'The Daily Show' celebrates 'VZ Day' as Verizon iPhone Day

We were expecting a skewering of AT&T's iPhone by "The Daily Show," after TDS correspondent John Oliver shouted, "F*ck yeah! Thank you! Oh, thank God! Thank you!" just prior to the event on Tuesday. We got what we expected, on Tuesday night's TDS.

Stewart made the event one of the show's top stories, opening the segment with the following:

"For the past three or four years, those of us in the iPhone community have sacrificed one thing for the ability to carry around every photograph we’ve ever taken, or song we’ve ever listened to, or home video, or compass. We have sacrificed the ability to make phone calls. For years, struggling with the world's most popular, almost phone. Well, our long national nightmare may soon be over."

At this point they cut to a clip of Verizon's CEO Lowell McAdam announcing the new Verizon iPhone on its network. They then cut back to Stewart, shouting:

"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom, actually to switch providers."

Stewart then showed how he was forced to carry a second phone to make calls (a pink toy phone one which his four-year-old daughter wants back), and his expensive $400 method he uses to send text messages on the iPhone: typing it into his iPhone and having a messenger take the phone to, say, Stephen Colbert.

Stewart then turned to John Oliver for his video report. The transmission was poor because Oliver was using his AT&T iPhone to make a video call (realistically, FaceTime only works on wi-fi, so it really shouldn't matter). At any rate, we see a "Call failed" image come up mid-call, as Oliver loses the connection; he later calls back and said he thinks he must have "looked at a tunnel."
We then saw Oliver's report on the iPhone, which opened to the statement "America had suffered far too long," and continues with Oliver showing clips of existing AT&T iPhone users complaining about good service in one part of their house and no signal in others, calls that "drop all the time," and the tyranny of the AT&*T regime, where "the service is horrible." Quite a few of the comments were bleeped out, and quite a few gestures were blurred out (as you might imagine).

"It feel like we're a technology hostage," one woman said, while a man added, "it's like being a slave." Oliver then described the Verizon announcement as "a moment of liberation," showing the moment we had previously described at the event, and staging events with people shouting "Down with tyranny" as they pulled down signs with AT&T logos and stomped on them.

The segment concluded with Oliver saying "1/11/11, a date that will forever be known as VZ day," with the image of a returning sailor kissing his girl in Times Square, as he glanced at his iPhone (much as that famous picture that was taken at the end of World War II on V-J Day).

Watch the segment below.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Verizon iPhone Announcement
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Verizon iPhone 4 announced; should users buy now or wait for the summer's iPhone 5?

John Oliver, representing "The Daily Show" at the Verizon iPhone event, expressed the feelings of many U.S. consumers just prior to the event. He said, or rather shouted, "F*ck yeah! Thank you! Oh, thank God! Thank you!"

Indeed, as expected, Verizon announced that the iPhone was coming to the Verizon network. Also as expected, it's the iPhone 4. And, finally, also as expected, there was no sign of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Instead, Apple COO Tim Cook was in attendance.

Since it's the iPhone 4, in terms of the hardware, the only difference is the CDMA chipset, as opposed to the GSM chipset in the AT&T version. Although this event was about the Verizon iPhone, it should be noted that other CDMA networks exist globally so it's likely they will be supported as well, since it is a non-exclusive deal, they said.

In terms of the voice / data call issue with CDMA (CDMA does not support both voice and data at the same time), there have been no changes to allow that with the iPhone 4. There is a modification to the CDMA spec, SVDO, that allows simultaneous voice and data, but it hasn't been adopted by any carrier yet, and it appears the Verizon iPhone won't be the first, either.

Pricing is the same as on AT&T's network: $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, but Verizon will include its mobile hotspot service, which will support up to 5 devices. Pre-orders begin Feb. 3 for existing Verizon only, with devices in retail on Feb. 10, and online orders opening up for all.

Potential Verizon iPhone buyers may need to think a little, before jumping on the bandwagon. As we've pointed out before, a new version of the iPhone, most likely including a CDMA version, will appear in the summer. Should buyers hop onto this phone now, they will then be unable to upgrade to the iPhone 5 (or whatever it's called).

Also, a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 will be significantly slower than the iPhone 4 on AT&T, as several have already noted with real-life testing. That said, in areas of the country where congestion on AT&T's network don't allow full-speed, it is assumed that Verizon's network will be more capable of handling the load, and being able to connect, and not drop calls, is an attraction.

No ability to use voice / data simultaneously may surprise people, but as Tim Cook said during the press conference, people will adjust.

On the plus side, the 5-device mobile hotspot is huge. There was no pricing information given, but other devices on Verizon's network require an extra fee for hotspot use, so the iPhone will almost certainly have it as well.

Finally, users will be able to have an unlimited data plan on the iPhone 4 on Verizon. That's not possible on AT&T, at least unless a user was "grandfathered in."

Will you move from AT&T for the Verizon iPhone? Will you upgrade your Verizon phone to an iPhone 4? Comment below.