Verizon has been vocal more than any other U.S. carrier at this year’s CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas. Aside from announcing a slew of devices, they inform us their VZ Navigator service is about to get an upgrade. Version 4 of Verizon’s navigation service will give customers from 75 U.S. cities ability to access traffic incidents, traffic updates and find detours around traffic congestion and accidents. In addition, VZ Navigator will offer 3D perspective view, a movie and events finder, weather reports and forecasts, and gas prices at nearby gas stations.
In the other news, they’ve added 8 new channels to their V CAST Video service:
- Funny or Die – features regularly updated video clips from all genres of comedy – sketch, stand-up, animation, real-life, politics, and more.
- MTV’s GameTrailers – the “premier destination for customers looking for video game entertainment and information, offering customers game trailers, reviews, interviews and event news, as well as Go Gaming, an original series dedicated entirely to the coverage of mobile games.”
- The N channel — again by MTV — features clips from hot teen shows, including Degrassi, South of Nowhere, Instant Star, and more.
- CondéNet channel – CondéNet’s award-winning videos, including the latest from Style.com, Epicurious.com, Men.Style.com, Concierge.com, and Wired.com.
- Univision Móvil video channel – provides Spanish-speaking customers with extensive video clips from a variety of categories, such as entertainment, news and sports. Included in the package are such Univision shows as Escándalo TV, Noticiero Univision and República Deportiva.
- Bollywood Music by Saavn video channel – the best of current and classic Bollywood, including full-length music videos and exclusive pre-release video promos.
- Election 08 channel – highlights of campaign coverage, media interviews, and the inevitable resulting comedy, commentary and skits. The channel’s news and entertainment providers include such names as ABC, CNN, Comedy Central, Jib Jab, MTV, NBC, iVillage, PBS, etc.
- My Local TV News – access to more than 1,000 local news and sports videos from television stations across the United States. More than 80 TV stations are providing the content.
- “TMZ” channel – features clips from the hottest segments on “TMZ,” 24 hours after their daily broadcast in the television program.
In addition, Verizon also announced the new PBX Mobile Extension offering, which uses the latest version of the Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite to deliver an “advanced, enterprise-grade unified communications system” and enable large-business and government customers to avoid the “complexity and cost inherent in purchasing and deploying separate hardware required with the prior offering.”
There you have it – maybe it’s time to finally jump into V CAST — that’s in case you’re already using Verizon Wireless’ services or at least plan to. In the meantime, you may want to read Lowell McAdam’s (Verizon Wireless’s President and CEO) CTIA keynote who said that the potential of 4G technology will take the industry to new heights, generating growth and creating a future where consumers will routinely manage their home appliances wirelessly and remotely, or move content wirelessly across desktops, TVs and cellphones as networks converge. Here’s the link to the full release.