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”

  1. I promise not to text while driving and not to put a shiny new phone in soup!

    Though my real concern is my boyfriend’s mom has a Palm Pre and I’m a little ashamed that at 60-something, she has better technology than her son’s 24 year old girlfriend. >_> So it’d be nice to up my game to at least her level if I can’t surpass it yet as a student!

    P.S. OMG he’s growing up so fast! ❤

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  2. Holy cow, I’d love a Palm Pre! I detest texting-while-driving, and I don’t really like soup.

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  3. I’ve never dropped my phone in any watery graves & surely hope not to do so. And I don’t text while I drive because my co-pilot is a 10 year old and he is watching. Very closely.

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  4. ^&*%!!@

    Am I ever frustrated with The iPhone Service Provider. Plain and simple, it doesn’t deliver on what it promises.

    I concluded that, according to the ad below, a phone circa 1964 would be more helpful to me, practically speaking, than my circa now iphone.

    http://twitpic.com/107toc

    But a new phone on a different provider would be nicer. 🙂

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  5. I, JT, do solemnly swear not to text while driving. I further declare that I will use extreme caution around any liquids and hard surfaces if I win this phone. Oh, pick me!

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  7. I can’t even text while walking much less driving and I don’t really eat that much soup so I think I can comfortably meet these requirements.

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  8. I pinky swear not to use my phone while driving, potentially endangering the lives of others! As for dropping the phone…. I will do my best, but can make no promises there 🙂

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  9. my boyfriend that has that phone, and while trying to show me a video he dropped it on my nose, let me say, as well as being soup friendly it bounces well and leaves little residual pain! fabulous!

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  12. I promise not to text & drive and I don’t eat my soup nearly as often as I’d like to, so no soup-swimming for phones here!

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  13. I promise to be a good phone parent and not text while driving or drop my shiny new phone in my soup.

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  14. I will not text while driving. I will not text while driving. I will not text while driving.

    And I won’t even EAT soup during those first 24 hours to make sure that such a travesty doesn’t happen on my end!

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  16. I promise that I won’t text while driving, especially because you are choosing the winner on my birthday! Come on Random.org, I want a Palm Pre for my birthday!

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  18. Oh! Boy would I appreciate one of those new bad boys. My husband and I have those old phones, where, you know, it only calls people. Franz (husband) is an ultra runner, and we were thinking how awesome it would be to have a smart phone with him on trail so he could Tweet about where he is so I don’t have to worry that he’s been eaten by a bear. Also, it would be kinda neat for me to see where he’s been with the snazzy video stuff. No texting and driving, but we’ll be texting and running. Loophole!

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  19. Oh boy! I just got lost in NYC without a map for the last time Saturday night, when I vowed to get a smart phone. So! I promise not to text when I drive (no car, that’s easy!) and increase photo taking of my adorable cat Oscar. Also, the soup thing. 🙂

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  20. I have been dying to try out a Palm Pre, but we are locked into TMobile – please count me in!!

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  21. I promise to never text while driving (can’t see the keys anyway) and I don’t eat soup near my cellphone. Sounds like a great phone.

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  23. At this point, anything would be better than my funky, stupid, sometimes not operational Samsung. I promise to practice safe cell. 🙂

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  24. I promise not to text while driving (I don’t really drive anyhow), and I promise not to drop the phone in soup. I have Verizon already and love it, but I would love it even more if I could afford data and unlimited texting. And have a phone that doesn’t freeze!! Thank you Verizon and Maggie. 🙂

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  27. i won’t text when i drive. and as much as i love soup, i’ll avoid it for the first 24 hours that i have my new phone. yay!

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  28. I most definitely won’t text while driving — I have a kid in the back, for cripe’s sake.

    As for the soup thing, I’m pregnant and constantly dropping things, so I can’t promise I won’t drop it in/on *something* — but since I’m not eating a lot of soup these days, that probably won’t be it.

    Thanks for the great giveaway!

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  29. I solemly swear not to text while driving (far too uncoordinated to pull that off anyway) and will back away from the soup should the snazzy phone be in hand.

    thanks!
    maura

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  30. I would never text and drive because I’ve never sent a text. I’m living so far in the cellular past (my current cell phone doesn’t even have a camera!) that it’s amazing my phone doesn’t still have a big ol’ antenna I have to pull out — I’d welcome a shove into the present!

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  32. Oh wow… this would be so amazing! I would be thrilled to be able to ditch my terrible AT&T service.
    I sincerely promise never to text while driving. Also, I promise I would keep the phone a safe distance away from soup at all times.

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  34. I will not text when driving, or put on lip gloss for that matter! I will not drop the phone in soup and will sleep with it under my pillow each night to make sure it is safe.

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  35. I will not use the phone while driving at all (I’m pretty good about that), and I definitely won’t drop it in soup. Or coke. My dad dropped his iphone in coke. It turned out fine, eventually, but it did take a few hours to dry out.

    what a snazzy giveaway 🙂 I especially love the camera/video thing. I’ve got a 3 year old Sony Ericsson that does photos & video, and I’m not sure I could switch to a cell phone that won’t.

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  36. I am certainly not good enough at texting to even entertain the thought of doing it at the same time as any other activity, much less driving. Soup, on the other hand…

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  38. I promise not to text while driving, and I almost never eat soup so dropping the phone in soup would be almost impossible for me!

    I already have verizon service and my blackberry is feeling quite dated. I too like the button keyboard and it appears the pre keyboard is pretty similar to the curve’s. My blackberry also has a flash on the camera… I dropped my point and shoot and have been taking tons of photos with my phone. So much so, that I have never bothered to replace the regular camera. I always remember my phone and never remember my camera…

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  40. I’d love a new palm, pllleeeaase! 27 yrs old, unemployed and currently suffering through the leftover LG my 13 year old cousins handed down to me..(which has ‘Paparazzi’ as it’s ringtone!). Help!

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  41. I’m definitely on Oprah’s side of the texting-while-driving argument and I hate eating soup after February, so I’m in. 🙂

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  44. Oooh, I promise not to text while driving. I would love a new mobile device, my current phone does not love me and take care of me like I know the Pre ould!

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  45. Not for me, for my cell phone challeneged wife. I hate that she can’t get emails on her phone and we just refuse to join the early 2000’s.

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  46. I swear I will not text and drive, because hey, I can’t drive due to a seizure disorder. And I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a new phone. If you saw my phone you would laugh. It is one of those candy-bar-shaped go-phones from 1993. Seriously, it is SAD. And I won’t drop it in the soup, either.

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  47. hi–you’re funny on twitter.

    i surely promise with all my heart not to drive or eat soup.

    please?

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  48. I would love a Palm Pre and Verizon service, which I would never use use to text while driving, but will use to twitter from Sharks games since HP Pavilion hates iPhone users. Also, I rarely eat soup, but for you, I will keep my phone deep in my pocket while consuming.

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  49. I’ve got an ancient Palm Pilot, and a newer Palm m515 still in use. And my current cell phone (a Sony Ericsson) is 4+ years old now. I promise not to text while driving (soon to be illegal here) and I won’t drop it in soup within 24 hours of receiving it.

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  50. Yay! I need a new phone BADLY! And I already have Verizon and love it. Oh and promise, promise on the required promises!

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