Verizon Wireless from unlimited to tiered data plans, which CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in late September would occur in "four to six months," is going to happen much sooner, on October 28th. Fortunately, we’re not looking at big V cutting the unlimited plan. Instead, smartphone owners will be able to choose monthly plans ranging from 150 MB ($15; $0.10/MB overage) to $29.99 for unlimited data. There are other changes rumored for MiFi, multimedia and feature phones.

Our own sister site Android Central has some further details on the Verizon is positioning the new lower-tiered plan. Basically if you’re reading this, Verizon wants you on the unlimited plan. We would like to say that the coming Pre 2 will continue the original Pre Plus free mobile hotspot plan, but we’re guessing it’s more likely the $20/1GB, $35/3BG, $50/5GB plans will apply.

In other news, the Palm Pre Plus has gone from "out of stock" on Verizon’s website to just plain …gone. It no longer shows up as an option to buy at all. We don’t know if the Pre 2 will have the same free mobile hotspot deal that the Pre Plus enjoyed, but we’re kind of doubting it. If you are bold and/or daring, you can still pick up a Pixi Plus from Verizon for free and with the unlimited data plan, mobile hotspot tethering is still free.

Sources: Engadget, Android Central

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A data loss bug that has crippled the webOS Evernote app finally has a fix available and more updates are on the way.

Evernote is one of the most powerful and popular cross platform note taking apps out there and was one of the first apps to hit the App Catalog when the Pre first launched. But it has stagnated in version 1.0 ever since and until recently, seemed abandoned by its developers. Evernote employee Dave Engberg said in the Evernote forums as recently as late August that ‘the WebOS client is currently on the "back burner" while we wait to see what happens with the platform.’

This was sad news for Evernote fans in the webOS community since version 1.o is virtually unusable. Notes created in the webOS app would sometimes fail to sync with the server and get stuck in the pending queue forever. The only solution was to delete the note and start over again. There is also an issue where it fails to scroll all the way to the end of a note and thus some of the text cannot be seen. I could not even run Evernote on my Sprint Pre because it would cause my phone to freeze up every time I launched it, so badly that I had to take the battery out to restart it. All of this on top of many limitations in the app’s feature set, such as a lack of copy and paste or full editing features available in other versions like bulleted lists.

At long last, version 1.1 is available for download, though not yet in the official App Catalog. It is available via a download link posted in the Evernote forums. You will need webOS Quick Install or other installer to get it on your device.This version fixes some of the data loss bugs and ‘more significant improvements’ are promised in future updates.

Source: Evernote User Forum; Thanks to user xImtc for the tip!

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The all-you-can eat data buffet will soon become one of those stories you tell your kids about the good old days. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said recently that the company would soon do away with unlimited data plans, opting instead for tiered pricing. This follows the same move by AT&T earlier this year and a recent admission from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse that his company may need to make the same change. Seidenberg said Verizon’s data plans would differ from the way AT&T has structured their plans, but did not elaborate on how.

"We’re not sure we agree yet with how they valued the data," he said at a recent investor conference. The new plans are expected to roll out in the next four to six months. The company would not comment on what the pricing would be for the new plans.

The new era of high-speed data and mobile devices that more resemble computers than phones have pushed the wireless providers’ networks to the limits of their capacity. The telecom giants have had to spend billions of dollars on their networks to cope with demand, which is Verizon claims to be growing faster than the network capacity can be expanded (demand has yet to outstrip capacity, it’s just catching up quickly). Executives in those companies have been forecasting the end of unlimited data for quite some time now.

Seidenberg also took the time to call on device manufacturers to start producing LTE hardware. "At some point, [they] will get with the program," he said, addressing the growing popularity of LTE among cellular network operators. Of course, with no large-scale LTE deployments on which to sell said phones, manufacturers are going to continue to be reluctant about producing compatible hardware. Chicken and the egg, as they say.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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Sprint has been the bastion of unlimited data in a land where the giants of AT&T and Verizon have either switched to the metered side, or have indicated it’s going to happen. But Sprint CEO Dan Hesse noted at the EmTech@MIT conference that if data usage gets out of hand, then Sprint’s unlimited data plans might got the way of the dodo, the dinosaur, and Lindsay Lohan’s film career. Says Hesse:

“We can offer unlimited as long as the usage is reasonable. If you run an all-you-can-eat buffet, but you have the New England Patriots come in and the whole team spends a whole day there, I can’t afford to do that anymore.”

True words, Mr. Hesse. The Sprint chief was sure to note that their 4G WiMax devices do command a $10-a-month higher charge than 3G-enabled devices, obviously because it’s easier to pull down more data over a faster 4G connection. For what it’s worth, the same thing happened when moving from $10-a-month 2G 1xRTT “Vision” service to $15-a-month 3G EVDO “Power Vision” service.

Hesse knows that Sprint users are fans of their unlimited service, and will be watching (and hoping) to see if they experience an influx of customers from AT&T and Verizon seeking to leave behind the metered data plans. Hesse himself is a fan of the unlimited concept: he is the owner of an unlimited car washes pass good for an entire year. “I spend more probably than I would without it, but I enjoy not having to pay to wash my car each time.”

Source: ComputerWorld; Via: Engadget

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Apparently we should get ready to say our final goodbyes to unlimited data, as our favorite cellular plan feature is not looking long for this world. At least that’s the message we’re getting from AT&T and now O2 UK. AT&T announced their new data plans last week, with unlimited going the way of the dodo and now topping out at 2GB for $25 a month, with the option to purchase additional gigabytes at $10 a pop.

O2 UK has taken a similar approach, though they’re offering even less to start. Plans will range from £25 for 500MB and 100 minutes to £60 for 1GB and unlimited calling (all plans include unlimited SMS and Wi-Fi hotspot access). While AT&T offers the option to add in more data as its needed, O2’s plans call for you to add a bolt-on to your plan, to the tune of an extra £5 a month for 500MB, or £10 for a full gig’. O2 will be sure to help subscribers monitor their plans by shooting out text messages to keep them updated on their data usage.

The press release states that 97% of O2 customers would not need to buy anything more than the 500MB plan, and that that much data is 2.5 times more data than the average O2 subscriber pulls down in a month. We’ll be quick to point out that the average O2 customer also likely has a dumbphone with horrible web browsing capabilities.

The new plans take effect for new and upgrading customers on June 24, until then subscribers can pick up any smartphone on O2 UK (including the Palm Pre, Pre Plus, and Pixi Plus) with unlimited data included on any compatible plan.

Source: O2

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Data not working on your Palm Pre Plus? It’s not just you: Verizon appears to be suffering from a nationwide data outage (though it’s working sporadically for some folks). Engadget has confirmed it with Verizon, twitter is fairly lit up, and naturally Verizon being a BlackBerry-heavy network our friends at CrackBerry.com are all over it. We’re not seeing a gigantic outcry in our own forums yet – but perhaps y’all are on WiFi?

We know there’s a healthy Sprint vs. Verizon debate here at PreCentral, but set that aside for a moment. Verizon users: Got Data? Sprint Users: Have Pity.

Update: Data should be working again, via Engadget.

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Jay points us to this PreCentral Forum Thread where folks in New Jersey, New York, Detroit, and Philly seem to be having issues with data on Sprint. Our pals at CrackBerry.com’s forums also are posting sporadic reports of the same. Twitter isn’t exactly aflame with ire, but then again if data was out on Sprint, it might be hard for people to tweet it up, though @jakeroz did just tweet up that Sprint Support says there are outages. Anybody out there with Sprint data issues?

Update: looks like most folks have data now, move along.

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Over at jkOnTheRun, James Kendrick has posted up results comparing the Mobile Hotspot feature on his Palm Pre Plus to the MiFi Mobile Hotspot device. His results are pretty disheartening: speeds on the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus are noticeably slower than on the dedicated MiFi hotspot. I don’t have a Verizon MiFi to test against, but I have gotten faster download speeds than James did, however my upload speeds are lackluster to say the least. At right, the results of both of our tests, averaged over multiple attempts at Speakeasy (2 for James, 3 for me).

Update: I just realized that I had the "Unthrottle Download Manager" patch installed. I just removed that and ran another battery of tests and am getting slightly slower speeds, but not enough for me to think that this patch affects data speed – 3G is often wildly different from test to test, even from the exact same location.

After the break we’ve posted two polls that we’re asking only Verizon users to fill out: if you’re using Mobile Hotspot, what kind of data download and upload speeds are you getting? People using Mobile Hotspot on Sprint via ‘nefarious’ methods and people using other methods of tethering webOS, please sit this poll out and instead post your results in the comments.

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Both Verizon and AT&T have recently dropped the price of their unlimited voice plans from $100 to $70 a month. While we (we being the tech media) generally assumed that the price cuts were an attempt to lure more customers. We tend to forget a few days after their conference calls that the #1 and #2 US cellular networks are having no trouble picking up and retaining new customers, even with their rates considerably higher than #3 Sprint and #4 T-Mobile (T-Mobile is at least still gaining subscribers, unlike Sprint). So why the price cuts?

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Like other Palm Pre fans, I have been eagerly following the development of Android, Google’s mobile operating system, and particularly the well-hyped coverage of the impending Motorola ‘Droid smartphone on Verizon. Certainly, Android shares much more with webOS than does the iPhone’s OS X (Linux-based, open-source, etc.), although Android has both a time and marketshare lead on webOS, and some (like Matthew Miller on ZDNet) are suggesting that Android could lead to Palm’s demise. Even if there wasn’t room for multiple smarphone OS platforms beyond OS X (and there is, particularly in a worldwide market), though, webOS has one huge advantage over Android that people are ignoring: it’s not from Google.

Google is, to put it bluntly, everywhere these days. From its humble start as a search engine, Google has moved into e-mail, office productivity, navigation, blogging, image storage and editing, Web browsing, and (with Android) smartphone operating systems. (The pantheon of Google offerings can be seen here.) Along the way, Google has put itself in the position of collecting a previously inconceivable amount of information about users, their interests, their habits, and more. Even medical information is (optionally) now part of Google’s services.

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