21 Awesome Tech Gift Ideas for Dad

If you order within the next week most of these gifts will arrive in time for Father’s Day 2011 which is on Sunday June 19th.

Verbatim Tuff N Tiny USB Flash Drive – $10 and up

The Verbatim Tuff N Tiny USB Flash Drive has become our go to drive for two reasons. It is tough and as you can guess, it is tiny. We have it attached to the our key ring and so it is always there. Because of its size we barely notice it. Because of how tough it is we don’t worry about breaking it. We tested this drive and really beat it up. Our data was safe despite dunking it in water, stomping on it, and plunging into dirt. The drives start at $22 for a 2GB model and range on up to $158 for the 32GB model. But you can find them cheaper on Amazon.

Mimobots – $22 and up

If you are looking for a thumbdrive that shows off dad’s love for comics or science fiction, then you need to check out the licensed Mimibot thumb drives. These incredibly detailed drives don’t just carry your documents, they show off your geeky side with licences from Star Wars, Marvel and more.

We’ve been using several of these drives over the past few weeks and everyone we show them to loves the fun look of the Mimobots. The drives look as good in person as they do on the Mimibot website and with a large collection of characters you have a good chance at finding dad’s favorite comic book hero. The backside of the drive is flat enough we could use it with the MacBook Air, which sits close to a table, but if you are trying to plug into the recessed ports on some desktops you may have trouble.

iPhone, Android & iPad Protection – $30 and up

Some of our favorite cases for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices come from Speck and OtterBox. These two companies offer a range of solutions for multiple Android devices and the every popular iPhone. Speck offers a collection of colorful and fun cases mainly focused on Apple products, offering all types of looks and protection.

OtterBox on the other hand is known for their incredible protection for devices including drop protection. For fathers who work in construction, like to go outdoors or are just rough with their phones, an OtterBox case is the perfect gift.

ScotteVest Travel Vests and Jackets – $25 and up

It wouldn’t be a Father’s Day gift guide without ScotteVest travel vests, jackets and shirts. We’ve been big fans of the ScotteVest gear for a while now because it allows dad to carry all of his gear from cameras to the iPad without looking like a dork. Seriously, the pockets in these devices will accommodate all types of gear for around town or heading off on an adventure.

ScotteVest is having a Father’s Day sale right now, that allows you to get jackets, hoodies and shirts at 30% off. The standard ScotteVest Travel vest isn’t on sale, but is well worth the $100 price tag.

LightScoop – $30

If Dad is a shutterbug, the Lightscoop is a great choice. This handy little DSLR accessory will snap on to his camera and bounce the flash off the ceiling or the wall for better photos. Rather than washing out the image or delivering a deer in the headlights look, the Lightscoop bounces the photos off your surroundings for better lighting.

The Lightscoop is probably a better fit for budding photographer dads, rather than a pro photographer who likely has a full lightbox and studio setup on hand.

Eye Fi – $49.99 and up

Another good Father’s Day gift is the Eye-Fi X2 SD card which connects to wireless networks and iPhone or Android devices to upload your photos to your computer and to the web without any wires.

We really like the ability to upload our photos automatically to our computer and to the Eye Fi Center which allows us to share them with family members on the iPad rather than the small screen of our camera. Dad can choose to selectively upload photos to Facebook and many other websites to automatically share. We like the control, which keeps unwanted photos from going public. Check out our Eye Fi Review.

WetCiruits 4 Outlet Water Resistant Rugged Power Strip – $70

This is not an ordinary power outlet. Sure it is a little expensive but how many power strips from WalMart will withstand pouring water into them or having Junior stick a pair of metal tweezers in one of the outlets and survive without even a shock? With the WetCircuits power strip pouring water on it while it is plugged in and in use has no effect. The water is kept out of the actual circuit. Putting a set of tweezers down into the outlet will not shock anyone. We know because we tested it. Check out the video below.

This thing is great for plugging in a number of things like a laptop, a video projector, and your cell phone while you are working at a table with people drinking coffee or while outdoors at a beach or park.

Razer Orochi Bluetooth Laser Mouse – $79.99

There might be a better mobile mouse out there, but after testing a bunch of Bluetooth mobile mice, we don’t think there is a better Bluetooth mobile mouse available. Designed primarily for gamers in mind, this mouse is also great as an everyday mouse. In fact, we use it that way with the notebooks we use most o the time. You can view our full review and video and decide for yourself. Dad will love this mouse whether he’s a gamer or not.

Cadence 4-bit Binary Watch – $90

This is less a tech gift and more a gift for a techie. If your dad is a geek he will love this binary watch. From a distance it looks like any casual analog watch. Up close you realize that instead of Latin or Roman numerals each hour is represented by a four digit binary number.

Fitbit – $99

If dad is a data geek, tracking and analyzing anything he can put into a number, he may like the fitbit. This small device clips onto his pocket or belt and tracks steps, miles walked, activity, calories burned and can even track his sleep habits. The fitbit is $99 and includes access to the fitbit website for tracking fitbit stats and can log eating habits(he’ll have to do this manually though). If he wants to go deeper into the data and gain comparisons to other people in his age group he can upgrade to the premium account for $49 a year.

We’ve been using a fitbit for the past few weeks and we really like that the fitbit can handle being worn day to day at the office, in the yard or out on a long walk without any worries of it falling off or breaking. The fitbit battery lasts a whole week and uploads data to the fitbit website whenever you get within 15 feet of the base station which is attached to your computer. The fitbit isn’t waterproof, but it can handle being washed off and reportedly can survive a drop into the toilet. Below you’ll see just a snippet of the data fitbit records.

One of our favorite uses has been to monitor our sleep habits. With the included armband dad can wear the fitbit while you sleep and it will monitor how often he wakes up and moves during the night.

Booq Bag Computer Backpack – Starting at $129.95

We think Booq makes some nice computer bags and backpacks. They have almost any style you prefer, but we like the backpack style the best. The Boa Squeeze is their least expensive backpack bag. They sell sizes that fit anything from a 13″ up to a 17″ computer. They offer great protection and will look cool doing it. Dad will be very happy with this bag or any of the other styles. Maybe he likes a something more like a messenger bag with a flap, a simple sleeve, or a briefcase style bag. They have them all. We also like the Cobra Courier which is a messenger style bag with a sleeve to protect your notebook. It comes it at $195.

Plantronics Voyager Pro UC 2 Bluetooth Headset – $199

Bluetooth headsets are for the most part poor performers when you actually start to use them, but not the Plantronics Voyager Por UC 2. This headset is the smartest Bluetooth headset we have ever used and the only one we have stuck with for more than a few weeks. It’s so good, we gave it an Editor’s Choice award at GottaBeMobile.com.

The reason we love this bluetooth headset so much is that it is smart enough to know when you want to use it and when you don’t. With a normal Bluetooth headset, audio will be sent to the headset even if it is in your bag or out in the car. The Plantronics Voyager Pro UC 2 knows when you have it on your ear and when you don’t, allowing it to route the audio to the right place. The headset will even auto answer calls when you put it on your ear. This model includes a Bluetooth adapter so that you can use it with your PC or Mac as well.

Android Phone – Various Prices

As popular as the iPhone is, we think an Android phone might be a nice way to reward dad this year. They are easy to use and have a lot of powerful features. Recommending just one is hard since not all phones are available with all carriers. So here are our recommendations for the carrier that old dad is using. These come from our sister site’s list of the top 5 phones for May 2011.

LG G2x – T-Mobile – $200

It has a fantastic 4-inch LCD display, HSPA+ 4G speeds and it has the ability to capture 1080p which is something most top of the line smartphones aren’t able to do.

HTC Droid Incredible 2 – Verizon – $80

We recently previewed the HTC Droid Incredible 2, the successor of the wildly popular Droid Incredible, and came away very impressed. The increase in display size from 3.7 to 4-inches works well and doesn’t add any additional bulk.

Its single-core 1GHz processor is quick and it comes with almost an identical form factor to the original Droid Incredible.  Add in all the other bells and whistles and you have yourself a fantastic 3G phone.

Motorola Atrix 4G – AT&T – $99

The Motorola Atrix is the flagship Android device on AT&T and like the G2x, it can be considered a superphone because of the fantastic specifications it has on board. It packs a high-resolution display, dual-core processor and a massive battery to boot.

HTC Thunderbolt – Verizon – $249

The ThunderBolt is essentially an HTC EVO with 4G LTE speeds, which as you’ll see in a second, isn’t a bad thing whatsoever. The hardware is solid, the software as well and with an upgrade to Gingerbread coming in the not-so-distant future, the ThunderBolt is worthy of this list.

Amazon Kindle eBook Reader – $114, $139, or $189

There are a number of good eBook readers available, but the best one for the simple task of reading books is still the Kindle. The iPad is the premium do-it-all device. The Nook Color wants to be. But if all you want is an eBook reader cheap, the ad-supported Kindle is the best option. It is only $114 and the ads are not that intrusive. It requires a Wi-Fi signal to shop, download books, and sync things like bookmarks, highlights or notes, but can be read anywhere.

HP dm1z Notebook Computer – $449

Not quite a netbook, the diminutive HP dm1z series of notebooks is a great choice for an ultra-portable budget notebook for the mobile dad who needs a business notebook that can handle almost any basic task you throw at it. More powerful than a little netbook, he will be more happy too. It is an 11.6″ system with a dual-core AMD Fusion processor. The AMD Radeon 6310 graphics makes this little system a lot more powerful than you would think. The 1366×768 display makes it 720p HD capable, great for watching HD videos downloaded from one of the various video buying or rental sites. For an extra $129 you can get dad an external Blu-ray drive too. HP promises 9.5 hours from the battery. If you only get the typical two-thirds of the promised battery life that it still around 6 hours. It has VGA and HDMI output for presentations or hooking up to a TV.

Apple iPad 2 – $499 – $829

This is likely one of the number one requested tech gifts this Father’s Day. It is still the standard for tablet devices despite all that people are trying to do to unseat it with Android-based devices. The huge app ecosystem and accessories market make it the number one device. It is dead simple to use and one of the most versatile computing devices ever made.

Our sister site did a very comprehensive iPad 2 review if you want to read up before taking this big a plunge. Just know that if you can afford it, dad will be extremely happy with you. We suggest a sweet spot of 32GB with 3G if you can afford it. That model is $729. Take one step back and go with the 32GB wi-fi only model for $599 if possible.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 – $1399

Not officially ready till May 24, this business class notebook is one of the nicest we’ve seen this year. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 was give the editor’s choice award by our editor, Josh Smith. He said:

The ThinkPad X1 shows a now look for Lenovo and includes a collection of features and design changes which exciting and new. Lenovo has been able to add to the ThinkPad features we love, like durability and an amazing keyboard, without compromising on why businesses choose to equip their employees with ThinkPads. The ThinkPad X1 shows that the company can adapt and bring consumer features like high-end audio and backlit keys to the traditional ThinkPad line. Lenovo may still need a bit more time to perfect the mousepad, but the ThinkPad X1 is without a doubt the best ThinkPad we have had a chance to use.

The ThinkPad X1 we looked at had a 2.5GHz 2nd generation Intel Core i5-520M processor. It also included 4GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive. The display is powered by Intel 3000 HD integrated graphics. The glossy 13.3″ screen is made with a gorilla glass wich makes it durable and particularly scratch resistant. The computer is 3.73 pounds and between .65″ and .84″ in thickness. The 6 cell battery gives you over four hours and the optional slice adds another four hours. Please read our comprehensive review for more detailed information.

Additional Reporting by Josh Smith

Father’s Day 2011: 21 Awesome Tech Gift Ideas for Dad is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

HP DataPass Hands On Video

Correction: In the video it is stated that HP is working directly with Sprint on DataPass.HP is purchasing wholesale Sprint data capacity through Peregrine, a third-party company.

The service piggybacks, for now, on Sprint’s 3G network, and HP says that it’s service is available only in the U.S. at this point, but the computer-maker is looking into expanding the service in other territories. The great thing about HP DataPass is users can either choose to use it, choose to use another carrier’s mobile broadband offerings–like those through AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint, or choose to ignore mobile broadband together if they don’t need it.

With many laptops now coming with the option for a Gobi chipset, users don’t need to choose which carrier they want their notebooks to work with. The Gobi chip allows users to choose if they want Verizon Wireless, Sprint, or AT&T service after the point of sale as it is compatible with all three carrier’s mobile broadband 3G networks.

With more laptops coming with embedded 3G modems, meaning you won’t need a MiFi or a USB dongle to connect to your carrier’s Internet, having an inexpensive, short-term option for mobile broadband access may mean that you’ll be more productive on the road on the off chance that you can’t find a free WiFi hotspot.

HP DataPass Pricing

Essentially, you can buy data by time periods–between 5 hours and 30 days–or by the bucket–between 75 MB to 1 GB–whichever expires first. The service is similar to a pre-paid cellular service. Here’s the pricing breakdown:

• $5.00: 75 MB or 5 hours of use
• $10.00: 150 MB or 3 days of use
• $20.00: 450 MB or 14 days of use
• $30.00: 1 GB or 30 days of use

In the enterprise market, the service will be great for users who may not otherwise get their manager’s approval for a $50-$80 monthly service for 2 years at a time. HP explains that in many companies, users who may not be as high up on the totem pole can still have access to mobile broadband access while traveling and would be more easily able to expense their data charges without being tied to an expensive monthly contract.

Connecting to the service is easy and seamless through HP’s connection manager. Additionally, when you run out of time or data through your purchased bucket, you can reload at any time.

HP DataPass Brings Pre-Paid Mobile Broadband to HP Notebooks (Video) is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Notebooks.com.

We also found out that the new iPad will have a faster dual core A5 processor which offers twice the performance and nine times the graphics performance without resulting in a lower battery life.

Apple iPad 2 Video:

The overall form factor of the iPad 2 will be about 33% thinner and 15% lighter than the original iPad. However, it will not have a higher resolution display despite what some rumors said. Other things that will not show up are a built-in SD card reader, USB or HDMI ports built into the device itself.

Apple did announce a couple of new accessories. One of those is an HDMI output dongle which will connect to the dock connector and allow users to mirror the display on an external monitor or projector. The connector will also have a port which will allow charging for syncing simultaneously. This will cost $39.

A new case, the Apple Smart Cover, is coming for the iPad 2 which will cover the surface of the screen and magnetically latched onto the device. Creases along the outside of the case will allow the user to literally roll the cover off the screen and position it along the long edge to hold the iPad in a low angle typing mode. It can also be folded in multiple different ways to give different angles of viewing. We nicknamed it the origami case. It will also be $39 and come in numerous colors.

Apple spent a lot of time discussing two new apps that will ship on the same day the iPad is available. The first one is iMovie which will allow users to edit movies right on their iPad. The app has previously been available for the iPhone, but the larger display of the iPad should make it more useful.

GarageBand is an audio editing application that until now has only been available on the Mac. It too is coming to the iPad and both of these will be available March 11 for about five dollars in the App Store.

Not all the news was about the iPad. Jobs and company did mention some of the new features in iOS 4.3. As expected wireless tethering is coming to the iPhone. This has been previously available for the new Verizon iPhone, but it looks like it’s coming to AT&T as well. AT&T has not stated whether they will support it or not. But to compete with Verizon we expect they will for about $20 a month.

Jobs spent a small portion of the first part of the announcement discussing the successes of the past year related to the iPad and other IOS devices. He talked about iBooks and shared the numbers of book sales, at sales, and we learned that Apple spent paid out $2 billion to developers. He also announced that Random House would be bringing thousands of new books to the iBooks Store.

While it is not yet up, we expect that video of the announcement should be available soon on the Apple Events page.

Apple Announces iPad 2 with Cameras, Faster Processor and White Version is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

For now, the laptop dock is priced at $500 retail, or about $300 when bundled together with a two-year agreement and the Atrix 4G purchase, bringing the package price to around $500 after rebates and pre-taxes.

What exactly is the laptop dock? It’s an accessory–a clamshell device with a screen, battery, keyboard, two USB expansion ports to accommodate USB drives, and speakers–that’s not unlike the appearance of a slim notebook, like the MacBook Air. The accessory has a swivel up dock at the rear for users to dock in their Atrix 4G dual-core smartphone. But this is where the similarities between the Motorola-branded accessory and a notebook/netbook ends as the laptop dock doesn’t have its own memory, RAM, CPU, drives, or OS. Rather, everything required to power and run the laptop dock in laptop mode comes from the NVIDIA Tegra 2-powered Atrix 4G. The smartphone hosts the Webtop operating system that provides power to use the smartphone OS on the larger screen and couples that with a keyboard, along with a full Firefox browser which can display full Flash content, not just the Flash 10.1 Mobile of most Android smartphones.

However, despite the low price of entry–$500 for a combined package isn’t a bad deal, but then again you can buy an entry-level netbook for $300, the price of the dock as part of the packaged deal–the costs start to add up when you add in the data plan. While users can subscribe to a $25 per month data plan (or cheaper if you’re solely on WiFi) for the Atrix 4G, the laptop dock requires users to sign up for a tethering plan, which runs $45 for the combined total between the smartphone and the tethering portion for 4 GB of data per month.

The absurdity here is the tethering catch, which is required to use with the laptop dock. When a user docks their smartphone with the laptop dock, the Android OS or Webtop OS checks with AT&T’s servers to ensure that you have the right data plan to use with the laptop dock. Since the Webtop OS and everything really required for use in the laptop dock is really housed inside the Atrix smartphone, data really is generated from the smartphone, not from the laptop, so is it really tethering?

The total cost of ownership (TCO) breakdown of the Atrix 4G laptop dock initially appeared on The Droid Guys. The site initially priced the full $45 data plan into the cost of the laptop dock, bringing the TCO to about $1400, but that figure has since been amended. Hypothetically, if you had gone ahead and signed up for the 2 GB per month $25 plan, tethering via the the Data Pro Plan is an extra $20 a month, which is what really is required for the Laptop Dock as the basic smartphone data plan is already required with the phone regardless of the dock. So calculating $20 over 24 months of your contract, the data charge specific to the laptop dock is $480 before taxes and fees are added. The cost of the laptop dock itself is another $300 when purchased as bundle, so you’re looking at a minimum of around $800 pre-taxes, or about $1,000 if the laptop dock was purchased at the full $500 price without the bundle.

While the cost here isn’t bad, the $300 price of the dock itself can land you a cheap netbook, but the $800 price point of the combined package can give you a decent notebook. True, the laptop dock does give you a seamless experience when tethering and connecting to the Internet on a larger screen and keyboard, how much is that mobility and ubiquitous connectivity worth to you?

With rooting and jailbreaking these days, which has been legalized under the revised Digital Millennium Copyright Act, users can hack their devices to uncover features and functionalities of their smartphones legally that were hidden by the manufacturer and carrier. With rooting on Android, users have found ways to tether for free by either running a third-party tethering program or uncovering the native tethering functionality of Android that came with Android 2.2 Froyo but was hidden, as is the case of the Atrix 4G, by the carrier–or AT&T. By uncovering the tethering, users can invest their $800 into a more capable notebook–an entry level MacBook Air starts at $1,000, and if you didn’t purchase the laptop dock as a package with a service contract with the Atrix 4G, you’re looking at $500 for the dock, plus $480–or roughly $1,000 right there. If you like the seamless way that the Atrix 4G interacts with the laptop dock, the cost to participate is between $800-$1,000. If you’re sensible about your computing needs and can afford some time and invest energy into rooting, I’d highly suggest going the latter route and getting a descent notebook and tethering it that way.

The True Cost of the Motorola Atrix 4G Laptop Dock: $800, Phone Not Included is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Notebooks.com.

There is no official word yet from AT&T regarding this feature, which allows users to connect up to five other devices to the Internet using the built-in Wi-Fi of an iPhone connected to the Internet via a 3G network. The feature was added by Apple when Verizon’s version of the iPhone 4 was released.

The person who claims this took place was running the developer version of iOS 4.3. The person reported being allowed to upgrade to the new feature “… after I mentioned Verizon a few times.”

With a Verizon contract the new feature will add $20/month to a person’s wireless contract. We assume AT&T will likely charge a similar fee. Until they do, users can always gain the feature by jailbreaking their iPhone and installing an app called MyWi 4. When we asked a local store rep about whether AT&T would add this new feature any time soon, he said, “It’s been available since 2008.” When we questioned what he meant by that he then quietly said, “But you have to jailbreak it.”

Before taking the jailbreaking step, read our guide on the subject.

AT&T Turned On Hotspot Tethering for iPhone Developer is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

LTE has been selected as a standard by AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the U.S. Sprint, an early 4G adopter, had rolled out WiMax and launched the HTC EVO 4G as the first 4G Android smartphone in the U.S., which can connect to the carrier’s 3G CDMA EV-DO network and 4G WiMax where available. In addition to the HTC EVO 4G and USB dongles, Sprint also launched the Sprint Overdrive, a portable mobile hotspot router that will allow up to 5 devices to connect to and share the mobile broadband connection via WiFi. The carrier is will also launch an improved MiFi unit that supports 4G WiMax.

The decision to consider LTE as a 4G protocol came out of a round table discussion from Sprint’s Bob Azzi along with its hardware partners. According to the carrier, it will continue to study customer adoption rate of WiMax in the next four to six months before it decides on LTE.

That decision is part of Sprint’s overhaul plan to install new multi-mode towers to reduce network costs. The carrier is also in the phase of winding down its Nextel iDEN operations, which would give it more bandwidth and spectrum should it decide to roll out a WiMax and LTE network.

Depending on how manufacturers make phones and the spectrums and frequencies that devices support, if Sprint adopts LTE, a multi-band LTE smartphone may be able to roam on rival networks if Sprint inks an agreement with AT&T and Verizon, which would help improve coverage at this early phase of 4G deployment. With WiMax, Sprint is the lone major cellular company that’s invested in that protocol, reducing the ability to roam.

For laptop use, I’ve experienced faster speeds on Verizon’s nascent LTE network, averaging download speeds between 5 and 20 Mbps on average and upload speeds between 2 and 10 Mbps–Verizon only promises 5-10 Mbps on the download side and 2-5 Mbps on the upload. In the Bay Area where Sprint recently launched 4G WiMax, both download and upload speeds were considerably slower than the 3-6 Mbps and 1-3 Mbps that Sprint had quoted respectively, though the speeds where much faster when Sprint had initially announced the HTC EVO 4G in Las Vegas, NV at CTIA.

Via: Fierce Wireless

Sprint Still Considering LTE as Mobile Broadband Standard for Use is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Notebooks.com.

All this usage and popularity has hit carriers hard in terms of delivering a stellar experience for every customer leading to limited “unlimited” plans and data throttling from almost every carrier including Verizon and T-Mobile.

Most recently Virgin Mobile, one of our favorite prepaid mobile broadband providers, raised the price of the Broadband2Go Unlimited plan $10 and announced that accounts that go over 2.5GB will be throttled to 256kbps or lower after the barrier is broken.

Virgin Mobile advertises the plan as, “Unlimited Data, 3G speeds up to 2.5GB” which is at least more forthcoming than at Verizon and T-Mobile, but by not explaining in the usage area it’s unlikely that average users will understand when they will hit this limit, or what it means for their data usage.

Current $40 a month unlimited plan subscribers can keep their $40 5GB unlimited plan so long as they don’t let their service lapse, but the ability to use your data plan when you want to and turn it off when you don’t is, was, one of the biggest advantages of the Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go plans.

Even if the changes only impact the top 5% of users, or whatever stat the carrier decides to state at that time, why not be up front with your users and offer tiered plans or unlimited plans — not limited unlimited plans.

While we don’t go looking for government involvement, it is truly surprising that the FCC hasn’t stepped in to tell carriers to clean up their act and offer customers an easy to understand mobile broadband plan. At this point we’d be excited to see some uniformity in data pricing and throttling transparency.

Five Steps to Saner Data Plans:

1. Don’t ever call a plan unlimited if there are limits to data use or speed.
2. If there are speed reductions after a specific amount of data spell out what that speed is.
3. Tell users how that speed compares to the 3G speed they are used to.
4. Provide a warning to users as they approach the start of throttling
5. If you can’t follow these rules, just offer a tiered plan so that users know what they are getting.

We don’t expect this to happen overnight, but as the CEOs of the biggest carriers gather in Spain this week we urge them to consider rolling out data plans that make sense and to restore some meaning to the word unlimited.

It’d be great if we didn’t have to ask Tim McGraw to change the lyrics of Back When to, ”Back when a hoe was a hoe; Coke was a coke and Unlimited meant unlimited!”

Image via Kevin Copps

Stop the “Unlimited” Data Insanity – 5 Steps to Saner Data Plans is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

If you are an AT&T customer, as a reward for not jumping ship to Verizon for an iPhone 4, you can get 1,000 free rollover minutes credited to your account just by sending a text message.

Our friends at sister site Gottabemobile shared this earlier. The offer has been sent out to customers via text this week. It is similar to an offer we received regarding a free MicroCell last week.

To reward loyal customers AT&T is giving away these offers hoping to keep us from jumping over to the competition. If you plan to stay here is how you too can take advantage of the offer of free rollover minutes.

Getting the offer is as simple as sending a text message to 11113020 by March 31, 2011. The content of the message should simply be the word YES.

Rollover minutes are those leftover minutes that went unused and are forwarded to your next month’s tally. for example if your family has 700 minutes to use on its plan and you only 400, you can rollover the balance – 300 minutes – to the next month. That way if you get chatty and use 900 minutes you can tap into that 300 minute reserve instead of paying for over-the-limit minutes which can be costly.

How To Get 1000 Free Rollover Minutes from AT&T via Text is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

For laptops and data devices, such as the company’s newly released MiFi 2372, it looks like AT&T may be slashing its monthly data prices according to a leaked internal document that was posted on Engadget. The maximum plan for 5 GB of data–on notebooks and netbooks as well as on the MiFi and other USB modems–AT&T will be cutting $10 from the plan, bringing the 5 GB monthly subscription to $50 per month. Overages will be $10 per GB.

Additionally, for the MiFi, AT&T is adding a 3 GB tier priced at $35 per month, which increases the data allotment from a paltry 200 MB from before for the same price. The new 3 GB for $35 will also have $10 per GB overage.

For smartphone users who are looking at tethering, the company will be increasing the metered data to 4 GB for a total of $45 per month. The 4 GB of data will be shared in the same bucket as data consumed via tethering as well as data consumed natively on a user’s smartphone.

AT&T Slashes Price on Data Pricing for Laptops is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Notebooks.com.

Previously AT&T charged customers for the MicroCell, a move that many found absurd since the device does one thing – fixes the reception that AT&T should already be providing with the price of their cell service.

AT&T will furnish you with a MicroCell at no charge for as long as you are an AT&T customer. … so please present this letter at your local AT&T store before 2/28.11 or order to receive your FREE 3G MicroCell.

We find the timing to be very interesting since Verizon’s iPhone is coming and our family has four iPhone’s. We have no plans to switch, so long as AT&T brings Wi-Fi tethering to their iPhone plan options. But it will be a great opportunity to finally get a good signal in our basement. We would never even consider it if we had to pay even a dime for it otherwise.

AT&T Can Hear Verizon, Offers MicroCells to Customers is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.