Verizon, the world’s leading cellphone service company has now decided it’s going to take back what it has told its loyal subscribers. The Unlimited Data plan that everyone was supposedly grandfathered into are going to be no more. Verizon’s current CFO Fran Shammo, said the company plans to force its existing unlimited data plan customers to move to a tiered offering this summer in an effort to drive more data revenue for the wireless carrier. 

Many Verizon customers are completely outraged with this as Verizon has nickel and dimed its customers to death the last year or so. First they put a charge in place “for the convenience” of being able to pay their bill online (Something no one else does), then they just within the last month put a $30 per phone line charge for upgrading your phone in place (this used to be a $30 discount which was intended as a benefit to keep you coming back to Verizon and renewing your contract), and now they want to do away with their Unlimited data customers plans (which all unlimited data plan customers were told they were grandfathered into once Verizon even spoke of tiered plans on their network).

Sounds to me like Verizon may be losing a lot of customers as this may be the straw to break the camel’s back…

To read more click here.

That’s right one of the worlds most loved mobile apps is going to Facebook. Angry Birds which first debuted in on iOS devices in December of 2009 is now making the move to one of the world’s leading websites. 

The new version of Angry Birds is going to offer social network goers some more features not included on the Mobile or other Internet platforms. Angry Birds on Facebook will offer power-ups to allow players to beef up their arsenal against the competition. While Angry Birds is free to play however, the power ups are not. Power-ups can be purchased at the rate of 20 per 1$.

There are some users that are not to terribly happy with the new version however. Many people are saying that this should have been designed on HTML5 code rather than Adobes Flash Player 11. Guess it goes to show that Adobes not entirely out of the game yet…

If you are interested in playing the game you can check it out here.

If you just want to read more about the new game click here.

Android is becoming more secure. Apple being known for their very locked down operating system is soon to not be the only “secure” device out there for consumers to choose. While no device is entirely secure, Android is starting to take steps to ensure its users that the software available from legitimate sources is just that, legitimate. 

In the past there have been many malicious programs introduced that can cause everything from privacy issues, identity theft, or fraudulent charges to the phone users phone bill. Google is now taking some initiative to help secure the Market. While Android remains open source meaning anyone can create an application for the Market for users to download, Google has begun scanning all applications and running them in a virtual environment to watch them for malicious intent. Google is not only monitoring new applications uploaded but is also monitoring those already in existence.

It is nice to see that Google is taking security a bit more seriously but not actually locking down their software entirely. With Android being open source it allows its users/developers a very fertile ground for development and advances. With that openness comes security risks though that needs to be monitored. Keep up the good work Google!

To read more on the topic click here.

Say hello to the new breed of budget phones! While in the very recent past a budget cell phone offered little, if any features other than calling and texting (it wasn’t that long ago when they didn’t even offer texting) users of this type of phone may soon be able to access many of the features offered on the higher end phones.

Since phone manufactures consider a phone with the price tag of under $150 a “Low Cost” phone the users of phones in this category may be getting more choices of smart phones in the near future. Android, one of cell phones most popular operating systems, is yet again breaking new barriers. Many carriers are going to start offering phones in the “Low Cost” category with many of the same features of their more costly versions. Just this past week AT&T (Pictured) began advertising for a $29.00 smart phone featuring the popular Android operating system.

Keep in mind, you get what you pay for…While many computers can run an operating system for instance with say 512 MB RAM, it doesn’t mean you’re going to approve of the performance you get with that hardware. The same will apply with many of the budget phones…they have cheaper components in them and well…won’t run as well as the more expensive Android devices will.

My advice, save up a little extra money and spring for a decent phone if you think you need a phone with Androids feature set.

If you would like to read more about the upcoming Android devices expected to becoming out click here.

You may or may not have heard all the buzz about the wireless spectrums “running out of space”. If not then let’s play catch up, there are a number of companies stating that they need the government to step in an auction of some of the currently unused spectrum that other companies currently own or have rights to. That’s about it…

Anyhow, many of the large wireless carriers have high utilization on the spectrum ranges they are allotted but want to be able to purchase more of the spectrum (to the tune of billions of dollars) to increase their ability to provide newer services. Right now the largest carriers primarily use their spectrums for older wireless networks ranging from 2G to 3.5G and because of this do not have the available spectrum to expand to 4G and further on a large scale.

Several companies have a lot of spectrum available to them but do not have the financial capabilities or the business plan to expand on to these networks further. These are the types of companies the large wireless providers are pushing to sell of their unutilized spectrum.

For more on this story click here.

Apple update’s their Operating Systems to for their mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, etc…) to version 5.  With much added improvements and several bug fixes.  One thing that was improved upon is the way Apple’s iOS handles notifications.  Previously users received a pop-up message displaying they had a new text message or a missed call, but now with iOS 5 Apple has implemented a notification system similar to that of Android.  Users can now swipe from the top of the devices display and quickly see everything from missed calls to text messages.  Users of iOS 5 can now also decide what they want to synchronize with iCloud.  Everything from email messages to calendar appointments and even contacts!  This feature happens instantaneously allowing users to access content anywhere with no delay.
iOS 5 is set for release this Fall 2011 and looks to bring with it a lot of great new functionality.  Keep up-to-date with Apple and iOS here.

In the event that every parent’s worst nightmare were to come true, the FBI has developed an App for that. That’s right the FBI is even jumping on board with the mobile craze. This past week the FBI developed a new App that allows a child’s parents to add crucial information to help law enforcement agency’s find missing children more quickly. Once parents setup that appropriate contact information (of their local authorities) the App allows for one click emails, emergency calls, etc. to them which gives authorities more of the precious time needed to try and find the missing child.

The strange thing about this new app is that they chose to release it on Apple products first. With Android holding a significantly larger portion of market share when it comes to mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets one would think that would have been the platform of choice first. At any rate generally apps that hit Apple products end up on Android fairly quickly so if you have children keep an eye out for this app it just may be your child’s life line.

If you’re interested in reading more click here.