Rag Times

(via marco):

My guess: … Verizon Android phones will have Verizon’s proprietary content stores spewed all over them with at least one major Android feature locked down or removed at Verizon’s request to preserve their nickel-and-diming model.

…

But I don’t see any signs whatsoever that anything has changed. Their new “choose our network first, then settle on whichever phone sucks the least” ad campaign sends a clear message: We know we have the best network, we don’t care about devices, and we’re doing just fine this way.

Regarding the first paragraph, Verizon is definitely bad at nickel-and-diming, but, amazingly to their credit, they allow you to access picture mail and their online stores without considering it “data.” With Sprint, I can receive picture mail, but I had them turn the internet off, since I don’t want to incur ridiculous charges. With internet shut off, I can’t download pictures my friends sent me, and I can’t even access their games/apps. The first time I made the mistake of browsing the games, I had to download their game store, which was $3 worth of data in itself. Now, with the internet locked down completely, I can’t even just browse the store with the application I already paid for.

Regarding the second paragraph, that nails down exactly why I switched from Verizon in the first place: their phones and software are inexcusably bad (and their customer service is even worse).