iPhone

Garmin's Nuvifone gets a full rundown from New York Times tech specialist David Pogue, and it's a mixed bag.

Pogue says the GPS features are great, as one would expect: "I'm not going to argue that an iPhone with a downloaded GPS app is just as good as a Garmin. Integration, polish and depth make a huge difference to a feature's usefulness."

So if you want great GPS in a device that can make calls, he says, this is worth a look.

Ahh, perspective. Ahh, New York.

The New York Times stirred things up this week with this story on slow iPhone service, thanks to the data load -- supposedly 10 times the average smart phone's -- that the popular Apple phone/music player/photo organizer/life planner/digital vegomatic puts on AT&T's network.

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.

You would think that if you had the iPhone you would be happy with your good fortune and content to let others live their lives.

You would be wrong.

AT&T and Sprint are locked in a fierce smackdown over which is better, the Apple iPhone offered exclusively by AT&T or the Palm Pre, a hot new device expected to make its debut nearly anytime now on the Sprint network.

Fierce Wireless reports that AT&T executives are dissing the PalmPre in internal memos, saying it is inferior to the iPhone "in almost every way."

Times are tough for anyone trying to sell communication services that run over copper lines.

But wireless? Not too bad, even in this brutal economy. And wireless service with those fancy phones cranked out by Steve Jobs and his merry band of Apple technologists is even better.

"I am particularly pleased with the success of our iPhone 3G initiative, which has driven strong high-end customer growth and delivered financial benefits ahead of our original outlook,” Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer, said today in a statement. “Business and consumer expectations for mobility are on the rise, wireless innovation is flourishing and the opportunities ahead are substantial. AT&T is strongly positioned to lead in the next generation of wireless growth."

Sprint Nextel's Dan Hesse sure has been effective at getting inside the heads of his rivals.

Hesse's previous talk of bold moves, or "nukes," came just before other companies launched their own preemptive strikes with flat-rate calling plans. Then Hesse countered that with Sprint's Simply Everything family of plans, which also included Internet surfing and data services.

Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, seemed to have Hesse and Sprint on his mind again recently when talking about the wireless industry.

AT&T's CEO knows he has a powerful source of Kryptonite that is withering his rivals.

And he doesn't want to give it up.

Rather than a shiny rock, the foe-weakening Kryptonite possessed by Randall Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, is the exclusive U.S. rights to sell Apple's iPhone.

"Because the deal has given it a big advantage over most domestic rivals, the company wants to prevent them from getting access to the device," Marketwatch reported. "In the second half of 2008 alone, AT&T activated 4.3 million iPhone accounts"

Sprint and Palm might want to get moving and launch the Pre as soon as possible.

The two companies counting heavily on the momentum from a hot phone will have less competition for the wireless industry spotlight over the next month or two.

After that, it looks like we also could be dazzled by the gleaming sparkle of another device: a new version of the iPhone. Have you heard of it?

Boy Genius is citing talk from unidentified sources “pretty high up in AT&T’s food chain” that says a new iPhone announcement is coming around mid-June.

At least Sprint and the other wireless carriers won’t have to worry about Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer adding to the heartburn they suffer because of Apple’s Steve Jobs and the iPhone.

Phil Goldstein at Fierce Wireless reports that the top-secret project in Redmond – reportedly code-named “Pink” – is not going to produce a new Microsoft smartphone on the company’s Zune music player platform.

Today is Steve Jobs’ birthday.

But if the chatter is true, it could be Verizon Wireless – and Sprint? – that gets to unwrap the sleek white box with an iPhone, or maybe millions of iPhones, inside.

This report suggests that the wizards of Cupertino finally found a way to cram a CDMA chip inside the iPhone, which now only works on GSM networks such as the one operated by AT&T. Both Verizon and Sprint use CDMA networks.

Considering what day it will be Saturday, this should be the season of love.

Instead, Om Malik at GigaOm is offering one of those messy breakup stories. With his Apple iPhone.

Actually, it’s a bit of a love-triangle situation. Om doesn’t love his so-called “superphone” any less. But AT&T and its “spotty” network came between Om and his Apple device.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says his company has “the most dependable 3G” wireless network, a claim backed up by outside tests. Understandably, Hesse is not just an uninterested observer in this quarrel.

So listen to Malik:

“I love my iPhone — but AT&T’s network has failed me,” Malik wrote.

Sometimes hype is just, well, hype.

And then there is the iPhone.

AT&T hung its subscriber numbers on the board this morning: 2.1 million Net Gain in Wireless Subscribers in the fourth quarter and…1.9 million Apple iPhone 3G activations.

That’s worth pausing a moment to consider one more time: 1.9 million Apple iPhone 3G activations – in the fourth quarter alone.

For the year? How about 4.3 million iPhone activations just in the second half of 2008.

And you want to know what is truly worrisome – at least for anyone depending on Sprint, Verizon or another company for a paycheck, an investment or just the general well being of their regional economy?

The Palm Pre may come under attack before it even enters production.

Apple COO Timothy Cook said Wednesday that the manufacturer of the iPhone is closely looking at wireless competitors that try to emulate the phone's touch and feel.

The Palm Pre, which will be offered by Sprint exclusively when it launches later this year, was the only handset specifically mentioned by name.

"It's difficult to judge products that are not yet in the market," Cook said during a conference call announcing Apple's first-quarter earnings.

It turns out the Samsung Instinct is an even bigger deal for Sprint than we thought.

Ninty-four times bigger to be exact.

A huge new 3-D billboard in Times Square in New York features a "working" Instinct with an LED screen that's more than 22 feet wide and eight feet tall.

The video offers a head-on comparison of the Instinct and the Apple iPhone.

The billboard is the product of Dimensional Innovations of Overland Park, which collaborated with Goody Silverstein Partners of San Francisco on the project.

AT&T is getting some grief this week from subscribers ticked off because the wireless carrier sent out millions of spam messages promoting American Idol.

The message Tuesday: "Get ready for American Idol! AI 8 starts this Tues (1/13) at 8pm on FOX...." Etc.

The response, at least on the Net, has been pretty definitive.

"I pay my AT&T bill on time, every month, and what do I get in return (besides a flurry of dropped calls)? This lousy SMS spam shilling 'American Idol,'" Ben Patterson wrote on Yahoo Tech.