On Monday–following months of scrutiny regarding Cablevision’s broadband speeds–the FCC commended the New York-based cable provider in its Measuring Broadband America report for delivering 90 percent of the advertised 15 Mbps.

In the August report, the FCC criticized Cablevision for delivering internet download speeds of only 50 percent what was marketed to customers during peek hours. Verizon and Comcast–two of Cablevision’s main competitors—both were reported to deliver speeds faster than advertised in the August report.

Cablevision is also offering high-speed internet access at a discount price to low-income homes that are the same 15 Mpbs as the standard Optimum Online service. Comcast also has discounted access, but at 1 Mbps.

In a blog post, Joe Gurin, chief of the FCC’s Consumer and Goverrment Affairs stated, “We are pleased to note that the performance of one company—Cablevision—markedly improved from earlier this year.”

Sprint Nextel is planning to offer the iPhone as early as next month, and as it does with other smartphones (and as soon in its commercials) the company says it will offer an unlimited data plan for Apple’s super-phone, according to Bloomberg.

But as CNET points out, that isn’t likely to last very long.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless both got rid of unlimited data, in favor of tiered pricing options, after the iPhone came to their networks. The iPhone comes with a price for mobile phone carriers — it eats an enormous amount of data from up in the clouds.

The new iPhone would likely overburden Sprint Nextel’s 4G network, forcing it to do the same.

The CNET article cites an analyst that expects Sprint to continue using its unlimited data advertising campaign to lure customers away from AT&T and Verizon, and then pull a switch.

The federal government is taking steps to block AT&T and T-Mobile merger on antitrust grounds.

The Justice Department took the step by filing suit to stop the merger, saying it would hurt competition and drive up prices, the Wall Street Journal reported.

At a press conference Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the merger would result in tens of millions of consumers facing fewer choices and lower-quality products, WSJ reported.

The Justice Department added that AT&T can propose fixes in the deal that would satisfy the government.

The massive $39 billion combination of two of the “big four” American mobile phone companies would create a company with 130 million subscribers, surpassing Verizon as the No. 1 wireless company in the US.

AT&T is currently No. 2, and T-Mobile is 4.

The third place wireless company, Spring Nextel Corp., is also against the merger.

AT&T stock was down nearly 4 percent on the news. Sprint was up nearly 10 percent.

It’s like if the cola wars required people to buy special glassware in other to drink each product. It’s like if the burger war restaurants made you sign a contract not to go to the other place

OK maybe it’s not that intense, but Verizon is already drawing a line in the sand with AT&T’s upcoming 4G LTE network. Verizon said Friday that it’s 4G LTE phones will not work with AT&T.

After years of Verizon CDMA versus AT&T GSM, which required us to buy new phones when switching cell providers in the first place, we see now that nothing is changing.

Explanation? Verizon claims it’s all about frequency. Verizon uses the upper half of the 700 Mhz range (746-787 Mhz), while AT&T’s network will work on the lower half (704-746). It’s a small, silly difference that somehow, someway means that the iPhone 5 and all those great Android phones will have one model for Verizon and one model for AT&T, which REALLY just means you have to keep spending money.

Because, after all, that’s the name of the game.

Starting tomorrow, Verizon Wireless will cap the amount of data its mobile users are allowed to download for its formerly unlimited $30 wireless data plan.

The company will also introduce much more expensive plans for users who want to download more data.

The changes will only affect newly enrolled customers, meaning today is the last day people can sign up for an unlimited plan.

AT&T did away with unlimited data plans last year. T-Mobile still offers unlimited downloading, but throttles down users who download a lot of data. Only Sprint Nextel still offers an unlimited data plan with no strings attached.

Starting tomorrow, Verizon users can buy 5 gigabytes per month for $50 or 10 gigabytes for $80. Verizon will charge $10 per gigabyte after that.

OK, so the iPhone is coming to Verizon. Awesome.

What you should know by now is that this will not be a 4G phone.

What you should also know is that there are already some amazing phones out there that aren’t made by Apple. Here are a few:

Motorola Droid Bionic

The Motorola Droid Bionic is one of the most exciting new phones to come for Verizon. It features:

• GHZ dual-core (yes, dual-core) Nvidia Tegra 2 processor
• 512MB RAM
• 16GB memory expandable to 32GB
• 8MP camera with dual-LED flash
• Front VGA camera
• 4.3-inch qHD display
• 960×540 resolution (iPhone 4’s “retina display” resolution is 960×640)
• Verizon’s LTE 4G network

This is huge improvement over current generation cell phones, including the iPhone 4. Verizon’s LTE network boasts speeds of 10 MBPS and will presumably become faster over the coming years. If you are excited about iPhone’s Facetime, then you will be happy to know that you will be able to use Skype’s video chat over the network with the front facing VGA camera. Further, the quick LTE network will be very useful when using the phone as a Mifi wireless hotspot to provide internet to up to 5 other devices.

The dual-core processor allows the phone to load Flash content at snappy speeds and makes using the Android 2.2 Froyo a dream. The dual-core processor is also important for future iterations of Android after Google’s announcement that Android 3.0 Honeycomb will only be able to run on dual-core processor devices. Currently Honeycomb is limited to tablets, but this will probably change once more dual-core handsets hit the market.

The Bionic was announced at CES and is expected to hit the market Q2 2011. There was recently a leak through Amazon.com of all places where the phone was temporarily on the website priced at $149.99 with 2-year contract and listed as coming soon.

HTC Thunderbolt

For you portable media lovers out there this is going to be the phone for you. This phone boasts:

• 1 GHZ Snapdragon CPU
• 768MB Ram
• 8GB memory plus 32GB SD card pre-installed
• 8MP camera dual-LED flash
• 1.3MP front facing camera
• 4.3-inch super LCD display
• Dolby surround sound speakers
• Verizon’s LTE 4G network.

Like the Bionic the LTE network is going to offer a world of possibilities for this phone, however this is not where the interest ends. This phone is going to be the ultimate [non-tablet] portable media machine. The large screen coupled with kick stand and slide out surround sound speakers which will offer an unparalleled experience for viewing media on a cell phone platform. Again, unlike the iPhone, Flash content will be able to be viewed on this phone as well. With the newest iteration of the Snapdragon processor this phone will be running Android 2.2 Froyo speedily and will process media better than most.

This HTC beast is expected to be on sale soon at a rumored price of $250 with 2-year contract; possibly in the next couple of weeks.

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 on Verizon is going to be worth the wait. It has been announced that Verizon will be getting Windows Phone 7 by the end of June. It can be expected that this will not simply be a port of existing Windows Phones that currently run on the AT&T network and will be an exciting new version of the Phones. This release will probably coincide with a major OS update that Microsoft is planning to release mid-year.

There’s a lot of talk about cellular service providers unrolling their 4G networks, but most people still don’t know the difference between the new and the old and how it will affect them. For starters the “G” means generation and yeap, you guessed it, we’re entering our fourth generation in technological advancements in the cellular service industry. So now you know why it is called what it is called, but what is the true difference? What can we expect to experience differently from what we are used to?

This may not make a huge difference with you, but the frequency bands are different between 3G and 4G. With 3G, the frequency is usually between 1.8 and 2.5 GHz (Gigahertz = unit of frequency) and can transfer data at a rate around 3 MB/second (about a song’s worth of data per second). With 4G, the frequency bandwidth is between 2 and 8 GHz and can transfer data from 3 MB/second up to 12 MB/second, but with the potential to get up to 200 MB/second. So that would allow users to view streaming video clearly in HD, download their favorite TV shows in minutes rather than hours, and allow for overall faster service while perusing the internet. The types of 4G broadband networks are LTE (Long-Term Evolution), Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), and WiFi.

When Verizon created their CDMA platform (the name for their 3G platform) they did not include the capabilities for upgrades to their 3G service to make it faster (unlike Sprint, for example, who was able to update their 3G service). As a result, Verizon is now rolling out 4G service and all of the other companies are soon to follow if they haven’t already. Of the main cellular carriers, T-Mobile has promised to roll out 4G soon (whatever that means), Sprint already has a 4G network, Verizon is in the process with some cities ready to go (like Boston and NYC) , and AT&T promises to roll out 4G in 2011.

So that is the basic gist of the difference between 3G and 4G, so you should be happy and excited to get your hands on a 4G enabled smartphone when you have your next available upgrade and when your carrier has a solid 4G infrastructure in place. I know there are 3G and 4G articles up everywhere, but if you haven’t read the differences just yet, perhaps this shed some light for you.

The iPhone is coming to Verizon next month, but don’t buy it until you read these five points about the new marvel of mobile phoning:

1. Carrier reliability

Last May, a survey determined that an astonishing 4.5 percent of AT&T users experienced a dropped call over a 90 day period compared to 1.5 percent of Verizon customers.

Verizon also led the way in overall satisfaction, with nearly 50 percent of their users “very satisfied” with their service, compared to only 23 percent of AT&T customers.

2. If debating the switch, are you willing to shell out the cash?

If you purchased an iPhone with AT&T after June 1, 2010, you better be ready to pay a staggering $325 cancellation fee (minus $10 for every month of service completed). While AT&T claims the “fee is not a penalty,” that is a lot of money we are talking about here… almost the price of two new Verizon iPhones (with 2-year activation)!

3. Talking to a friend while checking e-mail or mapping directions? — Not on Verizon!

Apparently “multitasking” such as checking your e-mail or browsing the internet while on a call, a commonplace task for us AT&T iPhone users, will not be possible on the Verizon network. The Wall Street Journal says that Verizon executives feel this isn’t an important feature to most users, but it is promised to be available next year.

4. How much longer until the iPhone 5 (4G)?

Apple is infamous for quickly antiquating its electronics with updated models, usually within a year and a half.

We saw the release of the iPhone 4 in June so it’s a good bet the iPhone 5 will be out sometime this summer. Are you really going to shell out $200 and lock yourself into a two year contract with Verizon in February when the iPhone 5 could be here as soon as June?

5. The 3G Mobile Hotspot app…

Not only will the Verizon iPhone come preloaded with the 3G Mobile Hotspot app, it will support up to 5 devices. AT&T offers tethering of only one device with their 2GB data plan for $45/month. While Verizon’s hotspot pricing hasn’t been officially announced, you can bet you will get more bang for your buck than AT&T’s measly one-device tethering.

At 11:11 a.m. on 1/11/2011, Apple announced that Verizon will start selling a version of the iPhone 4 on February 10.

This move gives iPhone and Apple devotees a choice between major American mobile phone networks for the first time since the phone’s inception in 2007. Until now, the iPhone has only worked with AT&T.

It appears that this version will NOT support 4G LTE.

The Associated Press reports that Verizon chief operating officer, Lowell McAdam, is making the announcement Tuesday in New York.

Apple COO Tim Cook, called the move “the beginning of a great relationship between Verizon and Apple,” according to the AP.

Pre-sales begin February 3.

You know we’ll have more to say about this. Stay tuned!

Rumors have been circulating this week that Verizon will finally announce that they will carry the Apple iPhone at a press conference this Tuesday in New York.

According to a number of sources, including Fortune, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the cell-phone giant has been  discreetly handing out red envelopes containing invites to a press conference this Tuesday at 11 a.m. EST at Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center. The invitation doesn’t offer much more info, save for the fact that Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam will host the event.

So how does that translate into “Verizon’s getting the iPhone?” Rumors have been circulating since last year that America’s largest network would be getting the incredibly popular phone on the heels of a Wallstreet Journal article saying that Apple had issued a late 2010 production start for iPhones capable of running on Verizon’s CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network.

The phone is expected to go on sale next month for Verizon customers, stick with Blastmagazine.com for more in the coming week.

Well it’s Thursday morning here in Boston. The big news yesterday was that Verizon will roll out an uber-fast 4G wireless network all over the place by the end of the year.

If you’re like one news editor, who shall remain nameless, who wussfully buckled this year and switched from Verizon to AT&T to grab the iPhone 4, you’re outta luck.

That’s because the rumors are spreading, once again, that Verizon will have an iPhone 4 very soon as AT&T loses its contracted exclusivity on the very best cell phone in the world.

The Wall Street Journal fueled the rumors this week with a report, from nameless sources, saying: “Apple Inc. plans to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that would allow Verizon Wireless to sell the smartphone early next year, said people briefed by Apple.”

We have no idea who these people are. We do not know whom Apple chooses to brief, when they brief them, how the briefings are conducted, and if there is any kind of religious ceremony involved with burning of saintly cards and cutting of hands.

So tell your friends you read it on Blast Magazine: the iPhone is TOTALLY coming to Verizon.

At least, that’s the rumor.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab will run on the Android 2.2 Platform and will feature a 7-inch touch screen display, front and rear-facing cameras and a 1.2 GHz application processor. The Galaxy Tab will feature a number of exclusive applications from Verizon Wireless such as V Cast Music with Rhapsody, V Cast Video on Demand, V Cast Song ID, VZ Navigator, and games such as Leg’s Golf and N.O.V.A.

“The Samsung Galaxy Tab is an exciting addition to the Verizon Wireless Android portfolio,” said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless.  ”Coupled with the nation’s largest 3G network, the Galaxy Tab is a powerhouse that will be as exciting to use as it is practical for both consumers and business customers.”

The tablet offers full support for Adobe Flash 10.1. The rear-facing camera is 3.0 megapixels and the front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels. It will have 2gb of internal memory and 16gb of pre-installed microSD memory (expandable up to 32gb.)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab will be available in the coming weeks in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com.

With assorted Droid phones seemingly hitting stores every month or so, purchasing a smartphone (if your service provider is either Verizon or Sprint) has all of a sudden become much like buying an automobile or a desktop computer. Meaning, as soon as you take it off of the lot or walk out of the store, it’s almost immediately replaced by something infinitely better.

Well, fear not, owners of the HTC Droid Incredible. The Droid X isn’t that much better than what you already own. In fact, to me, it’s not even close.

Now, don’t get me wrong, (and not to sound like a hypocrite) the Droid X is a technically superior phone to the HTC Incredible. It features more storage space (up to 40GB compared to 24GB) slightly better resolution (854 x 480 to 800 x 480) image stabilization, better battery life, and an HDMI output. The X also has a bigger screen, too; the 4.3-inch touchscreen (with Swype, but you can now install that on the Incredible) beats the Incredible’s 3.7 inch screen. And while that doesn’t sound like it’s THAT much bigger, it is. Trust me.

Silly as it may seem to some, it’s the aforementioned size difference that’s really the reason I can’t say I’d buy the Droid X. To me, it’s like trying to carry around a dinner plate in your pocket. I can’t stress this enough.
IT’S HUGE.
I know it’s just my personal preference, and I realize that smartphones are going to get larger just based on added “bells n’ whistles”, but I still want to use something that is the size of a normal cellphone. While trying to talk on the Droid X, I constantly found myself trying to get comfortable while using it, and I just couldn’t. Also on a device this size, it’s next to impossible to click on anything in the top left corner (missed calls, messages, Tweets) with your thumb, unless you’ve got giant “man hands”.

Speaking of which, I purposely let my girlfriend use the Droid X for a few days (and no, she doesn’t have “man hands”) just to see what her reaction would be, and she returned it to me after one day saying, “I think it’s pretty, but it’s too big for my hands.”
If only she could say the same about yours truly. *sigh*

So, what if the size of the Droid X isn’t an issue for you? Well, while I personally don’t know anyone (no matter how tech dorky they may be) who would hook up a smartphone like the X to their television to watch a movie more than once or twice, perhaps that’s something you want from your phone.
Me? I just want fast internet access, clean and clear reception, some fun apps, a decent camera, and a high res screen. Yes, the Droid X features all of these things, but it just feels like there’s too much going on with this thing. Again, I still want to feel like I’ve got a cellphone in my pocket, rather than a laptop that makes phone calls.

The bottom line? Despite it’s enormous girth, the Droid X is a very powerful device. You get Verizon’s top notch service, and yes, it’s got much better multimedia features than the HTC Incredible. However, if I was forced to choose between this and the Incredible, I’d much rather plunk down my $200 on HTC’s gem of a smartphone.

For the full specs on Motorola’s Droid X, click here.

Before I get into the meat of my review, let me preface it by telling you that I’m a card carrying Apple ballwasher of the highest order.

Yes, I’m one of “those people” who turn their nose up at anything that’s a P.C., I look forward to Steve Jobs’ press conferences like they’re the Superbowl, and I will not budge on my stance that Apple’s iPhone is the greatest cellphone ever produced, and it will never be topped by any company no matter how hard they try.

Apparently, I was very, VERY wrong.

After about a week of use, I have no doubt in my mind that the HTC Incredible is the fastest, most user friendly cellphone I’ve ever gotten my mitts on, and, it destroys my iPhone 3G.

*Feels awful for betraying my beloved, but now slow as a snail iPhone*

The HTC Incredible is so lightning fast, thanks to its 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

This means that everything, from watching YouTube videos, to sending an email, to posting on Facebook, to downloading new apps, happens almost instantaneously. And that’s WITHOUT the use of WiFi. With it, the speed of this phone is absolutely mind boggling.

Also helping this phone’s speediness, and helping me to forget about using my iPhone, is it’s software. The Incredible uses the new HTC Sense UI, and its ease of use can’t be put into words. So instead, here are some of the highlights of this operating system that I think you should know about.

• There are SEVEN home screens. You can pinch the home screen to view “cards” of all the home screens at once. Flickr is included and can be synced with your album on the phone
• The keyboard is awesome (more on that in a bit)
• Flash lite is included with the browser
• Integrated Twitter app

In regards to the HTC Incredible’s browser, it works great and renders web pages very fast. As I noted above, you DO get Flash lite, but not the full version, so don’t be surprised when every flash page that you go to doesn’t work properly. That little annoyance aside, I loved how easy everything is to use. You can “pinch-zoom” pages in as far as you want, you get a nice screen shot of bookmarked pages, and they can all be viewed in landscape or vertical configurations.

If the HTC Incredible’s speed and ease of use isn’t enough to get you salivating (and it should be) its sleek looks and feel might be the thing to convince you to purchase one. This is the thinnest smart phone I’ve ever held, and its styling is fantastic. It’s slightly curved, and rubberized on the back, adding a “grippy” feel to the phone, which is great for a klutz like me, who’s constantly dropping everything I touch.

The Incredible’s 3.7 inch, 480×800 WVGA AMOLED touch screen is also pretty bad ass. It’s super bright, very responsive, and has the perfect amount of haptic feedback.

Because of the Incredible’s responsive screen and large size, the phone’s keyboard is much easier to use than my iPhone 3G’s. It’s way faster (again, see the theme here?) and I loved how the user can hold down a key to get the “shift” row. I also liked how the manufacturer fit a comma and return key in place of a dedicated “smiley face” button. Oh, and if that’s not all cool enough, the HTC Incredible also has built in voice input on any text field, and much to my surprise, it actually works and I wasn’t able to trip it up!

And now, let’s get to the HTC Incredible’s camera.

Sorry iPhone 3G.

You’re being left in the dust, yet again. The Incredible’s camera is 8 megapixel, and has two LED flashes. The photos I took were the sharpest I’ve ever seen taken by a smart phone, and bursting with color and contrast. They’re also incredibly (pun intended) easy to take, what with the phone’s track-pad button or by simply pressing the screen. Zooming in and out, turning off the flash, and making any kind of adjustment to your snapped photo (brightness, saturation, etc..) is also a cinch, as is sending out any photo via text or email.

Oh, wait. I almost forgot — it makes phone calls, too.

For the week I used the HTC Incredible, I was reminded just how much I missed Verizon’s service, and just how shitty AT&T’s really is. I didn’t once have any issues with dropped calls, or any annoying “Can you hear me? HELLO!??” moments, like I’m wont to do with my iPhone 3G.

OK, enough gushing about this phone, and let’s just get to the bottom line. The HTC Incredible beats hell out of any other smart phone available as of this very moment.

If you’re a Verizon customer, and you’re looking to upgrade, get this phone immediately. If you’re a Verizon customer, and you’ve been seething iPhone envy, same thing. Buy it now. You’ve finally got something that’ll make a devout Apple dork like myself rethink their purchase of the once mighty iPhone.

Let this be a lesson, Steve Jobs. You’d better knock my socks off with the iPhone 4G this summer, or else I’m buying me an Incredible.

Time was, everyone complained about their electric bill. Time is, everyone complains about their water bill, especially with The Great Boston Water Boil Order going on this week.

But the real ripoff is television and Internet service, and it doesn’t matter which company you select.

Let’s take the example of our fair city.

Comcast enjoys a virtual monopoly over most of the residential parts of the city, and if you go to Comcast.com, you’ll see a variety of innocuous-looking deals.

Digital Preferred Cable, with most of the popular cable channels, including MTV, Discovery Channel, Nickelodeon, ESPN, and CNN. It’s $39.99 per month for the first six months, but it jumps to $79.99 per month after the first year.

Internet has an even bigger jump. It starts at $19.99 per month for the first six months, and goes to $44.95 per month after that.

Of course, they want you to get the “bundle.” So you can move your home phone service — or sign UP for home phone service if you’re like the rest of us — and pay $199.99 per month for TV, phone and Internet.

The average American household has three televisions. Get ready to add $14.95 per month per cable box. Then you either have to buy a cable modem or rent one from them. They charge a monthly fee for each remote control you have, too.

DVR service is also extra.

And Comcast, conveniently, makes it hard to find the “double play” option that let’s you opt out of phone service. They really want you to have to buy the phone service to get the “deal.”

You can get 15 Mbps Internet and Digital Preferred Cable service for $79.99 per month for six months, which then jumps to $119.00 per month. You get one box but would have to pay extra for DVR, any other boxes, and rental fees for remote controls and the cable modem.

Some people even get stuck paying a rental fee for a router that they supply you. Buy your own router.

Add it all up, and you could be paying $200 per month.

Forget about Xfinity. It doesn’t exist. It’s just Comcast with a different logo. If you go to Xfinity.com and click “order,” it forwards you to the same Comcast.com site we just visited.

Verizon is the other player in Boston, but they’ve been so slow to expand their FiOS service — it’s not available in most places, let’s put it that way.

You can get DSL service from Verizon for $19.99 per month, forever, and they throw in a free wireless router. But you still have to rent or buy a DSL modem.

This price sounds great, eh?

Wrong.

This price, advertised at the top of Verizon.com, is only good if you’re a Verizon phone service customer.

Upon closer examination, we also find that the $19.99 plan is the “up to 1 Mbps” plan. That’s as slow as it gets in the “broadband” world. If all you do is send e-mail and visit a few websites, you might get by, but we do not recommend this plan.

The “turbo” Verizon plan, which maxes out at 7.1 Mbps is $39.99 per month to phone customers, and $49.99 per month to regular Joe six-packs.

That’s a higher price for service that’s about 1/3 the speed of cable Internet.

If you don’t have FiOS in your area, you’d have to get DirecTV satellite television service if you went with Verizon.

There’s an interesting bundle there: $84.99 for television, phone and Internet. But let’s dissect that bundle. It gets you more than 210 channels, including your local stations and most popular “cable” channels. It even includes DVR, but you don’t get any HD converter boxes with this package. You’d have to upgrade to the $99.99 bundle to get a box that lets you display in high-definition. Then you’d still have to pay for additional boxes for your other televisions. With any bundle, you’re stuck with home phone service that you may not use.

There’s nothing we can do or say that will make this any better for you. For now, the going rate for fast Internet and most of your favorite television channels is upwards of $200 per month.

Apps

Practicality apps are always put at a premium, but they rarely work exactly as advertised. Recently, however, more useful apps to provide additional functionality or ease of use for the owner have been popping up in the app store. Here are three must own applications that make the iPhone even better.

DozeGuard-If you ever fall asleep while consuming media on your iPhone, this app is well worth the $0.99 price tag. The app uses the phone’s accelerometer to detect whether the user has fallen asleep, and stops the media, be it a movie, podcast, or audiobook. When the user wakes, they can choose to restart the media from the point at which they last moved the device, or when the application stopped the media. It’s a neat idea, and further exemplifies the ingenuity of app developers today. Depending on the setting, users can set the interval DozeGuard expects them to move in, and be alerted by a chord soon before the app stops the media to alert the user that they should move the phone or the media will stop. The app just works, and those listening to long form media need to have it.

Clock Pro- This is the most versatile and high functioning clock app in the app store today. The impressive thing about it is it essentially gives the iPhone the ability to multitask by supporting alarms exteriorly, allowing users to run their iPhones to full capacity without losing their alarms, a severe limitation to many clock apps except the iPhone’s native one. The app also supports a sleep timer and alarm clock that allows the user to rise and fall asleep to music on from the iPod application. In addition to these core functions, Clock Pro features an analog clock, chess clock, world clock, stopwatch, nature times, egg timer, project clock, metronome, and a count down clock. It’s basically the temporal equivalent to AppBox Pro, and the first of its kind worth purchasing at $0.99.

StealthType SMS- One of the most common complaints new iPhone users make is that with a completely flat surface, it is now impossible for them to type text messages without looking. With StealthType, users can now type completely accurate messages without ever glancing at the screen. The interface allows them to quickly select a message recipient from a favorites screen and then type around where users expect letter or character to be. The application speaks back, letting users know what letter is selected, allowing them to toggle their finger around until they have found the right letter, and then release to select it. The delete and space keys are easily accessible, but the app has some serious limitations. Unless users have headphones plugged in or are alone, the app is basically unusable, and special characters are hard to find. If this were an option in the native messenger on the phone, it would be exponentially more useful, but as a stand-alone app, it will oftentimes be more trouble than just simply looking down at the phone. It’s a great idea though, and one Apple and iPhone users should definitely take notice of.

News

Apple announced that they will unveil the iPhone 4.0 operating system on April 8, so it only seems fit that we add to the rampant speculation surrounding it and make my predictions of what the OS will include. First is the most obvious and needed improvement: multitasking. Second, some basic enhancements to the UI while keeping a similar profile, like a fancier graphic for moving in and out of applications (or between them). I expect more customization to be allowed as well, namely wallpapers and the ability to set any song on the iPod app as a ringtone or message alert. Third, better integration with social media, like icons on the contact list screen to all the specific contact’s social media accounts. Also, voice commands like "post on Matt Schnitt’s Facebook wall" could be supported. Next, I think Apple will fully embrace the augmented reality revolution and release a killer native AR app that pushes the technology to the next level. Finally, though this is more wishful thinking than anything given the iPad’s limitation, but Flash support would make browsing exponentially more pleasant. It will be really cool to see what this OS contains, as it will set the bar for mobile platforms moving forward. I wonder how "magical" and "revolutionary" it will be.

In other news, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg clearly wants the iPhone and it seems like it’s only a matter of time. After last month’s Wall Street Journal article claiming that Apple is working on two phones, one for Verizon’s CDMA platform, Seidenberg said Tuesday that they are open to the iPhone and that they have told Apple that. The CEO wouldn’t confirm or deny whether he knew if the iPhone was coming to Verizon this year when he spoke Tuesday at the Council on Foreign Relations, but did cite the WSJ report when talking about the possibility. Meanwhile, Apple COO Tim Cook recently spoke about Apple’s gains from only partnering with AT&T, saying, “It’s important to remember that AT&T has more mobile broadband users than any other carrier in the world. In the vast majority of locations, we think iPhone customers are having a great experience.” Eventually, the iPhone will be available on all carriers. It’s inevitable. The question is how soon it will happen. As of now, I would be cautiously optimistic that the iPhone reaches Verizon customers within the next year.

Looking for more iPhone and iPad updates? Follow Matt on Twitter by clicking here.

FINALLY.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Apple may be working on an iPhone designed to work on the Verizon Wireless network.

Since its inception, the iPhone has only been available on the AT&T network in the US.

The Journal, citing anonymous sources, said Apple is going to release a new iPhone this summer — which we’ve expected, the iPhone 4G — and that the company has been working on a model for Verizon.

No release dates were cited.

Apple had no comment on the report.

In a move that we and every other content provider will strongly applaud, FCC chief Julius Genachowski will propose a series of network neutrality rules that will require content providers to treat all internet traffic equally, regardless of content. While no official announcement has been made, a public announcement is expected Monday.

Network neutrality is a contentious subject. In a way, everyone has an understanding that ISPs will provide an uninhibited flow from content providers to the end users without purposely affecting traffic. Companies that provide internet connections, like Comcast and Verizon, often discuss their displeasure in the fact that content providers, like Google and Amazon, make their profits using the infrastructure that the ISPs have set up, without having to pay for any of it.

In theory, ISPs could choose which traffic is allowed to travel over their pipes, blocking entire domains if they wanted to. While this has never officially happened in the US, there exist no rules to actually bar ISPs from doing so. While blocking domains is a rather draconian measure that would likely never occur, Comcast has been known to throttle BitTorrent traffic, giving other data priority over the file-sharing platform.

Comcast got a scolding from the FCC, but BitTorent wasn’t a company out to make a living, so there weren’t really any damages — other than the dishonesty over its actions to Comcast’s customers. Nevertheless, it’s easy to see how an ISP could throttle one company’s traffic over another’s, resulting in damages to a business.

The FCC panel is made up of Chairman Genachowski, two democrats, and two republicans. The panel previously voted 3-2 to favor net neutrality rules, so this could be an indication of how they will vote in the future to formally codify these rules.

EA-Mobile, a division of Electronic Arts today released “Rock Band Mobile” as a timed exclusive for Verizon Wireless phones.

The game, available through the Verizon Network, comes with 25 MP3 quality tunes from artists you may know and love including Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Blink 182, 30 Seconds to Mars, and more.

Just like it’s big brother, Rock Band Mobile allows players to perform lead Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals in either Solo fashion, or by teaming up with friends.

All of this can be yours for either $3.99 a‚  month or at the one-time price of $9.99. Me? I’ll stick with The Beatles: Rock Band.

When Rock Band Mobile becomes available for anything other than Verizon, say AT&T and the iPhone perhaps, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Wireless carriers consistently rank low in customer satisfaction rankings. One only need troll the pages of sites like Consumerist to understand why. Expensive, spotty service couples with poor customer service makes for quite a set of disgruntled customers.

One of my big beefs with carriers (or even phone makers-I’m looking at you Apple) are carriers that cripple their phones because they’re worried that missing income could erode their bottom lines. Early on, Verizon crippled the RAZR so that uploaded mp3′s couldn’t be used as ringtones, forcing people to purchase expensive twenty second clips of songs that they already purchased for $0.99 from iTunes. Even still, most Verizon phones do not allow personalized mp3 ringtones, and customers must purchase them. On the flip side, Cingular customers, who have access to many of the same phones, are free to use their phones as they see fit.

Of course, this lead the grassroots efforts that lead to consumers hacking their phones. Apple routinely blocks apps from the App store that they find threatening. Such was the case with Podcaster which Apple blocked for “duplicating functionality.” Nevermind the clock apps, and calculator apps, and stock watching apps, and … Need I really continue? On a similar vein, AT&T forced Apple to remove NetShare because tethering your iPhone as a modem violated their contract. Of course, solutions to both of these missing apps are available to users who jailbreak their phones, leaving AT&T and Apple without any income.

While AT&T has allowed VoIP apps to run on iPhones, they have to restrict data to Wi-Fi networks only, eliminating the possibility of using data networks for free minutes. However, not all carriers are so generous. Nokia wants to bundle Skype on their upcoming flagship device, the N97 in Europe. Clearly, this would make the phone quite attractive to consumers already strapped for cash. However, O2 and Orange have refused to even stock the device unless Nokia strips the software out.

Businesses need to stop treating their customers like shoddy criminals and realize that it’s our nature to try and save money any way we can. If the technology exists, why can’t we use it? Carriers should realize that by allowing the software with a small surchange would sell more phones, bringing in more customers and more money. What about that situation isn’t attractive? Could this be why the US and Europe have some of the most underdeveloped wireless networks when compared to Asian countries?

Change may be scary, but it’s time for carriers to embrace new technologies and move forward. People are paying good money for devices-they’re going to want to use them to their fullest extent.

With everyone’s eyes directed to the flashy touch screen phones, like the iPhone, the LG Dare, Sprint’s Instinct and the Blackberry Storm, one little touch screen phone seemed to have slipped under the radar. The Motorola Krave ZN4, though, is by far one of the best touch screen phones that has been released so far.

The Krave is unpretentious in a way that that the Dare, Instinct and Storm are not. No, it does not come close to besting the iPhone as the best touch screen phone out there, but the Krave offers new and unique capabilities and has one of the better touch screens in the market.

What sets the Krave apart, and confuses some at first glance, is that it combines the flip phone with the touch screen. The Krave has a clear cover that, in order to text message, access the internet or e-mails or talk on the phone, flips open like a normal flip phone would. However, when closed, users can touch through the cover to access new text messages or music, V Cast TV, photos or VZ Navigator; a helpful and compact way to use the Krave’s four main amenities. There is a “lock” switch on the side of the phone as well so that the touch buttons do not accidentally get pressed when the phone is put in a purse or pocket.

Though using the phone’s inner touch pad when it is locked causes some issues with the accuracy of the touch pad, the Krave has one of the best touch screens in the market. While it is not as accurate as the iPhone, the touch screen on the Krave buzzes back at the user whenever they touch the screen so they can tell whether the tap was registered or not. This comes in especially handy when using the key pad, which is a regular keypad when held vertically or a QWERTY keypad when held horizontally.

Similarly, the browser is one of the easier to use because of its own unique quirk: instead of just tapping on the link that the user wants to access and hoping that the phone registers the right one (one of the major problems with the Dare), the Krave has a pointer that lines up with the proper link, and the user clicks on the pointer to guarantee accuracy. There is no need for zooming in to try to click the appropriate tiny link with this helpful addition.

The inner menu is easy to navigate. By contrast to when the Krave is closed, the four main icons when it is opened are for messages, the dial pad, the full menu, and contacts. After clicking either the “Menu” button or just the bottom half of the touch screen, a full menu opens up, offering a full array of options from Bluetooth and Media Center to Tools and Settings. All access points in the phone can be reached via this menu.

How many times have you dropped your phone on the ground? Can you even remember the last time it fall out of your pocket and the cover split into tiny little pieces? Have you had waking nightmares of dropping your phone and never being able to put it back together?

Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme — or maybe it’s just us — but the fact is: phones are breakable. Before the only solution was an unattractive protective case or an expensive insurance policy, but now Motorola and Verizon are teaming up to come up with a better solution: an unbreakable phone.

And oh, did we try to break it.

The most damage we did to the new Motorola Adventure V750 was the plastic outer-coating protecting the battery falling off. The battery remained intact, the plastic piece was resilient, and the phone continued working unscathed.

While there is no guarantee that the phone will be able to survive a trip the bottom of a lake or being run over by an 18-wheeler, (our resources are only so vast) the Adventure can hold its own against whatever its owner wants to put it through.

The phone is a bit bulky and the material used to make it feels a bit cheap, but all that is part of the package: you can’t expect a sleek, flashy phone to survive a tumble down concrete stairs or falling to the ground while flipped open — yet.

The Adventure offers a great camera with 2.0 megapixels and loud speakers that make it easy to hear conversations over speakerphone or blast some downloaded music. The phone sports VZ Navigator and push-to-talk technology, but beyond that, it felt like just an average phone.

It’s not that the phone was lacking in anyways, it just didn’t have any features that put it above and beyond the rest. It just felt like one of the cheap phones that you get when you sign up with Verizon, albeit an extremely durable one. The Motorola Adventure is the phone for those who want a phone to just be a phone, but might need that extra bit of protection.

The Adventure can be bought on the Verizon website for $119.99 with a two-year contract or for $299.99 with a month to month contract.

While it is the right step in the right direction, the Adventure didn’t offer enough beyond a sweet camera, clear music playing, and a durable outer coating to really “Wow” us at Blast. If an unbreakable Blackberry Storm comes out, though, maybe we would be willing to dish the cash out for it.

The LG Dare puts the world into the palm of your hand, literally.

With direct access to the World Wide Web, a camera that puts handhelds to shame as well as GPS capabilities, the LG Dare covers all of a consumer’s basic technological necessities and it covers them well.

As far as being a phone goes, the Dare doesn’t really go above and beyond. Then again, anyone who wants a phone just to send and receive calls and text messages probably shouldn’t be dishing out between $199.99 and $599.99 for what is an all-in-one gadget. Calls are easy to make and receive; the only snag comes when you are using a different aspect of the phone and a call interrupts.

Text messaging is a little more difficult, as the Dare sports a virtual keyboard is that when held vertically is a DMFT keypad (like the ones on your cell phones), but when tilted horizontally is a QWERTY keypad (like the ones on your computers). The actual touch screen isn’t very exact and it takes a couple of tries to hit the correct letters, which is why the Dare is not the best phone to type with. Still, it certainly does the job.

The Dare’s interface is one of its coolest aspects. Once you get past the three different menus, you can customize your own by dragging and dropping your favorite utilities onto the main screen for easy access. That’s a big step up from hunting for the link to your music whereas now it’s just one tap away.

The features on the phone are infinitely cooler than its calling capabilities. The VZ Navigator, a GPS utility, is easy to access from the phone. Instead of dialing 411 to find your movie times, the Navigator will look up the nearest movie theaters for you and then follow up with directions. It can also find nearby restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and parking. The only time things get difficult are when a call or text message comes in mid-travel.

Coming in at a  close second is the Dare’s camera, which takes pictures that rival many handheld cameras’ in quality and clarity. The Dare’s camera sports 3.2 megapixels with resolutions up to 2048×1536 pixels for pictures and up to 640×480 pixels for video. The Image Editor allows for some cool touch screen interaction, like the ability to write over images, but the menu screen itself can be slightly confusing. Trying to zoom in and out is way more effort than it should be, and after you click the camera button to take a picture, it takes about 10 seconds for the picture to actually be taken. This leaves you with pictures in motion or of the wrong object rather than the picture you were looking for. Once you snap the right shot, though, it looks great.

The Internet capabilities are quick to load (for the most part) with 3G speeds and allow easy access from the VZW Today bookmarks browser, but the touch screen is temperamental when it comes to scrolling down or across the page and when pressing certain buttons. The ability to access the Internet whenever or wherever you want is extremely useful, but actually viewing it gets stressful at times. Having to zoom in and out of a page in order to see what you’re looking for or to gain access to a text box can be frustrating.

The mobile e-mail feature makes it easier to access sites like Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail versus trying to find it through the Internet (which is also possible), but if you’re looking for a phone to receive e-mails for business then this is not the one for you. Typing for e-mails has the same issues as when typing for a text message, and that gets frustrating very quickly.

As part of the Verizon network, the Dare has access to V Cast, from which consumers can download music and stream videos for a monthly fee. Scrolling through the lists of songs and movies to listen to or watch can be a pain, but the Dare makes up for it in its excellent sound and video quality. The Dare is compatible with MP3 and AAC music and audio formats and offers VGA video playback.

The phone has a three inch screen, up to eight gigabytes of hard drive space with a microSD card inserted, is Bluetooth enabled, and includes all of the basic functions like a tip calculator, calendar, and stopwatch which are incredibly useful as a rule.

The LG Dare is a very solid phone; it has all of the aspects anyone could need, it’s just using them that gets a little difficult. No, it won’t replace the iPhone, but if you’re looking for a network alternative smartphone, the LG Dare is the right phone to choose.

Konami and Verizon Wireless jointly announced this week that Metal Gear Solid Mobile is now available for purchase exclusively for Verizon Wireless customers.

Metal Gear Solid is one of the most successful PlayStation titles ever, and the mobile version promises to bring 3D graphics and addictive action gameplay — or as much as you can get on the mobile platform.

“Metal Gear Solid Mobile features never-before-seen dramatic 3D art displays and camera work that greatly surpass the current standard of mobile games and allows players to shift the viewpoint from first to third person and to control a variety of weapons,” the companies said in a statement Wednesday. “The game also takes advantage of the camera functionality — for example, Verizon Wireless customers can use their camera phones to capture images and the game will incorporate the image colors into the players’ camouflage system.”

Kojima Productions developed the game with Ideaworks3D’s Airplay 3.5 SDK.

“Metal Gear Solid Mobile is an original game designed specifically for the mobile platform,” the developers said. “Players face the same extreme tension of solitary infiltration that fans of the classic tactical espionage action game have come to expect from the Metal Gear Solid series, previously released to the PlayStation and PlayStation 2.”

Verizon Wireless customers can purchase Metal Gear Solid Mobile for $4.99 per month or $10.00 unlimited in the Get Fun and Games shopping aisle in the Get It Now virtual store.

Verizon says the game will work on over 30 phones, including the Voyager by LG and the LG VX8700.

For more information about Metal Gear Solid Mobile, check out www.konamimobile.com.