Verizon changes its mind and will kill the Note 7 after all

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is once again in your news feed. The lone holdout among U.S. carriers who have decided to disable the phone — Verizon — has changed its mind and will be killing the Note 7 come January 5, 2017.

When AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile announced the path to the end for the Note 7, Verizon didn't go along with it and instead insisted that holiday travelers would need to be able to use their Note 7 to make calls.

Today, the company released the following announcement on its web site:

Samsung will be releasing a Note 7 software update on December 19. This update prevents the device from charging and eliminates the ability for it to work as a mobile device. Verizon will not be pushing this software update to your device until January 5, 2017. We want to make sure you can contact family, first responders, and emergency medical professionals during the holiday travel season. However, we urge you to stop using your Note7, upgrade it to another device, and return the Note7 to us.

This lines up with everything else we've heard about Samsung trying to put the remaining Note 7 phones to sleep. You'll still be able to make those holiday travel phone calls with your Note 7 on Verizon, but you'd probably be better off just getting your money back while you still can.