Palm Pre (Mostly) Lives Up to Hype

Chinese workers hospitalized with nerve damage

(NEWSER) - Dozens of Chinese workers have spent close to a year in hospital after sustaining nerve damage in a factory making iPhone components. The workers, mostly young women, were exposed to a toxic solvent they used to clean iPhone and iTouch screens, GlobalPost finds in part of a series of investigations into the supply chain behind popular gadgets. More»

Users sick of AT&T now have an option

(NEWSER) - Verizon has finally come up with a phone that will satisfy users who want an iPhone-quality smartphone to run on the firm's zippy 3G network, writes Walt Mossberg. The Motorola Droid, is, like the iPhone, "a powerful hand-held computer that happens to make phone calls," Mossberg writes. The Droid, at an iPhone-matching $200, runs the smooth 2.0 version of Google's Android which adds some functionality Apple's platform lacks, Mossberg notes. More»

RIM dominates in sales, but the iPhone has big advantages

(NEWSER) - The iPhone has become a cultural phenomenon, but RIM sells way more units than Apple does. Why, then, does the BlackBerry have such obvious flaws? Wired lists five improvements RIM needs to make:

1. Browser. The web looks much the same on an iPhone or Palm Pre as it does on a PC. But the BlackBerry presents a bare-bones mobile version of most websites—and is slow, to boot.
2. Touchscreen. The BlackBerry Storm's "clickable" screen was supposed to feel like a real keypad, but it just made typing slower.

(NEWSER) - Even a gadget as good as the iPhone isn't without its annoyances, although luckily bigger geeks than you have cooked up workarounds for most of them, Jared Newman writes in PC World. Some major gripes:

• AT&T: The carrier's stranglehold in the US is becoming even more irksome as foreign iPhone users start to enjoy better tethering and multimedia messaging services.
• Weak email management: An update has added bulk email management, but there's still no simple way to delete or move batches of messages.

(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»