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Verizon adds Motorola Barrage today, Nokia Shade next week

There's a certain joy, an undeniable stress release associated with heaving your phone directly at a wall. Of course, your average handset isn't likely to respond favorable to that kind of maneuver, so you might want to pick up something that makes boastful claims about its ability to stand up to shock, vibration, and all the other ails of an abusive relationship with its owner -- something like the Motorola Barrage, for instance. The Barrage is a mil-spec 810F that can tolerate submersion in a meter of water for half an hour, dust, baking in the sun, and everything in between, giving Casio's place at the top of the rugged food chain on Verizon a run for its money. It's got external music controls, a 2 megapixel camera, and support for VZ Navigator, launching today for $129.99 on contract -- or if you prefer to skip on the camera, you can look for a blind version to hit on the 21st of the month.

Separately, Verizon is trotting out yet another member of its heavily-renewed partnership with Nokia, though this one isn't nearly as odd as the Twist. The 2705 Shade is your basic, run-of-the-mill clamshell with a 1.3 megapixel cam and swappable covers that's ready to do battle in the very lowest shelves of the store thanks to a $29.99 on-contract price -- though it'll take a while to get to those shelves since it's an online exclusive for the time being starting October 6.

Read - Motorola Barrage
Read - Nokia Shade