message within about 10 minutes. This was using a Sprint cell phone plan on an LG phone.
CSTV’s mobile score alert service supports the following carriers: Alltel, Boost, Cingular, Dobson, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and US Cellular. Of course, confirm that your cell phone plan includes text messaging (SMS).
The service costs $3.99 per month, and provides about 10 messages per month,
depending on the settings you set.
Try it out for March to follow the 2007 NCAA Basketball tournament this year, then let us know what you think! Did you get the NCAA scores on time? Would you use it again?
March 5th, 2007
This is one of those questions we have seen quite a bit recently, so we thought it might be helpful to point out exactly what service plans and phones from Verizon you do need to access your web email accounts.
It’s NOT through Verizon VCAST
Many folks assume they must subscribe to the Verizon V CAST service to access their email. This is not exactly true. What you do need in your Verizon plan is either their Mobile Web 2.0 service, or their simpler getE-MAIL service. Another option is to download a Verizon-approved mobile email application such as Vemail Voicemail, Remo, or SodaPop Mail. These mobile email applications will use up your Verizon airtime minutes, so be aware when you are using them.
Verizon Mobile Web 2.0
Originally launched in July of 2004, Mobile Web 2.0 offers access to limited content and services provided by Verizon and it’s partners, including the ability to access your MSN Hotmail or AOL email accounts.
At the time of this writing, this Mobile Web 2.0 service was available on the following phones:
- Audiovox CDM8910
- Audiovox 9900
- CDM-180VW
- CDM-8615
- CDM 8910
- CDM 8945
- CDM 9200
- Kyocera KX1v
- Kyocera KX2
- LG VX4500
- LG VX4650
- LG VX4700
- LG VX5200
- LG VX6100
- LG VX7000
- LG VX8000
- LG VX8100
- LG “The V” Mobile Device
- Motorola a840
- Motorola e815
- Motorola V265
- Motorola v325
- Motorola v276
- Motorola V710
- Motorola Razr V3C
- Nokia 6236i
- Nokia 6256i
- PN-215
- Samsung a850
- Samsung a890
- Samsung a950
- Samsung a970
- Samsung n330
- Samsung 790
- Samsung 795 Worldphone
- V CAST CDM8940
(Note there is plenty more you can do with VCAST, but we are focusing strictly on web email access here.)
An interesting feature that virtually all these plans include is a text message notification when a new email message arrives in your inbox. For those that receive hundreds of email each week, you will want to think twice before using up all your text message credits.
What’s Your Experience?
We’d like to hear your comments. How else have you accessed email from your Verizon phone? Which way do you prefer?
Comment below and let us know!
February 28th, 2007
I could not help but notice the newly opened Verizon store at a mall here in northern Virginia yesterday. Referred to as the Verizon Experience, the store is eerily similar to the wide open, inviting Apple retail stores many of you have seen.
While I have had horrific experiences with Verizon in the past, particularly with their customer service, there were several characteristics about this store that actually impressed me. This was the first time I could see, touch, and talk to someone about all of Verizon’s services. Wireless phone plans, Internet access, cell phone apps and games, and business services were all on full display under one roof. With the increase in availability of bundled packages, this made it easier to see what one could get from such a bundled package.
Every cell phone, laptop, PC, and PDA in the store was powered up and connected to the Internet. You could actually check email, make a phone call if you felt like it, and check out the features of the various devices at your leisure. This is again similar to the Apple stores having their iMacs, Powerbooks, and iPods (and soon to be iTV and iPhone, perhaps) enabled for customer use. Combined with the well-lit layout, signage, and extra literature, this made the Verizon store very difficult to simply walk past without steooing in.
Finally, in the few minutes I was in the store, no fewer than 3 different employees approached me to offer assistance. They were not pushy, and they all were able to answer my questions about the store and its purpose.
According to the store manager, this store in Fairfax, Virginia was one of only two such stores thus far (the other one being in Southlake, TX, just outside Dallas). A Verizon website provides additional details about the stores here.
With few exceptions, most wireless carriers retail stores are small, under-staffed, and include long lines. This made the experience vastly different. While Verizon clearly cannot score many points for originality here (that credit goes to Apple), I must say I was intrigued and even impressed with the overall presentation.
December 28th, 2006
So it sounds great, right? Watch all your favorite YouTube videos on your Verizon cell phone. Finally, the wireless carriers are opening their eyes to offering the content on the world wide — oh wait, no they’re not.We at MobileMammoth even wrote the recent announcement here. It would be great, if it were true. The fact is, Verizon and the other wireless carriers are still intent on controlling the phonetop. It’s AOL from 1995. AOL never made any sense to me. Back when you could choose between Prodigy, AOL, and Compuserve for your ISP (I’m sure I am forgetting a few), it blew my mind as to why anyone chose AOL. Rather than open the doors wide open to this new thing called the World Wide Web, AOL forced you to get through their own content suppliers first. Why? Just give me the net and get out of the way.
And so it goes with the wireless carriers. With the Verizon deal, they are pre-selecting the videos to be made available, and subscribers must pay Verizon an additional $15 per month for the V Cast service. If they really want to start seeing the data services fees roll in, they need to open up their mobile browsers to every site that works on the mobile phone, period.
Obviously, AOL was able to survive and was very successful for a few years, until people really began to understand the Web and what it had to offer. Well, we’re not in 1995 anymore, and today’s cell phone users are pretty web savvy. Whatever content deals the wireless carriers offer, the sooner they come to their “premium subscription” will never compete with the Web, the better it will be for everyone
December 6th, 2006
Beginning in early December, Verizon Wireless customers will be able to watch YouTube videos on their cell phones.
The videos offered will be limited to those approved by both companies. Based on the announcement, the videos selected will be shorter in length, suitable for all ages, and appealling to the general public rather than a specific group.
The video service requires a subscription to Verizon’s VCast service, which adds about $15 to your monthly cell phone bill. VCast is available on select Verizon cell phones, so if you’re interested in adding VCast and have not upgraded your mobile phone recently, you may need to upgrade first.
Of all the cell phone apps that exist today, mobile video holds tremendous promise. The carrier networks now operate at sufficient speeds and carry enough capacity to deliver very reasonable video quality (this was not the case 3 years ago).
This is certainly not the first time video is being made available on the cell phone, but it is a sign of more to come in the very near future.
November 28th, 2006
Verizon Wireless customers with certain phones will now be able to synchronize their cell phone contact list with that of popular email applications.
Plaxo, the provider of the service, announced Tuesday that Verizon users with phones supporting the BREW wireless platform will be able to synchronize their contacts with Yahoo! Web mail, MS Outlook, Outlook Express, AOL’s IM service, and Thunderbird.
The product, called Plaxo Mobile Plus, was developed jointly by Plaxo and Zingy.
Clearly, the greatest feature here is that once the service is installed, any additions or updates to your contacts in either your PC, for example, will automatically update the contacts in your mobile phone. The service includes the ability to pre-select which contacts you wish to keep current on your mobile.
Not a Verizon customer? Plaxo says they are in talks with other carriers to offer this service in the coming weeks.
November 4th, 2006
