The newest episode of the podcast was recorded last night and is available via the iTunes Store. In this episode, Robbie and I discuss Verizon and Cingular’s new unlimited messaging plans along with other news. Also, I give a brief review of Ubercaster, a Mac-only podcasting suite that we may use to produce a future podcast.

Robbie here, I’m a huge sports fan, and will be putting up a blog soon for Sports with Podcasts and all, but for right now, I use thi as my forum to speak of sports. Now I’m not going to gush about last night’s Sox Yankees game where the Red Sox scored five runs off the greatest closer of all time in the eighth to win the game. But instead I want to highlight something that a professional athlete does that is a good thing.

but what about the good things. You always hear about stars doing charitable work and what not, but that never really effects me, so I never pay attention to it. But today at 6am a Pro Athlete, that wasn’t a wrestler for once, did something that actually effected me. Gilbert Arenas aka Agent Zero aka Hibatchi, set up something on his website that both helped out the common fan, and helped benefit charity. I got up around 5:45am to get on to his site GilsArena.com and logged in. He had something to reward his fans that got on there early that the first 2000 for a 25 dollar donation to his charity you would get an authentic jersey signed by him, and one of his shoes from adidas shoes also signed.

He also understood that people are just going to take some of these and sell them. So there was a second option that may even still be online. That for 150 you got the same package, except the jersey isn’t personalized, so it can be resold. But I was so happy about this overall, and probably would ramble about it on the podcast, so I figured I would just organize my thoughts and share them on here, and maybe covert a few people over to be fans of Gilbert Arenas.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to meantion that he sponsors the Halo Team Final Boss that will be at the championships at the Meadowlands from June 8-10. He also talks about how his rehab time right now since he can’t work out consists of playing lots and lots of XBox 360, and on his current blog he gives his end of the NBA awards, which include the catagory of “Best Video Gamer” by different games such as Madden, NBA Live and Halo. Although I really have to wonder how he can play NBA Live instead of NBA 2K7. See I figured a way to even turn this post around to being video game related!

Today, Cingular released the long-awaited(especially by me) unlimited messaging plan. That means you can text, picture, video and instant message all you want. I just called my friend Rob at the Wallingford Cingular Store and had my plan upgraded to it. Now I am, finally, free of counting my text messages on a daily basis to avoid the per-message charge of 100 bucks a text or whatever they are charging now. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have sign up for every text messge alert service that I can find.

I just got a demo phone in to my store today of one that you will probably see a lot of in the next few months. We got in the new Moto Razr Maxx Ve. The phone is close to the form of the RAZR but it has the nice rubberized feel of a black Q or a V325.

The Camera is where this phone shines. It’s a 2.0 Meg camera, but it has an auto focus that actually works. You hit the focus button and it blinks for a few and then takes the pic, and unlike most camera phone pics, it looks decent.

The only other good new feature is it has a very large external LCD. It’s a very clear 1.7 inch LCD screen that is a lot better than anything else you see on any other phone out right now.

The other features are A2DP to support stereo Bluetooth for the MP3 Player. The rest is just the standard stuff you get from a VCast phone with VZ Navigator support, VCast Video (Not VCast TV, if you even have that in your area), and touch music controls on the front of the phone.

I haven’t been able to get it activated as a store demo till it is officially released, so can’t give details on battery life yet, or call quality, but it seems just for the feel of it it’s a good quality sturdy phone. If you are thinking of this as a possible phone and have any questions give me an email at T4Show@gmail.com.

The current episode of the T4 Show Podcast is avaiable for download via the iTunes Store. In this episode, Robbie and I discuss everything from the new unlimited messaging plans from Verizon and Cingular to Robbie’s world-famous impression of Don Imus. If you suffer from ADD, this should be a especially enjoyable show.

at&t is trying to “raise the bar” so to speak, with their new unlimited messaging packages. Starting April 20th, they will introduce these new packages “as well as increase the messaging buckets on some of the Consumer Data Packages/Bundles.” They also began taking shots at the other carriers by comparing their new service offerings to Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, yet T-Mobile’s unlimited messaging plan is cheaper than theirs.

Here are some key selling points from this document:

Cingular is now offering UNLIMITED MESSAGING in two new packages – so customers can send/receive as many Text, Picture, Video & Instant Messages as they want with anyone in the U.S without worrying about overage charges!
Customers can enjoy up to 50% more text, picture and video messages at the same great price on several plans!
Simplified billing on MEdia Max Unlimited and Messaging Unlimited plans
More competitive in the marketplace—better customer value allows sales reps to overcome customer objections.
Increase demand for Messaging Packages & MEdia Bundles, thus increasing the opportunity to sell data features!
Their new plans start at $4.99, and reach $39.99 for the all you can eat bundle which includes unlimited messages like SMS, MMS, IM, MEdia Net, Cingular Video, and even unlimited M2M.

I, personally, cannot wait for these plans to take effect. I am always counting my texts every month because I text with friends and family so much. I visited the Cingular store here in Wallingford, however, and my friend who works there said he knows nothing about the plan change. Well, I hope the above photo is not a hoax.