So two weeks ago I was in Hollywood Florida visiting my cousins and she has been an at&t customer for over 6 years and in those 6 years she has never upgraded any of the phones on her account. (She had 2 lines)

So while in Florida I convinced her to upgrade her two phones and we went to an at&t corporate store and found a phone for her. It was on sale for 1 penny so she bought 4 and added 2 more lines to her account.

A friendly guy named Michael Zeidman, helped us. Told us the two lines would be added to the account and everyone will share the minutes. My cousin questioned him time and time again if the phones will share minutes. He assured her that yes they would.

She was happy, Until she got her first bill.

Turns out Michael Zeidman lied to her, he added separate plans for each of the new phones so they were not sharing minutes like he said and he also added Road Side Assistance to each phone something he never told us he did nor my cousin wanted.

Whats also shocking is that the paperwork he gave my cousin and she signed indicated none of this.

So advice to everyone, if you go to an at&t store and order a new phone or upgrade. Dial 611 to your phone to make sure everything is set up the way you believe its set up and that no additional services were added to your account, because these in store reps like Michael Zeidman will appear to be the nicest of people but are really screwing you over, and if you don’t pay much attention to your bill you may be stuck with charges and features you did not want.

Nokia today announced the availability of the Nokia 6301 and Samsung SGH-t339. Both phones will support the T-Mobile @Home service (allows you to use your phone for T-Mobile VoIP service for unlimited calling at home).

“Since launching T-Mobile HotSpot @Home nearly a year ago, T-Mobile has remained committed to building our portfolio of handsets to support this innovative wireless service,” said Sajal Sahay, director of product marketing, T-Mobile USA. “These new phones are stylish offerings for our customers who want to take advantage of unlimited nationwide calling and great wireless coverage — all for an affordable price.”

Key Features Nokia 6301:

Wi-Fi-enabled; supports T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
T-Mobile myFavesSM-enabled
Music player (supports WMA, MP3, AAC and eAAC+)
Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
2.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture
Expandable memory with microSD (support for up to 4GB)
Instant messaging; supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live
Speakerphone
FM radio
Tri-band 850/1800/1900 MHz; GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMA
Display: 240 x 320 pixels, TFT, 16 million colors
Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.7 x 0.5 inches, 3.2 ounces
Key features of the Samsung t339:

Wi-Fi-enabled; supports T-Mobile HotSpot @Home
T-Mobile myFaves-enabled
Music player (supports MP3, AAC and AAC+)
Stereo Bluetooth connectivity
1.3 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and video capture
Expandable memory with microSD (support for up to 2GB)
Instant messaging; supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live
Speakerphone
Tri-band 850/1800/1900 MHz; GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMA
Display: 176 x 220 pixels, TFT, 262k
Dimensions: 3.62 x 1.83 x 0.78 inches, 3.3 ounces

We have just posted some Unboxing pictures over at our Parent site HardwareGeeks.com. Just thought we let you know so you can check them out.

The phone is actually amazingly responsive to the touch of the finger and kind of pulses when you tap on something which is pretty cool. A lot of people who haven’t gotten an iPhone because it lacks that tactual sensation when you press a key will enjoy the Samsung Instinct.

I just reviewed the iPaq 910c for HardwareGeeks.com and I have to say I loved it a lot.

Click here to check out the review. It is also the fastest windows mobile phone I have ever used.

The phone I had for review was a prototype, but for a prototype it performed like the final version, It’s an amazing piece of equipment. The phone will be available on June 30th for $499.

Verizon has said they will Purchase Alltel for 5.9 billion dollars and take over 22 billion in debt.

When the merger is completed (Verizon hopes before the end of the year), Verizon will overtake the Sprint as the largest Cellular carrier in the US with over 80 million subscribers.

This would also mark the second time Alltel has been sold and bought with in the past year, last year Goldman Sachs purchased Alltel for a cool $27.5 billion.

Starting yesterday at&t has changed their ETF policy. They will no longer charge you $175 USD to cancel your service.

Each month that passes 5 dollars will be deducted from the fee, it use to be that $10 dollars was deducted each month before they made it a flate rate of $175 two years ago.

Some see the change in the policy a direct response to the FCC’s plans to regulate early termination fees.

If you are pregnant, you shouldn’t use a cell phone according to a recent study which showed that 54% of women who used a cell phone had bad ass little kids.

Using a mobile, or cell phone, two to three times a day was enough to raise the risk, and letting children under the age of seven use a mobile phone also put them in danger, the study of more than 13,000 women found.

So all you future mothers out there, take that into consideration the next time your baby daddy gives ya a ring a ding ding. 

at&t today announced it will carry the Blackberry Bold also known as the Blackberry 9000 Exclusively in the US, and will be the only US Carrier to offer a 3G international capable Blackberry device.

The Blackberry Bold features a half-vga 65,000-color display which some have described as Bold and Beautiful. The Bold will be quad-band, offer wi-fi (a/b/g), bluetooth 2.0 and built in GPS. The device will also be powered by a 624MHz Intel PXA270, previous blackberry devices had processors at half that speed, it also will come with 128 MB of flash memory and a Gig of on board memory which is expandable with microSD/SDHC memory cards.

at&t has not announced a release date for the device but has said it will be available later this year.

For a at&t branded image of the phone click here.

So today I was introduced to a service called Vringo, a service that allows you to customize your phone and contacts with Video Ringtones instead of just play ol musical ones.

The service is easy to use and set up and it supports a ton of phones. If your phone supports 3gp video files then chances are your phone will work with the VRingo Service. For the past 12 hours or so I have been using it flawlessly on a Nokia Phone I have laying around (at&t).

You simply sign up and configure the service, and best of all it’s free! But you do need to download the Videos to your hone so keep in mind standard data and text messaging rates apply. You can also create your on Video Ringtone and even share the various videos with friends.

The service is free so feel free (pun intended) to check it out at http://www.VRingo.com

AT&T and MediaFlo today annouced that AT&T mobile will be available on the 4th of May, that is this Sunday.

AT&T is also bringing out two new phones specificaly for this service, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access.

LG Vu: A sleek and stunning device, the Vu gives you a clear view of TV, Web, pictures or videos on its large interactive touch screen. It also lets you get the utmost in mobile entertainment with a music player, 2.0 megapixel camera and Bluetooth® capabilities. The LG Vu is available for $299.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.
Samsung Access: This stylish handset features a large landscape display, ideal for delivering a rich viewing experience and an internal antenna for exceptional reception. It’s a great device for customers who are looking for advanced multimedia capabilities such as a camera, external stereo speakers, stereo Bluetooth, AT&T Music, CV, of course, AT&T Mobile TV. The Samsung Access is available for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

“AT&T Mobile TV is more than a new entertainment service — it is an experience that will significantly change and enhance our customers’ mobile lifestyles,” said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data for AT&T’s wireless unit. “With this in mind, it was imperative that we launch this revolutionary service on devices that were optimal for the best mobile viewing experience imaginable. We worked closely with LG and Samsung to deliver these two iconic handsets, which are designed with the specific needs of what will soon become our Mobile TV viewing audience.”

To bad I no longer have at&t to try this out. :(