Tim Conneally

Today, Cisco announced that it has completed its acquisition of Starent Networks, a name that has been popping up in greater frequency as wireless networks evolve into their next generation.

Starent deals in core multimedia technology used in all types of mobile radio networks, and has made a strong showing in emerging technologies. Just this year, the company became a partner in Verizon's LTE deployment, it has worked with 3GPP on new Femtocell standards, and launched a

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Early in December, the Federal Communications Commission sent an inquiry to network provider Verizon, asking why the company doubled its Early Termination Fees in November and whether customers were properly notified and informed. Additionally, the Commission addressed the controversial $1.99 mobile Web connection fee, some claim is a dishonest method of obtaining service charges from customers for their accidental keystrokes.

Verizon's response was originally due at the end of today's business day, but the carrier asked for more time. Today, the FCC granted Verizon three more days to finish its response, and on Monday we will find out the answers to some rather blunt questions from the FCC.

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This morning in the Android Developer's Blog, Google Engineer Raphaël Moll announced the Android device dashboard, a statistical tool which lets developers know which Android versions are most commonly used.

Today's dashboard's data is accurate up to three days ago, and provides insight into the mix of Android devices out in the wild.

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Research in Motion said this morning that North American customers could be experiencing delays receiving e-mail on their BlackBerry devices today. Betanews has seen the outage first-hand: E-mails have not been reflected to one of our BlackBerry devices since approximately 8:20 pm ET yesterday.

Though the specifics of the outage have not been detailed yet, the problem is isolated to RIM's BIS push e-mail services; and voice calls, Web browsing, and text messaging are not affected, the company has said.

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Now that the theatrical release of James Cameron's Avatar is only hours away, the Blu-Ray Disc Association has announced the final release of the Blu-ray 3D specification.

During Panasonic's keynote at CES 2009, Cameron spoke about the production of Avatar and his collaboration with Panasonic on the acceleration of 3D Blu-ray technology. The film, which debuts nationwide at 12:01 am tonight, was filmed with new stereoscopic cameras that were still in development as filming took place. Panasonic, as well as other Blu-ray Disc Association member companies, devoted floorspace at CES to showing off the possibilities of 3D in the home.

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With all the recent attention given to Google's Chrome OS, it is only natural that interest in other cloud-based environments should be higher than usual. However, interest in Webtop operating systems still remains relatively low.

Earlier this year, Ray Valdes of Gartner Research said, "From a long-term perspective, I don't see any change to current market trends, which are that Webtop ventures are not gaining market traction."

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Microsoft's six-month old search engine Bing has been performing admirably, says market research firm comScore, and it grew to a 10.3% share of the search market in November.

During the month of November, core US search volume grew by 17.8%, but only Google's and Microsoft's sites increased in share. Yahoo, Ask, and AOL, on the other hand, all declined.

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For the better part of three years, author Dan Lyons has run a popular blog under the nom de guerre "Fake Steve Jobs." It began as a satire of Apple culture and was written from the perspective of the Apple CEO, but its tone changed significantly when the real Jobs took ill. Since Jobs' return to work at Apple, "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs," has become more of a straight up tech comedy blog.

In response to AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega's dialogue about encouraging customers to consume less data on their mobile devices, Lyons crafted a satirical post about an "internal Apple e-mail" which encouraged iPhone users to consume even more data in a December 18 protest called "Operation Chokehold."

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Because Apple forcefully pushes the quantity of apps in the iTunes App Store as a mark of superiority, other mobile application stores are tallied whether or not they want to be.

Unofficial Android Market Web portal AndroLib recently announced that Google's Android Market has hit the 20,000 app milestone, putting it a distant second behind Apple's App Store, but growing fast.

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Our appetite for mobile broadband is huge, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recently warned of a "looming spectrum crisis" where we cannot accommodate our traffic if we don't significantly expand our commercial wireless footprint. As we saw with the 700 MHz and AWS blocks, the process of assessing, vacating, licensing, and repopulating wireless frequencies takes many years.

This morning, the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet gathered for a hearing about HR 3019 and HR 3125, two bills that aim to speed up the inventory and re-allocation of spectrum so we can be ready to accommodate the explosive growth of consumer mobile broadband.

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In-car Wi-Fi isn't a completely terrible idea; and having a reliable connection to the Internet could significantly change car travel for everyone involved. A DIY car stereo, for example, could be equipped with free services like Pandora, Shoutcast, and Mediafly for the driver, or headrest-mounted monitors could stream Netflix for the passengers. These sorts of things could be handy on any length trip, and there are forums all over the place for enthusiasts looking to build systems which could benefit from a broadband connection.

Today, General Motors announced it has begun offering "Chevrolet Wi-Fi" in seven of its current generation Chevrolet vehicles: Equinox,Traverse, Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Avalanche, and Express. The service is provided by Autonet Mobile, which provides connectivity to select Chrysler, Dodge and Volkswagen automobiles as well.

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Speed is everything.

In its path to faster 4G wireless connectivity, Sweden-based telephone company TeliaSonera has shifted its network rollouts into high gear. In just over six months, it turned a single LTE cell site into a full deployment in Stockholm, Sweden; and it has taken its 4G network in Oslo, Norway from idea to reality in just eleven months.

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After Sony debuted the slimmer, cheaper PlayStation 3 in September, the formerly "too expensive" home video game console enjoyed an explosion in sales. At the $299 price point, it quickly went from the slowest-selling console to the fastest. NPD Group statistics are now showing that sales cooled off slightly in November, and PlayStation 3 receded to second place (710,400 units) behind Microsoft's Xbox 360 (819,500 units).

Though sales may have relaxed after the initial surge, market research company iSuppli says the 120 GB PlayStation 3 slim has brought Sony closer to the "breakeven point." Each unit sold still loses money for Sony, but because of the revised bill of materials in the new design, Sony is losing less, and that's something.

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In October, Finnish mobile phone leader Nokia sued Apple, claiming that the iPhone infringed on ten of Nokia's wireless technology patents, and that Apple refused to agree to appropriate licensing terms for Nokia's intellectual property.

"Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of [our] innovation," Ilkka Rahnasto, Nokia's Vice President of Legal & Intellectual Property said at the time.

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Mobile browsers have come a long way in a relatively short time. In a way, webOS, iPhone OS, and Android users have been kind of spoiled by the fast and easy-to-use browsers installed on their devices by default. For these sorts of users -- the ones who pull out their mobile phones to run a search every time someone has an unanswered question -- it's easy to forget that much of the mobile world would rather avoid opening its default mobile browser at all.

Opera may be the most prominent third-party solution to poor mobile browsing experience, but free browsers such as Bolt and Skyfire are quickly making a name as well. They too seek to improve the mobile Web experience for everyone, even those on resource-constrained devices with less-than-lovable browsers built in.

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