Verizon's Palm Pre + Pixi Plus Details

In addition, there is additional info coming out about it online as this article points out.

I think an "everything unlimited" VZW plan is basically $25 to $35 more per month over a comparably configured Sprint plan. The $99.99 Sprint plan has free navigation whereas Verizon charges $9.99 per month for it (huge bummer, especially seeing the free Google Nav on the Moto Droid).

Only Verizon's Pre has the beefed-up hardware & officially supports tethering. Pretty much a wash as far as I am concerned, one carrier has the superior network & hardware, the other had WebOS six months earlier and is a better value proposition.

I'm personally pissed that I couldn't have waited a few months longer for the Pre on Verizon, but when I got my Droid, the Pre was nothing more than a rumor on Verizon. If the Pre on Big Red is HUGELY IMPRESSIVE, I may yet still consider paying full price for one and dumping my Droid + 755p combo.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid

Malibu Surfer

I must say this. After issues with 2 different Treo 650s and bluetooth, Cingular just upgraded me to a 680. That was exactly 3 years ago for me and this thing is still solid as a rock. Even the audio jack seems to have "corrected" itself. I've dropped this thing a thousand times and used it excessively since I got it.
My kid's call it the beast since they have colorful feature phones, but the thing works like day 1. Obviously, most of us have written volumes @ Palm's issues, but this Treo 680 has really blown me away in durability. Now if I just had an upgrade path.
Here's hoping for an ATT "Pre Multiply" with 32gb+1024ram+3.8"screen+1ghz+SDmicro all in that Claudia Schiffer blue. :-D
Pat Horne

So you basically have $100/month for unlimited data & voice for all practical purposes on Verizon. Unlimited texting is a staggering and absolutely outrageous $20/month extra on top of that.

To cut to the chase for what PIC's audience cares about:

In essence, under the "new" terms, a Pre Plus on Verizon with unlimited everything will cost $130/month. A Pre on Sprint will cost $100/month for unlimited everything. That is an apples to apples comparison, with unlimited texting & VZW Navigator added to the Verizon monthly bill.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid

Centros are grandfathered devices and do not require mandatory data plans. At least that's how it is in VZW & AT&T. You could buy a cheap used or unlocked Centro and just use it as a PDA that happens to have a phone built-in. Or just get your carrier to put a data block on the line. That way...you could at least have SOME idea what we're talking about here on PIC!

You'll find the Centro isn't too terribly different from that Palm IIIe you had a decade ago. ;-)

P.S. I doubt you'll ever see smartphone pricing sink THAT low. Voice minutes are going to eventually end up unlimited everywhere but the data will continue to remain pricey, especially as mobile devices become more capable and people do more and more data-intensive tasks on their devices.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid

a must read -

A not-so-brief chat with Randall Stephenson of AT&T

Randall is like, Okay, I get your point. I'm like, You know what, I don't think you do, because if you did, we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation, would we? I mean if you did understand how to do things, your guys wouldn't be standing up at Wall Street conferences and complaining about how much traffic you're getting. Instead, you would be running around like a ****ing maniac trying to build out your ****ing network and make it the best network in the world — and the only reason you would ever need to talk to me would be to thank me for creating a phone that's so amazing that it draws people to your shit network in the first place.

Randall, baby. we've got a hit on our hands. We've got the smartphone equivalent of Meet the Beatles. It's not like that album was the first rock album ever. It's not like nobody ever made a band with some guitars and drums before. But it was radical. It was new. They took old forms and made them new. Same with us. We didn't invent the smartphone or the PDA or the music player or the Web browser. We just made them better. We made them new. We changed the ****ing world, Randall.

And when I say that "we" have a hit on our hands, I'm really giving you way too much credit, because let's be honest, the success of iPhone has nothing to do with you. In fact, iPhone is a smash hit in spite of your network, not because of it. That's how good we are here at Apple — we're so good that even you and your team of Bell System frigtards can't stop us. You know what it's like being your business partner? It's like trying to swim the English Channel with a boat anchor tied to my legs. And yes, in case you're not following me, in that analogy, you, my friend, are the ****ing boat anchor.

So let's talk traffic. We've got people who love this goddamn phone so much that they're living on it. Yes, that's crushing your network. Yes, 3% of your users are taking up 40% of your bandwidth. You see this as a bad thing. It's not. It's a good thing. It's a blessing. It's an indication that people love what we're doing, which means you now have a reason to go out and double or triple or quadruple your damn network capacity. Jesus! I can't believe I'm explaining this to you. You're in the business of selling bandwidth. That pipe is what you sell. Right now what the market is telling you is that you can sell even more! Lots more! Good Lord. The world is changing, and you're right in the sweet spot.

http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/12/a-not-so-brief-chat-with-randall-stephenson-of-att.html