Carly Foulkes: The Hot T-Mobile Chick

Robalini's Note: Am I only one who suspects the merger was blocked because regulators are fans of her commercials?

http://coedmagazine.com/2011/01/03/whos-that-girl-carly-foulkes-the-t-mobile-4g-girl-75-photos

Once in a while during a commercial break, you resist clicking the remote. Something or someone caught your eye. In years past, we were enamored with the girl from that Cadillac commercial. This football season, it seems the chick from those T-Mobile 4G TV spots has everyone talking. Who is she? Many believed it was Hot Tub Time Machine’s Jessica Pare. Some of us at the office would’ve laid money on Jessica being the mystery woman. However, you’d be wrong. Carly Foulkes is the 4G fox that has everyone’s antennas up. We got your signal, Carly. To steal a competitor’s line, you make us want to reach out and touch someone (specifically you).

Photos from:

http://thesocialnewspaper.com/man-cave/carly-foulkes-makes-me-want-to-mytouch-wait-30-photos

T-Mobile Users Rejoice at Justice Dept. Blocking AT&T Merger

Mike Isaac
August 31, 2011
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/08/att-tmobile-doj-merger-block

“I’m so happy that I don’t have to be an AT&T customer.”

Posted to a T-Mobile message board this morning, one user’s feelings nail the sentiment among consumers following Wednesday’s announcement that the Justice Department is suing to block AT&T’s proposed acquisition of the Deutsche-Telekom–owned wireless network.

T-Mobile users generally responded positively to the news that they wouldn’t be seeing the AT&T death star on their cellphone bills anytime soon. Riffing on the oft-bemoaned shortcomings of both networks, one Wired.com reader proposed an unfortunate merger scenario: ”AT&T’s zero-bars reception merged with T-Mobile’s customer service. I think the result might just collapse into a black hole of suck.”

AT&T has long championed its proposed merger of T-Mobile as being beneficial to the wireless customers of both networks. The company claims it will improve wireless service for AT&T and T-Mobile customers, expand 4G coverage to more of the country and, most recently, add a significant number of jobs to the U.S. workforce.

But in the Justice Department’s eyes — and anecdotally those of T-Mobile’s customer base as well — the costs of the merger may outweigh the benefits. “The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services,” said deputy attorney general James M. Cole in the Justice filing.

Not to mention some of the concessions existing T-Mobile customers would have to make if the merger were to go through. AT&T has repeatedly stated it planned to use T-Mobile’s 1700-MHz spectrum for its eventual 4G LTE deployment. That would ultimately make T-Mobile customers buy new phones that could function on AT&T’s network — unless, that is, you’re okay with EDGE network service.

Those least happy about the Justice Department’s actions are, of course, AT&T and T-Mobile. In the past year, T-Mobile has seen a steady decline in profits as T-Mobile customer contracts have been reduced by nearly a million subscribers. If Deutsche Telekom were able to sell off T-Mobile to AT&T for $39 billion, the German firm could then use that money to invest in its European business.

Not to mention a successful blocking of the merger would prevent AT&T’s dreams of becoming the largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, surpassing Verizon as the reigning champ and leaving Sprint in the dust.

Of course, if the lawsuit fails to block the merger, today’s customer rejoicing could lend itself to tomorrow’s mass customer departures: “If AT&Terrible is able to acquire them,” wrote one T-Mobile subscriber, “then I am outta here so fast they won’t even know I existed.”

U.S. gov’t mandates special chip in all cellphones

Users can’t opt out of presidential messages
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
http://macdailynews.com/2011/05/11/u-s-federal-govt-mandates-special-chip-in-all-cellphones-users-cant-opt-out-of-presidential-messages

According to The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) is a new system that allows users who own an enabled mobile device to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. The alerts, currently being rolled out in New York City and Washington D.C. and expected to be in place in those cities by the end of 2011, would be done through a special chip to be installed on new handheld devices. It will use GPS technology and will send some of the alerts based on the location of the phone user. The alert system is expected to be instituted in rest of the U.S. by April 2012. Certain high-end cell phones are PLAN-enabled, but starting next year, all cellphones will be required to have the chip that receives alerts.

The Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act requires participating wireless carriers to activate PLAN technology by a deadline determined by the FCC, which is April 2012. Participants that will offer PLAN ahead of schedule include AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

How Does PLAN Work?

• Authorized national, state or local government officials send alerts to PLAN.
• PLAN authenticates the alert, verifies that the sender is authorized, and sends it to participating wireless carriers.
• Participating wireless carriers push the alerts from cell towers to mobile phones in the affected area. The alerts appear like text messages on mobile devices.

These “text-like messages” are geographically targeted. For example, a customer living in downtown New York would not receive a threat alert if they happen to be in Chicago when the alert is sent. Similarly, someone visiting downtown New York from Chicago on that same day would receive the alert. This requires a PLAN enabled mobile device and participation by the wireless provider in PLAN.

Users are automatically enrolled, as PLAN allows government officials to send “text-like messages” to all subscribers with PLAN-enabled devices if their wireless carrier participates in the program. Users do not sign up for this service. Users do not pay to receive “text-like messages” from PLAN which will be accompanied by a unique attention signal and vibration, which is particularly helpful to people with hearing or vision-related disabilities.

According to FEMA, users will receive three types of alerts from PLAN: (1) alerts issued by the president; (2) alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life; and (3) Amber Alerts. Participating carriers may allow subscribers to block alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life and/or Amber Alerts, but not presidential alerts. Presidential alerts are required of cellphone users and cannot be turned off.

MacDailyNews Take: We get “text-like messages” all day long; no “special chip” required. What else, if anything, does this “special chip” do? Is it just us or did the slope just get slipperier?

Yeah, yeah, we know: This is for our protection. It’s only for public safety. The government chip is “special.” Take off the tinfoil hats. This is a “Good Thing™. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

We have to wonder, though. What’s next? Maybe we’d all be “safer” if the government could use their federally-mandated “special chip” to turn on your cellphone cameras in “an emergency” in order to get a look at what’s going on around you? And your phones’ microphones, so the government can hear, too? How else could government-mandated special chips be used to make us “safer?”

Has anyone read Nineteen Eighty-Four recently?

You know what? The world is a dangerous place and you can’t protect everyone from everything. We’d rather retain what freedoms we have left and take our chances than to be forced to carry special government-mandated chips and receive presidential “text-like messages” that we can’t turn off, if we simply want to carry our cellphones.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

– Benjamin Franklin

AT&T & T-Mobile Merger?

Unless the Obama Administration objects (which, given their track record, won't happen) AT&T will purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion. While many of the headlines focused on the fact T-Mobile customers would now be able to get the iPhone, the stakes are even bigger. Number 2 celluar company AT&T has 95 million customers, and number four T-Mobile has 35 million: combined that is 130 million, more than 100 mil for current top dog Verizon. The only other major cell telecom would be Sprint, with 50 million. No word on what would happen to the really hot T-Mobile chick.

Credit to Salon.com for making the strong case that this is a bad deal for customers, period, iPhone or no iPhone:

Let’s be clear. If the Obama administration fails to block this deal, it will be setting the lowest possible bar in approving mergers and buyouts. This buyout could not be more obviously bad for competition -- and therefore bad for customers -- and antitrust enforcement is designed precisely for protecting competition.

When I said there would be two major winners in this deal, I was referring to Verizon, the largest mobile carrier in the nation, as the other one. AT&T is currently second largest, with Sprint and T-Mobile trailing. A combined AT&T and T-Mobile would be a bit larger than Verizon, with Sprint in a very distant third place.

We’re talking about creating an effective duopoly, or something not too short of that. Business history shows no case in which a duopoly proved beneficial to competition, or to customers.

AT&T wants us to believe there's plenty of competition. This is sophistry. A few regional and tertiary players do exist, but they have none of the reach, and not nearly the same level of capabilities and service, that you can get from today’s Big 4. They would be utterly dwarfed by the Big 2 plus Sprint in the new world.

Consider the airline business. Today, we have three major carriers left: Delta, American and United-plus-Continental (the latter two are in a merger). A host of smaller carriers, including the increasingly beefy Southwest, keep the big ones mostly in line on price on most routes. But does anyone believe we’d be better off with just two mega-airlines, other than some industry executives and shareholders? This is plainly not a perfect analogy, but it gives you a sense of what’s at stake.

More important, T-Mobile has offered competitive service plans including my ability to bring my own phone and get a discounted monthly rate. All of the other carriers force customers to pay the same rate whether they buy a supposedly subsidized phone or bring their own -- an outrageous policy that, if we had actual regulation to ensure consumer fairness, would not be permitted. (We have no serious regulation in America, of course.)

T-Mobile’s customer service people are unfailingly polite and knowledgeable. That’s unique among U.S. carriers. It has by far the best privacy protection of any mobile data provider.

T-Mobile puts as much crapware -- unwanted applications that are difficult to remove -- on the phones it subsidizes as anyone else. But unlike AT&T (and the rest), it cheerfully unlocks its phones after a reasonable period. This is important mainly for people who travel abroad; we can buy local SIM cards (only works for GSM phones, and AT&T blocks this anyway by refusing to unlock the phones its customers have paid for) for lower-cost service in other countries.

AT&T is widely loathed by its customers. It’s lagged in deploying 3G bandwidth on its wireless network and has a history of collaborating with illegal government spying on its customers...

The biggest losers, of course, are all of us who want to see actual competition in an increasingly restrictive marketplace. This is not a good deal for anyone but AT&T and its shareholders, and it should be stopped in its tracks.

In The Race For More Spectrum, AT&T Is Acquiring T-Mobile For $39 Billion
MG Siegler
Mar 20, 2011
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/20/in-the-race-for-more-spectrum-att-is-acquiring-t-mobile-for-39-billion/

Why the AT&T -T-Mobile merger must be stopped
Dan Gillmor
Monday, Mar 21, 2011
http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2011/03/21/gillmor_on_att_tmobile/index.html

Consumer Reports readers rank AT&T worst carrier in US

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/06/consumer_reports_readers_rank_att_worst_carrier_in_us.html

Monday, December 6, 2010
Consumer Reports readers rank AT&T worst carrier in US

AT&T, the exclusive wireless provider of Apple's iPhone in the U.S., was the only major American carrier that dropped significantly in overall customer satisfaction in this year's Consumer Reports reader survey.

AT&T fared poorly across the board, earning the worst-possible score in all categories related to value, service and customer support, except for the "texting" service category. More than half of survey respondents who used AT&T owned some version of the iPhone.

"Our survey suggests that an iPhone from Verizon Wireless, which is rumored, could indeed be good news for iPhone fans," said Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports.

The carrier with the highest score was U.S. Cellular, which serves in 26 states mostly in the South and Midwest. To see the full results in the January issue, subscribe to Consumer Reports.

In second place was Verizon Wireless, which is widely rumored to receive the iPhone in early 2011. Verizon also recently began selling Apple's iPad, bundled with a MiFi 2200 Intelligent Hotspot.

Nipping at Verizon's heels is Sprint, which scored better than Verizon in terms of e-mail customer support. Verizon was previously the top U.S. provider since 2003.

In fourth, but still ahead of AT&T, was T-Mobile, which respondents said has poor service, but the best telephone customer support in the industry.

In response to the Consumer Reports survey, AT&T sent out the following response:

"We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience. The fact is wireless customers have choices and a record number of them chose AT&T in the third quarter, significantly more than our competitors."

The company also cited a survey from last month, which found that AT&T has wireless speeds much faster than Verizon. That same study, from Global Wireless Solutions Inc., also found that AT&T's dropped call rate is within one-tenth of a percent of Verizon.

“It’s just like an iPhone”

http://scottworldblog.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/its-just-like-an-iphone/
“It’s just like an iPhone”
August 13, 2010
tags: Blackberry, iPhone, AT&T, Google, Android
Scott Rose

“It’s just like an iPhone.”

That’s the phrase I hear every single day, from dozens of people who have bought Android phones instead of the iPhone.

That phrase makes me cringe, because I know that there’s simply no comparison to the iPhone and that it’s downright insulting to compare other phones to the iPhone.

The iPhone is a real OS X-based computer in the palm of your hands, that just happens to double as a phone. Android phones are phones first, with all the other features tacked on as poorly-implemented afterthoughts (that were ineffectively stolen from Apple).

But that, I believe, is the real problem here for Apple. At this point, anybody who hasn’t already purchased the iPhone doesn’t really want a full computer in their hands. They just want a phone that successfully makes calls… oh, and hopefully it has a couple of cool extra features on the side like checking email & checking Facebook.

So therefore, the vast majority of people don’t care about the vast differences in quality between the iPhone and the Android. For the vast majority of people, Android is close enough to an iPhone. And most importantly of all, Android is available on all cell phone carriers in the United States.

And therefore, I am forced to hear this annoying phrase every day:

“It’s just like an iPhone.”

If you haven’t already bought an iPhone at this point, I’m guessing that you, too, really want to make phone calls first and foremost. It is widely known and widely reported that AT&T is the nation’s worst cell phone carrier. I love my iPhone 4 and I would never trade it in for a crappy Android phone, but even I have to take deep breaths several times a day to calm myself down over dozens of AT&T dropped calls or AT&T dead zones. And not just in Los Angeles, either. The same thing happened when I was visiting Boulder (Colorado), San Diego, San Francisco, and Chicago.

This is a serious problem for Apple.

Just like Apple lost the Mac vs. PC marketshare war (even though their product was superior), Apple is on the path to losing the cell phone marketshare war (even though their product is superior). And it’s all because Apple hasn’t brought the iPhone to other carriers.

For the average consumer, there’s simply no advantage to why they should purchase an iPhone. For the average consumer, Android’s horrible touchscreen is good enough. For the average consumer, Android’s unintuitive user interface is good enough. For the average consumer, Android’s lack of security is good enough. For the average consumer, all the crappy Android hardware out there is good enough. For the average consumer, Android’s small app selection is good enough because most of the apps they want to use (Facebook, Google Maps, Dropbox, etc.) are available on Android. Even iPhone 4's FaceTime videochatting isn’t an advantage to the average consumer. For most people, FaceTime is a novelty — something you do once or twice, then you go back to texting & phone calling again. And if Apple makes FaceTime open source like they say they are going to, then you could eventually buy ANY Android phone and still do FaceTime videochatting on it anyways. So again, where’s the iPhone advantage to the average consumer?

For the average consumer, there is simply one looming disadvantage to the iPhone: AT&T.

Nobody wants to be with AT&T. Not even the people who are with AT&T.

And please do NOT get me started on AT&T’s complete hypocrisy with roll-over minutes for phone calls but no roll-over data. Um, AT&T, it’s all the exact same data going through your cell towers! Don’t even get me started on AT&T charging their customers 3 separate times for the same exact data: iPhone, iPad, and iPhone tethering. And don’t even get me started on AT&T’s outrageous text messaging fees. (By the way, Verizon isn’t any better when it comes to their fees.) So above and beyond AT&T’s horrible phone call quality, we’ve also got to deal with AT&T’s predatory financial practices as well. I was only paying $60 a month back when I was with Sprint on my Treo 650 — and that included tethering and unlimited data.

And so, I have to grit my teeth every time I hear that phrase:

“It’s just like an iPhone.”

On top of the AT&T problem, let’s throw in the perceived iPhone 4 antennagate problems too. Every day, I receive emails from average, non-technical consumers asking me when Apple is going to “fix all the problems with the iPhone 4?. I simply refer them to Apple’s press conference video. Real or not, consumers believe that the iPhone 4 is flawed. Real or not, there is so much bad word-of-mouth spreading about AT&T and the iPhone 4 that the average consumer really doesn’t want to jump into that pool of sharks right now.

Here are just a few stories about people I know who just bought Android phones, and now they’re locked into 2 year contracts without an iPhone. At the end of the 2 years, it’s highly likely that they’ll feel so comfortable with the Android OS that they will continue to purchase another Android phone.

My dad just bought an Android phone because he is not going to leave Verizon for AT&T. He gets NO AT&T signal at his home, at his office, or at his winter home in Florida. And no thank you, he is not interested in buying $150 AT&T Microcell 3G towers for every place that he could possibly be in a given day. A Microcell tower isn’t going to help him while he’s dropping AT&T phone calls on the freeway. He just called to tell me, “My new phone is just like the iPhone.”

A friend of mine just bought an Android phone because she is on Sprint and has an incredible $50 per month unlimited everything plan that she’s been grandfathered in on. She has no plans on ever leaving Sprint for her entire life. She told me, “My phone is just like the iPhone.”

A client of mine just bought an Android phone on T-Mobile because she doesn’t get any AT&T signal at her home, she loves T-Mobile’s customer service, she has a super cheap monthly plan, and she has always been with T-Mobile. She said to me, “My phone is just like the iPhone.”

Another friend of mine just bought an Android phone because she lives up in the Hollywood Hills, where AT&T has never had any cell towers at all and where there is absolutely no signal at all. You guessed it. “My phone is just like the iPhone.”

Hell, a friend of mine who is ALREADY WITH AT&T just bought an Android phone because “I’ve heard horrible stories about the iPhone 4. I’m waiting until the iPhone 5G comes out.” And then for good measure, he added, “My phone is really just like the iPhone.”

When it comes down to it, Apple is losing the war here. They’re losing mindshare, they’re losing marketshare, and they’re losing any effective way to distinguish themselves from the other phones on the market. As a result, Android phones are selling at the astonishing rate of 200,000 per day, and is now the 3rd most popular phone OS in the world. Apple is #4.

Is Apple going to wake up in time? Or is this going to be a redux of the Mac-PC war, where Apple’s superior technology loses once again, and we enter into another 20 years of technological dark ages, driven by companies like Google and Verizon that are driven solely by greed and not what is in the best interest for the consumer?

If Apple doesn’t wake up quickly, we’re all going to be living in an Android world.

And that is one world that I don’t want to live in.

I want to live in a world where people are able to realize for themselves:

“No, it’s not just like an iPhone.”
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10 Things Not to Buy in 2010

http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/budgeting/10-things-not-to-buy-in-2010/

Consumer Action by AnnaMaria Andriotis
December 31, 2009
10 Things Not to Buy in 2010

Ten years ago, most homes relied on dial-up connections to access the Internet and iPods, flat-screen TVs and the Nintendo Wii didn’t exist.

As we prepare to ring in 2010, consumer should expect to see more revolutionary products supplanting old mainstays. In media, DVDs, books, newspapers and magazines will continue to lose ground to services like in-home movie rentals and gadgets like the Amazon Kindle. In big-ticket items, the push for energy efficiency will continue to influence consumer decisions on cars and home upgrades.

As a result, some consumer products appear poised for a dip in sales, which could be a prelude to obsolescence. Here are 10 items not to buy in 2010.

DVDs

The days of going to a video shop to rent a movie are at an end. In September, Blockbuster said it plans to close roughly 22% of its stores by the end of 2010; meanwhile, third-quarter revenue was down 21% from the year-ago period. (The company didn’t return calls for comment.)

Looking ahead, DVD purchases could turn cold, as well. On average, DVDs sell for at least $20 each. That’s pricier than signing up for Netflix or renting movies from cable providers’ on-demand channels. Netflix charges as little as $8.99 a month to rent one DVD at a time (with no limit to the number of monthly rentals).

Time Warner Cable offers thousands of movies on demand for around $4.99 each. Verizon Fios cable service charges $5.99 a month to download unlimited movies.

Home telephone service

It will probably take a while, but home landlines could become as archaic as the rotary phone.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, more than one in five U.S. homes (22.7%) had cellphones – and no landlines – during the first half of 2009, up from 10.5% during the same period in 2006.

Ditching your home phone is easier now than it has been in the past, as cell phone companies compete for greater market share and alternatives to the home landline continue growing. For example, magicJack provides phone service when it’s plugged into a computer’s USB port and a home phone. It costs $39.95 and includes a one-year license for calls in the U.S. and Canada; after that, service costs $19.95 per year. (By contrast, Time Warner Cable’s digital home phone service costs $39.95 per month.)

And, consider Skype, which is free when you communicate with other Skype users; this software application uses the Internet as a platform to make calls, hold video conferences and send instant messages.

External hard drives

Consumers who keep their computers for years and upload thousands of songs, videos, movies and photos will need to get more space at some point.

External hard drives are one option, but an up-and-coming alternative might be simpler and save you another transition down the road. Online backup services, like Carbonite.com or Mozy.com, allow users to back up data over the Internet.

These services are more expensive than purchasing an external hard drive, which typically starts at around $70. At Carbonite.com, a one-year subscription starts at $54.95, and at Mozy.com monthly subscription costs total $54.45 for a year.

Smartphone also-rans

In the past few years, several smartphones hit the market with similar features to the iPhone and BlackBerry, but they haven’t generated the same buzz. As a result, fewer developers are likely to create applications and other products that cater to those phones.

Today, the BlackBerry dominates the smartphone market with 40% market share, followed by the iPhone with 25%, according to data released by ComScore in December. In the near term, both are expected to stay at the top. ComScore found that most consumers who’ll be shopping for smartphones in the next three months plan to purchase a Blackberry (51%) or an iPhone (20%).

By contrast, only 5% of respondents said they planned to purchase T-Mobile’s MyTouch. The Palm Pre and Palm Centro received 2% and 1% of the vote, respectively.

A possible upcoming competitor that could shake up the space is Google’s Android. According to ComScore, as of October, the Android’s market share had doubled to 3.5% in the past year.

Compact digital cameras

For nearly a decade, digital compact cameras were must-haves for most consumers.

But during the past several years, another type of digital camera has been slowly rising in popularity: the single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, from manufacturers including Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus. Although bulkier, these cameras produce pictures that more accurately represent what’s in their viewfinders than those that use older technology.

They’re also pricier. For example, Canon’s digital compact cameras start at $110, while the SLRs start at $570.

Newspaper subscriptions

The past few years have been unkind to the publishing industry.

In 2008, newspaper advertising revenues declined by 17.7%, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Meanwhile, average daily circulation at 379 newspapers fell 10.6% from April through September 2009, compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Magazines haven’t fared any better. In 2009, more than 360 magazines shut down. During the first half of 2009, ad pages fell 27.9% when compared to the same period in 2008, according to Publishers Information Bureau.

The morning newspaper has been replaced by a growing online media presence – much of which is accessible for free. The Amazon Kindle – even with its price tag of around $250 – and other eBook readers could increasingly become one-stop sources to access newspapers, magazines and books.

CDs

When was the last time you bought a CD or even walked into a record store?

The past decade was one of the worst for the industry. In the beginning, there was Napster. Then came iTunes, which was introduced in 2001 and offered affordable pricing and easy accessibility. Face it, CDs aren’t coming back.

Record stores are feeling the pinch. Most Virgin Megastores in the U.S. have shut down following declines in sales and revenues. In 2004, Tower Records entered bankruptcy and by 2006 most locations had closed.

New college textbooks

Unless a student absolutely needs brand-new textbooks, they can use several alternatives to save.

Shop for used textbooks, which can help you save 70% to 90% off the retail price, says Mike Gatti, the executive director at the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a trade group. Check out web sites like CheapestTextbooks.com, Booksprice.com or Amazon.com. Many college bookstores also sell used texts.

Another option is downloading books online. Sites like Coursesmart.com sell subscriptions to digital copies of more than 7,000 textbooks. TextbookMedia.com allows students to download textbooks for free. You can also rent textbooks on Chegg.com.

Gas-guzzling cars

Skyrocketing gasoline prices dominated headlines during most of the decade, and they remain volatile.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that crude oil prices will average around $77 a barrel for the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $42.90 in the first quarter. The EIA also projects prices will rise in 2010 to their highest point in more than two years: $81.33 a barrel.

Recent announcements by car manufacturers to mass produce fuel-efficient cars could help push consumers away from gas-guzzling vehicles.

According to the Department of Energy, the most efficient cars include the Honda Civic Hybrid, which gets 40 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 45 mpg on the highway, the Volkswagen Jetta and Golf (both run on diesel), which each get 30 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway, and the Toyota Prius hybrid (51/48 mpg).

Energy-inefficient homes and appliances

Ten years ago, shopping for home upgrades involved looking at a product’s functionality and aesthetic. Now, there’s another component: energy efficiency.

Today, the products most touted by manufacturers and retailers are those that are Energy Star certified and those that meet new federal environmental standards – most of which have higher price tags than their counterparts but help to lower heating and cooling bills.

The government is offering a federal tax credit of up to $1,500 on energy-efficient home upgrades through Dec. 31, 2016. But many are set to expire by Dec. 31, 2010; these include eligible insulation, roofs and windows and doors.

T-Mobile could acquire Sprint

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/84654

Reports: T-Mobile could acquire Sprint
Fri Mar 7, 2008

Talk about some a strange possibility: Could the nation's fourth largest cellular carrier, T-Mobile, gobble up the third largest, Sprint Nextel? Analysts are saying that in order to maintain competitiveness and help avoid a price war in the cellular space (though that's already happening, to be honest), T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, could make a play for beleaguered Sprint.

The scenario is particularly possible because of DT's foreign ownership; a weak dollar means Sprint can be had for far less now that it would in better economic conditions, and Sprint's stock is down nearly 50 percent since the beginning of the year.

Of course, technical challenges would be incredible if the two companies were to merge: T-Mobile is a GSM network (as is DT overseas), while Sprint is a CDMA network. When Sprint bought Nextel it was put in the position of integrating itself with Nextel's old iDEN network, something that has gone so poorly that some say Sprint might actually spin Nextel back off into its own company. (The combined Sprint Nextel aggravated customers of both companies, who have fled in droves.) With three types of networks to manage, it's hard to fathom how a smallish operation like T-Mobile could cope. Or would T-Mobile bite the bullet and force all Sprint customers into GSM handsets?

That said, the idea of a cellular merger at least creates the opportunity for a great new corporate name. Sprint blew an awesome opportunity when it failed to name its new corporation something like Sprextel. Now T-Mobile has a chance to do something bold. T-Mobisprex for the win.