As we wrote about just the other day, Verizon made a lot of waves with their announcement to offer the Galaxy Tab without a contract option.  As expected, other carriers announced their intent to offer the Tab, surprisingly with a contract.

Both Sprint and T-mobile will offer the Tab for the discounted price of $399 in exchange for a 2 year service agreement, but is this really a decent choice for consumers?

The stock music player on Android won’t win any awards for design, and though drag and drop syncing is about as easy as it gets, a lot of customers would prefer a more elegant solution.

There are dozens over music players in the market, promising everything from additional file format support, to applications that mimic the look and feel of the iTunes player on an iPhone. Some apps, like DoubleTwist and iSyncr also provide desktop syncing applications to make transferring playlists and songs easier as well.

I’ve tried a handful of media players, and while they’re all nicer looking (and more functional) than the stock application, I never felt like any one applications stood out from the rest. Then I saw that Winamp (remember them?) released an Android music player that promised wireless syncing between your computer and phone. So I decided to dust off my Windows Winamp client, and take their Android application for a test drive.

Google hasn’t released any official press releases on this.  In fact, I wouldn’t expect to see one.  It will probably be dropped into a casual conversation by some Google higher-up in the next few days.  But the Android development team has dropped a semi-official statement on their Twitter page about it.

This brings the Android Market much closer to the Apple App Store, which is nearing the 300,000 app mark.

To some, this is an important accomplishment.  The Android Market just about a year ago had about 10% of today’s number of apps, or less, growing at a faster rate than Apple’s App Store.  Still, Android Market has a long way to go, both in the number of apps as well as the quality of apps.

Samsung and Verizon made some waves today when they announced that the newly minted Tab would run for $599.99, and no contract options.  For those of you not familiar with the device, the Tab is the first Android tablet to officially come with the Google marketplace in tow and major carrier support.  It’s a 7″ all touchscreen device, and features 16gb of memory (expandable to 32gb), a 1ghz processor and both a rear and front facing camera.

Sounds great right?

Most of you are likely thinking “Not really.  Look at that price!”  To paraphrase  one internet commenter; “Why would i get something that is only 3″ bigger than my Fascinate and 3x the cost?”  When I first heard the cost, I thought the same thing.  Then I remembered that the Fascinate is actually $589.99 so for an extra $10, you get a noticeably larger device.

The problem is that as consumers, we’re trained to think of anything cellphone related in terms of contracts and subsidies.  We don’t care how much a device costs because we only have to pay a fraction of that cost with our contracts.  We’re pretty vocal about allowing unlocked devices on our network of choice.  Getting used to the unsubsidized cost of a phone is just the first step towards carrier independence.

I came across an interesting online exchange this morning, and thought it was be a good moment to describe who PhoneCan.com is, and why we’re different. This isn’t a memo, it’s a mission statement.  Now, show me the money.

Just kidding.

One of the most common questions I’ve received concerns batteries and maintaining them.  People always want to know how to make their battery get through the day, how to help their battery live longer over time, and what to do to avoid a memory effect.  We’re here to help explain what to do, what not to worry about, and how forming a few good habits will go a long way.

Passion drives people to do many things.  Some may have a passion for their religion.  Some may have passion for a good cause.  One might be passionate about art, while another may be passionate about football.  Yes, the human condition includes being passionate about something you believe in, be it small or large.

Nothing brings out more passion in people than a heated discussion about phones, phone companies, and phone plans.

We haven’t seen an official press release on it yet, but it appears that some of the rumor around the wireless news world will be coming true.

Starting October 28, Verizon Wireless will be changing it’s “3G Data Plans.”

After the “what is root and how do I do it” question, the next question I hear is often “What task killer should I install?”  The short answer to this?None of them.

Task killers are an odd animal because it’s something that most reps will offer to install for you, and if you install it you WILL notice an increase in battery life.  But those same results can be had without installing a task killer, and task killers often cause more problems than they solve, especially for the average consumer.

@Rhymo worked out great too (once servers recovered) 1M+ downloads first day - RovioMobile, via Twitter

And with that, Rovio Mobile announced it had over one million downloads of Angry Birds for Android in it’s first day.