So if you haven’t heard, AT&T and Verizon are going against each other is some pretty harsh commercials. Verizon has the “There’s a Map for That,”  campaign and AT&T has the “Fastest 3G,” campaign.

I will be comparing the two based on personal experiences and I am going to split it into 5 categories; Customer Service, Cell Phone Service (Reception), Products, and Exclusive Features, and Overall Quality of the Reception. I will be posting a the categories one at a time. So stay tuned to see who is the winner.

First let me give you a little background of my history with the companies.

I have been an AT&T user before it was even AT&T. It used to be Cingular. But then AT&T got a hold of the company and things were running smooth. I had the hottest phone of the time, the good old Motorola RAZR V3. I could in no way complain about the service. I didn’t get much at my house, but I figured it was because I lived out in the country, so it really didn’t bother me.

Verizon on the other hand, I haven’t dealt with that much. I did use one of the internet cards for a while, and overall I could not complain. The service was responsive, and I got pretty good signal wherever I went with it. I just recently got the Motorola Droid from Verizon and it is a 3G phone.

For the longest time I thought these commercials were a joke. I loved AT&T because it had the iPhone. So when Verizon started attacking the iPhone, I was kinda upset, I did not enjoy the fact that companies were fighting with commercials. And when you cut down one of the things that I love (iPhone) then  you better be ready for a comeback statement from the opposing company. Sure enough AT&T started up their campaign and then Apple followed with their campaign.

Customer Service:

I always had AT&T’s back in these campaigns, but that all changed a few days ago. I remember a while back when I got my iPhone 3GS, it would not activate. So I went to AT&T, and sat there for over 6 hours. The customer service was horrible. They finally sent me over to Apple and made Apple take care of it. I also had many problems with AT&T on the phone. Their phone service was disrespectful and unknowing of what I needed help with. So that lowers my respect even more.

Verizon on the other hand I have not had a problem with their service. The people at the store were very informative and knew just what I was asking. Their phone service was the same way. They took good care of me as their customer. I really enjoyed the fact that they took a little extra time to make sure everything was understood on my part.

So for this round I am giving it to Verizon.

Verizon: 1               AT&T: 0

TechCrunch reports that Google has begun testing a new Android device with their employees. The new device is said not to be just another Android-based phone, but the official Google Phone that has been rumored for some time. From TechCrunch:

Google is building their own branded phone that they’ll sell directly and through retailers. They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba).

There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.

This new phone is said to be a no-compromises version of an Android phone and has been reported to include these details/features:

- Sold as an unlocked GSM phone, so in the U.S. T-Mobile and possibly AT&T
- Android 2.1
- Uses Snapdragon chip and is “really, really fast”
- High resolution OLED screen
- Thinner than iPhone
- Two mics, one on the back to reduce background noise
- “Weirdly” large camera
- Touchscreen keyboard
- Voice to text for dictation

The Google Phone is said to be due for release in January 2010. The Snapdragon chip appears to be based on the same generation of ARM processor as the iPhone 3GS, though could be running at a higher clock speed. Apple, of course, is rumored to be working on their next generation iPhone, though it is not expected for release until mid-year.

A great thing about dialing “411″ on your cell phone is that you can get information, phone numbers, addresses of the businesses that you are looking for. For example, Best Buy. However, the major down side to using “411″ is that most cell phone networks charge for this feature.

Google has created a free “411″ service for all types of phones called, “GOOG411″. To use GOOG411, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone, state the location and business type, GOOG411 automatically searches Google, connect to the business and that’s it! It’s all for free too!