Verizon Wireless just announced the addition of the Samsung Sway to their lineup of available
mobile phones. The stylish slider phone can now be purchased online, at Verizon Communication stores or by calling 1-800-2 JOIN IN.

The Samsung Sway will be available through other retailers on October 14, 2008.

Key features and capabilities of the Samsung Sway from Verizon Wireless include:

* Media Center-capable - downloadable games, ringtones, wallpapers, location-based services and more
* Mobile Web-capable - customizable, enhanced wireless access to the latest in news, sports, weather and more
* Mobile IM capabilities
* Text, picture and video messaging
* Bluetooth profiles supported: headset, stereo, hands-free (car kits), serial port, object push for vCard and vCalendar only, basic imaging, basic printing and phonebook access profiles
* 2.0 megapixel camera with NightShot
* Camcorder
* Expandable memory up to 8GB with external microSD card slot
* Hearing aid compatibility = M4
* Bilingual user interface (English and Spanish)
* Personal organizer with calculator, calendar, alarm clock, world clock, stop watch and notepad
* Dimensions: 4.15” (h) x 1.96” (w) x 0.47” (d) with standard battery
* Weight: 3.56 ounces
* Display: 2.2”
* Usage time: up to 270 minutes with standard battery or
* Standby time: up to 312 hours with standard battery

Verizon Wireless has priced the Sway to be available for $69.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, customers can visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to Verizon Wireless.

The Cellular Phone Buying Test - Results Here are your top 5 dream phones. The first in the list should

Hey guys, it's that time of year again: Break out of your current Sprint contract without paying an early-termination thanks to a materially adverse change of contract. Our fedora-wearing cousins at Consumerist note that a 99-cent administrative fee increase per line going into effect Jan. 1 falls under that rubric, meaning "you can use it to argue that the fee renders your contract void and you can end service without a termination fee." For all the details and precisely how to outmaneuver vigilant Sprint reps, head over there: [Consumerist, Image: albany_tim/Flickr]

You would of course be better off I you just went out and bought a Mac, but if you want to stick with your PC and just make it look a bit more Appleish go and check out this little guide.

7 ways to make your PC look like a Mac [techradar.com]

Reuters - China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile service provider, said on Tuesday the tender for construction of the second phase of its parent’s third-generation mobile network had been completed.

Original post by Reuters

Garmin nuvi 350 GPS
Garmin nuvi 350 Personal Travel Assistant GPS Navigator 3.5′ Screen (Refurbished)
Price $169.96 Source: Tiger Direct

Refurbished doesn’t mean busted up m’friend. The nice folks at Garmin have taken a gadget destined for the Land of Misfit Toys and given it the old spackle and solder treatment so now you can get yourself a shiny GPS for your sweet hybrid ride that’s just like new, if not just a little world weary. Will it sigh when it gives directions? Probably, but then you wouldn’t have it any other way would you? Here’s a excerpt from TG:

Garmin nüvi 350
Personal Travel Assistant GPS Navigator
Introducing the nüvi: A versatile travel assistant that?s approximately the size of a deck of playing cards. The nüvi is a portable GPS navigator, traveler?s reference, and digital entertainment system, all in one. Combined with detailed maps, the nüvi provides automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, and finger-touchscreen control?making it easy to find your way anywhere.

The nüvi also offers a travel kit of useful travel tools to help keep any journey fun: MP3 player, audio book player from Audible.com, JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, and calculator. In addition, optional software packages such as the Language Guide and Travel Guide (sold separately on SD Data cards) can be added for language and content support.

North American versions include pre-loaded City Navigator NT maps of the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

The nüvi 350’s unique “text-to-speech” feature calls out turns by street name. In addition, this text-to-speech interface, gives users the spoken pronunciation of each entry in the word bank?along with gender and part-of-speech information.

The nüvi 350 is compatible with the GTM 10 FM TMC traffic receiver, which allows users to avoid traffic tie-ups by simply pushing a button that will calculate a new route.

The nüvi 350 also comes with an A/C charger and approximately 700 MBs of internal memory for storage of supplemental maps, MP3s, and audio books.

Those who pay for a $14.95 a month Zune Pass will now get to keep 10 songs a month regardless of whether they remain subscribers.

PC and handset industry will clash on tweener products like Netbooks and smartphones.

I enjoyed these visual movie reviews, especially There Will Be Blood ("this is just pretentious afterbirth") and The Darjeeling Limited.

(link)

Expansys Unleashes MWG Xda Zinc II Windows Mobile Phone AHN - Jan 10, 2008 Based-on Windows Mobile 6 Professional platform, the latest mobile phone is said to work on Samsung's ARM CPU. The mobile technology seems to be assuming a …

According to BGR, RIM is already crackin’ away at an LTE device so that it’s ready for launch whenever LTE officially goes live.

For the sake of the folks out there who don’t spend their lives memorizing every last mobile industry acronym: LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”, and is one of the standards set to make up the next generation of mobile network technologies. In other words, LTE (along with competing technology, WiMax) is 4G. Sprint is siding with WiMax, Verizon and AT&T are going with LTE.

With that in mind, RIM’s rumored work with an LTE handset should come as a surprise to no one. With RIM’s US presence made up predominately by AT&T and Verizon, both of whom are backing LTE, not having a suitable device ready ASAP would be a huge misstep. Hell, I’d be willing to wager that they’re working on at least two of them - one touchscreen (a la Storm), and one in the more traditional candybar form.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

We've written plenty of times about the so-called "think tank" the Progress & Freedom Foundation. The group, which has called itself a "free market" think tank appears to be anything but free market when it comes to intellectual property issues. For years, it's been a huge supporter of increasingly strengthening gov't granted monopolies, often resorting to highly questionable arguments, such as suggesting that fair use harms innovation and that the DMCA shouldn't be changed because that would be gov't meddling in the free market -- ignoring, of course, that the DMCA itself is actually meddling in the free market. For years, the face of PFF's twisted claims on copyright was Patrick Ross, who then moved on to become a lobbyist for the entertainment industry (basically cementing what he was already doing at PFF with a more direct relationship). We thought it would be difficult to find someone who could twist arguments quite as much as Ross did, but PFF surprised us and went one step further.

It hired Tom Sydnor, who made quite a splash by writing one of the most ridiculous attack dog papers we've seen, taking a bunch of Larry Lessig comments completely out of context to accuse him of being a communist sympathizer. It was pure McCarthyism. The worst was when a variety of others pointed out Sydnor's out of context comments and put them back in context -- and Sydnor still stood by the paper, refusing to admit he took a single comment out of context. The truth was that it was difficult to find a single comment that was accurately portrayed.

Based on this, I tend to be immediately extra skeptical of anything that comes out of PFF (Adam Thierer's work is usually good, but that seems the exception). Sydnor's latest is an attack on the judge in the Jammie Thomas trial for declaring a mistrial in her case for wrongly instructing the jury that simply making a file available should be considered infringement. As the judge realized (correctly, in our opinion, and the opinion of plenty of legal experts) this was a "manifest error of law." For copyright infringement to occur a copy needs to be made. Simply making something available is not making an infringing copy. In typical Sydnor fashion, not only does he claim that the judge was wrong, he makes the judge out to be totally off the reservation in making such a ruling, claiming that the judge "misread or disobeyed precedents, federal treaties, scholarly reviews and the three branches of government."

Sydnor, of course, conveniently ignores pretty much everything on the other side, including precedents, scholarly reviews and the three branches of government (not international treaties for the most part, since the relevant ones have all been written by the legacy industry -- so indeed, they agree with Sydnor's assessment, but that's hardly compelling). The fact is that there have been folks who have weighed in on both sides, and there have been widespread legal rulings on both sides of the "making available" issue, as well as scholarly reviews. In fact, William Patry, a much more widely recognized and respected copyright expert than Sydnor, has written extensively on the issue, and seems to disagree with what Sydnor repeatedly claims is "inarguable."

More importantly, the recent trend has been quite clear: most of the courts recently taking up the issue have realized how little sense it is to accuse someone of copyright infringement when no copy has been shown to have been made. There are some exceptions, certainly, but most of the cases these days seem to be going against Sydnor's interpretation, which hardly makes it "inarguable" or as crazy as the paper makes out. Sydnor's decision to take some comments out of context, and then ignore the weight of the arguments on the other side, in order to paint the judge in this case as some sort of clueless rogue, is, tragically, fitting with PFF's reputation for throwing truth, reason and logic out the window in order to support the entertainment industry's position at all costs.

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This one is just pure awesomeness. Never mind those high-priced Guitar Hero peripherals. This guy played it with his bike.

That's right, we found this video up on YouTube, posted by madflux, and in it, he rides a bike to the music of Activision's Guitar Hero: World Tour's (Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii) Prisoner of Society by The Living End set on the Difficulty mode of Hard.

Easy? Not. See, madflux and his friends recreated the whole song level, complete with notes and riffs a-flare, throughout their neighborhood. Probably inspired by Dorothy's "follow the yellow brick road" mantra, these guys put stickers on the road to replicate the notes in-game.
He also put in LED lights on the handlebar of his bike that light up along with the notes as well. Methinks this is to help him pace his ride.

It obviously took a whole lot of work to make it work, but we're glad it did. Although some would say that this is just a fake viral ad for Guitar Hero, we'd still say it was darned cool. If that's not the case, and these bunch of guys really just had a whole lot of free time in their hands, then even more props to them!

Here, have a look at it and see for yourselves (and keep a look out for that guy in the KISS costume sometime around the 3:35 mark. Coolness!) .

---

Related Guitar Hero: World Tour Articles:

• Guitar Hero: World Tour Deluxe Edition pricing and release details

LG Incite More Photos - View Specs

AT&T today launched the LG Incite, a Windows Mobile device with a modern design.

The Incite has a sophisticated, sleek design, a crystal-clear 3.0-inch touch screen and a 3.0-megapixel camera. Running on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the Incite has Microsoft Office Mobile, Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 and Windows Media Player 10.

Consumers can navigate through the menu using their fingers, the scroll button to the upper right of the screen, or the included stylus. A configurable, drag-and-drop favorites menu accesses favorite applications.

Users can text message using an on-screen virtual keyboards - a full, QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode or a 20-key keyboard in portrait view. Haptic keys provide vibration feedback.

Users can access business and personal email through Microsoft Direct Push and AT&T's Xpress Mail service.

Bluetooth 2.0 lets users wirelessly listen to music via stereo headsets, transmit data to other Bluetooth-enabled devices and make handsfree calls. It also has domestic and international 3G capabilities and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g).

AT&T Mobile Music service lets users download music from eMusic, storing songs on microSD memory cards up to 16GB. The Incite features AT&T Video Share for live video over wireless devices while participating in a voice call.

It comes pre-loaded with AT&T Navigator, powered by TeleNav, for turn-by-turn voice and on-screen directions with 3D moving maps. AT&T Navigator also features traffic alerts, re-routing and other location-based services.

The LG Incite is available now in stores and online for $199.99 with a new two-year agreement and mail-in rebate.

- LG Incite Specs

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• HTC Fuze Touch Screen Phone Launches for AT&T
• AT&T Launches BlackBerry Bold
• Microsoft, LG Sign Mobile Collaboration Deal

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Another victory for content aggregator Buongiorno, as the company managed to haul in an exclusive deal with Three UK & IR to deliver their white label mobile games store. Through this move, Pocket...

Facebook plans to start charging for verifying applications built for the social network -- an optional process that has upset some developers despite the company's assurances it will bring plenty of positive benefits. Platform program manager Sandra Liu Huang said Tuesday that Facebook opened the verification process to developers on Monday. The process is meant to increase users' trust of applications that are posted on the site and to help developers wanting to build a serious business get more visibility with users, she said.

In 1991, the original George Bush was midway through his term, music came on cassette or CD, and Guns 'N Roses released their last album of original material. That will change at midnight Thursday as Chinese Democracy, 17 years in the making, is streamed for free on MySpace Music.

Read More...

Not convinced Mobile Commerce is hitting the mainstream? Well check this out- Sears.com today announced the launch of Sears2go - a mobile commerce Web site which enables customers to find and buy select Sears.com merchandise from their mobile phone.

"In Sears' continued effort to innovate and serve our customers as they adopt new technologies, Sears2go makes it easier than ever to cut out the holiday shopping hassles and shop from the convenience of your mobile phone," said Ravi Acharya, Director of eCommerce at Sears Holdings. "More and more customers are using their mobile phones to shop online and Sears2go is completely geared for mobile devices with an emphasis on speed, usability and security. So, whether you're stuck on the commuter train or waiting for your child's holiday concert to begin, you can get your shopping done - ultimately leaving more time for you!"

Sears2go lets customers select products from a wide variety of categories, including apparel, electronics and computers, fitness and sports, jewelry, tools, toys and games with home delivery or in store pickup. After purchasing an item on Sears2go, shoppers picking up their order in store will receive a text message alert when their merchandise is ready for pick-up.

Many of the same features available on Sears.com will be available through Sears2go, providing a streamlined, consistent experience. Functional features, such as product search/browsing, shopping cart and checkout, gifts, product reviews, store locator, special offers and order status make mobile shopping just as easy as shopping online.

The site is powered by Usablenet, a NY based mobile partner for leading brands.

"We're proud to be working with Sears to deliver the convenience of mobile browsing and purchasing to its customers," said Nick Taylor, President of Usablenet. Usablenet Mobile is a fully managed service that leverages the features and functionality of a company's existing Web site and extends it to all mobile devices worldwide in less than six weeks, requiring no client IT or Web design resources.

Text SHOP to 73277 or visit Sears2go.com on your mobile phone. Standard text messaging rates may apply.

¡Café apureño! “En Sono Video Riky nos sentimos orgullosos de ser parte importante en estos momentos, de la historia de las telecomunicaciones de Venezuela, al ser el primer agente integral en ofrecer a los apureños los tres primeros iPhone 3G“ dijo a con-cafe.com el Sr. José Carballo, Gerente General de Sono Vídeo Ricky, quien junto a Llanocel, son los dos únicos agentes integrales en ofrecer este dispositivo de Apple en San Fernando de Apure.

Desde el sábado tres sanfernandinos pagaron sus iPhone 3G y ayer martes se lo entregaron. Fotos tomadas con un BlackBerry 8130.

El primer agente autorizado en la capital de Apure y en Calabozo fue LlanoCel, de Gerardo y Antonieta de Milano pero hoy Sono Video Riky le gana en la carrera del Apple iPhone 3G Movistar.

In a report we published last month called “Traveler Behavior in a Slowing Economy”, we discussed how the current economic environment is forcing travelers to reduce their travel frequency and spending.

We found that 33% of people who took a leisure trip in the summer say they will be more price sensitive than usual in their travel plans. Considering this is already an intensely price sensitive group with the average person researching 3 websites per product, More Price Sensitive is an important shift. In addition, 28% say they will research their travel even more intensely than they have before.

There are two trends whose implications I’ve been thinking about.

Last year, we’d seen an increase in branded search terms. I suspect going forward, words like “cheap”, “discount” and “deal” will creep back into top searches.

I also think we’re going to see travelers start researching earlier. That doesn’t mean they will purchase earlier. But they will be scanning, researching more intensely, and aware to pricing options to their desired destinations.

The combination of these two behavioral shifts could have a profound affect on all areas of online travel marketing. Search marketers will need to analyze their SEM robustly to determine if, in fact, they are affected by an increase in generic search terms. Promotions may need to start earlier and last longer. Website features will need to support longer planning windows.

The list will go on. “new economic reality” + “travel marketing”. Search.

Perhaps the greatest invention of the 20th century is the hardware and software infrastructure that makes up the data communications system known as the Internet. It's led to revolutions in the way people and businesses communicate, advertise and sell. Although the technology underpinning the Internet had been in development and use for several decades -- and although by some definitions the Internet itself went online in the 1960s -- it wasn't until the mid-1990s that the Web began to infiltrate people's daily lives.

Two recent patent battle lawsuits made news this week, and both highlighted one troubling aspect of patent lawsuits: patent holders trying to damage others beyond the company that infringed. Now, before the patent system defenders rush to post angry comments, this is not a new thing. It's been quite common for a while. Nor is it surprising. If you were a patent attorney representing one of these patent holders, you'd probably do the same thing: going after third parties is probably a good strategy to force the other company to settle. However, it does highlight how patent law is used in ways that clearly are outside of its intended purpose. That is, it's being used to punish plenty of innocent third parties by removing innovation from their grasps, rather than encouraging innovation.

The first case involves a patent lawsuit concerning Microsoft's Visual Studio. WebXchange claims it has patents that Visual Studio violates -- but rather than suing Microsoft, WebXchange sued three Microsoft customers, claiming that by using the software, they were violating the patent. This is clearly an attempt to scare Microsoft into settling, out of a fear that other customers won't use Visual Studio to avoid getting sued by WebXchange. Microsoft is fighting back, asking a judge to declare the patents invalid, but in the meantime, WebXchange has been able to drag Microsoft's customers into a patent battle, putting extra pressure on Microsoft to settle.

The second case involves Spansion suing Samsung for patent infringement concerning Samsung's memory chips. In this case, Spansion isn't just going after Samsung, but demanding an injunction that would block US sales of a variety of popular gadgets that use Samsung's memory chips -- including iPods and Blackberries. Once again, while it's unlikely that a court would order such a block, by dragging other companies such as Apple and RIM into the mess, Spansion is abusing the patent system's threat of an injunction to put extra pressure on Samsung to settle.

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The case shows that the ?cop on the beat? is there to ensure the integrity of the markets. But is this something we should care about?

Here is a Flash Lite 3.0 Mobile Guide that was created for Adobe MAX 2008 by Untravel Media.

Something big is coming in small packages to Adobe MAX this year! Here you can get a preview copy of the Adobe MAX ultimate conference guide in Flash Lite 3.0.

Grab your compatible device and load the conference guide before you go ? full of schedule information, videos and other helpful stuff.

You can also get a head start on the Adobe MAX Scavenger Hunt by watching the session videos!

What’s in the mobile guide:

- An inside look at Adobe’s special MAX 2008 announcements and topics

- Conference schedule and details, including a custom schedule filter and related videos

- Inside information about the Adobe MAX Scavenger Hunt.

- Supported on Flash Lite 3 mobile phones including the Nokia N95. Get FlashLite 3.0.

You can download.

Some day this will be me… just with longer socks

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you took the Motorola ZN5, made it a slider rather than a candybar phone, and added 3G, you now have an answer: the Motorola VE66. Also, stop thinking about stuff like that, weirdo.

It’s not quite that simple, but it’s pretty close. Like the ZN5, it’s got a QVGA screen (albeit .2″ smaller, at 2.2″), 5 megapixel camera (though with LED flash, rather than Xenon), Stereo Bluetooth, a microSD slot, and WiFi.

While the official announcement fails to mention it, GSMArena reports that there will be two models of the VE66: One with quad-band GSM/EDGE and no 3G (headed to China), and one with UMTS and HSDPA 3G. No word yet on availability beyond “Q4 of 2008″.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Toronto, October 15, 2008: The premier annual 2008 Financial Services Technology Forum will take place on October 28 & 29, 2008 at the Design Exchange (formerly Toronto Stock Exchange) in Toronto, Canada.