I don't understand why people don't understand this. The cancellation fee + the price you pay upfront ~= the cost of the hardware. If they didn't have this, people would get a $550 piece of hardware, pay $200 + the cost of one month's service, cancel and end up profitting by several hundred dollars. The cancellation fee/24 is the price you pay for the hardware per month. Except if you don't upgrade after your contract is up, Verizon gets that amount every month from you in pure profit.
The cancellation fee increased on certain devices because these devices are more expensive, so to avoid sticker shock, Verizon makes you buy a data plan and uses the cost of the data plan to further subsidize the cost of the phone beyond the subsidy from the voice plan. The hardware of the droid does not cost $200 more than the free phones. The phones that are free with a 2 year contract are up to $200 with no contract. $550 for droid hardware - $200 voice subsidy - $200 cost = $150 data subsidy. $200 voice subsidy + $150 data subsidy = $350 the cancellation fee. Ta-da!
In reply to: "Get a Motorola Droid for $149.99 shipped"
November 8, 2009
0 replies
Don't forget your coupon codes.
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/wirefly.com
There are two that appear to be active, one for a free bluetooth [headset] and one for a free 2gb sd card, which is 1/8 the size of the included card, but you can't beat free.
In reply to: "Get a Motorola Droid for $149.99 shipped"
November 8, 2009
0 replies
@ejaymd11, it's $30 for the data and an additional $30 for tethering, though you rightfully get your data cap doubled. In reply to: "Get a Motorola Droid for $149.99 shipped"
November 8, 2009
0 replies
@monkeyfun14 It's funny you say that, because Flash is one of the few pieces of software where the traditional windows way of doing it will work for Ubuntu.
The easiest way, IIRC, is to go to Applications > Add/Remove Software. Change the drop down menu from officially supported software to all available, start typing flash in the search box, and select the Restricted Extras package.
A good rule of thumb for Ubuntu is to be wary of the age of the howto's you find from google. Ubuntu gets easier with every release. The howto you linked to was 3 years old!
In reply to: "Thank Apple for the Linux 'desktop'"
June 8, 2009
0 replies
Why Sony before Samsung? Samsung is a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, Sony came later. Samsung has the P3, which is another iPod Touch competitor. Sony has a history of supporting Symbian, which might prevent it from switching to Android. Samsung is also a bit more Open Source friendly. The P3 supports Ogg.
I hope both put out Android-based Touch competitors. Android needs to get more devices to market. I worry about developers writing apps only for iPod, seeing the jail-broken iPhone OS as a viable platform. The lack of multitouch in Android so far will also prevent iPhone apps from going cross-platform.
In reply to: "Will the Walkman go Android?"
June 8, 2009
0 replies
Coverflow for history? Shouldn't they be using the time machine view for browsing history and coverflow for flipping between tabs? In reply to: "Apple announces Safari 4 public beta"
February 24, 2009
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If you don't mind using a Qt app, Konqueror uses the same webkit engine. By the time Konqueror uses this version of webkit, Chrome will probably have come out for linux already. In reply to: "Apple announces Safari 4 public beta"
February 24, 2009
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I'm so psyched to see this. I stumbled upon the old ultraportable Vaio C1 on wikipedia's subnotebook page and I fell in love. I put the idea on WePC.com but I guess sony was already on it. In reply to: "The Sony P-series Lifestyle PC: Just don't call it a Netbook"
January 10, 2009
0 replies