Verizon to Sell an iPhone Sibling

Finally, an iPhone “lite” and an iPhone “media pad” may be offered to Verizon Wireless.

"A smaller, thinner iPhone “lite” and a “media pad” that could be used to make calls over Wi-Fi connection are in the works, according to a source who has seen the devices’ prototypes, BusinessWeek reported."

The media pad would be similar to the iPod touch, while the iPhone "lite" would be similar to AT&T's current iPhone

Plans are to make these products available as early as this summer.

2-Seater Segway

Today, General Motors announced they would be teaming with Segway to develop a 200-mpg, 2-seat, 2-wheel scooter.

This project is known as: Project PUMA, for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility. Both companies hope to have cities or college campuses to set up "Puma travel lanes", similar to bicycle lanes.

The Pumas will be operated manually and not intended to be used on the highway. They would travel about 35 miles per hour and go up to 35 miles on a charge. Although there is a prototype and plans, "It's not going on sale anytime" soon says Chris Borroni-Bird, director of the project for GM.

Tweet Tweet

Is Facebook's new design boring you? Need to spice up your social networking? Check out twitter- a "free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time." At first I didn't understand what all the hype was about. Then I became addicted. You are even able to stay connected with your favorite celebs, I "follow" Justin Timberlake, Perez Hilton, and Chelsea Handler to name a few.

New 4-Gig iPod Shuffle

A newer, better, smaller, and cheaper shuffle is set to hit stores this Thursday. The third-generation Shuffle, an aluminum rectangle less than 2 inches long, is half the size of the second-generation Shuffle. Its appearance is smaller, but it doubles in music storage space at 4 gigabytes (1,000 songs.) Apple had to remove most of the buttons from the body and build them into the headphone cord to make up for its small size.

It also has a new feature called VoiceOver, which at the push of a button, can speak the song and artist name that the owner has loaded onto the device. "Here's how it works: As you synchronize a new Shuffle using an updated version of iTunes, your PC or Mac looks at each track and playlist and creates a small file of a computerized voice speaking the title, artist or playlist name. If a song is in Spanish or Chinese, say, the software figures this out and speaks in the appropriate language. Apple says the device can handle 14 languages."

It comes in silver or black aluminum with a shiny stainless steel clip and is retailing for only $79.

iPhone free from AT&T?

Public interest groups, such as, the New America Foundation, the Consumers Union, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with with software provide Mozilla, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless International, are wanting to end the partnership between Apple and AT&T. These groups are taking their case to the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Copyright Office, and congressional leaders.

"The argument is that these and other "exclusivity" pairings are anti competitive and limit consumer choice." The Rural Cellular Association (RCA), which represents smaller carriers, is lobbying Congress to get involved and awaits a bill that bans exclusive carrier deals to be proposed in the near future.

Finally! Now I can get an iPhone to complete my iLife...

Face Recognition

Computers can now search for people through a face-recognition feature that Apple and Google have put into the latest versions of their photo-management systems.

Here is an excerpt from Apple's website:
"iPhoto ’09 introduces Faces — a new feature that allows you to organize your photos based on who’s in them. iPhoto uses face detection to identify faces of people in your photos and face recognition to match faces that look like the same person. That makes it easy for you to add names to your photos. And it helps you find the people you’re looking for — even in the largest photo libraries.

Put a name to a face in just a couple of photos, and iPhoto suggests a set of possible matches you can confirm with a click. iPhoto then uses the information to sift throught your library and find even more potential matches."