Google Voice Worth More Than Beloved iPhone

Customers can bundle it with MiFi wireless device

(NEWSER) - Verizon delivered a surprise today with the announcement that it would start carrying the iPad in its stores later this month, Electronista reports. An optional deal would bundle the iPad’s standard Wi-Fi model with a Novatel MiFi 2200, allowing users to share a 3G connection with other devices. The move firms up those still unconfirmed reports that Apple will begin offering iPhones on a Verizon plan, ending AT&T’s exclusive hold on the smartphone. More»

(NEWSER) - Apple has rejected Google’s application to distribute its Voice application through the App Store, and that shows that Apple is dead-set against innovation, Adam Pash writes on Lifehacker. The official line is that Google Voice “duplicates features already on the iPhone—namely the Phone and Messages app,” but that’s malarkey. “The real problem,” Pash writes, “is that Google Voice, and all it offers, is actually much better than what AT&T offers.” More»

(NEWSER) - Until recently, the iPhone ruled the smartphone roost, but a new crop of competitors could threaten Apple’s bottom line, Jon Fortt writes for Fortune. AT&T, the sole iPhone carrier, pays Apple $300 for every new customer. Until now, paying for the privilege made sense, because AT&T monopolized the “high-value data junkies.” But “these new iPhone rivals,” Fortt writes, “are bound to alter the math of the phone wars.” More»

(NEWSER) - The iPhone itself isn’t in a class by itself as far as smartphones are concerned, Farhad Manjoo writes for Slate—but the App Store makes it unbeatable. Apple boasts more than 50,000 applications, and the rate is increasing; Google’s Android operating system only supports 5,000. “The iPhone has attracted something that none of its rivals can match,” Manjoo writes: “a devoted following of developers who are building amazing programs for the device.” More»

The Bold 9900: 'Does Anybody Care'?

(NEWSER) - There’s a new BlackBerry on the market, but the “the question is: Does anybody care?” Apple and Google dominate the market, and things are “not looking good” for Research in Motion, which just laid off 2,000 people, writes David Pogue in the New York Times . That aside, how’s the new Bold 9900? “Gorgeous,” and the thinnest BlackBerry yet, with a “comfortable” keyboard and a “beautiful, responsive touch screen.” It’s a great phone—yet it’s not enough to compete with iPhone or Android. More»