A while ago we’ve heard that Verizon is planning on getting the Palm Pre in early 2010. On Monday we saw a Palm Pixi moving through the FCC with Verizon specs. Now we’re seeing even more signs that Verizon will soon be seeing some sort of WebOS phone sometime in the coming month or two.
The new evidence comes from a Verizon training course. The course will teach Verizon employees about Palm and its WebOS. Not sure what the course entails, though it apparently takes about 20 minutes. There can’t be that much information about Palm and WebOS, but when do these sorts of courses take as long as they say they will? Still, any new developments on Verizon getting the Pre of Pixi is always good news.
The only question now is how well will the Pixi and Pre stand up against phones like the Droid and Droid Eris. Unless Verizon offers the phones at lower prices than Sprint does now, at least the Eris seems like the way to go for a Verizon smartphone. That is, of course, assuming you don’t just want PalmOS over Android. Maybe Palm will have some sort of new feature to tout on the Verizon versions, or it could just be a bit slow given how fast Android has risen up in the past year.
UPS has introduced a new app for BlackBerry devices. UPS Mobile allows users of the popular smartphones to track packages, arrange shipments, find UPS shipping locations and directions, and get instant quotes and transit times. They can even create shipping labels, which are sent via email as PDFs. Users can log in with their MyUPS info to get tracking histories and assign nicknames to shipments or they can do simple tracking with no log on necessary. Tracking info automatically refreshes when the app is opened.
UPS Mobile is free and can be downloaded from BlackBerry App World. It's compatible with devices running OS 4.6 and higher such as the Tour, Storm, Bold, and Curve 8900.
Publishing giant Hearst is set to enter the e-reader market in 2010 and will team up with Sprint to offer an e-reading service platform for mobile devices, smartphones and netbooks.
The platform, called Skiff, will provide magazine and newspaper content with “high resolution graphics, rich typography and dynamic updates.” Sprint will offer Skiff powered products at its stores and Hearst said it has also teamed up with several top consumer electronic manufacturers and with chip maker Marvell.
“Skiff signifies a new era in live content distribution-anywhere, anytime, even any size delivery of high quality text, images and graphics, all tailored to the always on demands of today’s consumers,” said Weili Dai, Marvell’s co-founder.
Skiff's management team includes former executives from Sony, AT&T, Apple, Palm, Intel and Microsoft. No release date has been set for the devices.
A Kindle killer? Probably not. While the Skiff platform is definitely something to look forward too, it appears it will focus on digital media like magazines and newspapers rather than e-books. Hearst publishes Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, O, The Oprah Magazine, Esquire, and other popular magazines and 15 daily newspapers including the Houston Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Connecticut Post and San Francisco Chronicle. The devices will no doubt come with subscription models for each publication, and since they claim their new technology preserves layouts, it's quite possible we'll see ads as well.
If this new platform is a success it could inject new life into the struggling newspaper and magazine industries as it moves readers from paper to screen. 2010 should be an exciting year for digital media!
Just in case you have not yet had your fill of information regarding the Google Nexus One, it seems there have recently been a few more user videos offering a tease of what everyone can expect. The videos are coming courtesy of the newly created The Nexus One blog and are short, and sort of sweet. I say sort of sweet only because the first features the boot animation (something we have already seen) and they are both slightly blurry. Of course, blurry is in when dealing with videos and images of this sort. Anyway, the video also gives us a partial view of the packaging. But more importantly is the promise that there are more videos to come, not to mention the animation on the display in the second video is actually pretty neat. I am not sure what the point would really be, but it does look cool. In the meantime, while we are waiting for more, check out the videos below.
McDonalds and AT&T have just announced a new partnership that will soon give those choosing to dine-in free Wi-Fi. Yup, that means the days of having to pay $2.95 for two hours of access are gone. The free access is expected to take effect sometime in mid-January and will be available at roughly 11,000 of the 14,000 McDonalds locations across the US. And sadly this will most likely just encourage more people to sit and eat and leach on free Wi-Fi, and also grease up their laptops or portable devices. Not that I ever lend my laptop out, but I think I will have to add a new policy just in case the situation ever comes up, a friend can borrow it if needed but they are never allowed to eat greasy fast food at the same time they are surfing.
We have sure seen plenty of Nexus One information over the past few days, and one of the latest bits comes in the form of a trademark filing. The intent was originally filed on December 10, which ironically was just before all of the “Nexus One” hype hit the online world.
The surprising part here is that this is being filed by Google and not HTC, despite the handset being manufactured by HTC. Of course, this just further adds to my belief that we are going to see the Nexus One be released in a manner similar to the original G1 with T-Mobile and Android Developer handset that was available as an unlocked handset.
My guess is that we will see the Google Nexus One and we will also see the same handset released with T-Mobile, possibly under a different name. Either way, at least we have confirmation of a “Google Phone.” Still I am not sure that really means anything exciting, especially considering from what we have seen the Nexus One is limited to T-Mobile in terms of 3G support, and that means unlocked or not, I am not going to be popping my AT&T SIM in just to enjoy EDGE speeds.
No one likes hearing AT&T, infamous for poor service in business/tech hubs like New York and San Francisco, suggest that they might put data caps on its users. That’s why it’s no surprise that some angered AT&T subscribers are organizing a revolt to bring down the network.
Fake Steve Jobs and a group of Facebook users are promoting “Operation Chokehold,” an effort to have AT&T subscribers use their data connection Friday, December 18, at noon PST. The group believes that mass downloading could disrupt AT&T’s data network and remind the carrier to focus on improving its network rather than try to charge customers more for data usage.
Subject: Operation Chokehold On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we'll create a digital flash mob. We're calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!
Sounds ambitious, but I doubt this will actually work. The Chokeholders will need some serious numbers to overwhelm the network, especially considering that a beefed up AT&T withstood the massive increase in data usage during President Obama's inauguration. It's unlikely that a few upset Facebook members will really manage to make AT&T's data network any more vulnerable than it typically is during lunch time on a Friday afternoon. Read [FakeSteve.net] via Facebook Group
UPS has introduced a new app for BlackBerry devices. UPS Mobile allows users of the popular smartphones to track packages, arrange shipments, find UPS shipping locations and directions, and get instant quotes and transit times. They can even create shipping labels, which are sent via email as PDFs. Users can log in with their MyUPS info to get tracking histories and assign nicknames to shipments or they can do simple tracking with no log on necessary. Tracking info automatically refreshes when the app is opened. 
McDonalds and AT&T have just announced a new partnership that will soon give those choosing to dine-in free Wi-Fi. Yup, that means the days of having to pay $2.95 for two hours of access are gone. The free access is expected to take effect sometime in mid-January and will be available at roughly 11,000 of the 14,000 McDonalds locations across the US. And sadly this will most likely just encourage more people to sit and eat and leach on free Wi-Fi, and also grease up their laptops or portable devices. Not that I ever lend my laptop out, but I think I will have to add a new policy just in case the situation ever comes up, a friend can borrow it if needed but they are never allowed to eat greasy fast food at the same time they are surfing.
No one likes hearing AT&T, infamous for poor service in business/tech hubs like New York and San Francisco, suggest that 
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