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.

A Tale of Two PagePlus Phones...Coming Soon!

Courtesy BabbleBug (thanks again guys!) I'll soon be getting the Motorola T720 for review. And the Audiovox 8600. Both will have PagePlus service and both will be available for sale from BabbleBug. I've gotten a special deal with them so that if you order through my site you'll get $2 extra (plus the normal $3) in "BabblePoints", BabbleBug's rewards program. Check back in a bit for reviews and, of course, discounts should you choose to buy either of these phones!

Pocket: A Saga Involving Audiovoxes and Motorolas

To continue my Pocket saga...

...thoguh it's not traditional prepaid, though it is pre-paid and it's cheaper than 99% of all contract plans...

...anyway, come to find out, my Audiovox's browser is crippled, in that it's not only slow for some wierd reason (phone processing power...or lack thereof...shows here) but it has no way to input URLs into it or provision for making bookmarks. Crippled? I call that simply lame...

...so my reccommendation of the phone is now modified to say "I reccommend the phone if you don't need a good camera and don't use web much"...

...but it took two hours at a Pocket store for them\myself to see whether the phone model itself was the culprit, rather than just my phone...

...and another fifteen minutes on the phone to pretty much assure that when the Motorola v323 comes out that my phone will get exchanged for it, though I will ahve to go all the way to San Antonio to do the exchange...

...ech...at least I'm getting an exchange for what will likely be a better phone...

...and yes, I said Motorola v323. The price point will be about the same as the Audiovox 8910 (hence the even exchange possibility) but the v323 is generally a nicer phone...

...except that the caller ID screen is shaped so you can't use it as a camera viewfinder (though it's not exactly an enjoyable experience on the Audiovox) and the phone is likely bigger (most Moto v-series flips are...but that's okay...they have bigger screens) and it uses Motorola's positively wierd iTAP predictive text system...

...but (yes I'm making it a point to use ellipses in this post) the camera is likely a good bit better than that of the 'vox, the screen is higher-resolution and bigger, and there are some other great features that I read about on Phonescoop but can't think of now that generally make the phone better than the 'vox it is replacing...

...so I'm currently apathetic toward Pocket. If they deliver on the Moto exchange, I'm a believer again, and I'll be reviewing the Moto here after playing around with it a bit. Apathetic due to the wierdness of the 'vox and my spending too much of my time figuring out. But such is life :)...

Tracfone Airitme Expirations Up To 90 Days, Effective March 1st

A little birdie told me that, effective March 1st, the 60-minute cards on Tracfone will get an expiration boost to 90 days, up from the current\lousy 60. Which makes Tracfone a bit more attractive for people who don't use their phone much...and renders the $20 card cheaper per month than the 1-year card, though the 1-year card is cheaper per minute by a fair margin due to promo codes, though the price per minute delta can be narrowed by going to Tracfone's website and getting one of their famous "twofer" deals.

I'm supposing that the 90-day expiration will extend to all airtime cards that are now 60-day cards, starting on the 1st. Another bet, though less safe, is that Tracfone will integrate a fair amount of bonus units into the 1-year card (250, maybe? That's been the ongoing promo) to make it worthwhile for people to buy.

Hope this helps...

Audiovox 8910

I have had this phone (on Pocket Communications) for about a month now, and I have to say that I'm happy with it generally, despite its being a bit of an off-brand phone...

First off, the design is okay, though it will definately not turn heads. The phone is practical...that's about it...but practical design is fine with me. The phone fits well in my hand and all that other good stuff, and the keypad is nice enough that I can text and email with ease and speed, courtesy T9 predictive text.

Which reminds me...this phone seems to model very much after the LG 225 cameraphone that I also have. Except that the user interface is slightly wierder, with a sort of techno style font, and a color external display is eschewed in favor of this wierd LED on the phone's front that Audiovox calls a "flash" for the phone's camera. Hmph...at least the external display stays on all the time...which reminds me: the UI on the 'vox isn't quite as good as the UI on the LG. But it's quite passable. Which is good.

I might as well say now that unless you have good lighting conditions the camera turns your pictures into studies in modern art. I kindof like the effect, but people who actually want to take decent pictures with a phone should look elsewhere. Not that my LG 225 is a supercam, but it takes pictures quite a bit better than the 'vox. Sad how that happens...I have unlimited picture messaging on the 'vox but STi has totally shut me off from pix messaging (well, web and pix messaging needs web) on the LG...ah well...

As far as other features go, this phone has all the usual ones, like voice recording, voice dialing, calculator, speakerphone and downloadable apps. Except this is a BREW phone so things get wierd with downloading apps...no GMail Mobile or Google Local Mobile or suchlike :(.

Which brings me to another thing...either it's just Pocket Communications or the phone won't let you input your own URL into the web browser (an OpenWave affair of course). Which is really annoying as there are no bookmarks either so you basically have to search for whatever page you want to go to, then every time you start up the browser keep it from loading the homepage and losing your own webpage. But I'm betting this is provider-related rather than phone related. And data does work quite well over 1x...pictures send quickly enough and webpages load quickly enough. Haven't tried the phone as a modem yet (don't have the cable yet) but I'll post back on that as I don't want my $5 unlimited web access to go to waste...

What about voice quality and battery life? Well, voice quality is great in areas that have good signal. Unfortunately, I can't really tell whether it's just my phone, my model of phone, or whether Pocket simply doesn't have good coverage where I live...it seems I always have to extend the phone's antenna to get decent service inside buildings with the phone, at least for voice calls. But the phone is better than the Kyocera K132, if that counts for anything...

The speakerphone is loud enough, but it's wierdly placed well to the inside part of the phone. Meaning that ringtones end up coming out not quite loud enough sometimes. But they're not terribly quiet either...it's a defect small enough that you can live with it.

As to battery life, I reckon I'm getting 3-4 days on a charge with light voice usage and not going to places where my phone is searching for service all the time. On the other hand, the phone will just barely make it through the day if it's searching for service a fair amount, being used for a little bit of texting and a little bit of voice, and is being used for a fairly heavy amount of web browsing (as in checking my GMail some two dozen times throughout the day). So the 8910, while not being an LG 3280, is fine battery life-wise.

So, in sum, this phone is a fine basic cameraphone. Sorry to say it's now discontinued by Pocket Communications and pretty much everyone else, but hopefully this review helps someone out there...

There, I'm now caught up on my phone review stuff. Now to get caught up on homework... :)

Tracfone 60 minute cards for cheap

As some of you know, I used to sell Tracfone 60-minute cards on here for very cheap. Well, I'm now selling cards to distributors but there is now someone to bridge the gap, so to speak. Just click on the title of this post and you get a place where you can buy Tracfone 60-minute PINs for $13 apiece. He has quite a few, but then again some of them may be gone already, so I'd say grab them while they last...they're not much more expensive per minute than Tracfone's $50 cards and they're a lot cheaper per card. Hope this helps!

Mmmm...SearchChips

Yeah, I know, I'm totally off-topic but I last night found a pretty interesting search engine. It's called SearchChips and runs off of Ask.com. For every search you make you get a "SearchChip" that's worth, if you trade it in for various prizes, a little over a penny. Pretty interesting concept if you ask me. Plus they randomly ive out gift certificates, and you can make the SearchChips pile up a little faster by doing various stuff like referring friends...

But see for yourself...click the hotlinked title of this post or the button below...and I promise my next post will be something cellular-related, if not actually the review for the Audiovox 8910, which I've now had for nearly a month...

Nokia 6061

Here it is, finally: the review of the Nokia 6061, commonly found on Cingular's GoPhone service. Just as a note, I don't have Cingular towers in my area so my very small amount of voice quality testing was done with a friend's postpaid Cingular SIM.

First off, if faux chrome made phones good, this phone would be a very good phone. Yet, personally, the plastic chrome and glossy black plastic covering most of the phone seems a little overdone. Maybe because if you look at the phone from its side, which is plain matte black plastic, the phone is remarkably thick and generally large. Generally this phone gets points for Nokia design, but it's decidedly low-end in its styling, or at least it seems that way to me.

Open up the phone and you find a fair-sized screen and what seem to be fair-sized matte-black buttons. Small problem: the buttons lack tactile feedback, or at least they lack enough to suit my tastes. It's an annoying experience to hammer out a text message on this phone's keypad, to be plain.

As I said, the phone has a fair-sized screen, but Nokia's user interface that it uses on its flip phones is less effiicient than the one used on its small-screened bar phones. Which places the 6061 at a decidedly middle-of-the-road position on ease of use. Plus, the UI isn't perfectly snappy...not to my reckoning as bad as the Nokia 2236i, but it's just not snappy.

What about call quality, speaker quality (the phone has speakerphone) and battery life?

As to call quality, there's nothing to shout about here. Reception is again middle-of-the-road, but an added foible is that the phone's earpiece speaker is quite small. Which means you have to position your ear in just the right place to hear what the person is saying on the other end. To make matters even more mediocre, the earpiece volume frankly doesn't get that loud on this phone.

Speaker and peakerphone volume, however, is fine. You will be able to hear this phone's ringtones if you set the volume to maximum, which is nice, considering that this is a basic phone (basic enough to only have an indicator light on the outside, rather than a caller ID screen).

As to battery life, I only got about three days on a charge from the phone. This is probably because the phone is refurbished (that's what they solkd online...maybe they still sell them but I didn't see any the last time I looked) and because it was searching for service some of the time, but, being a GSM phone, it should have been better.

And yes, in case anyone was wondering, there is plenty of Cingular branding on this phone. Plenty. And you can't seem to use a normal unlock code calculator to unlock this phone...I tried a time or two, then gave up (I don't want to hard-lock the phone).

But anyway, this phone, to my reckoning, is middle-of-the-road for a low-end phone. It has some things (loud speakerphone) that are good about it but some things (lack of tactile feedback on the keypad, large formfactor, mediocre battery life) that keep it from my reccommending it above other cheap phones on Cingular.

Hope this helps someone, and thanks to BabbleBug for sending out this review unit!

RadioShack Nokia 2126 Deal!

Contrary to popular belief, I'm alive and well. Well, sort of...I'm having a wierd allergic reaction to some antibiotic I took recently but I haven't missed any school because of it...but I do need to catch up on play memorizeation...I have the lead role this time...

But on to prepaid wireless...

RadioShack (the link is in the title of this post) has a sweet promotion on the Nokia 2126: it's a mere $15 (plus tax and shipping) after an online discount. 50% less than what Tracfone and pretty much everyone else is charging right now for the phone...which is nice. As I said, shipping costs extra, unless you (?) use their Ship-to-Store feature or buy several of these phones at a time or somehow otherwise bring the order total above $50. But anyway, this is a nice deal on this phone...it's cheaper this way than it ever was before (it stared out at $19.99 plus tax and maybe shipping, then rose to $29.99). Granted, it's not SingleRate, but it is a solid phone.

Virgin Mobile Deals Online

Right, I know, I need to get a few reviews out here, but here's something in the meanwhile:

The price of the Snapper on Virgin Mobile's website is now down to $60 new, from $80. Not as good as $40 refurbished, but that deal's gone now.

The Switch_Back is down to $100 now, too. But I think I said that already...

The Kyocera K9 is now the $10 refurbished phone, and has been for awhile...

And there are no fewer than three "free" phones available right now. Free as in you get $20 or $25 in airtime when you buy the phone for $20 or $25. The $20 phones are the Nokia Shorty (yay!) and the Kyocera K10 Royale (boo except if you need a color screen or internet). The $25 phone? Why, the Audiovox 8610 of course!

LG 3280 FAQ Number Ten Zillion

Hmmm...seems like the LG 3280 is a very hot topic relative to this blog. Also seems like I should be doing homework right now or maybe memorizing play lines or writing the Nokia 6061 review or something like that...ah well...

Before I actually say anything though, I now have high speed internet, courtesy BeeCreek Communications (www.beecreek.net; if you're interested in signing up with them check back with me...they have a referral program). Which, yes, means that I had dialup before...but everyone knew that. Anyway, with fairly (not cable-speed but okay nonetheless) high speed internet eminating wirelessly from my garage, I should have a little bit more of an excuse to post here...

But about the 3280...

Q: Will the LG 3280 work in my area if it doesn't show up on my zip code on Tracfone's phone sales site?

A: It should. Plug your zip code into the Tracfone coverage map finder and see if the 3280 is there...and it'll be there practically everywhere.

Q: How do I get other ringtones onto my 3280?

A: You don't. At least, until I'm proved wrong (please do!) there's not even a way to transfer ringtones from a computer to the 3280. And we all know that, at least for now, the 3280 can'tdownload ringtones over the air, nor can it receive them via text messages. So yeah, you're stuck. I'm sorry too.

Hope this helps!

Tracfone Airtime Promo

Sorry that I still haven't posted the review of the Nokia 6061 yet...I'll very, very likely do that tonight. For the interim...

Tracfone has promos on airtime, too (ostensibly for Valentine's Day). They've been done before, but hey:

The 1-year card can be boosted to 500 minutes (up from 250, by 250) by using promo code 52834. Making the otherwise-expensive-per-minute card as cheap per minute as the $50, 250-minute card. Cheaper if you buy the card with a Nokia 2600 online and can bear waiting for it to ship, all for a mere $.250 less, not counting the free phone that normally costs $15 + tax. But anyway...

All 60-day airtime cards' expiration can be boosted to one year (for an additional $50) during the online airtime redemption process. Not a great deal, unless you don't talk much, but hey...

That's about it for now. But I'll be back with reviews of first the Nokia 6061, then the Audiovox 8910...

Trac Announcements

Just a few announcements, besides the fact that I'm alive and well and just finished sorting a sizeable Tracfone order...

1. The LG 3280 is available online, if your store doesn't have 'em. Just put in 78624 as the phone zip and you'll get it as an option. Keep in mind that if you have phones like the Nokia 1100 and Motorola c261 you won't get the LG 3280 at Wal-Mart.

2. The Nokia 2126 deal is gone! :( It looks to have been out of stock since Sunday...boy what a waste of an hour or two or three putting in orders for 'em...the Nokia 2126 for $19.99 refurbished with two airtime cards (60 minutes apiece) is no more. :(

3. Free shipping is still available on all Tracfone purchases that are at least $19.99, which is good :).

4. Tracfone is offering $10 off as a Valentine's Day bonanza for their more expensive (more than $15) phones.

On the CDMA side, the Nokia 2126 is back down to $19.99 + tax (right where it should be...that's where it was when my dad got his) and the LG 3280 is down to a cool $39.99, making it a pretty nice buy if you, over the lifetime of the phone, are going to roam more than about 200 minutes...which you'll likely do...

Also, the Nokia 2285 is being offered with the discount, making it $19.99 + tax...with a 120-minute card. Sounds like a good deal to me if you want a 120-minute card...though you can get two 60-minute cards and a Nokia 1100 for the same price on GSM...

On GSM, the Nokia 2600 bundled with a one-year card is down to $90...er...$89.99. I'm not into 1-year cards unless they're deeply discounted, and you're basically paying full price (compared with online refill stores that don't charge tax) when you figure in tax. But then again, you get the Nokia 2600, new, with the deal, which makes it not so bad after all.

Second, two sweeter deals: the Motorola c261 and v176 are both $10 off. Making the latter a more palatable $50 and the former a sweet $40...yeah, $40 for a cameraphone...not bad, eh?

That's about it in the way of Tracfone stuff right now. I'l;l be back later with a review of the Nokia 6061 though...I hope...