The news that everyone has been wanting to hear for years has finally been announced — Verizon is getting a CDMA version of the iPhone! Unfortunately, it is only a CDMA version and according to the Q&A session today at Verzion’s event they are not currently working on an LTE version.

The iPhone 4 on Verizon will be released February 10, but if you are a current Verizon subscriber you will get the option to pr-order starting February 3. There will be 2 versions available — 16GB for $199 and a 32GB for $299, both prices are after signing a new 2-year contract.

Read on for the official press release.

Verizon Wireless & Apple Team Up to Deliver iPhone 4 on Verizon
 
BASKING RIDGE, New Jersey and CUPERTINO, California—January 11, 2011—Verizon Wireless and Apple® today announced that the iPhone® 4 will be available on the Verizon Wireless network beginning on Thursday, February 10. Qualified Verizon Wireless customers will be given the exclusive opportunity to pre-order iPhone 4 online on February 3, ahead of general availability.
 
iPhone 4 is the most innovative phone in the world, featuring Apple’s stunning Retina™ display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone resulting in super crisp text, images and video, and FaceTime®, which makes video calling a reality. iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless will also include new Personal Hotspot capabilities allowing customers to use iPhone 4 to connect up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices.
 
“We are pleased to introduce millions of wireless users to the industry leading iPhone 4 on the nation’s most reliable network,” said Lowell McAdam, president and chief operating officer of Verizon. “This is an important step for the industry as two great companies join forces to give wireless customers one of the most important technological additions to the mobile landscape this century.”
 
“Verizon Wireless customers have told us they can’t wait to get their hands on iPhone 4, and we think they are going to love it,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer. “We have enormous respect for the company Verizon has built and the loyalty they have earned from their customers.”
 
iPhone 4 features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, a 3-axis gyro and a beautiful glass and stainless steel design like no other mobile phone. iPhone 4 also comes with iOS 4, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, which includes multitasking, folders, Game Center, AirPlay® and AirPrint wireless printing.  iPhone 4 customers have access to the world’s most popular App Store℠ with more than 300,000 apps available in an incredible range of 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health and reference.
 
Pricing & Availability
iPhone 4 will be available on the Verizon Wireless network beginning Thursday, February 10 for a suggested retail price of $199.99 for the 16GB model and $299.99 for the 32GB model with a new two year customer agreement. iPhone 4 will be available at more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless Communications Stores nationwide, online at  www.verizonwireless.com/iphone, at Apple Retail Stores, at the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), at Apple Authorized Resellers, and by calling 1-800-2 JOIN IN.
 
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Media can access high-resolution images in the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.)
 
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving more than 93 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 79,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com.
 
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Flinging birds? That’s kid’s play! Jungly Jump puts you in control of the friendly duo of a rabbit and a porcupine, Squaty and Spiky, and boy do they have a problem. You see, there’s fruit everywhere in the trees but they will have to work together to get the delicious food down from its heights.

After positioning Spiky on the catapult, gauge how far you need to go by watching Squaty’s height on the tree and signal his jump by tapping the log and watch the porcupine sail through the air and take out the fruit. There’s a certain amount of fruit you have to get per level, and you only get three shots!

So, dust off your physics skills and get ready to hear that rabbit cry plenty of times. This game isn’t for the feint of heart, obstacles and traps will make you want to throw your iPhone, but there are some power-ups throughout the game that will make things a bit easier as you get into the harder levels.

Would I suggest it? Yes! It’s a great game to pull out on your iPhone or iPad when you have a few minutes to kill, but it’s also deep enough that you have to think if you have a little more than a few minutes to spend playing.

Can you show us some gameplay? Sure! Here’s a cool YouTube video straight from MEDL!

What’s the price? There’s a free (lite) version and a $1.99 pay version.

Jungly Jump is created by MEDL Mobile. MEDL Mobile provided me with a review copy of this app to test and review.

I just received all three of these today so apparently today is THE DAY to send out press releases!

Pepsi is releasing their app, Pepsi Loot, to give back to it’s drinkers when they enjoy a Pepsi product from a “Pop Spot” – a restaurant that serves Pepsi products. Think of it as Pepsi’s version of Foursquare with a prize! When the Pepsi drinker checks in at a Pop Spot the first time, and every third time after that, he is given a free music download from Pepsi’s Loot Store. It’s like Pepsi’s reward points but you don’t have to buy a bottled drink to get the points, you just have to go out to eat (or just drink).

Klondike Unfoiled! tests the unwrapping speed of it’s users. And… well that’s it. Really, all you do is see how fast you can unwrap a Klondike.

And the last product-based app of the day is from Tropicana, yup the orange juice people. Tropicana Juicy Rewards is a “must-have application [that] will help you review rewards on-the-go, enter codes and share rewards with friends.” Kind of like Pepsi Loot, when you buy Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice you put your codes in the app and you get reward points and get reward coupons that you can share with friends on Twitter and Facebook. And there’s a BONUS bowling game!

All of these apps are free on the iTunes store and are compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

According to Boy Genius Report, as of June 7th, AT&T will not be serving up unlimited data for its smartphone customers. It looks like they are really pushing for users to go with Wi-Fi as an option to bogging down their 3G network as they include in the press release that

Each plan includes unlimited access at no additional charge to more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots in the U.S. Customers can also use unlimited Wi-Fi at home, in the office or elsewhere if available.

These are the new plans and although current customers will not be required to change they can choose to switch to a new plan without a contact extension (in fact, I think AT&T would be happy to switch you over!):

• DataPlus. Provides 200 megabytes (MB) of data – for example, enough to send/receive 1,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 150 emails with attachments, plus view 400 Web pages, plus post 50 photos on social media sites, plus watch 20 minutes of streaming video – for just $15 per month.**  This plan, which can save customers up to 50 percent off their wireless data charges, is designed for people who primarily like to surf the web, send email and use social networking apps. If customers exceed 200 MB in a monthly billing cycle, they will receive an additional 200 MB of data usage for $15 for use in the cycle.  Currently, 65 percent of AT&T smartphone customers use less than 200 MB of data per month on average.
• DataPro. Provides 2 gigabytes (GB) of data – for example, enough to send/receive 10,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 1,500 emails with attachments, plus view 4,000 Web pages, plus post 500 photos to social media sites, plus watch 200 minutes of streaming video – for $25 per month.**  Should a customer exceed 2 GB during a billing cycle, they will receive an additional 1 GB of data for $10 for use in the cycle.  Currently, 98 percent of AT&T smartphone customers use less than 2 GB of data a month on average.
• Tethering. Smartphone customers – including iPhone customers – who choose the DataPro plan have the option to add tethering for an additional $20 per month.  Tethering lets customers use their smartphones as a modem to provide a broadband connection for laptop computers, netbooks or other computing devices. Tethering for iPhones will be available when Apple releases iPhone OS 4 this summer.

As far as iPad users go, AT&T said:

For new iPad customers, the $25 per month 2 GB plan will replace the existing $29.99 unlimited plan. iPad customers will continue to pre-pay for their wireless data plan and no contract is required. Existing iPad customers who have the $29.99 per month unlimited plan can keep that plan or switch to the new $25 per month plan with 2 GB of data.
(via AT&T via Boy Genius Report)

I was approached a while back about testing out and reviewing a new product called GoodSync2Go (or RoboForm2Go) — an easy way to sync passwords via USB drive. I was interested, merely at the fact that I would be able to load all my passwords on the USB drive and bring it around with me and not have to worry about my log in information being saved on the PC or anything like that.

So a flash drive was sent to me and I began to test just how well GoodSync2Go worked. Well you can call me impressed, I didn’t think it would work as well as it does but it definitely does the job. Using it at work is the main thing I had in mind for it and the GoodSync2Go bar that runs when the drive is plugged in makes it easy to log into sites you need to have access to. I especially like the ability to click on a site from the toolbar it automatically opens the site and logs me in.

GoodSync2Go is for Windows only, although you can sign up for Roboform Online and it will work with Mac and Linux computers via an online interface. There are also iPhone and Android clients available from their respective marketplaces.

The only thing that I noticed in my testing was in Gmail accounts. GoodSync saved the URL for the password as my Google Accounts page, but it was an easy fix to edit the URL for the saved password and point it in the right direction. Other than that it was a joy to play with and use GoodSync2Go.

GoodSync has two account types, Free and Pro, the free version of GoodSync2Go can be downloaded from the GoodSync website. Pro accounts can be purchased for $30 and include unlimited files in a sync job and unlimited sync jobs, and also free phone support.

Today Agile Partners (creators of GuitarToolkit and previously reviewed Star6) released their newest iPhone/iPod Touch app, TabToolkit, the ultimate guitar tabulature resource. If you are like me, which would mean you play guitar because I do, then you don’t always remember to bring the tab of that new song that you printed out when you find yourself with a little time to play. TabToolkit manages to make this something of the past and does it with lots of style.

TabToolkit allows you to load your own tab files (in either Power Tab, Guitar Pro, text or PDF file types) and will play them back to you with a synthesized instrument as it highlights the note you are supposed to play in tab notation. Guitar Pro and Power Tab files also allow standard musical notation alongside the tab. You can also change the speed of playback from the settings menu, set up a metronome, and change the type of notation, left- or right- hand notation, and whether there is an instrument guide showing at the bottom of the screen. Speaking of the instrument guide, this is one of the coolest parts, especially for beginners (both to keyboard or guitar), because it shows you exactly where the tab corresponds to on the instrument.

This is an amazing app and even though the price is a little steep ($9.99) it is well-worth it, every guitarist with an iPhone or iPod Touch should add this to their set of tools. TabToolkit comes with a few, pre-selected tabs already installed but you can add your own by clicking on the “plus” sign at the bottom right and going to the website it gives you. You can purchase TabToolkit on the App store right now for $9.99.

I’ve been using Aardvark since they opened the doors and it is an amazing service. Not only can you get answers to your questions from multiple people (giving you the quickest and easiest way to find information when you need it) but you can also answer questions and help others. I’ve made buddies on Aardvark and I’ve also looked at questions and thought, “They should have just Google’d that one.”

Well, now Aardvark have opened another door and it’s one that makes it so much more simpler to get answers to your questions. The main tab of the app has a box for you to ask your question and it lists all the questions that you’ve asked or answered in chronological order. There’s a tab for you to view current questions to answer and to view your buddies on Aardvark.

Overall, a great, simple app that does that it should. The iPhone/iPod Touch app is out and ready to be downloaded from the App Store free of charge.

Today, Meraki released a wireless census and found out what many in the tech sector already knew — the number of Apple wireless devices have increased in the past year. This is mainly due, of course, to the demand for the iPhone.

Another mobile charger review, these are getting to be fun! This time it’s a solar-powered charger that can be attached to pretty much anything with it’s velcro, fold-over strap. Unfortunately, because it is solar-powered, it takes a while to charge; according to the instructions that came with the SolarStrap (which you can download and read on their site), if it’s a sunny day it will take 12 hours to charge, if it’s partly cloudy you are looking at a full 24-hour charge time, or if it is completely cloudy it’s going to take 5 days of charging.

To speed up the process, though, (or if you just so happen to get it when the heavens decide to rain every day of the week) they include a handy AC charger and a USB charge cable. I let mine hang on the blinds in my office at home for a day and then plugged it up that night to top off the charge.

To show the charge status of the SolarStrap you are given two LEDs, one green and one red. The green one, when a device is plugged in, will flash according to the SolarStrap’s battery charge. Four green blinks is full, three green blinks is nearly full, and so on until you have no green blinks and only the red one blinks once, which means the battery is empty. When charging the battery with an AC adapter the red LED will continuously blink and it will cease blinking when the charge is complete.

I received a few adaptors with my review unit as well, along with a generic “charging” cable I received: USB-B, USB mini, USB mini 8-pin, USB-A female, Samsung D600/A300, Samsung G600, Nokia 2.1mm, Sony Ericsson, and iPhone/iPod adaptors. There are other target specific adaptors available as well as a cigarette lighter and AC adaptor. According to the instructions you only get the strap, the charging cable, and the user guide, so you will be able to buy adaptors to suit your needs when you get it.

The SolarStrap has kept a charge very well and is pretty flexible. It’s made of some kind of a foam exterior with the wiring, battery, and solar panel glued into place between the two pieces of foam. I was assured that this was not a production unit and it had been hand-glued, which is good because in one or two places around the solar panel the foam wasn’t glued down all the way.

As for the foam itself, I don’t know how well it will hold up, after unvelcroing and velcroing a few times I could see how it could start to break up if it was used regularly. Also, if it was left out in the sun (on your car’s dashboard or in a window sill) I’m not sure how the foam would hold up.

The only beef I have with the SolarStrap is that I don’t know what the charge amount on the battery is until I connect a device to it. I wish there were a button on the battery to show charge status of the battery, or something along those lines. But, overall, it’s a great charger if you are out and about a lot but if you are like me and stuck in a windowless office all day it may not be ideal for you.

The charger is scheduled for shipping this month (August ‘09) and currently there are only a few dealers listed on their site, with only one being in the USA. The SolarStrap is priced at 29.00€ (about USD$41), for more information visit the Suntrica website.

The wonderful people over at BillShrink.com, who want to help you save money, have put together a nice infographic that compares what they consider the top 3 current smartphones.

Not only does it compare the total price you would pay (including Phone price, Unlimited Usage Plan prices, Average Usage Plan prices, and total costs for Unlimited and Average Usage plans over 2 years) but it also compares 10 other points of interest.

There’s also a good comparison of just the iPhone 3G S and the myTouch side-by-side on the site.