From TelephonyOnline:

Next year the United States Census Bureau will announce the headcount from its once-a-decade nationwide census, the result of a four-year process run by systems integrator Harris Corporation and Sprint (NYSE:S), the census’s exclusive wireless data provider. This will be the first census to be fully automated through Sprint’s wireline and wireless data support allowing for the real-time collection of data.

Michael Jackson fans are turning up the volume at the Sprint Music Store.

From Sprint's Twitter account:

BlackBerry Tour available July 12 via online and telesales! $199 for upgrade eligible customers, incl Instant+MIR.

Here's the order form.

In response to the post below about smartphones replacing laptops, AT&T shot this release to Sprint Connection:

DALLAS, July 1, 2009 — Contrary to conventional wisdom, netbooks aren’t just for consumers. AT&T* today announced another way for small businesses to enjoy access to the nation’s fastest 3G network in 350 major U.S. metropolitan areas.

Small business customers nationwide can now purchase Acer, HP and Panasonic netbooks and laptops, featuring AT&T’s embedded wireless technology, through the company’s’ relationship with CDW, a provider of technology solutions. The effort is part of AT&T’s initiative to introduce wireless capabilities into a wide variety of emerging devices beyond traditional handsets or smartphones and to enhance productivity for small businesses virtually wherever their business takes them.

John R. Quain at FoxNews asks whether it's time to ditch laptops for smartphones:

We don't call them "smartphones" for nothing.

From e-mail machines like the BlackBerry to svelte handsets like the iPhone, many cell phones today are essentially small computers with microprocessors, gigabytes of memory and the ability to surf the Internet.

So why use a laptop at all? Can't we do everything now on a smartphone?

InformationWeek reports that the sales of Palm's Pre smartphone have been vastly underestimated, according to a report from Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Snyder.

Palm and Sprint Nextel released the highly-anticipated Pre earlier this month, and Sprint said it broke sales record. The companies did not release sales numbers, but analysts estimated about 150,000 units were sold. After checking manufacturing and retail channels, Snyder said the actual number is closer to 300,000 units.

The Times of London

The world's biggest mobile phone makers announced a deal Monday agreeing to a universal standard phone charger that will work on millions of handsets made by different manufacturers.

Until now, phone makers have included a charger with every new handset, often with each charger only working on one type of device.

Beginning next year, everything from the iPhone and the BlackBerry to phones made by Nokia and Sony Ericsson will be made to work with a single charger that will work across many different brands of phone.

The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA | Comcast Corp. will become the first major cable TV operator to roll out wireless broadband outside of Wi-Fi hotspots as it launches the service today in Portland, Ore., with at least three other cities to follow this year.
Comcast will offer speeds of up to 4 Megabits per second, faster than any other comparable, non-Wi-Fi service currently being marketed. The service is for use with laptops, but not other mobile devices.

The Associated Press

Apple says CEO Steve Jobs is back at work a few days a week and working from home other days.
Jobs, a cancer survivor, had been on leave since the end of January.

ChannelWeb is reporting that the BlackBerry Tour is set for release:

The BlackBerry Tour 9630, the first major BlackBerry release from Research In Motion (RIM) this summer, is expected to land on two major U.S. carriers' networks within roughly the same week.
According to a promotional graphic posted on popular gadget blog Boy Genius Report, Verizon Wireless is planning to release the BlackBerry Tour on July 12. If that's the case, Verizon will be the first to hit the market with the awaited BlackBerry Tour, beating out Canadian carrier Telus' street date of July 15.

The Washington Post has a very complimentary story on Sprint:

One year ago, many were questioning Sprint Nextel's chances of survival. The firm was reeling from a disastrous $35 billion merger that brought together conflicting technologies and warring cultures. Its customer service was so bad that subscribers were leaving at a rate of 12,000 a day. Its bloated operations led to losses averaging $250 million a month.

Sources speaking to PhoneNews.com have confirmed that Sprint is internally testing the HTC Hero currently slated for release at the end of the year.

The PhoneNews item is here.

Talk about targeted marketing. A new ad published by Sprint is forward enough to include the word “iPhone” in big, bold letters.

Wired notes that the ads are similar to Microsoft’s Laptop Hunter ads, which bash Apple for its premium computer prices. The Sprint ad plays up the Palm Pre smartphone by stressing how much money iPhone customers can save by switching over.

“The Palm Pre does things the iPhone can’t,” says the ad, posted on Sprint’s Facebook page. “Run multiple applications at the same time with real-time updates and even save $1,200 over two years.”

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Palm Inc., maker of the new Pre phone, reported a smaller fourth-quarter loss than analysts estimated after sales fell less than predicted.

The net loss for common shareholders was $105 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with $43.4 million, or 40 cents, a year earlier, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said today in a statement. Sales fell to $86.8 million in the period, which ended May 31.

The Great Ape debate is over, as far as Sprint is concerned.

The company had come under flak from animal rights activists recently for using a chimpanzee in a movie theater ad that urges patrons to turn off their cell phones.

Sprint will pull the plug on the ad on July 3, according to a statement released today. Sprint said it will also "not feature great apes in future ads."