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Boost Mobile sweetens unlimited plans with free 411, adds Samsung Rant this month
Boost is already known for offering up one of the more aggressive prepaid unlimited plans in the industry, pushing all-you-can-eat voice, messaging, and web for $50 a month -- but it's upping the ante just a tad today on news that customers of both its $50 plan and its $60 BlackBerry plan now have free access to 411 information, instant messaging, and email. Then again, it seems like we're past the point where carriers should be differentiating between types of data, but the fact that Boost offers dumbphones almost exclusively across its range gives it more leeway than most for this sort of stratification. Oh, and to take advantage of the new hotness, Boost would like to cordially invite customers to take a look at the Samsung Rant, a device that actually launched a good long while ago on Sprint but now makes its way over to Boost on May 19 for $149.99 (contract-free, of course). The landscape slider's got full QWERTY, EV-DO, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD support up to 16GB, and an analog of Sprint's own One Click UI. Like red? Good, 'cause it's launching in red. Follow the break for Boost's full press release.
GE's latest DECT 6.0 phones feature dedicated GOOG-411 button
We've certainly seen some fairly interesting dedicated handset buttons before, but it's hard to argue with the functionality of a standalone GOOG-411 key. Apparently, Thomson has teamed up with Google to integrate the "first ever one-touch, auto-dial GOOG-411 button" into over a dozen of its GE-branded DECT 6.0 phones. In case you've been chilling under a stone of late, GOOG-411 is the search giant's "free, voice-activated, business directory assistance service," and it will be within reach on a slew of April-bound home phones. For more details on specific models as well as pricing information, head on down to the read link.
Google's GOOG-411 updated with link to maps
If you've been enjoying Google's (free) GOOG-411 service, but felt that it would serve your needs infinitely better if it just included some pictorial delight, you're in luck. The voice search service has undergone a recent update, and now you can simply say "map it" during your GOOG-411 call to receive a text message "with the details of your search plus a link to a map of your results." Leave it to Google to remove the need for, um, anything else in the world one application at a time.
