Jon Pepper's blog

There's a new Android smartphone hitting store shelves soon that will make music lovers happy, the HTC Rezound. The first smartphone in the USA to feature Beats Audio, the HTC Rezound also comes with new Beats headphones, created exclusively to integrate with the Beats' audio profile on the device.

The HTC Rezound features Verizon 4G LTE technology and boasts a 4.3-inch true HD 720p display, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 16 GB on-board memory, 1 GB DDR2 RAM, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and comes with a 16 GB MicroSD pre-installed. It runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich available in early 2012.

Because it's from HTC, the HTC Rezound comes packed with the latest HTC Sense experience and also includes a built-in microphone and an on-cable remote to pause, advance, rewind and answer a call mid-track. You'll also find an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, dual LED flash, a f/2.2 and 28mm wide-angle lens with BSI sensor, as well as a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.Read more

Before smartphones came into existence, there was the Motorola RAZR. Well, the RAZR is back, but this time as the world's thinnest 4G LTE Android smartphone.

Boasting a Super-AMOLED display and dual-core 1.2 Ghz processor, the DROID RAZR measures just 7.1 mm thin and is made with KEVLAR fiber for strength and Corning Gorilla Glass for scratch resistance. It has a 4.3-inch hyper-vibrant display, and is the first smartphone capable of streaming movies and TV shows through Netflix with up to HD resolution. And, for all you football fans, NFL Mobile is included at no additional charge for 4G LTE customers for the remainder of the 2011 season. The phone also comes loaded with MotoCast - a Motorola app that allows you to stream or download content from your PC straight to your device. Read more

At a press event in New York today, Verizon Wireless and Apple (finally) announced that the iPhone 4 will be available on the Verizon Wireless network beginning on Thursday, February 10. Qualified Verizon Wireless customers will be able to pre-order iPhone 4 online on February 3, ahead of general availability.

Verizon's iPhone 4 has the same features as the AT&T model, including a Retina display, FaceTime video calling, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple's A4 chip, and a 3-axis gyro. However, Verizon's iPhone 4 adds in Personal Hotspot capabilities allowing customers to use iPhone 4 to connect up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices. It runs iOS 4 OS for multitasking, folders, Game Center, AirPlay and AirPrint wireless printing.

Verizon's iPhone 4 uses CDMA technology and will only run only on Verizon's 3G network. There was no mention of LTE capability, Verizon's new next generation network.Read more

Sprint today announced the Sanyo Taho by Kyocera, a new rugged handset that can be fully immersed in water 3.28 feet deep for up to 30 minutes. In addition to water immersion, this "military tough" phone can handle just about anything Mother Nature throws at it – dust, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures and blowing rain. The Sanyo Taho is Sprint's first fully submersible device priced less than $100.

The handset is covered in a non-slip Dura-Grip texture and has a 2-inch QVGA TFT internal display and 1-inch monochrome external display. It includes 256 MB of internal memory, a 1 GB microSD memory card (supports up to 32GB), a front-ported speaker phone and 2-megapixel camera with flash and camcorder. Read more

Verizon Wireless today unveiled DROID by Motorola, the first smartphone powered by Android 2.0. Featuring high-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, a customizable large screen, and access to thousands of Android applications and hundreds of widgets, the DROID by Motorola is also one of the thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available.

DROID by Motorola will be available exclusively at Verizon Wireless on November 6, for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate.

See a video demo of the DROID in action on Verizon's YouTube Channel.Read more

Sprint just announced that the Palm Pixi will be available on November 15th for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement, after a $50 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate.

Pixi has the same features of the Palm Pre, including the gesture area, full QWERTY keyboard, Palm Synergy, true multi-tasking, universal search and intuitive notifications, but also adds Yahoo! integration to Palm Synergy, joining Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Exchange ActiveSync and LinkedIn. A new Facebook application will be available as well, so you can see and comment on all the latest news from your friends, as well as update your status. Read more