HTC announces Merge: Android based CDMA World Phone

HTC has officially announced the HTC Merge, described as the company's first Android-based CDMA "world phone".

Based on the specifications that HTC has published, the new Merge slider phone looks somewhat comparable to the EVO Shift 4G, the slider version of the EVO 4G that Sprint and HTC announced in May, last year.

The HTC Merge is slated to be available from multiple North American operators beginning in spring 2011, HTC said, which almost certainly means Verizon, among others. It will also be HTC's first Android-based CDMA workd phone, the company said. So far, LTE support has not been announced.

The Merge includes a 3.8-inch touchscreen display, slightly larger than the EVO Shift. But HTC didn't reveal the resolution of the display, either.

A full QWERTY slide-out keyboard will be included, HTC said, although it's also unclear whether that will be a four- or five-row design.

HTC will include the Sense interface on top of the Android 2.2 OS, with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, integrated GPS, Wi-Fi, and 720p video captures. The image does not seem to include a front-facing camera.

"HTC prides itself on creating unique solutions that meet the needs of different customers, and with features like a full keyboard and global 3G roaming, the HTC Merge smartphone is the perfect example of this commitment," said Jason Mackenzie, president, HTC Americas.

"Combining the functionality of Android with the HTC Sense experience, the HTC Merge is the perfect device for those customers who are looking for a reliable mobile experience with the features and functionality of a smartphone, whether it's at home or travelling around the world."

Apple releases new MacBook Pro lineup

Apple Inc has released its new lineup of MacBook Pro notebook computers, featuring Intel's peppy new processors and graphics chips made by Advanced Micro Devices, helping boost the smaller chipmaker's stock more than 5 percent.

The all new MacBook Pros will be powered by Intel Corp's latest dual-core and quad-core chips, which were previously code-named Sandy Bridge and include integrated graphics processing.

More expensive versions of the MacBook Pro also include graphics chips from Advanced Micro Devices for added performance. Graphics processors made by competitor Nvidia had been used in past versions of the MacBook Pro.

Apple's trend-setting personal computers are a high-profile battleground for chipmakers Intel, AMD and Nvidia.

News of AMD's presence in the new MacBook Pros helped boost its stock 5.5 percent to $9.02.

"It starts to show that the new AMD products have the potential to start to elevate their notebook share," said Cody Acree, an analyst at Williams Financial Group.

Intel supplied the MacBook Pro with a faster, compact input/output technology called Thunderbolt, which supports high-resolution displays and devices through a single port.

The price of a 13-inch MacBook Pro, with a full-size keyboard, seven-hour battery life and an aluminum casing, will start at $1,199. The 15-inch starts at $1,799 and the 17-inch is priced at $2,499.

Nvidia's shares were up 1.13 percent at $22.36 following a 13 percent sell-off over the past two days.

Intel's stock rose 0.14 percent to $21.17.

Motorola's Xoom iPad: 1st to pack Android 3.0 Honeycomb

When Steve Jobs strode onstage and unveiled the iPad in January of 2010, the news left nearly every other big computer and consumer-electronics maker racing to get into the tablet market that Jobs' iPad had suddenly created.

And the competition turned out to be a marathon. More than a year later, we're still talking about tablets that are huffing and puffing their way towards the showroom floor. There's RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, slated to arrive by the end of March. HP's Web OS-based TouchPad is due this summer. And dozens of other models are on their way. The pace has been so plodding that Apple's second-generation iPad, will apparently beat most other companies' first-generation models to market.

Then there's Motorola's Xoom, which goes on sale at Verizon retail locations, (today, Thursday). It's the first honest-to-goodness, no-qualifications-necessary iPad rival from a major manufacturer to hit stores. That's in large part because it's also the first to pack Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the operating system that Google designed specifically with tablets in mind. The Xoom has its fair share of raw edges, but it's a great leap beyond earlier Android-based tablets such as Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which took the unsatisfying shortcut of using earlier versions of Android that were meant for smartphones.

Verizon will sell the Xoom for $799.99, a hefty $300.99 premium over the current iPad's starting price of $499; you can get a $200 discount if you commit to two years' worth of data service. The pricing disparity between Motorola and Apple isn't as alarming as it looks at first blush, though. With its built-in Verizon wireless connection and 32GB of storage, the Xoom is most directly comparable to the $729 AT&T version of the iPad. And it has far beefier specs than any Apple tablet, including a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, and two cameras - a 2-megapixel model up front for Google Talk video calls and a 5-megapixel one in back for taking snapshots and capturing HD video.

The Xoom will also be a 4G wireless device, thanks to Verizon's zippy LTE network - but not until the second quarter of this year, according to Motorola. For now, it comes with 3G and the promise of a free upgrade. That's one of several telltale signs that it was rushed out the door. Adobe's Flash Player software, which will let Xoom owners get at Flash Web videos and games that don't work on the iPad, won't be ready for a few weeks. And there's a dormant slot for MicroSD memory cards that Motorola plans to enable it in an upcoming software update.

Even if the Xoom is a work in progress, it already does many things well. The tablet is sheathed in a plastic case rather than the iPad's aluminum, but it's pleasing to the eye and touch; slightly thinner than the iPad, the Xoom tips the scales at an identical 1.6 pounds. It also out-iPads the iPad by doing away with even that tablet's single physical button on the front. However, there's a button on the back - the power switch.

The display measures 10.1" diagonally, giving it a skosh more elbow room and more pixels than the iPad's 9.7" screen. When you meet a Xoom in person, though, the most striking difference is aspect ratio, not size. Apple's tablet has a 4:3 display that's reminiscent of a book or magazine; Motorola's has a 16:10 widescreen that makes it look more like a miniature HDTV.

The iPad's less exaggerated dimensions are superior for reading e-books and other text-centric tasks. But in landscape orientation, the Xoom's extra space makes for comfier typing on the on-screen keyboard. It's also well-proportioned for HD movies.

Facebook gets Top 10 place in ComScore US Ad Survey

The massive audience at Facebook helped it take a top-ten ranking for the first time in ComScore's January survey of the number of unique visitors to U.S. Internet sites and advertising networks.

The Internet research company said Facebook was viewed by 153.0 million unique visitors in January, or 72.2 percent of the overall U.S. Internet audience that month, putting the site in 10th place in ComScore's Ad Focus survey of U.S. sites and advertising networks. The top spot went to Google Ad Network, with 197.1 million unique visitors, or 93.1 percent of Americans online.

Facebook's rising popularity has helped it move up significantly in ComScore's rankings. Last June, Facebook ranked 26th in the Ad Focus survey with 141.6 million unique visitors, or 65.9 percent of the U.S. Internet audience that month. In December of last year, however, Facebook was already on the verge of the top 10, sitting in the 11th spot.

Excluding the advertising networks, Facebook ranked fourth among the top 50 Web properties in the U.S. in January, behind Yahoo sites, Google sites and Microsoft sites, respectively. Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site, was not among the U.S. top 50 properties in January.

China Mobile and Xinhua launch Internet Search Engine

China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator, and state-run Xinhua News Agency have jointly launched an Internet search engine.

The search engine, http://www.panguso.com/ , would be operated by a joint venture company set up by the two, and would also be available for mobile users, they said in a statement carried by Xinhua.

With more than 450 million users, China is the world's largest Internet market.

Its search market grew 67 percent in the fourth quarter to 3.2 billion yuan ($486.8 million), with Baidu Inc holding a dominant 73 percent of the market by revenue compared with Google Inc's 24 percent, according to data from iResearch.

Adobe to offer Flash to Honeycomb Tablets soon

Adobe says Flash support for tablets based on Google's upcoming "Honeycomb" version of the Android operating system will be available "within a few weeks".

Honeycomb is the first version of Android designed for tablet PCs and is eagerly anticipated. Motorola's Xoom tablet will launch on Thursday as the first to run the software, but initial versions won't come with flash support. Verizon, which is putting it on sale, previously said Flash would be available in "spring 2011."

The vague time reference had people fearing flash wouldn't be available until the end of the season, but a posting on Adobe's blog points to a slightly earlier release.

"Consumers are clearly asking for Flash support on tablet devices and the good news is that they won't have to wait long. We are aware of over 50 tablets that will ship in 2011 supporting a full web experience including Flash support and Xoom users will be among the first to enjoy this benefit," wrote Matt Rozen, on Adobe's Flash Platform Blog.

Adobe said version 10.2 of its flash player will be offered as a download or preinstalled on some tablets launching later in 2011. Adobe has said that Flash Player 10.2 will offer users of dual-core tablets and smartphones HD Flash video and up to 30 frames per second video performance.

The blog posting appears to be aimed at a number of critics who have recently suggested it might put people off buying them.

Daniel Ionescu from PC World noted the Motorola Xoom is seen by many as the first real rival to Apple's iPad, yet it may be a "hard sell" due to its hefty US$800 price tag and lack of Flash.

Support for Adobe Flash Player software is seen as a major advantage for rivals to Apple's iPad because Apple has eschewed the technology, which has found widespread use as a video streaming format.

Steve Jobs listed several reasons why Apple does not allow Flash on iPods, iPhones or iPads in a public posting last April, including a drain on battery life and that more modern offerings work better.

Adobe defended itself by posting data of its own and taking out full page ads in major newspapers.

Adobe expects to see Flash installed on over 132 million devices by the end of this year, saying the company had raised its estimates for 2011.

Motorola to launch Atrix 4G on Feb 22

The smartphone of the future is coming on February 22. Motorola's Atrix 4G dual-core handset will officially launch on AT&T next Tuesday. According to a tweet from Atrix 4G, it can function as a regular smartphone or can be hooked up to a keyboard and monitor for a desktop PC-like experience.

But while the device is definitely the smartphone to watch in 2011 the first-generation Atrix 4G has some serious downsides for the average user.

Atrix Specs
The Atrix 4G is packing two 1GHz processor cores for up to 2GHz of processing power, 1GB RAM, 16GB onboard memory, and a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB storage for a maximum of 48GB storage.

The Atrix 4G has a 4-inch display, Android 2.2 (Froyo) with Motorola's MOTOBLUR overlay, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and HSPA+ cellular connectivity.

Atrix Webtop
When you want to dock your smartphone, the Atrix 4G changes from its smartphone view to what Motorola calls the phone's Webtop view on the external monitor. The Webtop is an app on your phone that launches when it detects a connection to an external display.

The Webtop provides access to all the apps on your phone and a full version of the Firefox browser. Enterprise users can also use the Citrix XenApp to access a virtualized Windows 7 desktop.

Atrix Toys
The secret of the Atrix 4G's "cool factor," however is its ability to interface with a special laptop shell or to hook up to an external monitor and keyboard. But for that functionality you need a few toys.

The Laptop Dock includes an 11.6-inch backlit screen, full-size keyboard, touchpad, two USB ports, and stereo speakers; it weighs a little more than 2 pounds. Motorola claims a six-hour battery life for the device, and it also has a p ower pack to plug into the wall if you don't want to run on battery power. The laptop dock is just a shell that cannot do anything until the Atrix 4G is slotted into the back.

The Atrix 4G's HD Multimedia Dock is a device charger that includes two USB ports, an HDMI slot, and a mini headphone jack. You can use the charger to hook your Atrix up to a desktop monitor, keyboard, and mouse or you could use the HDMI port to connect your phone to an HDTV.

Playback through the Multimedia Dock's HDMI port supports 720p high-definition video, but Motorola says the Atrix 4G will be upgraded to output 1080p via HDMI in the future.

The Bad News
The Atrix 4G's Webtop is a brilliant idea and is the first realization that smartphones could one day double as a PC you just plug into a shell. But a few problems exist with this first effort.

First up, Price
You can buy the Atrix 4G's Laptop Dock in one of two ways, and either will set you back at least $500. You can buy the Laptop Dock and the Atrix 4G for $500 with a two-year contract. You also have to sign up for a data plan and AT&T's infamous $20-per-month tethering convenience fee if you want to browse the Web on the laptop dock. The upside is you can get a $100 mail-in rebate on your purchase after you sign-up for the data plan and tethering.

The other option is to buy the Laptop Dock straight up without a two-year contract for $500. That's a high price point considering you can buy an actual 11.6-inch netbook running Windows 7 for that price instead of just a dumb shell that can only display (not power) a glorified version of Android. You also still need the $20-per-month tethering fee if you want to use 4G data instead of Wi-Fi.

The HD Multimedia Dock for hooking up to an external monitor and keyboard costs $190.

Webtop Not Windows
The second downside is that the Atrix 4G's Webtop is not a true desktop OS. Sure, you get access to a full version of Firefox so you're not browsing the mobile Web on a larger screen, but I'm not so sure there is much demand for running Android on a desktop or laptop monitor.

The real milestone for the Atrix 4G's concept will come when your handset can power a desktop version of Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. Yes, if your company supports it, the Atrix 4G can access a cloud-based version of Windows 7, but for everyday users this feature is not available.

Nevertheless, the Atrix 4G is definitely a smartphone to keep your eye on. And if Motorola or another smartphone maker figures out how to pack dual-mode Mobile OS/Windows 7 functionality into a handset, that can really be a game-changer.

Apple CEO to live for just six more weeks

Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs has terminal pancreatic cancer and may live for just six more weeks.

The 55-year-old Jobs in January announced that at his request, the board of directors granted him a medical leave of absence so that he could focus on his health.

Since then, employees have said Jobs can still be seen at the company's headquarters in California and is also calling all the strategic shots from his home.

New pictures have been published in the tabloid National Enquirer, which suggest things may be worse for the man behind the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

The report said Jobs is stricken with pancreatic cancer and may have just six weeks to live.

The new photos show him looking painfully frail and weak, with his jeans and dark top hanging loosely on his six-feet-two-inches, frail body.

Jobs's weight is said to have dropped from a pre-cancer 175 pounds to 130 pounds now, according to the National Enquirer.

His thinning hair was a sign of the effects of chemotherapy used to treat the disease.

The photos, which were taken Feb 8, showed Jobs going for breakfast with his wife Laurene Powell before heading to the Stanford Cancer Centre in California.

Jerome Spunberg, a doctor, said: 'Mr. Jobs is most likely getting outpatient chemotherapy at Stanford because the cancer has recurred.'

Gabe Mirkin, a physician with 40 years' experience, said: 'He is terminal. What you are seeing is extreme muscle wasting from calorie deprivation, most likely caused by cancer. He has no muscle left in his buttocks, which is the last place to go.'

'He definitely appears to be in the terminal stages of his life from these photos. I would be surprised if he weighed more than 130 pounds.'

Critical care physician Samuel Jacobson also said: 'Judging from the photos, he is close to terminal. I would say he has six weeks.'

A source, who recently saw Jobs, added: 'He is very frail, moving like a weak, feeble old man. He weaves back and forth when he walks, as if he is having trouble keeping his balance, and the pain of every step is evident on his face.'

The Apple CEO, who is worth $6 billion, is currently on his third medical leave, and has battled a rare form of pancreatic cancer for seven years and had a liver transplant in 2009.

Nokia partners with Microsoft to rival Apple and Google

Technology titans Nokia and Microsoft are combining forces to create smart phones that might challenge rivals like Apple and Google and revive their own fortunes in a market they have struggled to keep up with.

Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of mobile phones, said Friday it plans to use Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone software as the main platform for its smart phones in an effort to pull market share away from Apple's iPhone and Android, Google's software for phones and tablets.

Analysts said the deal was a bigger win for Microsoft than Nokia, whose CEO Stephen Elop in a leaked memo this week compared his company to a burning oil platform with "more than one explosion ... fueling a blazing fire around us."

Moving increasingly to providing services for phone users, Nokia and Microsoft "will combine our strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivaled global reach and scale," Elop said in a statement.

Nokia said it will drive the future of Windows Phone, "innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader."

But Nokia warned that the new strategy would bring "significant uncertainties" and said it expects margins to be hit by strong competition from rivals.

Neil Mawston of London-based Strategy Analytics said Microsoft was the big winner in the partnership, by teaming up with the biggest mobile hardware vendor in the world.

"In terms of expanding their distribution reach, this is a huge win for Microsoft," he said.

For Nokia the deal leaves uncertainty about what will happen to its current Symbian operating platform. Mawston said he expects it to be phased out within two years and "completely, or at least mostly, replaced by Windows Phone."

Although Nokia still is the mobile industry's No. 1, it has suffered from plummeting market share, dropping from a high of 41 percent in 2008 to 31 percent in the last quarter of 2010.

It has also lost its innovative edge in the fiercely competitive top-end sector and is virtually invisible - with a 3 percent share - in the world's largest smart phone market, North America.

Apples' iPhone has set the standard for today's smart phones and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerrys have become the favorite of the corporate set. More recently, Google Inc.'s Android software has emerged as the choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

"Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling mobile products, which include not only the device, but the software, services, applications and customer support that make a great experience," Elop said.

Nokia, which claims 1.3 billion daily users of its devices, said it hopes the "broad, strategic partnership" with Microsoft will lead to capturing the next billion users to join the Internet in developing growth markets.

The company said that it will also announce new leadership team and organizational structure "with a clear focus on speed, results and accountability."

"Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable in our journey forward," Elop said, adding that the company was aiming at "regaining our smart phone leadership, reinforcing our mobile device platform and realizing our investments in the future."

Jyrki Ali-Yrkko, from the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, described Nokia's cooperation with Microsoft as "surprising."

"The strengths will be in Microsoft's strong position in various corporate solutions and server solutions, but its weakness is that Microsoft perhaps doesn't have a broad, user-oriented group of developers like those around Android or Apple," Ali-Yrkko said.

Android app ad revenue to cross $1 billion in 2012

According to an analyst and investment bank Piper Jaffray, in-app advertising is coming along on the Android operating system and could bring in more than a billion dollars in ad sales for app developers by 2012.

Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray released a research in which he predicts Android users will spike to 133 million by next year, and that yearly ad revenue for each user will rise to $9.85 in 2012, up from the $5.90 per user in 2010. That’ll put yearly ad revenue for Google at around $1.3 billion on Android, adding to the projected $31 billion in revenue the company is expected to drag in that year.

That’s a significant milestone for Android, signalling another way that the platform can make people money - which is good for Android users. The more money the platform generates for the people producing things for it, like app developers, the more money and effort they’ll put into making interesting products and apps for it.

Still, the $1 billion in 2012 falls well short of the $10 billion in mobile revenue former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he thought Android would be capable of producing, although he didn’t say exactly when that could happen. But at least portions of what Schmidt talked about last year - in-app purchases and sales of premium content that will drive up Google’s Android revenue - are now happening. So consider that Step 1.

Step 2 is getting Schmidt’s one billion users on Android. That might not be happening any time soon, although Android is definitely pulling in a lot more users as the operating system spreads to more and more devices. Android recently overtook Symbian as the most sold smartphone operating system, shipping 33 million units worldwide in Q4 2010. That’s well short of a billion phones, but it’s still a big number - one billion users isn’t impossible and might not be more than a few years off.

But while Android’s ad revenue project is impressive, it’s still a projection. It’s also not as impressive as the projection for iOS ad revenue for the next five years, from Media News Daily. That firm puts iOS ads at bringing in $8 billion in five years; even if Android hits its billion next year, it probably isn’t going to add an additional $7 billion more in just four more.

Android still doesn’t have a magic bullet, but it’s progressing at an extremely fast rate. The addition of the new web-based Android Market, in-app purchases, and lots more devices that carry Android are helping to expand its grip on the market, and Google’s announcement of a tablet-specific version, Android 3.0 Honeycomb, will mean more of those devices will be able to contend with the iPad.

Just the speculation that Android ad revenue is going to hit a serious uptick by next year is good for the platform.

Verizon to launch voice over LTE service

Verizon Wireless has revealed that they're set to launch a new feature on its recently launched 4G LTE network that will, among other things, let users make voice calls and access data at the same time.

Slated to arrive next year, Verizon's Voice Over LTE service (or VoLTE) would also boost call quality, as well as handle native video chat that's tied to your cell phone number rather than, say, to a Skype account.

Verizon will demonstrate its upcoming VoLTE at the Mobile World Congress confab in Barcelona in the coming week on the LG Revolution, an Android-based smartphone that Verizon unveiled last month at CES in Las Vegas.

Running on Android OS 2.2, the 4G-ready Revolution boasts a jumbo 4.3-inch display, wireless hotspot capabilities, and a pair of cameras - a 5MP one in back, plus a front-facing lens for video chat. Unfortunately, the handset won't do the VoLTE trick when it initially ships later this year.

The news comes just a couple of days before the official, long-awaited debut of the iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless. While millions of AT&T iPhone users frustrated by dropped calls and spotty connections are expected to jump ship for the Verizon iPhone, the arrival of the iPhone 4 highlights a key deficiency of Verizon's existing CDMA network: it can't handle voice calls and data at the same time.

AT&T's GSM network, on the other hand, does support simultaneous voice and data - a fact that the carrier, which has now lost its exclusive hold over the iPhone.

Verizon's recently launched LTE network only covers about a third of the U.S. so far. At CES last month, Verizon executives promised that it would have most of the country blanketed in LTE coverage by 2013.

Apple begins production of new iPad

According to a recent report by Wall Street Journal, Apple has begun to make a new version of its iPad tablet computer with a front-facing camera and faster processor.

The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model and sport a more powerful graphics processor, the Journal said.

It will have at least one camera on its front for features such as video conferencing, and will also have more memory, adding Apple plans to unveil the new iPad through Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

Early in February, a Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference in New York.

Ford and GM develop hands-free Office Apps for cars

Using technology to work while you drive is a great concept. But for the time being, it's widely accepted that sending and checking e-mail or texting while behind the wheel is very unsafe.

The temptation is great, of course, to sneak a peak at your Blackberry or iPhone to check messages or to take a call, especially when stuck in stop-and-go traffic, even though it is illegal to do so in many states and despite the tremendous risk. According to the results of a Pew Research Center survey, 27 percent of all American adults sent or read text messages while driving in 2009.

However, General Motors and Ford are developing alternatives they say will allow drivers to continue working safely while behind the wheel. With voice-enabled commands, drivers should eventually be able to check e-mail or text without posing dangerous risks to them-selves or others, Ford and GM say.

Ford's Sync infotainment system currently allows for selected smartphone applications to run on a dashboard console. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier in January, for example, Ford unveiled its MyFord Touch for Sync. The system, among other things, allows drivers to select music and routes for GPS-guided navigation on dual 4.2-inch LCD screens with corresponding five-way button steering wheel controls and an 8-inch touchscreen. But specific to office and work applications, Ford's Sync should allow drivers to do a lot more during the coming years, company executives say.

Within three to five years, Ford expects to develop an application for Sync that will read e-mail and text messages out loud as they are received. The system should also allow drivers to dictate e-mails and text messages into the on-board computer hands-free while driving.

GM says it is developing a voice communications app for Android mobile phones that will let drivers send and receive text messages and Facebook updates using only their voices. The app uses a Bluetooth connection between drivers' phones and their vehicles.

GM's voice-activated Android system converts incoming SMS text messages and Facebook updates from text to synthetic speech with the app. The messages are then sent via Bluetooth to the car's speakers. Drivers can respond by voice through the in-vehicle microphone by selecting among a list of defined messages, such as "Yes," "No," and "Driving." It is also possible for the system to memorize custom messages, which are transcribed into text or posted as audio clips on Facebook, GM said. For Facebook updates, the driver can say "Like" to like a friend's update.

For text messages, the "Call Back" voice command automatically dials the phone number associated with the incoming message. It's also possible to set an automatic reply to all incoming messages.

The system will require a mobile phone running Android 2.2 or higher, a GM vehicle with built-in Bluetooth, or a vehicle equipped with a new OnStar system when it becomes commercially available. GM said it's planning the full launch for later in the first half of 2011 through the Android Market, while pricing has yet to be disclosed.

The voice-activated systems Ford and GM are developing remain limited compared to the functionality that PC and even mobile phone-based applications offer, of course. But in an area long-dominated by luxury-car brands such as Audi, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, and Lexus, it is likely that Ford's and GM's upcoming in-car technologies will set the bar higher for in-car office apps that could also be available for an affordable price.

Sprint launches International 4G Roaming service

America's third-largest network, Sprint, has launched international 4G roaming plans in Jamaica and Taiwan.

For $14.99 a day, one can subsribe to unlimited, 24-hour 4G wireless service while travelling to either country. Devices equipped with Sprint Smartview Connection Manager software, which automatically connects your phone to one of these networks, will be able to access the service.

"Sprint customers traveling to Jamaica and Taiwan will be able to access the Digicel and Global Mobile 4G networks for mobile downloads, video-chat capabilities and turbo-charged Web browsing at 4G speeds," the company said.

Sprint customers will also be able to roam on these additional networks using Sprint's 3G/4G U600 USB 4G-enabled mobile broadband modem.

Sprint may have been the first to offer 4G speeds via WiMax technology, but several other carriers have stepped up to the plate. Verizon launched LTE in December, while AT&T and T-Mobile have adopted HSPA+.

Sprint offers 4G in 71 U.S. markets.