“I have worked for the company for 12 years and worked in the industry for 18 years” and “Unless you sign your own paycheck, you have no right to talk about how a company is run!” “again unless you sign your own paycheck what right do you have to complain!”

First of all I challenge the thought of you can not challenge or express your views to your employer.  I believe that anyone that thinks they know everything is ignorant and knows less for the fact they aren’t willing to learn.  If a company, any company, will not listen to its employee’s or it’s customer’s they have a serious issue.  I decided to post some information for Kelly that is on Verizon Wireless’ Wikipedia page.

“Verizon deactivates the built-in GPS capabilities of many current phones and PDAs. For example, its recently introduced Blackberry 8830 and 8130 both have full GPS capabilities and the Blackberry Maps application which uses the GPS capability for tracking and navigation. Verizon has disabled the GPS to all other mapping applications other than its own VZ Navigator, which is billed at $2.99 a day or $9.99 a month. On November 30, 2007 Verizon Wireless was named in a class action lawsuit alleging that the wireless giant wrongfully and unfairly deceived purchasers of BlackBerry model 8830 smartphones by advertising that the devices were “GPS Enabled.” Upon purchase, the suit alleges that Verizon intentionally disabled the devices’ free, built-in global positioning systems (GPS) then offered a proprietary Verizon fee-for-service GPS.”

“Verizon Wireless charges customers peak minutes if a user dials his/her voicemail during peak hours. A customer may have mobile to mobile but will still be charged peak minutes for dialing his/her voicemail. Many customers are used to having free minutes when checking voicemail and are unaware that Verizon Wireless is deducting peak minutes. ”

“Verizon Wireless has implemented a standard user interface across all handsets. Somewhat reminiscent of LG’sinterface, this standard reduces support training costs. However, it has also anecdotally alienated some customers who prefer other phone manufacturer-specific interfaces.”

“Verizon Wireless has come under fire by “power users” of its EV-DOwireless data network (called BroadbandAccess), for using language in its terms of service which heavily restricts what activities an EV-DO user can conduct even though the service is advertised as offering “Unlimited” data usage. The service is in fact limited to 5GB of data transfer per month.”

All of these Quotes where taken from Verizon Wireless’ Wikipedia Page.

Also to note, Verizon Wireless’ Wikipedia Page is the only one of the 4 major carriers to feature wireless issues under a “controversy” section.  ATT Mobility has a “controversy” section but it only list a post of their NASCAR sponsorship.

First Dave’s Comment to the “How to Frustrate a Blackberry 8130 User.”

“Hey there, just wanted to say that I do enjoy your blog and subscribe to it.

Are you aware that the BlackBerry 8130, 8110, 8120, etc are considered to be the Pearl 2? There is a significant software upgrade in this Pearl 2, as well as upgraded camera, keypad, and some other goodies… Like the SD Card can be loaded from the OUTSIDE and now (as you’ve noted) there are TWO convenience keys.

Anyway, the original Pearl/8100 is on the way out.

Best wishes.”

My Reply;  First off thank you Dave for being a reader and for subscribing I am very thankful for that and am thankful for all of my readers and subscribers.  As far as the “Pearl 2″  I do not consider the Blackberry Pearl 8130 a “Pearl 2,”  the reason is that this is the first generation Blackberry Pearl CDMA phone.  GSM and CDMA two totally different technologies and for the fact that the Pearl 8130 is the first CDMA Pearl then I would not consider it a Pearl 2. 

As far as the camera being upgraded.  Yes, the new Blackberry Pearl’s feature a 2mp camera, which was first put on the Curve by blackberry.  They just have transferred that technology to the new Pearl Phones.  As far as moving the camera to the opposite side of the phone, I really don’t see any reason for this in why they would do that except to basically change it so that 8100 backs and leather cases would not fit the 8130.  They also changed the headset jack to a full size stereo headset for the new Blackberry Pearls, which is another adaption from the Blackberry Curve.  Also they did make the MicroSD slot outside instead of behind the battery, which is great you no longer have to take the battery out to removed the SD card (all blackberry users are aware of how long it takes a blackberry to boot up after removing the battery).  Putting the MicroSD card slot on the outside isn’t too difficult and is something that had to be done, considering that most standard phones now feature a MicroSD card with external access.  The fact of 2 convenience keys… who knows?  Yes if you add another key this will change the layout of the phone.  I personally don’t use the smart key on my pearl 8100 now.

For those that don’t know with GSM networks such has ATT Wireless, T-Mobile and others across the world, you can change SIM cards from one phone to another and transfer your services.  It doesn’t matter if the phone is prepaid or a contract phone or one you bought off E-Bay.  For the most part they only locking the GSM companies do is in locking their phones to their carrier.  Which is fair in a way considering most of the time they subsidize the cost of the phone to the customer so that more people can afford the wireless phones and make it easier to afford.

Technorati Tags: Verizon, Verizon Wireless, prepaid phone, smart phones, PDA phones