Quick Hits - 12/6

Dell Baseball Skins - I try to avoid unintentional promotions on this site as much as possible, but, being a big sports fan, I've gotta put this one out there. I'm not sure how long ago this started, but Dell's line of Studio laptops have the option of being customized with Major League Baseball skins, with all 30 teams being listed as options. There are three designs for each squad, but the "Classic" theme is far and away my favorite.

Verizon's Higher Early Termination Fees - They've got to defend their implementation in front of the FCC by December 17th. Verizon may find it easier to back down from their increase, which was from $175 to $350 for an "advanced device." My guess is that covers any phone that Verizon considers to be a "feature" phone, like the enV Touch, Dare, or Rogue, to smartphones like a Blackberry or Android phone. Their claim that this is necessary to cover the subsidy that results in the lower price of the phone is a bunch of nonsense. There can't be that many customers canceling the second they pick up their Motorola Droid to be costing the carrier that much dough.

Consumer Reports Talks Cell Phones

In the January issue of Consumer Reports, the magazine gives some recommendations as to what cell phones they would recommend for each carrier. The iPhone, of course, gets their nod as the top smartphone on AT&T's network, while the HTC Touch Pro2 and BlackBerry Storm 9530 are picked for Verizon. I'm happy with their designation of the LG enV Touch as one of the best non-smartphones on Verizon. It has its issues, but so does every phone, and not every phone has such a great, roomy physical keyboard.

Verizon also was at the top of the list for customer service and satisfaction. Their number one complaint from their customers was the cost of their service, but I would imagine that may be due to a lack of other areas to complain about. Their data service, as I've mentioned many times before, is way above and beyond that of AT&T's. Speaking of AT&T, they don't rank second in service, but at the bottom with Sprint, behind T-Mobile. T-Mobile, however, is lagging behind when it comes to the network capabilities of the larger carriers.