Verizon: “New Regulatory Charge Increase Won’t Let You Cancel Contract Sans ETF.”

Whenever carriers make a material change to contracts, disgruntled customers jump for joy as it is their meal ticket to freedom sans ETF. All too often (read: every damn time) unfortunately, the carrier in question finds some excuse to say why a particular contract alteration doesn’t qualify for this ETF-free contract cancellation.

So it is with great sadness and disdain we announce that Verizon’s recent regulatory charge increase from $0.13 to $0.16 will not allow customers to cancel their contracts without paying the ETF…

Another iPhone 5 Concept Hits The Interwebs.

As we inch closer to the iPhone 5′s release this September, rumors of specs and concept renderings continue to trickle out. The concept design you see above (credt: Michal Bonikowsk) is the latest in a growing fascination with Apple’s now 4-year old “Jesus Phone” and our personal favorite concept we might add. It blends the aluminum tapered back and claimed larger display into a much more legitimate looking rendering.

Besides borrowing design cues from the iPad 2, the next-gen iPhone is rumored to have a the faster A5 dual-core processor, up to 4″ display, and 8-megapixel camera. There have also been rumors pointing towards a smaller, more affordable “iPhone 4S”. Though depending on which day and analyst you talk to, this iPhone 4S either is or isn’t real.

Either way, if the iPhone 5 resembles the image above we’ll be mighty happy campers. You?

Google+: The Official Guide.

Google+ is by far the freshest and “newest” thing to hit the social networking scene in many months. And while it takes obvious cues from Facebook (and several other social media services), the end result is nothing short of awesome. But Google+ will be even better — provided the masses adopt Google’s new social service. Though given the quick take down of the invite button, it appears Google finally has a social hit on their hands.

Step inside as Gadgetsteria takes you through the halls of Google+ and details every nook and cranny along the way…

[Update 2] Google+ Floodgates Open. Get Your Invites!

If you’re sitting by anxiously awaiting for someone — anyone — to add you into one of their Google+ Circles and float a handy invite your way, tonight’s your lucky night. It appears that Google has opened the floodgates for Google+ invites. (We just sent out a solid 47 invites to friends and family.)

Initial impressions after 20 minutes: We love it. It’s what Facebook used to be — no ads and stupid game notifications — and everything it could be too — simple, clean, and actually good looking. On top of that, there’s a handy Android app (iOS coming soon) that brings all of Google+ to the mobile space.

Excuse us, but we’ve got to get back to playing with the hottest new thing in the tech realm. If you need an invite don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll happily oblige…

Update

And just like that the invites are once again removed. Apparently their still a cap in play. To the people that already contacted us, we’ve got your names queued invites once invites go alive again.

To everyone else — feel free to continue to email us your Gmail addresses and we’ll add them to our list for the next round.

Update 2

Send Google+ invite requests to invites[at]gadgetsteria[dot]com.

Mossberg: “TouchPad No Match For iPad, Android Tablets.”

Looks like HP’s luck still hasn’t picked up. Tech god Walt Mossberg has published his official findings after a week with the TouchPad and come away with statements such as “the tablet’s hardware is bulbous and heavy compared with the iPad 2 or the svelte Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ and “the TouchPad’s battery life was only 60% of that of the iPad 2″. Other negatives pointed out by Mossberg include the meager selection of apps (~300 tablet specific/~6,200 webOS overall), numerous bugs throughout the claimed “production unit”, and so-so on-screen keyboard.

But there were some saving graces. Most notably, Mossberg continues to praise the webOS interface overall as extremely elegant, simple to use, and intuitive. Speaking strictly of the UI, Mossberg singles out the card based multi-tasking system as one of the best multi-tasking systems on the market still. Also given a nod is webOS’ notification system which to this is still top notch.

Overall opinion: Not recommended over iPad 2. While not surprising in our eyes given the shortcomings listed above, it’s no doubt a blow for HP. If you’re one of many interested in Palm’s foray into the tablet world, has Mossberg’s initial impressions altered your own? Leave it in the comments after the break…

Motorola HD Outed By Flickr Photo?

Did Motorola just let an uncharacteristically careless slip up out the next handset? If the Flickr photo above is in fact detailing a legitimate “DROID HD”, then yes!

Usually manufacturers block the names of unreleased devices so things such as this doing give away their secrets too early. Of course, we certainly don’t mind getting an early leg up on the situation.

One other and less exciting scenario could simply be that this is the DROID Bionic with a new name. However, we haven’t heard or seen anything thus far to suggest Motorola would suddenly start playing the name game with the aforementioned hardware.

Either way, the “HD” verbiage signals big things are to come. Here’s to hoping the next “thing” is a Motorola announcement.

HTC, AT&T Make ChaCha/Facebook Phone/Status Official!

The continuously leaked HTC Facebook Phone/ChaCha/Status has gotten the official treatment from AT&T and HTC. The real beauty of the HTC Status is the tight, easy integration with Facebook via a dedicated Facebook button located at the bottom right of the device’s front side.

While the dedicated Facebook button may seem almost gimmicky, the hardware behind said button is actually pretty decent — 2.6″ 480 x 320 display, 800 MHz Qualcomm processor, 512 MB of RAM, 5-megapixel rear w/ LED flash + auto-focus/VGA front-facing cameras and Android 2.3 w/ Sense UI. Storage can be upped to 32 GB via microSD.

Pricing and availability have not been announced. Official announcement and supported features after the jump…