T-Mobile Introduces White BlackBerry Pearl
T-Mobile will be introducing a white version of the BlackBerry Pearl, while at the same time bringing the price down to $149 with a two-year contract. The Pearl has quickly become the carrier's top-selling smartphone.
The phone will be available exclusively through T-Mobile, as was the original version of the phone when it was released last September. It is widely credited with catapulting Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry devices, into the consumer segment.
Xbox 360 To Launch in China
Microsoft is preparing to launch its next-generation console in China in the next few months, according to industry sources. As part of the process, the company is currently working with the Chinese government to gain approval and will be prepping sales channels shortly.
Preparations have been ongoing since late last year, according to Reuters. The biggest roadblock to the availability of the Xbox 360 within the country would be the government itself. Video games are reviewed by the government before being approved for sale in China.
New ITU Chief Supports ICANN
Any possibility of the Internet being turned over to a UN-controlled authority lost serious momentum on Friday. The newly appointed head of the International Telecommunications Union believes things are fine the way they are.
At a news conference, Hamadoun Toure said that better cooperation was best and setting up a new system would be difficult to implement and very controversial. The ITU will focus on cyber security and closing the "digital divide" between countries, he said.
Now That The Novelty's Worn Off...
It has been a few days since Steve Jobs took the lid off the iPhone. Now that Apple's stock price has come back to earth, and the millions of the Mac faithful have had their chance to drool over the highly anticipated device, is it really that great?
PERSPECTIVE Everyone saw it coming. Following the disaster of the Motorola iTunes phone, it was all but a certainty that Apple would come back and prove that it could indeed produce a phone with the beauty of the iPod.
Napster to Power AOL Music Subscription Service
AOL said Friday that it will be dropping Music Now in favor of Napster, which will power the company's subscription music service. The two companies said they will work together to migrate AOL Music Now's 350,000 subscribers.
The Dulles, Va. Based ISP is now alerting customers that they will be migrating their accounts unless they opt out. Libraries and track credits will automatically be transferred, and AOL Music Now users will be able to retain their old username and password.
eBay Snags StubHub for $310 Million
eBay said Thursday that it had purchased online ticket reseller StubHub in a deal valued at $310 million. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the first quarter of this year.
The auction site already has a fairly active ticket trade through its standard auctions, however the success of StubHub in recent months has made the site into one of eBay's biggest competitors. It grossed about $400 million in sales in 2006.
Skype Throws Cold Water on Cell Version
Don't expect a version of Skype for cellular phones anytime soon. A company executive told Reuters Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that data plans are still too costly to make such a version viable.
While it may seem to many like a cop-out, especially considering it has already teamed with British cellular provider 3 to offer a mobile version of its software. However, that company offers a flat rate for data access, something no other carrier is doing.
FCC to Comcast: Get Moving on CableCARD
The FCC has told cable companies to get moving in supporting CableCARD technology, rejecting a bid Wednesday by Comcast to receive more time to implement the platform in set-top boxes it provides by July.
Speaking at CES in Las Vegas, chairman Kevin Martin chastised the cable industry for dragging its feet in offering the technology, and said its advent would lead to new options for consumers in viewing cable television.
Philly Wi-Fi Network Goes Live
After being selected to power Philadelphia's metropolitan Wi-Fi network some 15 months ago, EarthLink on Thursday made the first steps towards offering service by announcing it would allow for free access in the 15-square mile proof of concept area through January 21.
The area extends from the Schuylkill River to the west to the Delaware River to the east, and Center City and Old City to the south and Montgomery Avenue and the Kensington areas to the north. Speeds of up to 1 Mbps would be available.
Microsoft Halves January Patch Tuesday
An eleventh hour change halved the number of expected security patches to four. However, missing from this month's updates are fixes for any of several zero-day attacks affecting the Microsoft Office suite.
No reasons were given for the change of plan, but when updates are pulled, quality assurance issues are generally the cause. One of the removed updates was for an Office flaw, but it is not clear whether the fix was for any of the aforementioned issues.
Visa, Nokia Team in Contactless Payment Deal
In the ongoing movement by both credit card companies and mobile phone manufacturers to turn cellular phones into virtual wallets, Nokia and Visa announced a deal Tuesday which would create a global payment system.
Like other planned offerings, this latest platform would use Near-Field Communication (NFC) to send payment data to the retailer. With a push of a button, the user could pay for groceries or other purchases.
First True Mac Tablet Arrives at Macworld
AT MACWORLD - While there has been some talk of Apple potentially developing a tablet version of its MacBook laptops, at least one company is not waiting for the Cupertino company to act.
El Segundo, Calif.-based Axiotron launched the "ModBook" at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco Monday. The device is essentially a modified MacBook laptop with a new 13.3" LCD and the addition of true pen input and optional GPS functionality.
The Buzz: iPhone Reaction Mostly Positive
While most of the media (including ourselves, admittedly) was agog over the announcement of the phone, reaction to it from the tech punditry was a little less positive. While some did see it as a "game changing" device, others lamented the high price, and others were unhappy with the lack of 3G or exclusivity through Cingular. We've included a sampling of their comments below.
What do you think? Leave your thoughts on the iPhone below this article.
Dell: Customers Central to Our Future
In his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday, Dell Chairman and founder Michael Dell said that "customer imagination" would be the most important driver for innovation during the year.
Dell also used the platform of the keynote to introduce several new products, including a new XPS desktop gaming system, new flat-panel monitors, and a home media suite. He said that direct consumer feedback would also influence the company's moves going forward.
Microsoft Commits to Office for Mac
Microsoft said Tuesday that it is committed to shipping the newest version of Office for Mac OS X, however still up in the air is a release date: the company only said it would be available "in the second half of 2007."
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac would be the first version of the productivity suite that willbe a Universal Binary, compatible with both the PowerPC and Intel platforms. Enhancements planned include support for Microsoft's Open XML document format, as well as improvements based on "extensive customer research."
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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