Majority owned by Sprint-Nextel, the Clearwire service currently offers flat priced services for laptop wireless connectivity, but recently stated plans to develop a pay-as-you-go plan. From a brief Reuters article, Clearwire is the first U.S. service provider to offer fourth-generation wireless services but its biggest rival, Verizon Wireless, is expected to follow suit with a 4G service later this year. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc. While different pricing models will greatly benefit consumers—I know that it does for me, with a lot of phone companies selling mobile hot spots—the competition of also breaking into 4G from 3G should help lower entry prices. Without pricing to report, w

Intel has agreed to acquire Infineon Technologies’ Wireless Solutions business, for approximately $1.4 billion. The announcement came over the weekend, with Intel looking to further its mobile presence. This acquisition comes on the tail of Intel’s announcement to buy McAfee, a securities software company, for nearly $8 billion. Based in Germany, Infineon is a major supplier of chips to Apple, Nokia and Samsung, among others. Its wireless segment will remain a standalone business, maintaining relations with existing customers. This will include its ARM-based products and Intel-based application processor platforms. "The global demand for wireless solutions continues to grow at an extraordinary rate,” said Paul Otellini,

Cloud storage and services provider OpenStack has launched an iPad app to boost clients tools. Based on the Rackspace Cloud Pro iPad app, the new OpenStack iPad app presents a mobile access point for managing certain aspects of clients’ accounts (read more about Rackspace's backing of OpenStack here). The OpenStack iPad app is a front-end project for clients, allowing them to receive updates on the status of your servers, the ability to ping your compute nodes from various global locations, and emailing files from your OpenStack Object Storage. OpenStack explains the app’s integration with Chef and the Opscode Platform, noting “Our newest feature, made possible by working with people from Opscode, is integration with Chef

The first set of videos is from the game called Harvest and it is no wonder Microsoft has put its foot down when it comes to the handset specs. [Cross-posted at Winextra]

USA Today plans a major HR restructuring. The purpose of this move is to shift focus from print to mobile devices based news delivery. NewYork Times reports: The makeover outlined to staffers on Thursday will result in about 130 layoffs this fall, the publisher of USA Today, David L. Hunke said, which is about 9 percent of the paper’s 1,500 employees. Mr. Hunke did not specify which departments would be hardest hit. The management shake-up affects both the newspaper’s business operations and newsroom. The reason behind such a major shift can be partially blamed on the decline in print media-based advertising. The advertising industry has seen a major shift towards online and mobile based advertising as discussed by Kristen Nico

For all the talk of dramatic change in the smartphone landscape over the last two or three years, they pale in comparison to the impact of what's next: The shift from circuit-switched voice to VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. This has been talked about for 10 years, but the stars are finally aligning to hit with full force right now. Here is why: The average U.S. smartphone monthly bill is approximately $100, plus tax. Of this $100, approximately 2/3 goes to an unlimited voice plan, and the other third to a broadband data fee for service ranging from 2 gig to unlimited. Think about this for a moment. All the excitement of new and old apps alike, ranging from email to simple Web browsing to Facebook, Netflix, Dropbox, Twitter and

What is it about Steve Jobs and Apple Computing? Last week Apple applied for a patent for technology to take over “jail broken” iPads and iPhones and reset them to factory defaults. This is apparently Apple's reply to a federal judicial ruling that makes “jail breaking” devices legal. The message seems to be, “We can't sue you, but we can force you back into line.” Jail breaking, for those who are not familiar with the term, basically means removing restrictions on the apps, media, and other material that a smart phone can run. It is most commonly applied to iPhones mainly because Apple maintains such tight controls over what apps can be used on the device. Of course this requires technical skills beyond what most users have,

This connection will put two extremely powerful technologies together: the social networking maelstrom of Facebook and the participatory culture insights of SCVNGR. Google’s offering connects location based social gaming in a way that generates a sort of casual ARG (Alternate Reality Game) for users. Enabling them to earn points, generate reputation, and involve friends, and discover new things all from their mobile phones. The particularly stunning element of SCVNGR, which will probably cause it to catch fire when it reaches enough people, is their concept of challenge stories. People who have connected through Facebook Places with this app will find themselves working against and with one another to achieve particular goals, driven i

Rumors have surfaced of Apple announcing a new iPod Touch at a press conference, on 1st September, in SanFransisco.  From implications of the the guitar image on the invitation card to the negotiations with music label, it all seems to generate some buzz. It is said that the big announcement of the press conference might be either the new iPod Touch or updates on the cloud based music service, or about Apple TV... or even all of them. However, most expect that Apple CEO Steve Jobs, himself, will  unveil the new iPod Touch on 1st September. InformationWeek reports : Though Apple, infamous for its secrecy, is mum on details about the new product, analysts believe the new iPod Touch will feature dual cameras—one rear facing and one t

A new survey on consumer attitudes toward mobile devices from Forrester Research reports that 14% of U.S. consumers plan to buy slate computing devices this year, according to MediaBistro, even though many seem confused about exactly what a slate computer is. The report, by Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, attributes this level of interest among early adopter consumers to Apple's brilliant marketing of the iPad, although it notes that not all of these potential buyers are Apple users, implying that competitive devices, if marketed well, will attract part of this market. The report says that they are “voracious media consumers” and own multiple PCs and connected devices. This is the second report from Forrester and Ms. Epps pred