Cyclops Fun

First off, I'll have that Cyclops review out tonight...so come back soon!

Second, the Cyclops has now been totally hacked, dude. No more paying $2 (like I did) for a dinky MIDI ringtone...just grab a cable and you're good to go, with the instructions from here:

http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=9179446&postcount=1

This particular post talks about putting games and various other apps (including the luxurious Opera Mini...a nice alternative to built-in OpenWave) onto the phone. However, there's a link there for if you want to take pictures off the phone, or put ringers and backgrounds on.

Have fun everyone!

Nokia 2126i Fun &c

Dude, like whoa. The Nokia 2126i is holding its own against the LG 3280 as the most audacious CDMA Trac out there...

1. Want to put ringtones and graphics on your Nokia 2126\2126i? Feel free...http://www.howardforums.com/showpost.php?p=9174869&postcount=82.

2. Rumor has it that Nokia 2126i's are ringing up at Wal-Mart for $15 instead of $30...with the 60 extra starter minutes! Go to a Wally World near you and have the friendly cell phone guy scan the package to make sure...but if you're new to Tracfone and this deal is golden (I'm 99% sure that the 60 minutes don't get applied if you move an old account) this is the time to buy.

Last but not least, keep clicking ads here and signing up for cellphoner.net if you haven't already! Derek got back with me on the Virgin Mobile Kyocera Marbl but if I get enough ad clicks to pay for it I'll go ahead and buy the Motorola w370 and review it right here, then give it away to one lucky winner!

And sorry about the review for the Cyclops...I should be working on Calculus right now (AP test tomorrow...wish me luck!) but since that test ends tomorrow I should have enough of a breather to get the Cyclops review out then. Stay tuned!

CircuitCity Deals

At http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Prepaid-Wireless-Phones/sem/rpsm/catOid/-12830/N/20013161+20016441+20012830/rpem/ccd/categorylist.do you can get a few of Virgin Mobile's phones for cheaper than anywhere else.

The Slice is $29.99 there with free shipping (though I'm sure tax applies), beating Virgin Mobile's own site by $10 plus tax (whew, who ever thought a phone thinner than half an inch would be sold for $30 prepaid?). If there's a store nearby you can pick one up there.

The Audiovox 8610 "Vox" (yeah, the old phone) is $17. You have to pay extra for shipping though, and tax...so not a great deal (old phone anyway).

Oh, and the Kyocera Oystr is $10 (plus shipping, tax, tax on shipping) but it's not a great phone anyway.

Last but not least, the Switch_Back, as seems to be the trend, is down to $80. Nice if you need a phone with a keyboard.

Various and Sundry Fun (Virgin Mobile & Tracfone)

A few things for Virgin Mobile and Tracfone...

...first Virgin Mobile...

1. The Marbl is now $20 via Virgin Mobile's website, putting it in line with all the other places that are selling it, which is nice...the phone's only worth that, if that much, anyway.

2. Phone for sale! A near-new Slice with about $55 of airtime on it for $65 shipped. A friend switched to another service and wants to get back the money he paid for the airtime. Again, the phone is worth $40 so spread it around if you yourself don't want it...

...second Tracfone...

1. If you want to send a picture message on a Tracfone, or receive one (MMS in general actually, picture or not), the message takes one unit plus 0.5 units of "web airtime" which can add up to 2 or 2.5 units total because GPRS isn't fast and GPRS is all the Motorola c261 has.

2. The Motorola w370 is out on Tracfone's website if you use GSM4 to buy it! Wonder what True Tones mp3 player means...and I'm wondering whether I'll get enough ad clicks this month to get it...

Oh, and please check around and see if anyone wants the Slice...

T-Mobile Deal @ Target and Marbl

Looks like Target has a really nice deal with T-Mobile stuff right now. You can buy a $100 card and get a free Nokia 6030 on T-Mobile To Go right now, at a Target store. Then you can return the phone and get about $30 back. Presto! Cheap (7 cent per minute) T-Mobile To Go airtime! If only we had a target around here...

By the way, derekm2008, please claim your Marbl within the next 24 hours or it's going to be possible to win it starting next week...

Trac Promo Code

For Cinco de Mayo, Tracfone is giving out a 100-minute promotional code on their 1-year airtime card, for 500 minutes total and thus 20 cents a minute (11.11 cents a minute with the double minute plan, since promotional codes don't double):

55094

In other words you get 20 cent minutes and 6 cent texts on all Tracfone airtime $40 and abobve...not counting the 30 minute bonus program or the double minute plan.

Direct Refills for Amp'd and Boost

BabbleBug just came out with instant, direct (no PINs required) refills for Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile. You give them your phone number, pick your refill amount, hit Buy and wait for the airtime to show up on your phone. Boost Mobile even has a "flex-payment" option, where you can pick your refill amount, whether that's $10 (the minimum...you pay 50 cents extra for purchase sunder $20) or $97.52 ($99 is the max). Neat, huh?

Virgin Mobile Updates & Tracfone On Dobson

Sorry that I've not posted in a few days...I've been busy and my high-speed internet connection went out for a few days. but I'm back and have some info...first to Virgin Mobile...

1. The Kyocera Cyclops is now my main phone, as I couldn't justify the cost of an unlimited plan, and will be moving this fall to Colorado. I'll have a review of this phone probably tomorrow.

2. Calling derekm2008! Calling derekm2008! If you don't post on cellphoner.net and PM me back with your address, I can't send you the phone you won!

3. Virgin Mobile has a policy about lost\stolen phones, or rather phones reported as lost\stolen: they sell you another one at what is usually a sizeable discount. I found out the prices of each phone, should that happen to you:

Cyclops - $50 (no better than Wirefly)
Snapper - $35 (If I remember correctly)
Slice - $25
Marbl - $21.50
Oystr - don't remember
Slider Sonic\Switch_Back - $45 (niiice)
K7\K9\udiovox 8500 - $7
Shorty\K10 Royale - $10

Sometimes you'd be better off to just get the phone new (I'm pretty sure these phones can be refurbished) and change your number, but on the more expensive models you actually get a good deal, should theft or loss strike.

And now to Tracfone...

They've apparently signed on another carrier for GSM service: Dobson CellularOne. For Texas and such areas, you'd actually get better coverage with Dobson than with Cingular, so this is nice...and in some places you'll get a local number with them where you wouldn't othewise. The downside to this is that Cingular-based Tracfones are still the only ones that can do anything other than talk and text (the Motorola w370 won't show up on either T-Mobile or Dobson Tracfone service anytime soon). But hey, it's SingleRate! If you want to buy a Dobson-based Tracfone, just change the "tech=" part of the Tracfone Orders website to gsm6.

Oystr - Now with $20 of Free Airtime

Oh, and Kyocera's Oystr (Virgin Mobile of course) has joined the ranks of the Shorty and the K10 Royale as being available for free with $20 in airtime, or rather $20 including $20 in airtime upon activation. So now you have a choice of "free phones with new agreement" that spans the sturdy though black-and-white Shorty, the color, web-enabled Royale and the lame flip Oystr. Not great phones, but the price is right.

Virgin Mobile Slices Slice Prices

Okay, couldn't resist the title...

but anyhow Virgin Mobile has just taken $10 off of the price for both colors of Slice on their website. So they're now $40, $10 more expensive than the Marbl. I'd say the $10 is worth it unless the only thing you do on your phone is talk. I'll bet more price cuts will happen soon...

And the winner is...

...derekm2008! Thanks to everyone for entering...look for another giveaway relatively soon...

Giveaway Over!

Okay, that was it, folks. The giveaway for the Kyocera Marbl is now finished...as in you can't enter unless you've entered already. I'll pick the winner tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned!

I Got The Cyclops

I got the Cyclops in today from Wirefly (and yes, there's no tax and fast shipping...just missed the package Friday). So I'll review it soon. Along with the new Virgin Mobile VAM (if someone would email me with their VAM-enabled phone number) and the Mobile Email and IM.

By the way, you have only four hours left to enter the Marbl giveaway! Hurry!

25 Hours Left...

...for the Marbl giveaway! Sign up for cellphoner.net if you haven't already and click an ad or two to support this site and you're entered! But get in on this now...the cutoff time is midnight tomorrow!

Pink Moto c139, Now Available

Just in time for Mother's Day, Tracfone has the Motorola c139 in pink for the usual $15 that they charge for the silver model. Not a great phone by any stretch of the imagination, but it is pink, and it is another phone :) I'm just looking forward to the Moto c155s selling out so Tracfone again has some decent phones on their "twofer" deal.

Motorola w370 on Target's Website

SOrry for the brevity but here's a link to the Target info page on the Motorola w370 Tracfone. Keep in mind though that there appears to be no Tracfone branding on the front of the phone, as opposed to what the Target picture says.

Moto w370 Pix

Thanks to The Sweeper, who got the Motorola w370 at Target, we now have some pictures of the phone. The Razr (Amp'd) is thrown in as a size comparison for most of the photos. Take a look!

Phone In Packaging
Closed
Open (Front)
Open (Front 2)
Open (Back)

Edit: Photo link fixed for Closed.

More GoPhones

Cingular recently updated their Gophone selection for Pay As You Go people...they now have the refurbished Motorola v235 cameraphone available for $50 and the Nokia 6102i (which I think includes Bluetooth and I know includes a video camera) for $100. Not that I like GoPhone or anything but you can put the phones on Beyond GSM or one of the other Cingular resellers and it'll work, and $50 for a GSM cameraphone isn't horrible.

Reviews Section Updated

I just updated the reviews section of this site. Nothing new, just posting the last two phone reviews in their proper positions. Hope this helps everyone!

Audiovox 8600

Yes, this review was a long time in coming, but here it finally is:

First off, the two most important things to any phone: call quality and battery life. On the first, the 'vox doesn't do that well...unless the dropped calls I got were the network's fault (they likely were). In which case, the 'vox still isn't spectacular, ranking about the same as the LG 3280, with the 8600's antenna extended. In other words, this phone isn't a super reception phone, though it won't "raze the bar" too bad.

About the second facet of what makes a phone a good phone, the battery life on this thing is freakin' awesome! What do I mean? Um...try nine days before the phone registered low battery... NINE DAYS! As in this beats the previous CDMA records, the LG 3280 and the Kyocera Marbl, by 50% or so. Granted, most of this time was standby time, and who knows...he network not giving the phone any incoming calls and such might've helped, but I did mess around with the phone a bit and nearly a week and a half of standby time on a phone is impressive, especially for CDMA.

About the rest of the phone, it's good but typical. Well, except for a few times when the phone says "please wait" in odd places for a second, such as while calling up the "recent calls" list. But it's not annoying like the molassess-in-midwinter Marbl. Anyhow, the phone is typical in its feature set: web if the network could do it, texting, voice recording and dialing, speakerphone, calculator etc. And the interface is clear enough for everything, though the phone's screen is admittedly small...okay I take the clearness thing back...a little...the external screen font is hard to read but that's the only gripe I have with the phone UI...and it's a UI problem, not a screen problem.

The only thing left to talk about is the phone's design. Here the phone is both really neat and really wierd. Neat because, length and width wise, it's tiny. You can actually perch it atop its own charger, and that's saying a bit because the charger isn't that big. The problem is that this just brings out the phone's thickness. Not that the phone is hugely thick, but it's thick enough to seem nearly absurd in its proportions. But hey, it is small in other dimensions. Which include its screen (internally; the external screen is very large for a phone of this calibre, though of course it's black-and-white) and its keypad. About this last item, the keypad is definately not for large fingers but otherwise is fine for texting and such.

To sum everything up, the 8600 isn't a bad phone. Reception isn't stellar, and the phone looks positively pudgy, but it is tiny in all other respects and the battery life is drop-dead amazing. Then again, I have this bad habit of reviewing stuff after it's being phased out...but if you can get the phone at a good price (BabbleBug does sell it...they sent the review unit to me...) it's a good phone.

By the way, lok for a review of the Kyocera Cyclops a week from now!

Moto w370...it's out!

Looks like the Motorola w370 is available at Target (edit) now...so it'll only be a matter of time before it's on the web and thus ripe for me to review. I'm happy that Tracfone has finally got a slick-looking, pretty-barn-full-featured phone on their service...:)

Speaking of reviews, look for an Audiovox 8600 review here later tonight! It's coming!

Virgin Mobile\Tracfone Updates

First off, the quick Tracfone blip: the Motorola w370 is now available, spec-wise, on PhoneScoop. Which suggests that its introduction into Trac's lineup isn't far off. May, maybe? Here's the link (and the full features):

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=1162

No Bluetooth but it's interesting to see that the site lists the phone as tri-band (internetional coverage?!? probably not but one can only hope) and capable of mass-storage mode via USB. As in you may be able to easily load ringers onto your phone with a simple USB cable. Now if you could figure out how to use GPRS tethering on the phone...:)

For Virgin Mobile, thhere are two things in the skunkworks, or so it seems: a Slice successor and a family plan.

The Slice II (who knws what it may be called...Virgin Mobile is holding a survey to figure that out...Slash anyone?) has a camera, Bluetooth and a heckuva lot of memory (64MB so I've heard), above the normal Slice. And you can probably do stuff like mobile email and IM on it, which isn't possible on the original Slice. One can only hope it'll come out near the price point of the old Slice ($50)...that would rock...

And yes, this was the UTStarCom CDM1450 I mentioned earlier. Here's another picture:

http://i14.tinypic.com/45519ux.jpg

Lastly, Virgin mobile is considering having a family plan, for $80 a month. It's like smashing two $35 300-minute 1000-night-and-weekend plans together (yeah, it's $5 more per line than normal...wierd). To make up for this nice revenue increase, calls to the other person on the "family plan" are free. So if you call one other Virgin Mobile user 50+ daytime minutes a month and use the 300\1000 plan already, this is actually something to look at. I just hope the price will come down ($70 a month maybe?), though I'm not really interested.

Oh and by the way, enter in the marbl giveaway if you haven't already! There are still a few days to enter and you're likely to win!

Virgin Mobile Promo Code!

Well, I had a promotional code for $10 extra on a $20 topup on Virgin Mobile, but it didn't work. Sorry, everyone...

Ordered The Cyclops...

I just ordered the Kyocera Cyclops from Virgin Mobile from Wirefly. The total cost is $69.99 right now, $49.99 after the mail-in rebate. I get two-day shipping via FedEx and no tax. And yes, I will be reviewing this phone in short order...after I post up the review for the Audiovox 8600. Stay tuned!

Oh, and the giveaway is still running. Enter by either signing up to cellphoner.net via my link or (if you're already signed up) download Firefox or Google Pack via the links here and comment on this post with your Cellphoner.net username. But hurry! The giveaway ends midnight, entral time, April 30\May 1st!

T-Mo To Go On Wirefly

Again, little time means little posts, but you can now get T-Mobile To GO on Wirefly. Which basically means that you can get the Razr with a headset for $200 on T-Mobile To Go, ready to go. Not an astounding deal but it's something.

Tracfone Free Shipping...Again...and a few other things...

I'm keeping this post short because I don't have much time to write this post and I want to keep the sweeps at the forefornt. So, in short, Tracfone has free shipping on orders $19.99 and above again. In other words, Tracfones (or "twofer" deals) just got $6 cheaper (or $2 cheaper if you're buying three at a time).

Also, there's rumor of a CDMA Tracfone cameraphone and a version of Net10 runing on CDMA...thanks Turk...interesting...

Last, if you've already been a member of cellphoner.net for awhile, just download Google Pack via my link and comment on the sweeps post with your cellphoner user ID, and you're entered. If you can't do Google Pack, there's also a link for Mozilla Firefox that I'm putting up now.

Kyocera Marbl GIVEAWAY!

Yes, I said giveaway.

Sorry that there isn't much news right now, other than that BabbleBug has released two Sanyo phones (7100 and 8200) with xTreme Mobile service on their website. And my review of the Audiovox 8600 will be coming soon.

But to reward people for coming to this site, and of course to encourage more people to come, I'm giving away the Kyocera K127 Marbl that I just reviewed, from Virgin Mobile. It's about a $22-$33 value, depending on where you buy it.

Anyhow, here's how the contest works:

1. Support this site by clicking on an ad or two here.
2. Join CellPhoner.net via this link or the signup link at right. Oh, and post there a bit...:)

That's it! The contest runs from tonight at 10:30 till tonight next week at midnight, central time. That is, until the very end of April, central time.

If you win the Marbl, I'll get in touch with you via CellPhoner.net, so put an IM screen name or email address somewhere in there.

If you've already signed up with cellphoner.net through my link, that's fine; you're already entered into this contest.

So have fun and here's hoping you're the winner! Tell your friends about this! The phone is practically new and will come in its almost-new packaging, along with the charger. You'll also get the normal $.250 signup bonus from Virgin Mobile. So go ahead, sign up and I look forward to picking between a lot of potential people to give this thing away. If this giveaway goes well I'll do some more. Let's see some winners ;)

News: SpeakOut & Beyond GSM

Remember SpeakOut Wireless, as in 7-Eleven's cellular service? Well, now it's no longer exclusively on Cingular...in fact, the new Sprint-based plans offer another feature or two, namely faster (1xRTT vs. GPRS\EDGE) web surfing (though still at a painful penny per kilobyte) and push-to-talk (aka Sprit ReadyLink), at a now typical 50 cents per day (unless you're bundling it with something else, like the hybrid carrier xTreme Mobile does). Wonder what phones they have...I'm guessing some Sanyos and the Samsung a820...

Also, Beyond GSM just added a 1-year airtime card to their airtime lineup...with 102 minutes...for $50. Hey, it is one year of service, but it's doggone expensive unless you buy it with a new phone, in which case it's just $35 extra generally (though on the Siemens s56 it's strangely $45 extra). Then again, there was probably a little "give" in the price of the phones Beyond is selling...except for the powerful yet $20 Siemens s56...they're selling the Nokia 3390 for the same amount! And the Motorola c139 for 150% more!

And if you're wondering, yes I'm going to review the Audiovox 8600 (thanks BabbleBug!) soon and update the reviews section with this phone and the Kyocera Marbl. But not tonight...homework is heavy and time is short...all the more reason to stay tuned!

Marbl and Tracfone Updates

Well, my Marbl's battery died this morning, about 24 hours after I charged it. Then aain, I only charged it to about 25% of capacity (was on the charger for maybe half an hour) and I used web for awhile, text for awhile and voice for a few minutes. And I was in a low-signal area for a good bit of the time. So from my experience the Marbl's battery life isn't that bad...it'd probabyl last four days with moderate use...but I'd still only use it for voice calling...

But about Tracfone...

They'e updated their promotions again. The Nokia 1100 is now vanished from their website; the new $10 refurb phone on GSM is the Motorola c155. As in the one they're giving away with the "twofer" deal.

Also available now is the 250-minute card (they need to get rid of the physical cards I guess) available for $50 with a Motorola v170...in other words you get the (reconditioned) v170 for free (you can do the same thing with the 1-year card). It's not a fancy phone, but it's something...

If you do want a good phone, however, the Nokia 2600 is fine, and it's just $15 on Tracfone's site. If I remember corectly, however, shipping isn't free anymore.

Unlocking?

Quickie info:

No, you can't unlock the Marbl from Virgin Mobile. It's so cheap and slow that you wouldn't want to unlock it first off, and second, it's hard to get a CDMA phone, especially a Virgin Mobile or Sprint one, to register on a network "away from home".

And yes, you could very well be able to unlock a Nokia 6061, provided you find the fight unlock code generator (not sure if this works) or cable (just find the right one) and software (find the fight one). GSM phones are relatively easy to unlock, you just have to find the right info and you're good. But, personally, the Nokia 6061 isn't a phone to spend too much effor unlocking, what with the T-Mobile Nokia 6101, which T-Mobile will unlock after 90 days of active T-Mobile To Go service with the appropriate excuse, available for effectivel $25. And that phone has a camera...

Hope this helps!

Kyocera Marbl

Well, I'm right now using the wireless internet at a Boy Scout camp to post this (yes I'm a little hardcore)...but anyway, here's the long-awaited review of the Kyocera Marbl...

First off, about battery life: I actually got five and a half days or so out of the phone before it went down to one battery life bar. And I'm thinking it would have lasted six days total run-down time. This was with some talking (though not much), some web browsing (though not much) and a little bit of texting. Then again, I had a pretty good signal all that time.

Right now I'm doing more of a battle test of the battery life of the phone. As I said I'm out at a relatively remote campground, where you can't be sure to get a good signal, and I did use the web relatively extensively on the phone. I also sent and received a few texts. I had charged the phone for about half an hour this morning (it went up to two bars) and now it's back down to one bar. Let's see how it survives the trip...

...but all I'm saying is that I have no complains about the battery life of this phone...how odd...

Next, I have to commend this phone on signal quality. While both speakerphone and regular conversations sound a bit on the harsh side, the phone keeps a signal very well...much better than its call-dropping K132 cousin...but then again the other phone was on Pocket, whose PCS signal for some reason doesn't do quite so well as Sprint's in my area. Anyhow, the signal was as good or better than other Sprint PCS phones I've used, so that's nice to say for a $20 phone.

But I have a problem with this phone...

...it's AS SLOW AS DOYT!

I had a similar problem with the Kyocera K132. Looks like the processor is the same across both phones...and boy howdy is it slow! Everything except maybe pressing the speakerphone button has some sort of delay to it. If you want predictive text on text messaging, be prepared for a semi-nightmare...or just don't get the phone...it can't keep up with a relatively fast texter. And even normal text entry on webpages is painfully slow. In fact, anything related to the web is painfully slow...if you want to use web, you can forget that, too.

Unless you must augment the pitifully few ringtones and graphics (as in four ringtones...deja Slice?) with something else, foisted by Virgin Mobile at unspeakable prices upon you, the end user. Bleh.

But hey, if you're content with "just a phone", and one that has to think a bit before every action (though voice-related tasks don't have but a little wait), you may well be content with this phone.

You see, while not being thin, and while not being as cool-looking as its five-model-numbers-higher cousin, the Marbl doesn't leave you holding your nose on the design front. It's no Razr, and personally there has gotta be something better than the "racing stripe" motif that dominates the otherwise cheap-silver phone, but at least the motif is subtle (gloss black on Matte black with a small, well-laced speakerphone grille) and physically this phone's dimensions aren't absotively ginormous. Oh, and the Virgin Mobile logo doesn't stand out horribly much from the phone, compared with other low-end phones...at least in my opinion...it's set apart but it's in a black ring on the black "racing stripe" so it's okay.

Flipping the phone open may seem fine at first, but after this phone survived a gentle fall down a veritable terrace of kitchen furniture (the largest drop was about four feet) onto a linoleum floor, the flip got a little too much give in it for my personal preference. Now this may not annoy other people, but I can detect the cheap-feeling give when I flip open and closed the phone.

But, at first glance, what you get when you flip open the phone is really nice: well-spaced and tactilly responsive buttons (though they're a bit small), a generally plaseing silvery design, and a screen that I think is the same size as the UTStarCom' Slice's. That is to say, it's quite big enough for a basic phone.

Then you experience the slowness...as I said everything has a delay, from turning on the phone to launching and closing the web browser to turning the phone off. And there are a few counter-intuitive things like the OK button not going anywhere on the phone's standby screen (normal phones go to the menu screen, Kyocera, in case you haven't picked that up).

Feature-wise, this phone is basic in features that actually require network access (it just does voice, text and web, and the last two are on the slow and slooooow side, respectively) but has the usual other features, from a stopwatch (though it only measures in hundredths of a second AFTER you stop it...slow processor have we, Kyocera?) to voice recording. Nothing really special, and you can't do anything fancy with the phone on Virgin Mobile, like IM or e-mail...I don't even think this phone has, or could handle, Java....

But then again you wouldn't want to do antthing particularly advanced with this phone that would use the network, as using the network costs you money, and this phone takes its time in doing just about everything, making stuff like that a pain to use.

But the bottom line is that this is an upgrade to the Oystr, and for voice purposes this phone will serve whoever needs it well. Mine even had stellar (LG 3280 style) battery life. But I'm switching my account back to the Slice (with its irregularities and small keypad) because I just can't stand a slow phone. Sure, if the Slice is worth $50 this phone is worth $20, but don't think about getting it for anything more than talking...which it does do a good job with...

Well, that's the end of my Kyocera Marbl review. Hope this helps everyone and I'll probably be back soon with a review of the Audiovox 8600. Good night and, if you're interested, take a look at unlimitedcellular.info...I just added a few interesting posts there. Oh, and support this site! :) I'm planning to give away the Marbl so stay tuned for that!

Sorry...

Due to a combination of various things (ISP going out for 9 hours, a late concert that lasted longer than it should've, my falling asleep while doing homework) I wasn't able to get the Marbl review up last night. So it'll be up tonight...

T-Mobile Play Money, Meet Page Plus Dollars

Anyone remember the old T-Mobile money scheme, where airtime was added at 40 or 50 cents per minute, making texting as low as 2 cents apiece and other crazy-cheap fun?

Well, PagePlus Cellular has something similar, but let me explain...

PagePlus airtime cards actually add their alloted number of minutes to your PagePlus phone when you add them. Which then gets converted to dollar amounts at 14 cents a minute. What this means is that the new 8 cent per minute $80 refill gets you 1000 minutes and not $80 but $140 on PagePlus's books. What does this mean? Well, text messaging and the bimonthly fee (which is gone for now) are charged monetarily...so the cheaper per minute you get the refill (as in higher denominations) the cheaper these features are. Since the $80 refill adds $140 to your account, the 8-cent text messages (when measured against a $10, 71-minute refill), will be closer to 4.5 cents with the big airtime card...and the monthly fee would be around 30 cents.

As in, if you buy a high-dollar PagePlus refill, you not only get cheaper minutes, but also cheaper features (text messaging is the only one for now), which is pretty nice. Yet another reason to choose this carrier over the rest of the pack.

Whogets.com \ Shameless Self-Promotion

Just found a sweeps site with a twist: whoever gets the most votes for winning a particular item will get the item. Which is pretty neat because if your reasons are good, you'll win. :)

The reason I'm bringing this up here is that CheapPhoneCards has some airtime cards ($50 for GoPhone, $25 and $50 for T-Mobile To Go, $10 for an STi long distance card) up on the site, and Cingular has a GoPhone there, too. I've already entered on all of them, and I'd suggest you should, too...

...you see, after a set time period the system randomly selects seven "finalists" from all the people who entered to win the stuff, and people vote on those finalists. If I get into the final seven, I'd really like it if you'd vote for me...if you do, I'll gladly vote for you...

...oh, and if I win the phone-related stuff I'll review the phone (if I win that) and, whatever I get phone-wise, will put it up here as a giveaway. That's why I'm asking you to vote for me :)

And yes, I am entered into some other contests on there (for electronics). If you could vote for me (my username is iansltx) I'd be really happy, as most of the stuff would go to someone else...I like making people's days.

Anyhow, entering and joining are free so take a look and hope this helps someone! And yes, I'll likely have the Marbl reviewe up here before tomorrow. So check back soon!

Various Things...

First off, I'm trying really hard to get the "authorities" (well, there should be no quotes around the word...they are the authorities in my case) to let me bring a cameraphone on my trip to Washington D.C., to both keep everyone here posted on prepaid and everyone who wants posted on my trip there. But as it stands, things don't look that great...

...but I will be getting the Cyclops (via Wirefly) and reviwing it, courtesy a friend who wants the phone after I'm done reviewing it. So expect a review here relatively soon (keyword: relatively).

Speaking of reviews, The Kyocera Marbl will be reviewed here probably tomorrow or the next day. I'd do it tonight but I've gotta do some very important homework (research paper outline due tomorrow).

And if you're wondering why I didn't post earlier today I was out of range of internet pretty much until about 8:30, and then my ISP went on the fritz for maybe 45 minutes...sorry everyone...

Lastly, if anyone wants to make maybe $140 a day with Tracfone's "twofer" deals I'd be glad to tell anyone who wants how to do so. This $140 takes, to my recollection, maybe an hour or two to get, maybe less. If anyone wants info let me know...the next person to wor with me will get a $20 bonus from me...

Sorry for the choppy post, but I'm pressed for time and wanted to prove to the world that I'm not quite dead yet ;)

New Phone Forum!

Just ran across this new cell phone forum. It's at www.cellphoner.net. Looks good from here...if you want to register, use this link: www.cellphoner.net/register.php?referrerid=iansltx.

Anyhow, it's "competition" to HowardForums which is kinda neat. I'd suggest everyone checking this one out...seems quite active given its size...

More Virgin Mobile Deals

Sorry, I don't have a lot to write about, but...

1. Target is selling $30 airtime cards for $25 right now. That's a nice 16.7% or so discount. Even with tax you're still going to get roughly a 10% disocunt over non-tax retail price. Heck, if you want to get a new Virgin Mobile phone off their website and already have a Virgin Mobile account, this makes things just a tad cheaper...

2. Wirefly is selling Virgin Mobile phones for...after rebates...a bit cheaper than you can get them at Virgin's own website. Here's where to get them...

http://www.inphonic.com/specialoffer.aspx?cid=15376_f3fe80a418914077860e363d476b1fbd

There, you'll find the Slice for $47 (no rebates required), the Cyclops for $50 after a $20 rebate ($10 less than on Virgin's own site) and the Switch_Back for a cool $80 ($20 off) after a $40 rebate. Granted, the phones do have rebates, but they are cheaper after them than anywhere else, and second-day shipping (as oposed to 3-5 day shipping on Virgin Mobile's own site) is free. Also, it looks like there's no tax on the phones, which saves you another few dollars.

Hope this helps someone! If you do get a phone via this, tell Virgin I sent you! (see the right side of the page for more info on that)

Moto T720c Update

Just for those who are curious, the Motorola T720c finally registered low battery today. Looks like the battery at least isn't refurbished; that's four full days of battery life out of the phone. Not bad...

...though I didn't use the phone much at all and the Audiovox and the Marbl charged at the same time as the Moto, are still going strong...

One other thing: PagePlus still tells you, slowly, the balance of your account before connecting the call. This takes maybe fifteen seconds. I'd ay it's probably the only annoying thing you have to face when using the service. Hmmm...if they'd take a page from STi's book (just one, though) and give you your balance only when you dial a special number...just a thought...

30-minutes-for-life, Demystified

Wondering about the new "30 extra minutes for life" promotion Tracfone has? Allow me to enlighten you...

Q: Is this promotion valid on my phone?
A: If, on activation, you saw a big green banner saying that your phone has been enrolled in the promotion, you're good. If you don't, you're not enrolled. I activated a phone back in late December and saw this, so it's safe to assume that all new activations, and ones that are relatively recent have the promo...though the surefire indicator is whether you saw the promo message or not. You can also call Tracfone and ask...they probably know.

Q: What cards is the promo valid for?
A: All cards except the 1-year cards and the new $10 card. Which, I take it, means that with the $50 double-minute card you get 30 extra minutes...though I may be wrong.

Q: Can you combine the extra 30 minutes with a promo code.
A: I've heard nothing to say no, and the newest phones actually have a special "enter promo code here" step on on-hone airtime redemption, so all indicators say "yes". Though promo codes seem to be in relatively short supply of late.

Q: When does the 30 minute promo kick in?
A: The second time you refill. From then on, subject to the airtime card type restrictions, you get your 30 minutes. Enjoy!

So, personally, if you have an older, non-flip CDMA phone, you'd do yourself a favor to upgrade to the Nokia 2126i for not only this reason but also because the 2126i is Single-Rate (same-cost roaming, cheaper text). Oh, and it's a mere $15 at your loca Dollar General, if you have one of those, or $14.88 at your local ShopKo, if you have one of those.

Hope this helps! If it does, click an ad and support this site so I can keep the info coming!

Another Prepaid Airtime Seller

Telecom Services, at www.telecomservices.net, has more selection than CheapPhonecards but still gives discounts (of 5%) on larger airtime values across the various carriers they sell. They don't look like a big outfit, but at least they have a fair selection of airtime at discounted prices...better than all the airtime sellers I've seen right now...

More Info: Motorola T720c

Just to let everyone know, I'm going to end up not doing a review on this phone. It looks like I got a worse-than-usual-refurb-condition phone and it's going offline soon anyway. But I have to say that besides the general condition of the phone, it seemed pretty darn advanced, though you could tell it was old.

First off, signal quality was fine. As was general voice quality, though the speaker could stand being louder. I couldn't help but think that this phone is the precursor to my own v323...

Second, I wish that PagePlus had disabled features that you can't use on them anyway, namely web and Get It Now. They changed the operator logo, so why not change the firmware to make things more efficient?

Speaking of efficiency, the iTAP predictive text on this phone isn't fun to use, because you have to hit the right softkey every time you want to insert a space on a text message...and this is a pretty big phone, so the right softkey is a loooong way away. But it is possible to text on the phone, and the large screen makes things very viewable.

Speaking of the large phone and the large screen, this phone is hunkin' huge. Which is a good thing for some people I suppose, but a bad thing for others of us. Think Razr, except twice as thick...yeah, this is a big phone...just wish the buttons were a little bigger, but then again this may be "I got a bad refurb" syndrome...

As to other features, this phone has surprisingly many. Aside from the web browser and text messaging, the Moto has voice dialing (you have to program it first), voice recording...that sorta thing. And for those of you who like ringtones, this phone does have some okay polyphonic ringers...just keep in mind that they sound decidedly "retro". And yes, the phone does have an external display, which is quite readable and all that.

I can't comment on battery life...will do that later...because I've only had the phone since Thursday and started my battery test on Friday. Seems to be holding up well though...

All in all, I'm hedging my bets that this phone's shortcomings as I experienced them were due to it being a refurb deal. Otherwise, in my opinion it's a fine phone, albeit old and freakin' huge. But due to the refurb-ness and the fact that what appears to be the only retailer of the phone now, BabbleBug, is gonna be pulling it off the market soon, I'll leave things at that...no review...

But I will review the Audiovox 8600 soon...boy is that phone tiny except in thickness...so stay tuned!

Virgin Mobile - Cheaper At Wal-Mart

If you want to buy a Kyocera Marbl from Virgin Mobile's website, don't.

Wal-Mart (at least mine, and likely yours) has just gotten in shipments of this phone...which they're selling for $19.97 plus tax.

So buy the Marbl from there and save yourself $10.

An interesting sidenot though: it looks like Wal-Mart doesn't technically "have" the Marbls in their system yet. So you'll havev to wait a few days before you can actually buy them. For those who can't wait Virgin Mobile's site is probably the only other choice (well, BestBuy has them but they're even more expensive). But I'd say wait...if you want the Marbl, get it from Wal-Mart.

Oh, and maybe wait for my review while you're at it :)

Tracs Cuts

Some of the Tracfones are even cheaper than usual...

At Dollar General the Nokia 2126i (the new Single-Rate version) is $15, albeit with no included airtime (versus $30 with 60 minutes included).

And at K-Mart (thx Turk) the Motorola c261 looks to be $30 (whoa...cheap cameraphone!), with the grey-haired v170 down to $25.

Keep the price cuts coming :)

Tracfone Koolness (Thanks Chris!)

Tracfone now, secretly, has their three new phones available online. Though they're out of stock, we now have better specs on the phones, and exact prices...

The LG CG225 (wierdly called the LG 225 by Tracfone though a phone by the same name is available for Sprint\STi Mobile\etc.), available at http://www.tracfone-orders.com/direct/tr/itemdetl.jsp?prod=3554, is priced at $80. Not bad considering it's the first camera flip phone Tracfone has ever had...and the second cameraphone. So that's why the Motorola c261 went down from $80 to $40 in such a comparatively short period...

The LG C1500, called merely the "1500" by Tracfone on http://www.tracfone-orders.com/direct/tr/itemdetl.jsp?prod=3551, is priced at $60. Which is fine because it is an upgrade to the Motorola v176 due to its external display. It does, however, have a smaller internal display...

Last if we're measuring by expense is the Motorola w370, at $50. Available at http://www.tracfone-orders.com/direct/tr/itemdetl.jsp?prod=3545, it's decidedly the most basic of the phones being introduced, feature-wise, but its screen looks to be the largest of the phones (albeit sacrificing an external screen for simple LED indicators), and its style seems impeccable. For $50 you really can't complain, seeing as how the pudgier Motorola v176 had similar or less features for $10 more...or should I say has, since these phones aren't out yet?

Which reminds me...I have to figure out how to get these phones...seeing as how Tracfone is sick of me buying from them ;)...

For Those Of You Who Want STi...

...CheapPhoneCards is offering the STi Mobile LG 125, which all in all isn't a horrible phone, for $39 with $10 of airtime inlcuded. There's a 5% off coupon code to somewhat offset shipping, too. The link in the title is the link to the phone...

Tracfone Newz: Pink c139 and ShopKo

Two interesting things...

First off, when you're in Tracfone's online store, change the tech= part of the web address to GSM6 (from CO, GSM4 or GSM5) and reload the page. You'll get, though out of stock, the Motorola c139 for $15, the Motorola v170 for $40...and a pink Motorola c139 for $15! Again, these phones are out of stock and who knows what carrier's SIM they'd be shipped with (Dobson CellularOne maybe? SunCom?). But the pink c139 is interesting...

Second, ShopKo is selling Tracfones at sweet prices until the 21st of this month. You may even be able to have them ship the phone to you if you're out of area, or out of state...here are the phones...and yes, they run from $15 to $20 in discounts or are just plain available when they usually aren't...and yes, they're all SingleRate...

CDMA
LG 3280 - $28.88
Nokia 2126i - $14.88

GSM
Nokia 1112 - $18.88
Nokia 2600 - $18.88

Sounds nice and cheap from here...especially the CDMA phones...$15 and $20 less than retail isn't bad. And the Nokia 2126i is a solid phone...cheap per minute and per text, too, with the $50 double-minute card.

Virgin Mobile Messaging

Well, I was able to find out which phones do IM and email. Here they are:

Phones that do both:
Cyclops
Switch_Back
Slider Sonic

hones that do IM only:
Snapper

Yep, the Slice is left high and dry here...no IM, no email. So your phone selection is slim if you want IM or e-mail...and the short list costs upwards of $60 right now. Oh well...

And on the BabbleBug Front...

BabbleBug, at least for now, isn't coming out with the Tracfone $10 card. But they are coming out with "direct topups" for Amp'd and Boost Mobile. The instant topup lets you not have to deal with PINs\cards. Which is pretty neat if you ask me. BabbleBug already has direct topup available for a few carriers, among which are Verizon's two prepaid services, EasyPay and INPulse.

For Boost, you have an additional advantage: you can select your own top-up amount between $10 and $100, unclusive, though BabbleBug will charge 50 cents extra for top-ups under $20. They'll also be able to top up the new Boost Unlimited plan. You don't get the fancy pick-your-own-refill with Amp'd but it's still a direct top-up.

Hope this helps!

PrepaidWireless.com Comes Out With Trac $10 Card

PrepaidWireless.com now has the Tracfone $10 card...you can now get this 45-unit PIN outside of Tracfone's own site. Viva la choisir!

PagePlus's Promotion

PagePlus just put up a bold, daring promotion on their site: send them any competitor's phone and they'll send you a phone back...their phone...with $10 in credit included. Add to that the dirt-cheap rates, (8 to 14 cents a minute, depending on whether you want to spend $2.50 or $20 a month, with not-too-horrible 8-cent texting) no 50 ceent monthly fee till June and the fact that the LG vx4400 that they're giving away is normally $50...and worth that $50...makes PagePlus a carrier to watch. Now I wonder which phone I should eventually trade in...hmmm...maybe a Virgin K7...nah...hmm...

Another Moblogging service...

Seems like Flickr works on a wider variety of carriers than Blogger normally does, but it still leaves some of us out in the cold. The solution? A site called FileMobile.com. Right now I'm trying to figure out why my phone's photos only make it to the FileMobile site, and not to my blog, but my carrier, Pocket Communications, has some nonstandard wierdness about its MMS system so I think everyone else will be fine. So if Flickr doesn't work, try the same steps with FileMobile and you'll be good, more than liikely! :)

Blog From Your Phone, Whatever It May Be

I just spent awhile calling Virgin Mobile so that my photo-moblogging at Washington D.C. would go without a hitch. Well, the guy on the other end unfortunately didn't have much information for me, but I figured out on my own how to moblog away on whatever service you're on!

1. Sign up for a flickr account at www.flickr.com (they're now part of Yahoo so if you have a Yahoo ID it's very quick to set up an account).

2. "Attach" your blog to Flickr (it's a multi-step process but it's not hard).

3. Turn on email-to-blog capability on Flickr.

That's it! You now can email photos from your cameraphone (via MMS) to Flickr, and thence to your blog. And if you use Virgin Mobile and do this a lot, the photo messages are a penny apiece. Sweet if ya ask me...

Virgin Mobile New Stuff

First off, you know about that new price for IM that was announced a few days ago? Well, it works on...hmmm...some phones (right now the site is showing that it works on every phone except the Slice, but then again the site shows that pix messaging and email doesn't work on any phone...) and now includes Yahoo and AIM. And since Yahoo is now teamed up with Windows Live\MSN, you can now IM whoever you want from your Virgin Mobile phone, for as low as a penny per message. Niftier than the usual junk...

Second, rumor has it that the Snapper may be available for $35. To whom, nobody knows. But that's the rumor.

Third, I dunno if this has been done before, but if you're a current Virgin Mobile customer you can just take a new phone purchase out of the money you have on your Virgin Mobile account...which is pretty neat...

Which brings me to a point of begging again: if you activate a new phone on Virgin Mobile, tell them that 830-456-2634 ( 8304562634 for those who don't want to delete the dashes) sent you. This will add money to my Virgin Mobile account when you refill\Top Up next, and that money will go toward buying new phones. Like the Cyclops, for example...which I'm likely to get anyway for the class trip to Washington D.C. (I plan to get the $10 messaging pack and make a pictorial blog of the trip for nexta nuthin').

New Phone Reviews: Coming Soon!

Well, today I received two packages. One was from BabbleBug (thanks guys!) with the Motorola T720c and the Audiovox 8600, both supposed to be on PagePlus (the Moto was, complete with PagePlus branding...tha 'vox didn't seem to be...which is okay but odd). The other package was from Virgin Mobile, containing the Kyocera Marbl that I ordered from them several days ago...and paid for (thanks loyal ad clickers! keep it up...support this site!). I'll have reviews up soon. But I have to report one thing about each of the phones right now:

The Motorola T720c looks pretty nice in black...and interestingly bears the Page Plus Cellular logo and branding both in the phone software and hardware.

The Audiovox 8600 is small...on the cliff-hanging edge of being too small...except for its thickness, which is made even more pronounced by its other minute dimensions. I gotta say that this is the first phone I've ever had that can balance stably atop its own travel charger, laying flat...and we're talking a small travel charger...

The Kyocera Marbl is NOT the Kyocera K132 (thank God!) but rather the K127. Which means the keypad is worlds better, in my opinion, but the form factor, with a much larger bottom half of the flip though with a smaller top half, has lost a bit of cool factor in the five-model-number drop relative to te K132.

Stay tuned for reviews! And wish me luck with school...I was at UT San Antonio's campus library with my high school class doing research for this year's research paper...my topic is nanotech.

Side Note...Virgin Mobile...

Just so everyone knows, I'm getting the Marbl in (aka Kyocera K132) from Virgin Mobile tomorrow. So look for first impressions of the phone tomorrow evening, and a review within the week! Also, I might be able to secure a Cyclops for review. Again, stay tuned!

Virgin Mobile...Like Whoa, Dude

Virgin Mobile just changed up their site...for the cheaper...

First off, they've lowered the prices of their phones. The Kyocera Cyclops is now a quite palatable $60, and the old Slider Sonic is down to $80...and it includes $20 of airtime! Talk about deep discounts...the Sonic thus effectively got a 40% price cut, while the Cyclops is now 25% off...viva la junk phones ;)

Also, texting packs have been renamed Messaging Pacs...and they're the same price! What's so great about that? Well, they include picture messages! So for $10 a month you get pix messages for a penny apiece, should you choose to send a ton of 'em...crazy, huh?

And Virgin Mobile has changed their IM policy. IM is now considered as a text message price-wise, which means it can add up very quickly without a messaging plan, but with one things may have just gotten a whole lot cheaper...

*Applause for Virgin Mobile*

Oh, and one more thing: if you want to send e-mail with your phone, now you can, for five cents per message either way. Or it's part of the new messaging pack. The catch? Only certain phones are supported (Cyclops, Switch_Back, Slider Sonic it looks like) and right now it's just AOL, AIM or Yahoo mail. :( And Yahoo isn't out yet...won't be until the 17th.

SingleRate CDMA Demystified, Q & A

Q: Where will SingleRate CDMA Tracfones work?
A: Everywhere where CDMA Tracfones will work. To my knowledge, Tracfone, Verizon or anyone makes zero differentiation between the older CDMA phones and the new SingleRate (LG 3280, Nokia 2126i) ones. So have fun, and have it wherever you want?

Q: I heard something about a CDMA cameraphone flip for Tracfone...
A: I didn't. The only upcoming phones that Tracfone has announced are the LG CG225 (all those features except GSM), the LG C1500 (caller ID GSM color flip) and the Motorola w370 (cool-looking flip with external icons instead of a caller ID display). Not that Tracfone won't come out wit something soon...the LG 3280, to my recollection, came out with little notice\fanfare. We can only hope...if Tracfone got a CDMA cameraphone with web (1x data is WAY faster than the GPRS on the Moto c261) I'd be all over it...

Motorola c155 & c139 Reflashing

How do you free a Motorola c139 or c155 from Tracfone? Well, I'm still figuring it out, but the basic way to do it is by either buying a cable ($17.50 or so off of eBay) or buying a $270 "Infinity Box" (which has the correct software included, along with a lot of other stuff) and getting the correct flashing files\program to replace the Motorola firmware. You connect the phone, run the program and your phone is now generic, likely with more features than before (the generic c155, for example, has a web browser build in).

It looks like Soft4GSM.com is the place to go for flash files, but I have yet to know whether they'll work with the cheap eBay cable. If they do, my $6 unlocking service, for both c155s and c139s, is begun! Heck, I could even reflash a Motorola c261, it looks like...

...but I have to have the right software. I'll report back here as to whether the cable will work or not with the software. And if it does work I'll be happy to post the flash files up here...but the Soft4GSM membership does cost, so every little ad click helps!

Virgin Mobile...New Phones? EDITED

Looks like Virgin Mobile may be coming out with different colors of its Slice phone by UTStarCom, in addition to the black and red we've already seen. The new colors will be "lime" green and "eggplant" blue. Personally, I like my black Slice better than the others, but hey, variety is always nice for people who think a black phone is soooo five minutes ago...

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1141844

...just hope these pics aren't Photoshopped...

EDIT: They are. Sorry folks...red and black are here to stay...and that's all...

But anyway the other new phone, that is indeed new, may well be the nicest Virgin Mobile phone yet...which isn't saying much, but hey...

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1137663

It looks to be a Slice on steroids, with a camera, Bluetooth and a boatload of memory...perfect for all those rinky dink ringtones Virgin Mobile is so happy to rip you off with...but, honestly, it looks to be a cool phone. And if the Virgin Mobile logo is that small when the phone comes out, I applaud Virgin's newfound humility. :)

The GSM Fromt: T-Mobile and Cingular

T-Mobile and Cingular also have some changes on their websites, but they're less far-reaching and more welcome...

First, T-Mobile...

They, right now, are again giving away a $25 airtime card when you buy (a maximum of two per household) a prepaid phone. Which is quite tempting, since DealKing right now offers $5 back when you buy a T-Mobile phone through their link, and the Nokia 6030 is $25 with the free airtime card...or rather free with the $25 airtime card. And the Nokia 6101, though not new or anything, is $50 and has the airtime card included.

There are also a few (relatively) new phones available on T-Mobile To Go. The basic Samsung t219 is $60, augmenting the $90 t319 cameraphone. And the new Samsung "Stripe" is available for $100. All of these, rembember, have the $25 card thrown in...

Now for Cingular...

First, the rewards sytemm. Yes, Cingular now has rewrds. Sort of. When you spend $100 on airtime (I'm guessing the first $10 in airtime counts toward this) you get $5. Another $100 gets you $10 extra. Another $100 gets you $15 bonus, as does the $100 after that. Finally, after you've sent $500 on their service, you get an extra $20, which you'll get for every $100 you spend after that. a 20% rewards system doesn't sound so bad, but that's an awful lot of airtime that you have to buy before you get there. Plus, T-Mobile's Gold Rewards beats Cingular percent for percent until you spend $500, and minute for minute the $100 T-Mobile card always wins. So personally I'm not excited about this, but it's a nice perk for Cingular users. An d no, you don't have to sign up for this to get it to take effect, which is a good thing...

Second, the GoPhone lineup has changed slightly, phone-wise. At least price-wise. The Sony Ericsson J220a, refurbished, is now a palatable $20, the same as the featureless Motorola c139 *cough cough*. At least the c139, with the correct hardware, is not too ahrd to unlock\flash (the process is similar to that of the c155). The better-looking, better-featured black Samsung x507 is $40 refurbished. And, interestingly, the tiny Pantech c300, along with the newer c120 bar phone when refurbished, is a mere $50. Note that the c300 is new...though it's an old model, the newer c3 being twice that cost. As a side note, you can get the basic, though thin, Motorola L2 refurbished, in either pink or silver, for $80.

And that's about it on the GSM front.

Alltel U - Text Now Costs More

Alltel's U Prepaid is a great provider. I mean, you can get anything from a Nokia 2865 to a KRZR on their service for a halfway decent price, and when you're on Alltel or Verizon's networks (a huge area) you get one of the cheapest cellular rates on prepaid, 15 cents per minute.

But, along with practically everyone else in the wireless market, they're quietly upping texting fees. Effecting the 20th, texts will be 10 cents each either way, unless you have the unlimited texting option, up from a comfortable five cents per message...

I really ahte to see this, but it was inevitable; everyone else is doing it with (at least) their contract plans, and sometimes with their prepaid plans. Sprint, T-Mobile and Cingular now have, or will soon have, 15 cent texting, and Verizon is either 10 or 15 cents each (don't remember which) without a texting bundle. Verizon prepaids (most notably PagePlus and Amp'd) run in the 8 to 10 cent range. T-Mobile To Go is 10 cents to send, 5 cents to receive. Pretty much the only prepaids with cheap texting now are Cingular GoPhone and Virgin (5 cents either way, Virgin also having texting bundles available for cheaper), the up-and-coming Total Call Mobile (again, five cents either way), STi (same) and Boost Mobile (10 cents to send, rfree to receive but who likes Boost text? Not me...)

Anyhow, Alltel U's text rates are going up, like text rates pretty much across the industry :(...except for Tracfone...if you have 10 cent minutes, you have 3 cent texts...viva la Trac ;)

Nokia 2126 - Now In Single Rate!

I went to Wal-Mart today and saw that they had the new Nokia 2126i! Okay, so it's not really new (technically ALL Nokia 2126s are 2126i's) but that's just Tracfone's way of telling you that these pones are now SingleRate!

Yes, now both GSM and CDMA Tracfones roam for free wherever you go, and have 0.3 unit texting. And the 2126i looks to come with 60 minutes, plus the 20 at activation (the phone retails in the $30 range). There is now no difference between GSM and CDMA rates; now, if you want better coverage, you as a rule get CDMA...if you want web and MMS and fancy phones, you get GSM...and that's about it...

Which means that now, for a total of $80 ($30 phone plus $50 double-minute card) you can get a solid Tracfone with 10 cent minutes and 3 cent text messages (better than all carriers unless you pay for a monthly texting plan) that works everywhere in the U.S. for that low rate. I'm lovin' it...

And for ye who do not believe, behold pictures, taken with my very own new camera phone, the Motorola v323i. And a short video clip...

Tracfone - No More Free Shipping

Sorry to say, Tracfone no longer has free shipping on their phones. It's $4.95 plus tax...:( At least there are still "twofer" deals...

By the way, if anyone is interested, I may pursue getting the equipment needed to reflash\unlock Motorola c155s. If enough people are interested I'll do it...I'm thinking price-wise $6 including return shipping per phone...

Virgin Monthly Web...Cheaper However You Slice It

I'm surprised I missed this, but Virgin Mobile has now introduced another way to buy web access...by the month. $4.99 gets you the month of access, with a limit of 5 MB. I'm guessing it would charge you $1 per 500k after that. But anyway, if you use web five days a month or more, this is the clear choice, since its rates are half that of the pay-when-you-need-it daily package...and cheaper than everyone else that I know of as far as prepid web goes per kilobyte, at a tenth of a cent per KB. Then again, there's no tethering or stuff like that, and some websites just plain won't work on Virgin Mobile...but hey, it's the cheapest web access on prepaid besides STi Mobile, and you don't have to be afraid of them disconnecting your service for overusage...you just pay more ;)

BestBuy Virgin Mobile Deals

BestBuy has all their prepaid phones on some sort of special, but Virgin Mobile, and with them only two of their phones, has significant discounts. Keep in mind that it'll cost tax and at least $5.50 in shipping beyond the list price if you buy online (I'm guessing you can pick up these phones in stores right now for these lower prices) but on the two phones that they've discounted it's still cheaper to get them from BestBuy than from elsewhere...

Kyocera Cyclops - $59.99 (usually $79.99, used to be $99.99, so with tax and shipping it'll be about $70.89...maybe I'll review this instead of the Snapper)

Kyocera Switch_Back - $89.99 ($10 less than usual, though shipping is $5.50 more...so all in all you come out about $4 ahead on this phone...in other words not a super buy but it's something)

Got A Marbl

Virin Mobile's Kyocera Marbl was back in stock today, so I bought one (thanks for the ad clicks, and thanks in advance for more ;) ). So expect a review of this, the newest phone on Virgin Mobile, soon!

Lost Its MARBLs?

Looks like Virgin Mobile just can't keep the new Marbl phone in stock...if they had it in stock today I would've gotten it for review (thank you everyone who supported this site by clicking ads...keep on keeping on). As it stands, I'll wait till it's back in stock. Also, I may borrow a Snapper to review...anyway, stay tuned for new reviews!

Refer-A-Friend

What are my thoughts on Refer-a-Friend? Well, ersonally I think it may indeed come back in some shape, form or fashion since Tracfone still has the link on their site. But don't hold your breath; it's dead and cold for the moment. That's about it...I wish it would come back but it's not...at least there's the twofer deal...

TracWha?

Well, Tracfone changed their product lineup again. Now, their "free phone" for GSM is the Motorola c155. While it is a color phone with polyphonic ringtones, it seems to practically everyone to be inferior to the Nokia 1100, despite the latter's higher age and lower feature set. But then again, nobody can argue with the brick of a charger the Motorola has, even when compared with the wall warts Nokia sometimes supplies (though these chargers are thankfully getting rarer on that front).

And yes, I did review the c155 and the 1100, and I'd take an 1100 over a c155 any day. But Tracfone is making us take c155s if we want the "twofer" deal and don't want the Nokia 2285...ah well...

Scratch The Mourning...Trac Is Back!

The Nokia 1100 is no longer out of stock. Good Tracfoneers rejoice!

Also, regarding the previous comment, some Tracfones actually come with 60 (extra? I think so) minutes of airtime upon activation now. Keyword: some. These "some" are mostly the lower-end phones bought at retail (Nokia 2126, Nokia 1112). Just thought I'd point that out...

Oh, and by the way, if you like using your phone a lot, take a look at www.unlimitedcellular.info. It's my new site about unlimited cellular companies (I started it Sunday) and I think I've got something going there...

Sad News: Tracfone Update

Just to let everyone know, Tracfone is no longer selling the Nokia 1100 as part of the double 60-minute card bundle. Maybe they've run out of them? But anyway the phone is out of stock so the only option for the "twofer" deal is the less attractive, older Nokia 2285...sad...but maybe this means that Tracfone will finally put up the Nokia 1112 for sale online! Who knows...

But speaking of Nokia 2285s, does anyone here want to buy the phones, or know of anyone who wants to buy the phones? I'd give good money to know of someone who would buy them, and would be willing to sell them for cheap, in bulk...

Tracfone Stuff

Okay, I was just foolin' yesterday about Virgin Mobile. Maybe it was a little too close to home but yesterday was April Fools' ;).

Anyway, Tracfone now has a different "twofer" deal on CDMA stuff...which includes the ooooold Nokia 2285. Personally, I'd go for the GSM deal rather than CDMA, as the 2285 is a very old phone, but hey, it's there...

New Virgin Mobile Phone and Service Plan - Not For Everyone

I got the scoop from a person who will as of yet remain anonymous about a new phone and service which Virgin Mobile will release in the ery near future...

As to the service, minutes will now be charged in half-minute intervals, at 13 cents for 0:01-0:30 and 9 cents for 0:31 to 1:00, increasing margins for Virgin Mobile by nearly 20% yet providing the average customer with a false sens of less expensive calling. The monthly plans will have similar changes, with all plans going to the half-minute schedule, but with only 60% more half-minutes than minutes. Night and weekend calls will be billed per 40 seconds rather than half minutes. Also in this fee structure is a "nickel and dime" plan which allows Virgin to count all phone usage and bill 5 cents a minute for it. So don't hold your new Virgin phone too much...

As to the phone, it is a joint venture between Kyocera and UTStarCom, or rather Kyocera and Audiovox...Audiovox disowned the phone some time ago and changed its name for that very purpose. Anyway, the phone, which Kyocera now calls the KX1337d, will be called the CRAPY on Virgin's own network. It has already been recalled on several carriers after only two weeks' stint due to phone failure rates. The phone will have a price point of $29.99, including $2.50 worth of credit. The new rate plans will be required on this phone.

This phone, supposed to be a flip, has the distinction of being the first phone where the Virgin Mobile logo is prominently placed on every possible surface of the phone, including the screen, which has a Virgin Mobile-shaped mat around it. The screen is 16 color, but more colors are not needed as the user interface, which takes several seconds to respond to commands from the rather spongy keypad, is all shades of yellow and red. Polyphonic ringtones are suppored, but there are only two ringers preloaded on the phone, plus one messaging alert. All other 'tones will have to be downloaded from Virgin's new XS (Xtra Small) service, designed to fit the phone's small, nonstandard, 109x109 pixel display, which as I said is matted so give up if you want wallpapers.

The phone has a camera, which is rated at 1.3 megapixels but actually uses a QCIF (176x144) sensor and uses the antiquated nearest-neighbor method to interpolate to 1.3 megapixels. Pictures tend to be undersaturated to the point of greyness, yet are blown out into shades of yellow and red on the phone's display. Oh, and the caller ID display, which was going to be on this phone, was removed per Virgin's instructions and replaces with the Virgin logo. Speakerphone is available, but battery life will suffer...estimated standby time is 18 hours with a new battery or 20 minutes talk time. With a software upgrade the standby time should be increased to 20 hours.

Sorry, it's late. Gotta go to bed. Happy April 1st everyone! I think I'll go for the Marbl, before it's taken offline in favor of the CRAPY, which is rumored to be financially a profit for Virgin Mobile, at a wholesale of $17.92 per unit...

Marbl 400!

Okay, yes, this is the 400th post on Go4Prepaid...yeah I've come a long way...now to keep things going, and to get to 500 posts...

But why Marbl in the post title? Because, if I get another $10 or so in ad money this month, I'll buy a Marbl, review it and have it as a phone on the sweepstakes (yeah I said sweepstakes) I'm going to have for my 500th post. Which, I promise, won't be that far off.

But anyway this month's ad clicks go toward a Marbl to review, to see whether it's better than the Oystr or the K132 that it's very, very similar to. Stay tuned!

Audiovox 8910...The Saga Continues!

Yeah, I got my love-hate-relationship Audiovox 8910 back from custody by an overzealous school administration today, after their having it for five full days. To my horror, not because of them of course, the 2 key on it now requires a bit more prodding, no pun intended, to work. Which is really anoying since the letters "a", "b" and "c" are all used a lot on texting, and all my immediate family's phone numbers have 2's in them. So much for being a great phone...ech...

,,,and yes, I will make an exchange for another phone, hopefully a more decent one. Kyocera Candid anyone? How about a nice barely-used Razr v3c that I can flash to CricKet when I go to Colorado (MIT said no...this time...) for college. If I can only get the phone for the 40% Pocket discount on "B-stock" phones...but I digress...

CDMA & GSM

For those of you who hae no idea of what CDMA and GSM are, I don't blame you; I'll bet most people are simply confused by all the technical jargon. But here's the quick rundown, plus some links to places where you can read more about the two technologies...and yes I've said this before but anyway...

CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access. Used by Verizon, Sprint, Alltel and a lot of little rural carriers, as well as "unlimited carriers" like MetroPCS and CricKet. CDMA has better coverage in the US and better cell site capacity, but isn't used worldwide like GSM is and is harder to use across multiple carriers...

GSM: Global System for Mobile, based on TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). Used by Cingular\AT&T, T-Mobile and a lower number of minor carriers. This technologies makes use of SIM cards so it's easier to change your service or phone (just pop out the card and pop it into another phone, with some reservations). And it's a worldwide standard in that it is used in many more countries than CDMA...so you can use GSM "world phones" (the Razr is one) internationally. But network capacity isn't as large as CDMA, and a whole new technology (WCDMA) is required to get high-speed data (on CDMA it's just another upgrade).

Personally, I'm a CDMA guy, but GSM is nice since you can just buy one phone that will work with all the GSM providers in the world...but anyway for more information take a look at these sites:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11282_7-6437119-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_mobile_phone_standards

And if you're wondering what "cell breathing" is (not as much of a problem on CDMA now as it was several years ago, since 99% of CDMA networks are upgraded to a better technology...)

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci820970,00.html

If you have questions or comments, comment and I'll see what I can do...

Trac Note

Just to let everyone know (I should have said this elsewhere\sooner\all that) but all Tracfone promotional codes, past, present and future, are one-time-use per phone. Sorry for having confusion on that point. I'd post more info on something (dunno what though) but I've been doing play practice all day and it's suppertime here.,,and I go back to play practice in a little less than an hour and a half...

EDIT: MOST promotional codes are one-time-use. But I suppose there are some (57676 for example) that can be used multiple times, subject to a few restrictions of which I ahve no idea. Thanks for the correction people!

Net10 News

Looks like Net10 has some good deals on their site at the moment. Besides putting online pages for the LG and Motorola phones that Tracfone will soon get (good) and taking away the 1-year card (bad) Net10 has made available some sweet specials that may well make it a nice carrier for a person who is on the upper end of minute use for prepaid...

Here are the good deals (all of them come preloaded with 300 minutes and 60 days of service):

Nokia 1100 (refurbsished) - $20
Nokia 1600 (refurbished, color phone) - $30
Motorola v171 (refurbished) - $40
Motorola c139 (new, blech) - $40
Motorola c155 (new) - $40

Everything else isn't a particularly good deal, costing $80 (Motorola v171, v170) or $90 (Motorola c261, v176) but the other phones are nice buys if you just want to talk and text...

PagePlus Updates

A few updates on the leading Verizon prepaid that nobody has heard of: PagePlus...

1. The 50 cent monthly fee is waived until June! Yay cheaper minutes!
2. The $50 card now gives you 500 minutes and the $80 card clocks in at 1000 (!) minutes. You can buy the latter at BabbleBug.com...or will be able to buy them once BabbleBug gets the new-rate cards. Yes, that's 10 cents a minute for $12.50 a month and 8 cents a minute for $20 a month. Tasty!
3. A few new phones are out. At BabbleBug the Motorola t720 ($40) and Audiovox 8600 ($50) are available. On PagePlus's own site, you can get the Motorola c343 bar phone for $20, the LG vx4400 flip for $40 and the Audiovox 8910 camera phone for $60. All phones come with $10 (71 minutes) of airtime, which is nice too, considering that Tracfone and Virgin Mobile normally come with 20 minutes or less...

Yes, PagePlus has just gotten a little bit better, folks...

New Tracfones!

Sorry everyone. Mobile-wise lately I've been relatively out of it. Too much stuff going on. As it stands this post will be a short (albeit informative) one.

First off, as an aside, I'll be getting the Sanyo Katana from Total Call Mobile (yes I know it's expensive but yeah) soon and will be of course reviewing it here. I hope to get the black one, because in my opinion all the other colors are just as plasticky (that's why this phone is on prepaid and you don't see the metallic Razr) but black is a little more refined...

Anyway, the subject of this post: Tracfone is coming out with some new phones soon! Thanks for posting the tip, Chris; I wouldn't have noticed for awhile on Tracfone's site...heck, the Nokia 1112 still isn't out online...gues they're waiting for Nokia 1100s to sell out.

Anyway, there are three new models coming out soon. And yes, they're all GSM. :( I know it's sad for people who actually want a great signal everywhere, but for thos epeople (including me) the LG 3280 is okay for what it does...

Speaking of CDMA, the Nokia 2126 refurbished phone deal is now gone. If you want that "twofer" deal you now have to use the Nokia 1100 option.

Anyway, two of the three phone models are (whether this is a surprise or not I'll leave up to whoever wants, as it looks like LG is now a Tracfone manufacturer over Nokia) made by LG. And the third one is made by Motorola. What are the models?

1. Motorola w370
2. LG 1500 aka C1500
3. LG CG225

First off, the Moto:

This phone looks nice and sleek, and will be Tracfone's thinnest flip to my knowledge, at a svelte 0.75 inches. Okay, it's no Razr, not even a Krzr, but it's a bit thinner than the LG phones that Tracfone also says are coming soon so hey...oh and yes it is designed to be like the Krzr so maybe, just maybe, people will mistake this phone for the Krzr (but probably not).

The phone is like its cameraphone sibling the w375 in...well...pretty much everything! There's no Bluetooth on the Tracfone model (of course!) but otherwise it has the same features as the w375, sans camera. Which include an okay-sized screen on the inside and wierd message-waiting indicatiors on the outside (though they do look cool...but I'd rather have a real external display). And the phone has web browsing (ka-ching for Tracfone...limited and not free for the moment) too, plus a two-way speakerphone...which pretty much rounds out this phone. My price prediction? $50-$70...I'd be surprised if it was cheaper, less so if it was more expensive, but it should hit around that range alongside the Motorola v176...or maybe not alongside it...maybe more expensive with its slim profile...

Next up, the LG C1500...er...1500 (this isn't such a short post after all)

Note that this phone has been discontinued by Cingular. Whereas the Motorola hasn't been released by anyone. Which means that this is a slightly older phone already, but that's okay; you don't really need a whizbang phone to take advantage of what little Tracfone ahs to offer. What the phone does have to offer is a half-duplex speakerphone, web access (or at least it should have...unless Tracfone took it out of the firmware for some wierd reason), an external caller ID display (with a color background, which is interesting, but not a real color screen, which is actually a good thing for battery life and visibility). The screen is smaller than the Motorola, and the phone is thicker, but it does have that external display (the first GSM Tracfone to have one, and the first color flip of any Tracfone breed for this feature actually). So I'm guessing it may sell in the $50-$80 range.

Lastly, but not least, the LG CG225...

Which has been continued by Cingular...er...AT&T recently but looks to be a pretty nice phone, considering it's a Tracfone. It is basic, with no color external caller ID display, and no real whizbang features, but it does raise the bar on Tracfone (rather than Razing The Bar on Cingular). It looks good in the black casing, it has a camera that is probably quite decent for its resolution (VGA), it has an external display, it has a speakerphone, it has web...what more can you want from a Tracfone at this point? Pretty much zip, so I'm thinking that this phone will also raise the bar in price...maybe $80-$100, and it'll probably stay there too. As opposed to the Motorola c261, which has halved its price in the year or so it has been out (it has been that long!?!).

Well, there you have it: Tracfone is coming out with some new phones. If anyone wants reviews on them, they have only to click on some ads and I'll be happy to oblige. Heck, if enough ads are clicked, I may give away the phones after I've reviewed them!

New Tracfone Promo Code!

I just looked on Tracfone's website and there's a new promo code out, 55094. It adds 100 minutes to the normally 400 minute1-year card, for a grand total of a cool 500 minutes. So if you want Tracfone service for cheap both minute-wise ($8.33 a month) and minute wise (20 cents a minute, less if Tracfone ever gets the double-minute card up and running) here it is, it looks like...

New Tracfone Promo Code!

I just looked on Tracfone's website and there's a new promo code out, 55094. It adds 100 minutes to the normally 400 minute1-year card, for a grand total of a cool 500 minutes. So if you want Tracfone service for cheap both minute-wise ($8.33 a month) and minute wise (20 cents a minute, less if Tracfone ever gets the double-minute card up and running) here it is, it looks like...

Review: UTStarCom 7025\120

Please note that I didn't really test this phone on any carrier, as it was inactive, but test calls to Sprint seemed to serve my purposes fairly well. Andyes, this is the replacement for the UTStarCom 7000, so expect to see it on Movida etc. soon if not already...

First off, I have to say that this phone is nice and thin. It's no Razr but it is quite thin, maybe even uncomfortably thin for some. But that means thatyou have a budget phone that you can slip into your pocket easily, as longas you're fine with the extendable stub antenna sticking out, as this phone, like all other Audiovox\UTStarCom flips I know of, has an extendable stub antenna. But anyway the phone is small.

Then again, the feature set is also small. You can talk, text, use the phone book, do the typical voice and organization features and (if you can find them) play a game or two. No web, no caller ID screen (just a two-color light on the outside). But then again some people don't need much, and for those people this phone delivers...

With ringtones that are actually quite fine and quite loud, courtesy the phone's external speaker. And yes, the phone does have speakerphone functionality, which works fine. The phone screen may be small, but the UI is clear enough, so you can get along with the small screen for doing what the phone is made for doing. Oh, and vibrate alert is strong enough...

Let me take a break here and say that if you want to compare the7025 with the 7000 there isn't really any comparison. The 7000 just seems alot older, lessrefined, first-gen, etc. while the 7025 is actually a budget phone that, whilegeneric-branded, is truly not bad at all.

Anyway, everyone is probably wondering about call quality. Please note that my house is in a relatively strong Sprint service area, but then again I have to hand it to the 7025 fr delivering some sharp calls to *2 and 611 when I called them, and the extendable antenna should keep those calls sharp for awhile.

Battery life? Well, I'm not sure when I charged the phone, but it has been working for at leastfour and a half days, maybe longer, including some areas with no signal. So I'm thinking this phone's batterylife is around that of the LG 3280, which is saying a lot...looks like UTStarCom doesn't really make junk phones...at least not now...

In sum, the UTStarComm 7025, from my experience, is a solid phone, though its feature set isn't the most desireable out there. Then again, if you don't need anything more than voice and text, and don't need caller ID on your phone, this phone is perfect for anybody who wants something slim and, to my knowledge, good at doing what it does.

UTStarComm 7025 Review - Coming Soon!

Somebody gave me a perfect-condition UTStarComm 7025 on Sprint (so technically it's the CDM-150). I'll be posting a review of it soon, probably tomorrow. So check back here soon! Also, I'll be getting the Motorola t720 and Audiovox 8600 in fairly soon, though I can't promise a speedy review as there are lots of things I have to finish up near the end of this month (I'm the main role in A Man of All Seasons at my school...sstill ahve to memorize a truckload of lines over the rest of Spring Break). But the reviews will come...

Feeling Entrepreneurial?

Some people already know this, but I made a nice chunk of money in the last few months by buying Tracfones (the $19.99 deals) and reselling them. Now Tracfone won't let me do that anymore. But I already am hooked up with distributors so if someone wants to "follow in my footsteps" it'd be a zero-risk, high-reward type of situation. If anyone is interested, email me...and we're talking thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars, as the reward here...

Okay, Take 2 - The Site Is Really Up!

Sorry everyone...the site wasn't quite up when I said it was up last night, due to the way the domain name is working now :/. But now it should be fine. Hope this helps everyone!

Go4Prepaid.info - It's back up!

Sorry for the way-too-long period where everyone's trek to www.go4prepaid.info led to a cold, dark place of no prepaid cell phone goodness. Thanks be to God that the domain is up again, so everyone can resume their normal habits of web surfing while still reaching all the prepaid goodness of Go4Prepaid.

Hope this helps everyone! Sorry that the elongated hiccup (the host my host was reselling folded) happened but now go4prepaid.info once again leads here. Enjoy!

TracFun Update

Just to let everyone know, I added an airtime card for my mom's phone to me (a 60-minute card) and it extended her expiration date by 90 days. So the new card values are really here now, and promo codes work great. I added via the web and, if anything, promo codes have gotten a tad better. Granted, they're one-time-use only but I was able to double the airtime relative to the card's face value with promo code 51283. Then again, rumor has it that most of these promo codes are going to expire on the 15th...who knows?

But anyway, the new Tracfone revolution is revving up...and it's great for everyone!

*228 and "Forever Plan"...and Unlimited Expiration To Boot!

Two things I forgot to mention about Tracfone...

I just updated the PRLs (preferred roaming lists) for my mom's, dad's and my own Tracfones. Just so everyone knows, all Tracfones use the same PRL if they're CDMA, whether they're SingleRate (LG 3280) or not (everything else for the moment). The PRL looks to be what's known as "America's Choice I", still having roaming areas in which Tracfones charge 2x the airtime they usually charge. But I'm thinking this area is getting smaller, and on the LG it doesn't matter anyway, and probably gives you a tad MORE coverage than the typical Verizon plan...just a guess...and no, in case anyone was wondering, Tracfone doesn't seem to use ERIs...

But anyway right now is a good time to take your CDMA Tracfone (LG 3280, Nokia 2285, Nokia 2126, Nokia 5180, Motorola v60, Motorola c343, Motorola v120) and call *228. When Verizon picks up (or your other home carrier...you want to do this when you're in your home area and the PRL update will be good for other carriers besides Verizon, though Verizon is what I'm mainly talking about here) press 1 to program your phone (again the procedure will be different on non-Verizon-powered Tracfones). After about a minute your phone will be reprogrammed, and it may restart itself (the Nokias didn't; the LG did for me). After that, be satisfied in the knowledge that your phone is up-to-date, roaming wise.

Now the other thing: Tracfone's "Forever Plan" as people like to call it. What is this plan? To put it simply: 30 extra units on all refills but the first one when you activate your Tracfone. Probably doesn't apply to the double-minute, zero-minute card but for everything else that's another nice reason to activate a new Tracfone. A little ways through the activation process this notice will pop up to let you know...

Which brings up something interesting: does this apply to the 30-minute card? Who knows...Tracfone probably wouldn't undercut themselves that much, making the card much more attractive than it's double-cost companion, at a mere 17 or so cents per minute. Then again, with the double minute plan the $10 card would rack up 90 minutes, versus the $20 card's 150...no wait, the $10 card is still ahead there, price-per-minute-wise. Odd, that. They probably won't let you have the extra airtime on the 30-minute card, but who knows? If they do I'm buying a new Tracfone ;). With double minutes and such it looks more and more inexpensive...

Yes, I said new Tracfone...ones that are already activated don't get the promo, though I suppose you could call Tracfone up and ask them to apply it...

But one more thing...aside form an exhortation to click some ads and support this site...Tracfone airtime is now infinitely stackable! Yes, that's right: you can now add as many airtime cards as you want, and the expiration date looks like it will extend sometime into the nether oblivion. So if you want to pick up four 60-minute cards and daisychaim them to make a 1-year, 240-minute, $80 card, have at it! Or 360-minute card if you get the 30-minute promotion. Of course, you'd get more minutes with the $100 400 (or 430) minute card (as I pointed out a day or two ago an interesting flip from when cost per month was why you'd buy the 1-year card)...unless you are on the 30 extra minute plan but not the double plan...but the cost per month is a dollar or two lower ($20 over the year...more if you snag some airtime cards off of eBay or Tracfone's own phone store...on eBay they're going for $16 apiece) than the 1-year card so hey...

Again, all I can say is things are interesting for Tracfone these days. Wonder if they'll release some new phones, maybe the Nokia 2366i or something crazy like that...only time will tell...

More TracFun, with Net10 Thrown In

It's real...

Tracfone now has on the Buy Airtime seciton of their site the new airtime cards (double-minute, 30-minute and 200-minute) as well as 90-day expirations for the other cards and 400 minutes for the 1-year card. There's a totally new card design too, which looks interesting...

The design is also there with net10. Except the minutes are in different values, of course. But the Net10 lineup has been shaken up a good bit, to make it a tad more expensive per month, starting at $15 instead of $12.50. But the maximum airtime purchase is now $100 instead of $180...but anyway...

$15 - 150 minutes and 30 days of service
$30 - 300 minutes and 60 days of service
$60 - 600 minutes and 90 days of service
$100 - 1000 minutes and 180 days of service

The only really new card (aside form the design) is the $15 card. But it's pretty interesting to watch and see what Tracfone will do next.

T-Mo To Go - Now with Cheaper Phones!

I looked on T-Mobile To Go's phone selection page yesterday and found out that the prices on some of their phones have gone down. Personally, no wonder...you can get a KRZR for $230 shipped through Buy It Now on eBay, and a SIM with 150 minutes on it for $10 or so more. But anyway...

$30 - Nokia 6030 (No change)
$50 - Nokia 6101 (now that's cheap for a cameraphone on prepaid, a good one too!)
$80 - Samsung t319 (I think there's no change here)
$200 - Motorola Razr (about time T-Mobile cheapened things up...you can get this plus a SIM on eBay unlocked for around $150)
$400 - Sidekick 3 (as you'd expect)

Also, DealKing.com is offering $5 cash back on T-Mobile To Go purchases, a nice bit added onto the fun. I may have to get te Nokia 6101, since it's such an inexpensive cameraphone...

Boost...Cheaper Than Ever!

Boost Mobile has apparently reduced the prices on their phones, which is good. not that their network has gotten any better, nor have their prices. But they have added a feature or two, and their phones are, as I said, cheaper...

New features? Well, for 15 cents per "message", Boost has this wierd hybrid walkie-talkie\picture messaging feature, if you're using the i855 or i875 (and I'll bet i885) phones. In my opinion, it's a gimmick. Who knows\cares?

They also have a new combo social networking\GPS system called Boost Loopt. Just take a look at the site to see more info on the service.

Also, the premium plans have changed. The $30 plan is just unlimited walkie-talkie and 10-cent cellular calling. $50 gives you 400 minutes on top of that. $70 gives another 200 minutes, plus unlimited starts-at-7 nights and weekends. $10 more on any plan gets unlimited web and text. *shrugs*. I suppose it's okay, feature-wise...but I'm not really jazzed about it...

Now to phone prices...

i885 (highest-end iDEN non-smartphone, high-res camera) - $300
i855 (low-end cameraphone) - $150
i835 (the iDEN phone that's actually relatively thin, in black, white and green) - $100
i455 (just your average flip with color internal and b\w external display, now in wierd black) - $50
i415 (the cheap but okay color bar phone) - $30

Yeah, prices have gone down to levels that are reasonable compared with other prepaid providers...generally...at least compared with previous pricing...just thought people might want to know...

TracFun Update

From BabbleBug (want a reliable source? Try the people who sell the airtime( I heard today that Tracfone is indeed changing their airtime lineup drastically...hmm...where to start...

 

Well, what about the 90-day expirations? Well, the rumor is true; it's just that Tracfone hasn't updated their systems yet so don't add your airtime quite yet...but all the 60-day cards will now last 90 days...

 

Second, the double-minute and $80, 400-minute cards are now gone...

 

Because Tracfone is putting out a new $40 card with 200 minutes, thus introducing a lower price point for 20-cent-a-minute airtime. And Tracfone is introduccing a double-minute card for $50.

 

About this card: it has no minutes on it, but it has no expiration either. So after the single $50 purchase Tracfone becomes very economical, suddenly. The double-minute proposition used to be a very expensive one, at $130 a year (including 400 minutes). Now it's a good bit cheaper, and that's a really good thing. :)

 

And the 1-year card now has 400 minutes standard. So now the 1-year card is actually cheaper per minute, rather than per month, compared with the $20 card...

 

And a new $10 card, which has 30 minutes on it and 45 dcays of service. Which is nice, as that's exactly half the minutes and expiration of the $20 card.

 

All of this means that the average Joe gets more for his money on Tracfone generally, and once you pay for the double-minute card (which lasts for the life of the phone) you can get 10-cent rates on a phone that works practically everywhere (CDMA) or has web access of sorts (GSM). In short, Tracfone just got a bit more atTractive.

 

Though I must say that this will likely be the beginning of the end of promotion codes. Promo codes were for savvy users, and now the double-minute card will probably fill that niche. Plus, the new card denominations (the $10 and $40 cards) provide a convenient way to end-of-life promotion codes for at least some of the airtime. Who knows...they may keep going with promo codes for awhile, which would be great. But I wouldn't count on it...

 

But then again, Tracfone's rates with the card are very good so why fool with promo codes when you can get 10 cent minutes and 3 cent text messages practically everywhere in the US for...well, okay $50 plus $50 (LG 3280 plus double-minute card) is expensive but it's worth it in my opinion.

 

It's a bright day for Tracfone when they put this stuff out. I'm just looking forward to innovative new phones, or at least something in the way of new phones, like for example the Nokia 1112 being available online. But yeah, I'm pretty happy about Tracfone right about now.

TracFun 3-1

Just so everyone knows, yes I'm wondering about the 90-day expiration thingamabob also. Who knows...I just passed on basically what I got...

But anyway Tracfone changed up their website today. Most of the changes were on the CDMA side (a grand total of two) but there was also an update on the GSM side...

...though Tracfone's site currently registers as "under maitenance" whatever that might mean, so the deals could change again...

On the CDMA side, Tracfone reinstated the refurb Nokia 2126 deal, as in the one with two 60-minute cards for the price of one, plus the 2126. This is a pretty hot ite, so grab it while it's still there\if it's still there.

Also, Tracfone put the Nokia 2285 up as available for $10, like the 1100 on GSM. Not that the 2285 is a wonderphone or anything, but it's another option, though it's one I'd miss out on.

As far as GSM goes, the Motorola c261 is now $40 instead of $50. In other words, it's half the price it was when it came out some months ago. But hey, it's an okay cameraphone though Tracfone minutes are expensive, so I'd consider it a fair buy at that price.

Virgin Mobile Changes Their Phone Lineup

Virgin Mobile today revamped their phone lineup.

The Audiovox Snapper is still $60, the Kyocera Slider Sonic is still $100 and the Kyocera Switch_Back is still $100. The Nokia Shorty and the Kyocera K10 Royale are still "free" with $20 starter airtime. The Audiovox 8610 is still "free" with $25 starter airtime. And the Kyocera K9 is still $10. The black UTStarComm Slice is still $50 and the Kyocera Oystr is still $20...

Note that I said "black Slice" though. Yes, now the red UTStarComm Slice is available online for the same price as the black Slice. Previously it had only been available at BestBuy, I think only on their website.

There's also this new phone that Virgin Mobile calls the "Marbl". It looks to be the replacement for the Oystr, with a price of $30. However, the phone looks waaaay too close for comfort to the Kyocera K132 "Shadow" except with a grey color scheme...if I get enough ad money here I'll grab it and see if it is indeed that phone and if it's any better (or worse) on Virgin's platform.

Oh, and the Kyocera Cyclops is down to a cool $80, making it the cheapest 1.3 megapixel camera phone I know of. Then again, I'm not really looking at the 13 megapixel cameraphone market. Personally, I'll pass on the Cyclops, as 25 cents per message is a lot for picture messages.

One last, non-web thing: the Oystr is now available in different colors. The normally-white shell is now available in wierd pastel shades of green and pink, at the same price as the white model of course. Not that this redeems the poor quality of this phone (geesh...aren't all Kyoceras that way?) but it's interesting nonetheless.