Don’t even get me started on the Google Voice fiasco that just happened and landed Apple in some hot water with the FCC….

Now the iphone application store has rejected a new application because the application allows the reading of the Karma Sutra. It is to be noted that the book reader Eucalyptus does not come with any books, but the K.S. is available for download onto devices and could be read at another time.

Whether it be the fact that Apple’s development team may decide that your application isn’t good enough for their devices or good enough to be released to their “cloud,” there are different places for software developers to go to have their programs viewed by many.

Apple has also been thinking of releasing a “net book” also. I suppose the net book would run like net books that run on Windows or Linux and are just able to run simple programs or surf the internet. Apple would undoubtedly make a net book that would be impossible to make programs for and far less powerful than any of the current mac books that are out there today.

The mac/pc commercials make me so mad because the pc just gives up when “the Megan” asks for a computer that doesn’t have software issues like crashing or viruses. Well guess what “Megan,” Mac’s have all those same problems too. As a matter of fact, I have been on a Mac many times in the past and gotten their version of a blue screen of death. I mean the iMac may have been the worst personal computer I have ever used, however there are so many people who think that the Macintosh name and product line is the best thing that has ever happened to the computer industry.

Whatever the reason, I think that people will enjoy PC’s and Windows mobile, Android, WebOS, and Symbian phones for much longer once the novelty of the iPhone wears off (like everyone knows it will).

It seems like every time I turn around someone is talking about cell phone reception problems. Either that, or they’re comparing one phone to another and the answer that usually comes out is that iPhone is amazing and nothing comes close (from the fans anyway).

However, there is one thing that the iPhone can’t seem to escape and that’s the shoddy reception and the dropped calls. Of course, you can always count on dropping some calls sometimes when you have a cell phone (when I was younger and first dealing with cell phones I had Voicestream, which is now T-Mobile, and I dropped calls so often I was convinced that the tower I was connecting to was on the back of a pickup truck driving down a bumpy road). But, how often should your phone be dropping calls?

Well, if you live in New York City and you have an iPhone, 30% is the norm according to an Apple Genius there. A post at Gizmodo told the story of how reader Manoj went to an Apple Store to try to figure out what was wrong with his iPhone and why it was dropping calls all the time.

It turned out that, after the Genius ran tests on the phone, his phone was dropping 22% of the calls it was making and receiving. This was after AT&T had told him that there was nothing wrong with his service; everything was ok on their end. The funny thing is, the Apple Genius told him that with his phone dropping 22% of its calls, it was still less than the average for the city. He said there was a dropped call rate of 30% on average. The Genius told the reader that his phone was fully functional and that, basically, it was AT&T’s fault that the calls continued to be dropped.

So, here’s my question. If other phones aren’t having a similar problem on the AT&T network in the city, then is it really an issue with the carrier or is it flaw with the phone. I’m leaning toward flaw with the phone personally. It also has seemed like the more advanced the technology is that the phone offers the worse the signal is. Prior to me purchasing the Palm Pre, I owned a Palm Centro and the service was always great. However, after getting the Pre, I barely got any signal in my house and Sprint had to send me an Airave.

Perhaps that’s what AT&T will have to start doing with its customers. AT&T has a new microcell thing out now; if they’re going to gouge their customers on plans and addons perhaps they should at least give them the thing that will actually help them get a signal in their home for free.

Gizmodo

Tonight I started noticing new Verizon wireless commercials featuring the “there’s a map for that” motto. The first (pictured above) is a take on Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer’s Island of Misfit Toys. There, the iPhone is sent to the island, not because it is a bad device, but because it’s power and abilities are crippled by the AT&T Network.

The second:

The Third:

As you can see they are all geared toward Christmas and the holiday season.

I find them to be quite festive and actually in good taste; they aren’t attacking the iPhone but the actual AT&T Network. Expect to see a lot of them in the coming weeks.

As a lot of people know, Adobe is working on getting Flash out for mobile phones, which would open up a whole new world of mobile entertainment (cell phones wouldn’t be held to only third party apps like YouTube, but could actually go to sites like Hulu to watch television shows).

There is, however, a war brewing between Adobe and Apple. While cell phones and the iPhone have never been able to play anything that is Flash based, Adobe has gone and added a new error screen that pertains directly to the iPhone and Apple.

The error message says “Apple restricts the use of technologies required by products like Flash player. Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod Touch.”

I am guessing that Adobe’s idea when it posted this was to get users angry enough to contact Apple about Flash not being supported. The only thing I can think of that could maybe get users even more angry than saying that Apple is at fault is to say which devices do allow Flash.

I am actually looking forward to having Flash on my Palm Pre, although now it doesn’t look like I will be getting it at all on my iPod Touch.

Source

I mentioned last week that Verizon was coming out with ads that are directly targeting the iPhone through both the “Droid” ads that feature Android based phones as well as the “there’s a map for that” commercials. Well, I suppose that Verizon definitely does not want to burn its bridges with Apple. Yesterday Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said that he (and Verizon) are still interested in getting the iPhone.

He said, “This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple’s court. Obviously we would be interested if they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner.”

Next year, exclusivity between Apple’s iPhone and AT&T Wireless is supposed to be coming to a close. Apple does have the right to extend the exclusivity, but in my opinion, the company could make more with the device if it were on other networks. The only problem I see is that everyone will have an iPhone and other companies like Palm will be seriously harmed because customers who have not wanted to hop on the AT&T bandwagon won’t have to anymore to get the iPhone.

Then again, not everyone wants an iPhone.

It makes you wonder what the terms were in the first place for AT&T to get the exclusive rights to the iPhone. I know that Apple was interested in the carrier because unlike Verizon, it ran on GSM which makes it easy to produce one kind of phone for the whole world. There aren’t any carriers that run on the CDMA networks outside the United States and the only major companies that do here are Verizon and Sprint.

Only time will tell what will happen with the iPhone and other carriers. I would guess that it won’t move over to Sprint or Verizon until the companies have implemented their 4G coverage (which Sprint is working on quite vigorously).

Apple was able to beat any expectations for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter. It was able to pull out a 46% profit jump.

The increase in profits was $1.82 per share or $1.67 billion total.

Analysts were expecting the company to have a gain of $1.42 per share earnings if there revenue would have been $9.2 billion, but the actual revenues came out and it was $9.87 billion.

Part of the reason for the high numbers was the increase in iPhone sales, which increased by 7% in the fourth quarter. It was able to sell 7.4 million units. It was also able to move 10.2 million iPods, which represented an 8% increase. In the way of computers, it sold 3.05 million Macs.

Steve Jobs had a statement,”We are thrilled to have sold mroe Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter. We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

Hopefully one of those things in the pipeline for 2010 is the much rumored tablet. Many are expecting it to be a fully functional computer, but like an iPhone or iPod Touch. A tablet with the abilities of one of those would really change the game as far as computing is concerned. So far, touch screen computers haven’t taken off the way touch screen phones have; even though there are several companies out there who are putting a lot of development dollars into the touch screen technology for computers.

I am excited to see what Apple has coming out in the future because, even though other brands will be behind, it means that there is a new generation of computers and electronic gadgets coming out that can really (like I said in the previous paragraph) change things up. Watching advancements in technology is pretty exciting to me!

I like when a cellular carrier releases ads featuring the one phone that all of its hopes are riding on. Verizon hasn’t had the “it” phone for awhile. Last year it had the Blackberry Storm, but it really didn’t turn out the way everyone was hoping it would. This time around, ads have been spotted all across the airwaves about the “anti-iPhone” Motorola Droid.

This is what the ads say:

— “iDon’t have interchangeable batteries.”

— “iDon’t allow open development.”

— “iDon’t have a real keyboard.”

— “iDon’t take pictures in the dark.”

It finishes with the tagline, “Everything I don’t, Droid does.”

So, what is the Motorola Droid? It is a cell phone/smart phone that runs Google’s Android operating system. It features a touchscreen and a full qwerty keyboard. The Droid is the smartest Android phone out there and is as thin as the iPhone.

The Droid actually has a chance at success on Big Red because Android is an operating system that has had the time to get the bugs out, or at least most of the bugs out.

Another thing that this phone has going for it is the fact that it feels sturdy. From what I’ve read on websites like BoyGeniusReport and Engadget Mobile, this phone doesn’t feel plastic-y like the T-Mobile G1. I have no idea how it would compare against the HTC Hero that Sprint is carrying or the MyTouch3G that T-Mobile is now offering, but neither of those phones offer a full qwerty slide out keyboard.

I would really like to see this phone in action. It should be hitting stores in the next month or so. That means you may catch me in a Verizon store checking this phone out.

It seems that ever since AT&T and Apple blocked a Google Voice app for the iPhone, Google and AT&T have been at each other’s throats. They are nit picking each other apart at this point. First, it was Google who said it wasn’t fair for AT&T to block its Google Voice application and now AT&T is coming back saying that Google should have to play by all the same rules that regular carriers do in regards to making phone calls.

Right now, Google Voice goes unregulated by the FCC and doesn’t have to follow some of the rules that the other carriers have. Some of the ones that AT&T is getting so worked up about is that Google doesn’t connect some rural calls because the calls are expensive to connect.

Google said that the free Internet call forwarding service it has is not a telecom company like AT&T. Instead, it is an internet application that uses the user’s existing phone number and therefore it should be subject to the rules of traditional land line carriers. Google went on to say that the only reason it blocks calls in some rural ares is because the calls are expensive and that “traffic pumpers” route calls through there to increase their revenues.

In my opinion, this is a fairly entertaining battle to watch between the two companies. AT&T and Google are both huge companies in their own right, but until now they really have just been working in their own space and not interfering with each other’s work. Now, they are starting to step on one another’s toes and it’s becoming an issue for both of them.

I can’t wait to see how this one turns out in the next few weeks. The FCC is going to be introducing some new net neutrality rules next week.

In a move that is meant to compete with other prepaid wireless plans, AT&T has announced that it will be starting a $60 a month unlimited talk and text plan for its GoPhone users. The service is meant to start on October 12th.

Sounds great to everyone, except those who actually have contracted service with AT&T. The people who have suffered through their contracts, had to go through a credit check, and face early termination fees if they drop their service, have found themselves in a strange loop where someone who doesn’t have to go through the process can get the SAME service for cheaper.

Let’s look at the facts:
An unlimited voice plan with the carrier costs $99 per month.

On top of that, an unlimited texting plan is an extra $20 per month.

So, GoPhone users are getting half off of what contracted users would have to get.

This is an obviously ridiculous way for AT&T to try to compete with other prepaid carriers. The problem is that many contracted users may find themselves heading over to the prepaid division. If I had to pay for service I would likely switch over to the prepaid service and save myself the extra money every month.

What I don’t know is if there is a way to add a data plan onto the prepaid plan. The regular priced data plan is $30 per month on contracted service so I would assume that one could get the prepaid plan for around the same price, or cheaper if they go by the pricing strategy used in the unlimited prepaid service.

The plan is cheaper and you will be getting the same service that others get, however, your choice of phones can be a bit limited and I don’t think that you can have an iPhone on the plan.

It seems like every time I turn around someone is talking about cell phone reception problems. Either that, or they’re comparing one phone to another and the answer that usually comes out is that iPhone is amazing and nothing comes close (from the fans anyway).

However, there is one thing that the iPhone can’t seem to escape and that’s the shoddy reception and the dropped calls. Of course, you can always count on dropping some calls sometimes when you have a cell phone (when I was younger and first dealing with cell phones I had Voicestream, which is now T-Mobile, and I dropped calls so often I was convinced that the tower I was connecting to was on the back of a pickup truck driving down a bumpy road). But, how often should your phone be dropping calls?

Well, if you live in New York City and you have an iPhone, 30% is the norm according to an Apple Genius there. A post at Gizmodo told the story of how reader Manoj went to an Apple Store to try to figure out what was wrong with his iPhone and why it was dropping calls all the time.

It turned out that, after the Genius ran tests on the phone, his phone was dropping 22% of the calls it was making and receiving. This was after AT&T had told him that there was nothing wrong with his service; everything was ok on their end. The funny thing is, the Apple Genius told him that with his phone dropping 22% of its calls, it was still less than the average for the city. He said there was a dropped call rate of 30% on average. The Genius told the reader that his phone was fully functional and that, basically, it was AT&T’s fault that the calls continued to be dropped.

So, here’s my question. If other phones aren’t having a similar problem on the AT&T network in the city, then is it really an issue with the carrier or is it flaw with the phone. I’m leaning toward flaw with the phone personally. It also has seemed like the more advanced the technology is that the phone offers the worse the signal is. Prior to me purchasing the Palm Pre, I owned a Palm Centro and the service was always great. However, after getting the Pre, I barely got any signal in my house and Sprint had to send me an Airave.

Perhaps that’s what AT&T will have to start doing with its customers. AT&T has a new microcell thing out now; if they’re going to gouge their customers on plans and addons perhaps they should at least give them the thing that will actually help them get a signal in their home for free.

Source

AT&T was highly criticized recently because of outages of not only data services but also voice services during the South by Southwest festival. The problem arose from the use of iPhones and other heavy-data usage devices. Everyone who has these devices are paying more for unlimited data and (usually) text message plans both of which are extremely profitable for the company.

AT&T had to bring in extra equipment to handle the issues with the network, however, with all the extra money the company is bringing in from the sales of the plans one would think that their network could handle the issues that are arising from heavy data usage?

Recently, I was using a friend’s iPhone and realized that, without WiFi and WITH 3G coverage, the internet was crawling. I needed her Facebook application for something, otherwise I would have just used my phone.

The way that the cell phone companies are battling this increase in usage is to start coming up with the 4G network. 3G networks are all being touted as the newest and fastest thing now, but these carriers are starting to come up with the 4G networks “of the future”. Sprint has already started to launch its 4G network. It has already launched in Atlanta and Baltimore. I feel bad for T-Mobile at times because most of its coverage still isn’t 3G and watching Sprint launch 4G just reminds me how slow T-Mobile is at getting its coverage ready.

With these heavy data usage phones, the networks have got to get it together. They really need to start catering to the users who are paying the premiums for the phones and data plans. The average iPhone user spends more than $100 per month on the plan, other users on AT&T spend half of that amount.

Who could forget the classic iPod commercials? While it seems like a long time ago, it was just 5 years or so ago where you would see the shadowed people dancing against the colorful backgrounds. That was the beginning of the iPod trend.

Apple had come out with a new and revolutionary product that became the number one item on most wishlists. Now, just a few years later, it is looking like the reign of the iPod at the top of the portable music player is coming to an end.

At the time the iPod came out, many people bought them because it was so much easier than the bulky cd players and as more people got them, they became trendy to own. I actually still currently have the fourth generation iPod and it stays connected to the dock in my car (because having an iPod adapter in the car is just the norm at this point).

However, as time went on, more phones were able to do the same things that the iPod did and the iPod found itself trying to keep up with phones instead of the other way around. I can name a handful of things that the iPhone can do that the iPod can’t and you can buy a used iPhone on ebay and use a lot of the features without even having a cellular connection (at least that’s what I’ve been told). Many other cell phones are able to double as music players now too. While my iPod is connected to the car, i have been using Pandora on my cell phone instead at times.

In the future, Apple will likely focus more on the iTouch than the iPod as far as portable music players go. At the same time, it would be  nice to see some features that are on the iPhone that aren’t on the iPod touch. Things like a camera and a microphone would be nice. This seems to be easily implemented if Apple would just use the iPhone, but took out the cellular chipset. Then again, I don’t know too much about how chipsets are configured on the devices.

The good news is that Apple’s technology doesn’t seem to be losing demand and won’t be anytime in the near future thanks to the Macbooks and iPhones.

Apple’s new iTunes update locks out non-Apple devices, what do you think about that?

Question:

The newest iTunes update has locked my Pre out of the program…how do I feel?

Answer:

Thankfully, I read gadget blogs very frequently so I have not updated to the latest version of iTunes. However, if you want to know how I feel about it, it’s very simple. It’s annoying, but it’s their software so they can do what they want and Palm developers can find a way around it.

However, Apple didn’t lock out PC users from using it. Hmm. PCs dominate the computer market, so it’s ok for iTunes to run on it. The Palm Pre (which I’m sure is at least part of the reason they introduced the update) is a new player in the smartphone game, which the iPhone currently dominates.

So, Apple will only lock out those weaker than them. Hmm

It’s been some time since I’ve written about the Pre or iPhone…almost 2 weeks? It looks like both of these devices have been seeing their fair share of issues.

First, the Palm Pre, being a first generation device, has done pretty good and Palm is sending updates to fix problems that are coming up. However, the phone does get hot and when it begins to heat up, a “cloud” appears at the bottom of the screen. In my opinion it is annoying and completely unappealing. For this reason, I’m returning my phone tomorrow (some of them have this problem, while others don’t).This is all my opinion and what I’ve read on forums across the internet, Palm has not addressed the issue to my knowledge.

Secondly, the iPhone 3Gs now has a serious overheating issue. If the user decides to use “resource intensive” programs in direct sunlight (according to Apple) then it “could” cause an overheating issue and the phone won’t work. In some cases the white phones’ backs turn brown. Apple has acknowledged this issue and is trying to work it out, but right now there are hundreds of thousands (likely) of iPhone 3Gs users out there with phones that my burn them.

People have been saying that they are experiences the overheating issue while the phone is charging. I have to say, my Pre gets ridiculously hot when I have it plugged in and am using intensive features, but except for the cloud at the bottom of the screen, I haven’t had the issues that the iPhone users are having. I would be really angry if my phone I just paid a couple hundred dollars for decided to turn a different color or be able to cook breakfast foods because of the heat coming off the phone.

I do suppose this isn’t an issue just for these two phones, my husband has a HTC Touch Pro that gets really hot. I don’t think it has any issues directly associated with the heat coming from the phone, but it does (at times) get too hot to hold up to your face to talk on. My LG Fusic (which was not a smartphone, it was a flip) also got too hot to hold up to my face at times, but that’s as far back as an “overheating” problem goes with my phones. None of my old Nokia phones or Motorola phones did.

It was recently reported that Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs had a liver transplant a little over two months ago, which was kept quiet until last weekend. However, the news about its iPhone sales spread like wildfire and was highly touted by the company. So why would the company keep the news about its CEO quiet from the world?

It matters because it looks like investors in Apple care what is going on with Jobs’ health. He is the face of the company and seen as the major creative force behind the Apple products. He was the one who reinvigorated the company by going on and seeing what the target market was looking for in products, he listened when it seemed like no one else would to the newest techie generation and ended up making a lot of money for the company by taking this approach. If you watch the stock prices for Apple with every little bit of bad news about Jobs’ health, you can easily tell how people feel about him and what it means if he were to leave the company altogether.

In response to why the news about Jobs’ liver transplant came from the Wall Street Journal and not from Apple, companies don’t have to give updates on the health of their executives. Health isn’t seen as “material information” as per the rules of the SEC. Material information means information that regards earnings, mergers, and acquisitions as well as new products, bankruptcies, and things of that nature. Information like stock ownership is material information, while the health issues of an executive is not considered material information unless his health hinders his ability to be an executive in the company. Since Jobs has been on medical leave for the past few months, there is no issue here.

Since the information regarding Jobs’ health was not considered material information, it was left up to the board to decide whether or not to make the information about Jobs’ health public. Since the board must act in the interest of stockholders, then I can understand why they would not want the information to be known.

In the case of Jobs and his liver transplant, it may have been best for the board to tell the public about his health issues simply because most people feared the worst when he took a sudden medical leave of absence in January. When he announced that, the stock for Apple shed 7% and on Monday of this week it fell another percentage point because of the news about his liver transplant. If investors had known about the transplant ahead of time, this drop in stock price may have simply happened at the same time the leave of absence was announced.

I believe that Apple is afraid, without Jobs, it will no longer be seen as the company that it currently is and its stock will fall and it will lose the market share it has worked so hard to obtain. This is a company that, before Jobs came back years ago, was on the brink of bankruptcy. It’s time for Apple to become a company that is apart from its CEO.

T-Mobile announced today that it would be releasing a follow up to the G1 Android based HTC phone. The myTouch 3G with Google will be the carrier’s newest flagship phone and will go on sale in early August. The rebranded HTC Magic is the newest device to offer Android in the United States.

It will be a touch screen phone that will not have a physical keyboard like the G1 does. In the face of such strong competition, the myTouch 3G hopes to compete against the “power players” in the phone industry right now. The myTouch 3G has a screen similar to the iPhone and includes a lot of the same features. It has a 480 x 320 touch screen, 3G service where T-Mobile offers, EDGE for global roaming, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and virtual keyboard software. Pre-orders for the phone will begin on July 8^th for $199 for existing customers with a 2 year contract. It will come in black, white, or merlot.

The competition that T-Mobile and the myTouch 3G are facing is pretty fierce. If you look at AT&T, it has the iPhone, and the 3G S just sold over a million handsets in the first weekend of its release. Although it doesn’t have a real revolutionary phone, Verizon Wireless, offers a huge network and great CDMA coverage. It also has the BlackBerry Storm, and while it hasn’t been the most welcomed touch screen phone on the market, it is the first touch screen BlackBerry device. Sprint, T-Mobile’s next closest competitor as far as subscriber numbers, just launched the Palm Pre.

A lot of gadget geeks have been really looking forward to other carriers having Android based phones. T-Mobile is a good carrier, but their coverage leaves a lot to be desired. A problem that I have with T-Mobile is its lack of 3G coverage. While Sprint, Verizon, and At&t all offer 3G coverage in my town, T-Mobile barely has EDGE coverage outside city limits. Unless you live in a major metropolitan area with 3G coverage, this phone is sort of limited in my opinion.

You can always check your T-Mobile coverage on the company’s website before you commit to a 2 year contract and a phone that may or may not work at your house.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference left a lot to be desired with the announcement of the iPhone 3G S. Where everyone was expecting something “revolutionary,” they were left with something that was simply “evolutionary.”

The newest addition to iPhone lineup, the 3G S is simply the iPhone 3G with a 3 megapixel camera, a faster processor, and the 3.0 software. Data speeds for the 3G S have been increased to 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Apple also finally added video recording abilities to the iPhone and at 30 frames per second, they’re pretty good. It will also have multimedia messaging.

One of my favorite features is the new fingerprint resistant coating on the phones…I have always been angry at the amount of fingerprints my phone accumulates over the course of 5 minutes. Right now my Pre is a smudge magnet.

The price points were nice announcements, with the 16 GB version running $199 and the 32 GB at $299. They will also keep selling the iPhone 3G (the 3.0 software can be downloaded for free for these phones) at $99. That’s for a non-refurbished phone. I believe that the price points were set to put some pressure on Palm after setting the price of the Pre at $199 after a $100 mail in rebate. The new iPhones will be on sale starting June 19th.

Another announcement regarding the iPhone is the new ability to tether the phone to a computer for data usage. While at first At&t wasn’t announced as one of the carriers to allow tethering, later the company issued a statement saying that it would allow tethering.

One thing that happened at the conference today that was a bit annoying was their depiction of the number of apps the Apple App store has versus other companies. Sure, Apple has over 50,000 apps in the store, why would they compare it to Palm, who JUST launched its App Catalog on Saturday. They gave palm 2 days and all Palm has to offer at the time the presentation was made was 18 apps. Well, while browsing my App Catalog yesterday afternoon, I can tell you that there were 25 apps as of Monday night.

Aside from the iPhone, Apple also announced new Mac Books with non-removable batteries. While this goes along with every other offering from the company like iPods and iPhones, this is a bad idea in my opinion. It never takes long for a laptop to start losing overall battery life and everyone already knows how expensive it is to send an iPod to Apple for new batteries…imagine how much it will cost for a battery for a laptop! Plus, you will be without your laptop for however long it takes to get back to you.

Sprint and Palm have announced the release date for the new Palm Pre. The device is the first to be released from Palm with its new WebOS platform. Until this point, Palm has only had its outdated PalmOS operating system and Windows Mobile on its Treo and Centro phones. With the PalmOS not ever having had a real update and Windows Mobile the bane of many smart phone users’ cellular experiences.

Perhaps because I, myself, am an avid Sprint user, I feel that the Pre has a lot to offer not only me but many of Sprint’s millions of customers.

On June 6th when the phone is released, there is expected to be a shortage, so says Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint. With that in mind, Sprint is purposely not advertising the phone as heavily as it should regarding the device.

The Pre is getting a lot of attention right now because it is something that may actually come from Sprint and Palm (both companies have been all but written off as failures) that may actually be a success. Not only that, there are a lot of people out there saying it may give the iPhone a run for its money. I would love to see this phone give the iPhone a run for its money; I have had time to play with the iPhone and will honestly say that it is truly a great device. The fluidity in movement with the operating system is amazing and Palm really has to keep up with that in order to be seen as a true competitor to Apple’s phone. The Pre is also being released just two days before the Apple conference where it is expected for the company to release information regarding a new iPhone model. As of now, there are a few rumors floating around, but aside from an OLED screen and a glowing Apple logo on the back, the rumors are few and far between.

Of course, I have a biased opinion of Sprint’s service and phone selection because I have been with the company since 2005 when I switched from T-Mobile. I have always been happy with the phones and especially the service (they have 3G coverage in my small Mississippi town of around 20,000 without students, 35,000 with). While Sprint’s customer service may not be the most amazing out there, I have always been able to get the answers to all the questions I have regarding to my service. Once, I was on the phone with customer support for over two hours trying to fix my problem I was having (I was not receiving phone calls while I was at home), and the most amazing part was that the problem was directly related to another carrier’s tower I was roaming on, not Sprint’s service. Sprint was actually able to take care of the situation.

USA Today reported discussions between Verizon and Apple started even before Steve Jobs went on medical leave.

It could be possible because Vodaphone, a Verizon owned company in Europe, already has the rights to the iPhone in Europe even though At&t has exclusivity in the States.

Of course AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that he wants his company to have exclusive rights to the iPhone for a longer period of time…without the iPhone AT&T would easily fall behind Verizon due to Verizon’s bigger and better network.

“As of today, nearly one billion apps have been downloaded around the globe,” Apple says on the countdown page. “So we just want to say thanks — a billion.”

A user downloading an app automatically gets the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. Only 25 downloads are allowed per day in order to be considered a winner.

In February, the App Store reached a milestone with 20,000 applications available for download, but by the end of February there were 25,000, and by early March 26,026 were available, with about 800 million downloads.

The heat is on Apple to release the third generation iPhone (or at least announce it) before the Palm Pre comes out, this is a publicity event that Apple is looking for.

Source

How can Sprint and the Palm Pre compete with AT&T and the iPhone?

Question:

With Sprint coming out with the Palm Pre in just a month or two, what does it need to be able to do to directly compete with the iPhone?

Answer:

In my opinion the Palm Pre will be Palm’s saving grace. The Centro has enjoyed some very positive publicity for the company, who could really use some good publicity right now. Sprint also needs the phone to do well and is hyping it up to be the greatest phone to ever come to the carrier.

The phone itself needs to be able to do everything the iPhone can do and more. It HAS to be fluid in gestures, meaning no lagging between applications. It has to be reliable and be generally easy to use.

This phone is positioned to be the make or break phone for Palm. Hopefully, everything will go right for Palm and Sprint and this phone will be the huge success they are hoping for.

You can pick up the contract-free smartphone starting next Thursday.

While the phone can be used on the AT&T network, it will take a little work to get the phone to work on another GSM network like T-Mobile.

And as far as the price goes, if you bought the phone on contract for $199 for the 8GB version and then paid the early termination fee, it would be cheaper than buying the phone outright without a contract and the end result is the same. Since the phones are still tied to the AT&T network, if you really wanted the phone this would be the cheapest way to get an iPhone out of contract.

A $50 a month unlimited voice plan for “loyalty.” Customers that have been with the service for 22 months and haven’t had to default on their contract are able to get the plan.

However, this is only for “voice” service and not data or texts, but with T-Mobile those fees are nominal (from what I remember).

I think it’s amusing that T-mobile believes its most loyal customers are those who have held a contract for 22 months. I wish Sprint would consider me a loyal customer after holding a contract for over 3 years…However, I think getting the amazing SERO plan is worth it.

Some of the network’s top shows are available via the TV.com app, including The Young and the Restless, the Late Show with David Letterman, and hits such as CSI. More than 20 shows from the CNET iPhone site, including Today on CNET, the Buzz Report, and Loaded, are also available through the application as well as the CBS Radio Channel, according to CBS.

“CBS Mobile is excited to be on Apple’s App Store with our application for TV.com, where TV lives online — and now on iPhone and iPod touch,” said Jeff Sellinger, executive vice president and general manager of CBS Mobile. “Fans can now watch their favorite shows, great clips, and create custom channels whenever and wherever they want through the iPhone and iPod touch application.”

I still think that it’s a little odd to watch an entire movie on such a small device. It would hurt my eyes to look at a regular iPod screen for any longer than 15 minutes. I know the iPod touch/iPhone’s screens are larger, but I still really need something that is at least the size of my netbook to view tv shows and movies.

Well, Asus looked like the early winner with the touch screen netbook, but then Palm came out punching. Palm had the Pre and took center stage. The device was unlike anything anyone was expecting from them. After all, this is a cell phone company many had already written off as dated and ready to be “put out to pasture.” Palm showed that it wasn’t ready to go down without a fight. The Pre will likely be compared to the iPhone, but the Pre has all the newest technology in it (after all the 3G iphone is nothing but the regular iPhone that was made in 2007 with a faster internet connection).

I’m just sad that CES is over, it is my favorite trade show of the year and I would absolutely love to work a trade show like that.

This comes after the blogosphere was buzzing about Wal-Mart offering an iPhone for $99. Wal-Mart did not end up selling the phone for that price, but starting Sunday stores will be selling the 8 gigabite model for $197…just $3 less than any AT&T store.  You can’t even buy it online, it’s only sold in stores.

The news has long been rumored around the internet, however. The price won’t be anything special, although now you can pick up the diapers along with your iPhone.

I have been awed by the device in the past. I would actually like to have the iPhone at one point, but HTC handsets are currently grabbing my eye. Even the Xperia X1 has got my attention, but the iPhone is something that has always interested me.

Perhaps the hype is warranted, but really? You’ve always been able to go to the AT&T store to pick up your iPhone, now you can go to Wal-Mart… now you can have an uninterested and uninformed employee tell you about your two year commitment…

So now any French carrier may carry the iPhone…

Also, it turns out the Wal-Mart $99 iPhone rumor was just that, a rumor. Information came out today saying that Wal-Mart will begin selling the iPhone on December 28 for $197 for the 8GB and $297 for the 16GB with a 2 year contract. Wal-Mart employees, will however, receive a 15% discount on plans with AT&T

Rumor has it, not only will Wal-Mart be offering the iPhone, it will be selling the 4GB model for $99 with a 2 year contract.

The low price tag for the phone will not change the price of the data and talk plan(s) required for the phone. However, many will probably see the low initial price rather than seeing what they will pay in the long run to have an iPhone.

The first-ever touchscreen BlackBerry has a new feature to touchscreen smart phones; when you touch the on screen keypad, it “clicks” because of a spring supported screen.

The Storm is currently only available on the Verizon network in the U.S.

You can watch more about the phone and its release: