Free Stuff! Verizon Service and Palm Pre Plus Giveaway

My Life List

Update: The Giveaway is closed, thank you all so much for reading and commenting. The winner announcement is over here.

Hello. Would you like a free Palm Pre Plus, and $300 worth of Verizon Wireless service? Yeah you would. Let’s discuss that further.

As you know, I’ve been partnering with Verizon this month to knock a few things off my Mighty List, and as part of the campaign, I’ve been using a Palm Pre Plus.

The idea was to see if the phone would be useful to me, and to find out whether Verizon would be better than my iPhone service provider. Of course, my iPhone service doesn’t work at my desk and garbles half my phone calls, so I’m a little angry about that. Angry in a “hurl my phone against the wall” kinda way. But I can be demanding when I’m paying through the nose for something that doesn’t work. We’ll discuss that more later.

For now, let’s talk about that giveaway. Verizon is offering a $600 Palm Pre Plus for free. It looks like this:

The winner will also get $300 of free service from Verizon, which looks like this:

Well, technically cellular service is invisible. It’s more something you sense in your soul when you don’t feel like hucking your phone out the window during a conference call. So in that way, Verizon is sort of like inner peace, but with less yoga involved.

I’m not required to review the Palm, and frankly I didn’t plan to, but a few of you said you were pondering new phone purchases and asked me what I thought. So here’s the stuff I liked:

Making calls. Primarily, I enjoy using my Palm as a telephone that will call people when I dial their numbers — people with whom I can have complete conversations until we mutually decide it is time to hang up. I carried both my iPhone and Palm with me while friends got used to my new number, and I can’t tell you how many times I called friends on the iPhone so they’d recognize my number, and then had to immediately call back on the Palm so they could hear what I was saying.

Dropping it in soup. So. Right after I activated my Palm, I kind of dropped it in soup. I was freaking out, thinking I’d have to admit I’m a terrible phone parent and ask for another phone. But then I just dried it off with my napkin and it kept on working. I did have to scrape some dried soup out of the charger port with a safety pin, but otherwise it didn’t even cough. Nice.

Taking photos. The phone takes killer photos, you guys. Here’s what a snapshot looks like straight out of the phone with no Photoshop intervention:

See what I mean? (Bryan took that, by the way. Thanks, B!)

Also, it has a flash! On the phone! Which means you can use it just like a regular point and shoot without having to lug around another gadget.

Making videos. You can record video on your phone. Do you hear me? We are living in the future, y’all:

Typing. I know not everyone agrees, but I like the tactile feedback of buttons when I’m typing. Some people find the buttons too small, but I didn’t have that problem. In fact, I actually used my phone to send email for the first time in my life because the email is so well integrated and it’s so easy to type.

Applying lipstick. Yeah. The phone has a compact on the back:


(Photo from the Palm Info Center, which has a detailed review if you’re looking for one.)

When I first saw it, I was irritated. Like, “Oh, I’m a girl! I want a girl phone that helps with my lipgloss.” Then I used that stupid mirror three times before I even activated the phone. My makeup has been flawless for the last month. Curse you, user testers and your uncanny insight into my demographically predictable needs!

Downsides? Because I use the camera and video constantly, I run the battery down pretty fast, which can be frustrating. So you might want some sort of battery backup if you’re not religious about charging your phone every night. Also, I tend to be an early adopter of mobile applications, and betas aren’t always available on the Palm. I realize that may not be a problem for… most of the world, but there it is.

All in all, this is a good phone on a great service. I actually think it’s a smart choice for bloggers because the camera and video are superior and it’s much easier to type, so you can do mobile updates easily.

The Giveaway

If you’d like a Palm Pre Plus for yourself, not to mention a lot of free service from Verizon Wireless, please leave a comment below promising that you will not use your new phone to text while driving, and that you will not drop it in soup within 24 hours of receipt.

Now for the fine print: You must be 18 or over to enter and live in the U.S. Multiple entries will be disqualified. Comments will be open until Wednesday morning March 31, 2009 at 11 a.m. PST. I’ll choose winners randomly using Random.org, and will announce later that day. Good luck! My fingers are crossed for you.

Published

1,047 thoughts on “Free Stuff! Verizon Service and Palm Pre Plus Giveaway”

  2. I will neither text while driving nor drop my phone in soup. I cannot, however, promise not to drop it in coffee.

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  3. I NEVER text when driving! Oh, I do love soup, so I could never drop a phone in soup, as it would waste precious soup. Also, my birthday is on Friday, and I would love to win this 🙂

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  4. if i win, i solemnly swear to follow the non-driving and non-souping clauses.

    (if i don’t win, i’ll probably continue to use my phone perilously close to open cups of coffee and large soup bowls.)

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  7. I never thought I wanted a phone on which you could get all type-y and video-y and gadget-y…until I read this post! Must have. Thanks for hosting the giveaway.

    I also pledge my drive/text prohibition….

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  8. I promise that I will not use my new phone to text while driving, and that I will not drop it in soup within 24 hours of receipt. I have dropped a phone in the sink at a public restroom twice… but I put the phone and a silica gel pack in a ziplock and that seems to do the trick. For this phone, I promise to avoid sinks, as well.

    Thanks, Maggie!

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  10. Oddly enough I’m most interested in the flash and the mirror. It’s the shiny things that do it for me.

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  16. oooooh i would love a new fancy schmancy phone like that one! and no texting while driving nor holding it near liquids of any kind, i promise!

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  17. don’t get me started on phone choice! I only will use verizon so an iphone is out. I had the samsung omnia and hated the touch screen. I finally went with a blackberry b/c i am happy with my work one. only prblem since my personal email provider doesn’t use microsoft exhange it doesn’t sync my email!!! I would love to try the palm.

    And I would never text while driving …. my 7 year old would scold me anyway!

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  18. I promise that I will not use my new phone to text while driving, but I can’t ethically promise not to drop it in soup… What can I say? I’m clumsy!

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  19. I promise this, promise this
    Check this hand ’cause I’m marvelous

    (I hope random.org loves Lady Gaga as much as I)

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  21. So, I am totally in the market for a new phone so this would be awesome. Obviously not awesome for texting while driving, but awesome for pretty much everything else.

    Thanks Maggie and Verizon Wireless!

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  23. Oh, man. I will SO not text whilst driving. Neither will I drop it in soup for the first 24 hours of ownership/parenthood, for two reasons: a) I will keep it locked away in my purse for the first 24 hours (a phone chastity belt, if you like!); b)I tend to eat more cereal than soup. Thanks, Maggie!

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  25. I will not text while driving. (Ha, that just made me think of Bart Simpson writing on the chalkboard at the beginning of the Simpsons). And considering it is spring and my soup consumption goes down as the temperature goes up, I am pretty sure I won’t drop the phone in soup until the fall!

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  26. I haven’t purchased a new phone since 2007, and I’m in desperate need of one! I’d love to win this.

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  27. I promise not to drop it in soup but that’s mostly because I’m on weight watchers right now so most of the soups I like are off the menu. Does the Palm have a built in scale? I live in NYC without a car so the no texting while driving thing should be pretty easy. I might try to text while on the subway, it’d be interesting to see if Verizon’s service is getting underground.

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  28. I will never text while driving. Or while crossing busy city intersections (do people want to die texting????). Also, I will endeavor to keep my phone and soup separate.

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  30. No way will I text while driving! The soup thing I can’t make promises about, sorry. But I will love it as my first phone that’s not from 10 years ago! What a great post!

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  31. I hereby promise that I will not do stupid things like texting while driving and dropping perfectly good phones in liquid!!

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  32. I won’t drop in any kind of liquid… and won’t text while driving since I dont’ have a car!
    Thanks!

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  35. Yes please! I am totally over my crackberry but I dig Verizon service. I’ve been out in the desert in Utah, a day’s hike from a road that my subaru could handle, and my phone still worked. I won’t text while driving and I won’t drop it in soup, although I can’t promise I won’t drop it off a chairlift.

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  36. Me! Me! Cross my heart- no texting while driving! (I work in emergency medicine, so this was already a personal policy of mine…) And I promise to avoid soup pots while I’m at it! 🙂

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  37. Texting? Apps? Web access on a phone? Yeah, I’m a little behind the times…but I’m ready to give up my nice dinosaur-bone-phone and get connected! thanks!

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  40. I would love to win this. And my current phone doesn’t even text very well, so doing that while driving is out. Sigh.

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  41. I promise not to text will driving and I’ll make my fiance also promise, because this phone will be for him because his phone is D Y I N G! And soup will be banned from the house.

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  42. I will not text while driving, cycling, nor parasailing! Although as you’ve demonstrated, the latter might need to be documented with the gadget.

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  43. Pick me! I promise to be a good phone mama as well. Although, I thought that one of the positives about the phone was that you could drop it in soup if you were so inclined??

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  44. I currently have the Palm Centro and I love it. However, I was also a bad phone parent with it and it’s nearing the end of it’s life. So, it would be perfect to win this phone. And now I’ve learned how to be a better phone parent! See?

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  46. Oh goodness, I need this phone so desperately. Is this the part where I start jumping up and down and shouting for you to pick me?

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  48. Pretty please! I solemnly swear not to text while driving. Hells, I have enough trouble changing the radio station.

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  49. No texting while driving and no soup diving–I would be a good mommy to my new bundle of phone joy!

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