Well, surprise surprise. It seems Verizon has decided that if you’re willing to pay for an iPhone 5, you should be able to use it on other carriers besides theirs if you wish.

What am I talking about? Well, according to a report, the iPhone smartphones coming from Verizon are unlocked and can be used with any GSM carrier in addition to Verizon’s network.

I’ll let that sink in a minute. Okay, but what does it mean? Well, it means you can slap in a SIM card from AT&T or, most likley T-Mobile or another GSM carrier in Europe or wherever, and use the iPhone 5 on their networks as well.

Unfortunately, you won’t get 4G LTE due to the differences in the way the carriers work, but you will get 3G and the ability to make calls, text, etc.  Not bad. Not bad at all.

Now if only AT&T would do this too.

If you’re looking for an alternative to the Samsung lineup of Android smartphones like the Galaxy S III, HTC has got you covered. That’s right, the DROID Incredible 4G LTE is now available from Verizon Wireless.

It features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4″ screen, NFC chip, 4G LTE radio, runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and uses HTC’s Sense 4.0. The price? $149 with a two year contract (after the mail in rebate). Not bad.

Before the iPhone came to Verizon I used the original Incredible and it was a good device. This new one looks to be a worthy successor. Although, for $50 you could get the Galaxy S III so I’ll bet this one isn’t the hit HTC needs it to be.

Still, it looks like a nice, midrange device for those of you wanting the latest features (like Verizon’s 4G network) but not wanting to pay a big price for them. . . until you have to start paying for Verizon’s data plans that is.

After being announced during the CTIA event in early May, it looks like Verizon is finally getting around to launching a new smartphone that isn’t the Samsung Galaxy S III. That’s right HTC fans (myself among them), the Incredible 4G LTE is finally coming to a Verizon store near you.

The magical day is said to be July 5th, which has seemingly been confirmed by a screen cap of an internal Verizon’s website obtained by the folks over at Droid-Life. Pricing for the device looks to be $199 on 2-year contract, but there is still a chance that a $50 rebate will be attached, dropping the price to $149.

So, if this internal document is to be believed, we HTC and Sense 4 fans can pick up one of these beauties next week. Let’s hope it pans out because I, for one, would like to try one out.

Late last night Samsung finally announced what many in the Android-loving community have been waiting for: carriers, pricing and availability dates for the Galaxy SIII. Well, wonder no more because the flagship smartphone will launch on Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile starting in June.

“The U.S. launch of the Galaxy S III is the most anticipated launch of the year. As promised, we are delivering the ‘next big thing’ for U.S. customers and across all major carriers,” president of Samsung America Dale Sohn said in a statement. “Galaxy S III introduces new technological innovation and takes sharing to the next level.”

For Verizon, preorder availability will begin on June 6th with the device priced at $199.99 for the 16GB model. The 32GB model will cost $249.99 with a two-year contract, and both models will be available in either white or blue. T-Mobile confirmed that it will launch its version of the Galaxy S III on June 21 but no pricing was given.

Sprint will offer the device starting on June 21st, with preorders beginning Tuesday, June 5th. It will come in two versions, a 16GB model for $199.99 and a 32GB model for $249.99. Sprint is also the only U.S. carrier to preload Google Wallet on the device.

Nothing from AT&T yet but we expect that announcement to come soon. In the meantime, Samsung’s full press release is after the break.

In yet another display of near complete disregard for its customers, Verizon Wireless announced this week it plans to eliminate the $30/Month unlimited data plan any user subscribed to prior to the company’s transition to tiered data plans last July. Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said at the 40th J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference that once unlimited 3G data plan customers upgrade to 4G LTE, they will be forced to purchase the company’s shared data plan.

“Everyone will be on data share,” Shammo said. The carrier’s shared data plans are scheduled to launch in the coming months, and will allow users to share a single pool of data between multiple devices. “If I can add as many devices as I want, that is more efficient from a family perspective and a small business perspective,” the CFO said.

When asked how Verizon will migrate customers off their unlimited data plans, Shammo said that LTE will draw customers away from it. “A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited,” he said. “When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us.”

Sure, beneficial to you, but how does that benefit customers again? Oh yeah, it doesn’t. It just means people should get ready to pay ever increasing costs for mobile data.

How do we feel about this?

Not sure what we were really hoping for here, but regardless, it’s nice to see the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE finally make an “official” appearance. That’s right, today HTC and Verizon made the new device official this morning, complete with specs.

However, they didn’t announce a price or release date just yet, saying only that it would be arriving “In the coming weeks.” As we discussed previously, the device has the following specs: 4-inch qHD Super LCD display, a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, expandable storage, 1700mAh battery, 4G LTE, an 8-megapixel camera, Beats Audio and Sense 4 atop Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Not bad but, not earth shattering either. This is obviously being positioned as a mid-range device and isn’t really supposed to be direct competition for HTC’s flagship One X or even the One S.

Still, if you’re looking for a solid Android device on Verizon’s network for what will most likely be a reasonable price point (think $199 with contract) this could be a great option. Check out Verizon’s full press release after the break.

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat the guys over at Droid Life. This time around they’re out with the scoop on the soon-to-be-released HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE.

According to the report, the highly anticipated device popped up on the Droid Does website, complete with full specs, only to vanish a short while later. We can only assume one or more people are now looking for work this morning or, at the very least, nursing the results of a severe ass kicking for letting this info out early.

Of course, now that the full specs are confirmed, you may or may not be excited about the device. Either way, here they are:

• 1.2GHz dual-core processor (likely the Snapdragon S4)
• 1GB RAM
• Sense 4.0
• 4″Super LCD qHD display (so slightly different than the One S display)
• 8MP rear camera; VGA front camera
• Beats Audio
• 1700mAh battery
• 8GB internal storage (expandable to 32GB)
• 4G LTE
• Size: 2.4 x 4.8 x 0.46 inches
• Weight: 4.66 ounces

As most of you probably know, the iPhone is an extremely popular smartphone which has been sold to millions of customers around the world. In fact, most of us here at The Flickcast use the iPhone on a daily basis as our smartphone of choice.

But just because the iPhone is popular and most of us use it, that doesn’t mean we don’t take a shine to other smartphones worth checking out. One such device coming soon is HTC’s Incredible 4G, which is headed to Verizon Wireless later this month.

Up until now, details on the new device have been relatively scarce. We do know it’s been approved by the FCC and is expected to be released soon. Fortunately, the folks over at Android Police have dug a little deeper and come up with even more info.

Not only do they have some new info on specs, they also managed to snag a few photos of the device as well. Regarding specs, the display will reportedly be 4″ in size and the device will be powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor.

Well, this is a bit disappointing. Granted, it will probably only affect a small percentage of you out there, but it’s still kinda lame.

According to reports, even if you have Apple’s shiny new iPad and want to engage in a little FaceTime with a, um, friend, you won’t be able to do it, even if you have super fast 4G LTE. It will only work over Wi-Fi.

If you try, you will be prompted to connect to an available Wi-Fi network. Curiously, if you are using your iPad as a Wi-Fi hotspot, which you can with the Verizon version, FaceTime will work if you initiate a call using an supported iPhone or iPod.

Apple has so far been moot on this issue but you can be sure people are going to be asking about it. After all, in many cases 4G LTE is as fast (or faster) than available Wi-Fi networks so the fact that FaceTime isn’t supported is difficult to understand.

Again, this isn’t a critical point for most of you, we just found it interesting as it gives a bit of insight into how Apple deals with wireless carriers. Of course, it could be a decision on Apple’s part. . . but we kinda doubt it.

If you follow tech news very much, and Apple in particular, you know one thing is certain: even if you have the “latest thing” from Apple they will be releasing an even better one sooner or later. That’s never been more the case, and more the subject of scrutiny and speculation, than with the iPhone and iPad.

So, it should come as no surprise that pretty much everyone is in the “what will Apple release next” game, including the Wall Street Journal. This time around the Journal is reporting that Apple’s next generation iPad (aka iPad 3) will feature, among other things, 4G LTE wireless connectivity.

In addition, said iPad 3 will be sold at both AT&T and Verizon. That isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, though, as both wireless carriers have had 4G LTE for some time and have hardware that runs on it already.

If you have a shiny new iPhone 4S as some of us do here at The Flickcast and you’ve experienced less-than-stellar battery life, this will be of interest to you. There’s been a few reports around the Internets, and elsewhere, that the iPhone 4S’s battery life leaves something to be desired.

Sure, it could have to do with the fact that it features a faster processor or that Siri is a bit power hungry. Or, as was postulated by the folks at iDownloadBlog, it could be the iPhone 4S’s Time Zone service that’s causing the problem.

Reportedly, a bug in iOS 5 (which ships on all iPhone 4S units) forces its location tracking feature to remain active much more than necessary which drains the phone’s battery far more quickly. Users can manually turn off the automatic time zone setting by going to Settings > General > Date & Time. Once there, toggling “Set Automatically” to “Off.”

We’ve tried this “fix” on a couple of our own devices and so far it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. That said, and this is in no way scientific, we tend to get pretty much the advertised battery life on our iPhone 4S units. So, maybe it’s actually a hardware problem on some units and not software after all? Or, perhaps it’s a carrier issue as our iPhone 4S units are all using Verizon and not AT&T?

Whatever the issue, Apple is usually pretty fast to issue a fix for these problems so expect to see one sooner rather than later. In the meantime, let us know if you try this “fix” and what your results are, if any.

Did any of you own a Motorola RAZR? I’m sure you did. Back in 2005 it was the coolest phone to own.

It was skinny. It was light. It had cool glowy blue buttons. It was on all the carriers. It was the phone to have. At least if you were a tech-crazed high schooler, like myself back then.

It seems that Motorola may not have done it again with the newest addition to the RAZR, but the new Motorola Droid RAZR, as it’s being dubbed, is still a really neat phone.

Sporting 4G, a 1.2 GhZ dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32 GB of storage, 12.5 hours of talk time, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p recording, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display strengthened with Gorilla Glass and Kevlar fiber, and at only 7.1mm thick, the Droid RAZR is now the thinnest 4G phone on Verizon. And because of the kevlar, the phone will be protected against spills and other nasty accidents.

You know what else is made of kevlar? The Batsuit. I’m officially calling this one the Batphone. This thing is cool.

The phone will also be compatible with the rest of Motorola’s line of devices, including the Moto Webtop and the brand new MOTOACTIV, a pretty nifty fitness watch that was also announced today. Only downside to this phone seems to be that it’s running Gingerbread, and not the upcoming version of Android, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.

Motorola’s announcement comes just hours before Samsung announces their newest version of their Nexus line, which will be exclusive to Verizon AND will have Ice Cream Sandwich. So the Motorola Droid RAZR certainly has some competition.

You’ll be able to pick up your very own Batphone, I mean Motorola Droid RAZR, in early November exclusively for Verizon Wireless.