Mobile Computing
AT&T-Mobile: Merger brings efficiencies, but will consumers see the benefit?
March 21, 2011: 8:26 AM ETT-Mobile and AT&T say they won't have to raise rates to make more money after the merger, but it's hard to see how they could resist.
Image by misterjt via Flickr
At a recent investor conference, T-Mobile's top executives made a point of belittling data plans for smartphone users offered by rivals AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ). T-Mobile's entry-level data plan costs $10, they pointed out, while AT&T demands 50% more for the same 200 megabyte-a-month plan. That leads to an awkward question: Now that AT&T plans to buy T-Mobile, what's going to happen to those low cost plans?
Both federal antitrust regulators and the Federal Communications Commission, which has long functioned as an extra layer of antitrust enforcement in the telecommunications industry, will be scrutinizing the $39 billion deal. The proposal to create America's largest cell phone company, with a record 130 million customers, will also force regulators to revisit an even more fundamental issue. In the cellular industry, how big is too big? More
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Your smartphone will be your new computer and bank. China's, too.
Sure, smartphones are booming, but here's how banking, enterprise and OS battles are really going to play out on the sleek gadget in your pocket.
By Mitch Cline, guest contributor
Wireless handsets have been around for decades, but this market has perhaps never had a more promising future than it does now in terms of potential market penetration, consumer demand, and global significance. Take mobile handset penetration: Globally, we're talking big-time numbers MORE
Mar 10, 2011 2:51 PM ET -
Telecom investors: The 21st century's biggest chumps?
The last decade has been heaven for buyers of new communication gadgets and services—and hell for the telecom industry's investors.
Sure the new communications technologies of the 21st century are breathtaking—the iPhones, the Wi-Fi hotspots, the Xooms, the Skype video chats and so on—but that's only the half of the industry's magic. Since 2000, Americans have gained the power to communicate in ever more ways while somehow paying less to do MORE
Scott Woolley - Jan 14, 2011 3:00 AM ET -
Addicted to bits: Smartphones are our new drug of choice
Smartphones' sleek forms, tactile buttons, and blinking lights add up to a sort of game -- and a perfect catalyst for compulsive behaviors.
If you've got a smartphone, check it. Chances are, it's flashing a light or showing you an icon to signal a new text, e-mail, Facebook message, or even the archaic missed call. And that feels good. Face it, it's a bummer when you pick up your phone after MORE
Shelley DuBois, writer-reporter - Oct 20, 2010 11:32 AM ETPosted in: 3G, Addiction, Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Compulsive behavior, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Disorders, DSM-5, Health, Impulse Control, Internet addiction disorder, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, Mental disorder, Mental health, Mobile, Mobile Computing, Motorola, Palm, Phones, Research, RIM, Samsung, Sony, Steve Jobs, University of Connecticut Health Center, Verizon -
Florida tourism saved by social media. Really.
The state mounted a PR blitz to show beachgoers that Florida's surf had been spared an oily disaster. Presidential visits aside, it seems social media helped save summer tourism on the Gulf of Mexico
By Shelley DuBois, reporter
The BP (BP) Deepwater Horizon spill happened in the middle of nowhere in the Gulf of Mexico, but it also took place, as every event of global import now does, in the realm of MORE
Aug 27, 2010 11:12 AM ET -
Pandora by the dashboard light
Whether hooked to a laptop or iPod, or mainlining the Internet, car radios are evolving, with big assists from music companies like Pandora, MOG, and Jelli
By Betsy Feldman and Benjamin Snyder, contributors
Radio – the word is likelier to conjure up FDR's fireside chats than the cutting edge of the Web, but the original broadcast warhorse has survived the Internet boom far better than other traditional media. Americans listen to the MORE
Aug 25, 2010 3:08 PM ET -
Amazon's Kindle 3 gets a sleek new look
The market leading e-reader gets refreshed with a Wi-Fi only option and a zippier screen.
Amazon today introduced a new version of the Kindle eReader -- Kindle 3 -- that shows it's not backing down from selling dedicated electronic reading devices.
The new Kindle, code-named Shasta, doesn't have a color display or a touch screen, both long-rumored to be in the works, but it is smaller and lighter, and has a longer battery life MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Jul 28, 2010 10:33 PM ET -
World Cup vuvuzela filter: the future of Internet TV?
A TV-on-your-PC company has created a way to block the locust noise from World Cup broadcasts. It's just the start of the personal-filterized future of TV.
By Paul Smalera, senior editor
In honor of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, YouTube recently added a "vuvuzela" button that would enable the plastic horn's trademark buzzing on just about any video available on the site. That's pretty funny, and if you're watching "OMG MORE
Jun 24, 2010 11:49 AM ET -
SF Giants add tech to their baseball lineup
Michael Copeland heads out to the ballpark to see technology's invasion of America's pastime.
Ben Baer, Senior Producer - Jun 3, 2010 3:00 PM ET -
Techmate: Is Apple trying to kill Adobe?
In the latest episode of Techmate, Jon and Michael analyze the ongoing war between Apple (AAPL) and Adobe (ADBE) plus a surprise appearance by Hello Kitty.
Ben Baer, Senior Producer - May 7, 2010 2:41 PM ETPosted in: Adobe, Apple, Flash, Google, Hello Kitty, iPad, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod touch, iTunes, Mobile Computing, Steve Jobs, Tablets
