iPhone, Obopay, ESN Minutes and Phone Reviews!

First off, the biggest news but the smallest impact to here: the iPhone is out. And it's called the iPhone. And despite its being on the junktackylar Cingular network I'm gonna get it around the time it comes out. A sort of present to myself for when I go to college, I'm thinking. Then again, it might not be all it's cracked up to be and I'll pass it by. But anyway that thing's one heckuva phone, with one heckuva price tag...but then again you get a lot of stuff with it. But I won't dwell on this phone, since you can only get it with a contract and probably have to pay $70+ a month for the regular service and a data plan etc. Which ain't prepaid in the least. So now i'm kindof waiting for a cheapie iPhone knockoff (2.5" widescreen instead of 3.5", thicker, only 1GB of flash memory, only 1.3MP camera) on prepaid. lol...

Now for the second thing, which has less to do with super hot breaking news but more to do with this site...

I was surfing HowardForums.com (something I do fairly regularly) and came acros a banner ad for this wierd little thing called Obopay (www.obopay.com). Basically it's a money account, a la PayPal, that you can use with your cell phone, either via SMS shortcodes, WAP or if you're using Cingular, Amp'd or Helio, via a program on your phone. Adding money to your account is free for now, as is taking money out of your account, either via bank transfer or by using the supplied Obopay prepaid MasterCard (yay, a reloadable card that is actually inexpensive to use!). The only thing that really costs is sending money from one Obopay user (which can be anyone with a cell phone...maybe...need to check about shortbodes) to another user, which is only 10 cents per transaction so it's not that bad.

But wait, it gets even better! If you sign up right now you get a $5 bonus, so basically your first 50 money sends are free. Nifty. But don't sign up yet, because I have an even better deal for you. If you (or I in this case) refer someone else to Obopay, the referer also gets $5. So I'm willing to make a deal: whoever signs up for Obopay through me (just email me and I'll send you an invitation) will get $2.50 off the next airtime purchase from me. Yeah, it's not $5, but hey, it's a fair amount. I could even send you the $2.50 via Obopay if you wanted...

Though I haven't signed up yet...if someone already has Obopay here I'll happy to be your referred-person. But anyway I should be able to sign up later on today...

OK, now to the next thing...

Due to a really good deal I'm working out with a huge airtime seller that's buying my airtime, I'm not going to be selling 60-minute cards here anymore. However, it seems like Tracfone's refer-a-friend program is back up again, so I'm substituting ESN minutes for 60-minute cards, at the same price! Plus you have the Obopay discount...

But anyway I'm not sure whether refer-a-friend will work correctly, so just send me your ESN and be prepared to pay for minutes if you want them. If they go through I'll ask for payment. If they don't I naturally won't.

One last thing: don't get too excited about having ESN minutes right now, as it will be about a week before I get phones in and setart doing this. But in the mean time get ready, because if this works correctly things are getting cheaper on the Tracfone front :). When I get the phones in I'll update the minutes store page to reflect that...

OK, last but not least...

The phone review section is up!

Go to the Go4Prepaid landing (www.go4prepaid.info) and you'll find that the Phone Reviews section no longer says "Coming Soon". You can now peruse the fifteen-some-odd reviews I have there of various phones and services. Hope everyone likes them! It took me a couple hourse to set up this part of the site and I hope it's worth it to everyone here...