I received my phone!

Just a quick note that I received my Samsung A920 cell phone from Sprint on Thursday. I had a chance on Friday and Saturday to play around with it. I'll report more in another day or two.

Sprint Ambassador invitation

This afternoon I received an e-mail from Sprint inviting me to participate in a 6-month test of their Sprint Power Vision Network. The reason I was chosen, according to the message, is because of my blog! Now how cool is that? Here's most of the text of the e-mail:

The Sprint Ambassador Team recently visited http://sscornelius.blogspot.com and wants to invite you to participate in our Ambassador Program.

The Sprint Ambassador Program is all about exploring our latest products and services and allows you to give direct feedback to Sprint. We recently launched the Sprint Power Vision (SM) Network and want to provide you with the full experience, at no charge. Sprint Power Vision Network enables customers to download data at faster speeds and experience new data products.

So what's the deal? As a qualified participant, we will send you one Sprint Power Vision phone and provide you with six months of all-access service (at no charge). You'll have access to the Sprint Music Store(SM) live TV broadcasts, gaming and more. Yes, you will also have unlimited free calling and data service. It's a pretty good deal and all we ask for in return is your candid feedback (you decide how much and how often).

Register at: http://ambassador.sprint.com/

A quick search reveals that many other bloggers have received this same offer.

Sprint states they want -- but will not require -- my feedback on the service. Although it is not mentioned in the invitation, I'm sure Sprint is hoping those who participate will speak kindly about their service experience in their weblogs. This is actually pretty smart of Sprint -- empowering bloggers with a free offer in hopes of generating a positive blogospheric buzz.

I went on the site to check the terms and conditions. My invitation does not guarantee participation in the program. I will be put into "queue for consideration." If accepted, the free trial period is good for six months and does not go past September 30, 2006. After six months, I keep the phone without any charge. If I wish to continue the service, I have to pay a $36 activation fee and then enter into one of their 1- or 2-year service contracts.

I'm tempted to do this. I currently have a Verizon family plan, but it's hard to pass up a free offer, especially for a geeky-sounding service such as this. The free phone is a Samsung A920 phone.

Assuming I'm accepted, I'll report back on my experience.

Update: I received an e-mail Thursday afternoon saying that I have been accepted and will receive my Samsung A920 phone in 2-4 weeks. Yay!

Windows Live Expo released

The public beta of Windows Live Expo has been released. This is Microsoft's answer to eBay and Craigslist. You can post items to sell or to buy and share the listings with everyone, your "buddies" or with people at work or in an organization. You can do the latter by restricting viewers from within selected domain names.

I'm testing it right now by listing some Robert Ludlum books that I want to sell. I restricted my listing to fellow employees.