at&t

SAN FRANCISCO--Opponents of a controversial surveillance program told a federal judge on Thursday that the government has admitted to eavesdropping on private communications of American citizens--with the help of several telecoms--and must not be allowed to hide behind executive privilege.

Attorneys representing now consolidated class-action lawsuits against Verizon Communications and the government for allegedly violating federal privacy laws faced off with lawyers from the carriers and the Department of Justice here Thursday.

The government wants the case thrown out and told U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker that the other side doesn't know whether federal laws were broken because … Read more

Yesterday, top cellphone maker Nokia announced Ovi, an umbrella brand for a forthcoming set of online services. Among these services is a new Nokia Music Store, which will offer both over-the-air and PC-based downloads, with two-way sync between device and PC. The service will launch in Europe, featuring a catalog of "millions" of tracks. Individual song downloads will cost 1 Euro and full albums 10 Euros. A subscription, PC-tethered, streaming-only service will also be available for 10 Euros per month. (The whiz-bang Flash site introducing Ovi is here. A press release is here.)

The service leverages Nokia's … Read more

Man, does it feel like Christmas in August or what? Yeah, you know what I'm talking 'bout. In addition to several other product and service announcements today, Nokia introduced two new models of the coveted Nokia N95 smart phone: an 8GB version and a North America edition.

Starting with the latter, the U.S. version of the N95 looks much like the current model from the outside, but there's been some work done under the hood to make the mobile a little more powerful. It comes with twice as much RAM and will also ship with a 2GB … Read more

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. For all of you who are dreaming sweet thoughts of the HTC Kaiser like I am, we're one step closer to seeing the vision come true. Today, the company announced the HTC TyTN II for Europe; hopefully signifying that the U.S. launch won't be too far behind.

Despite the different naming scheme, the TyTN II is the same smart phone as the Kaiser we've discussed before on Crave. The Windows Mobile 6 device features a 2.8-inch, QVGA touch screen that slides out and tilts up to give you a … Read more

One of the biggest gripes we've heard about Apple's iPhone has nothing to do with the headset itself; rather it's over the AT&Tcarrier exclusivity. While phone locking (and unlocking for that matter) is nothing new in the cell phone world, the iPhone is a special case considering how much hype still surrounds it.

That's why it was inevitable that someone would figure out how to unlock the iPhone and free it from its AT&T shackles. Though we've heard a lot of promises, mostly unfulfilled, a real, workable solution now seems to … Read more

AT&T has dropped its ridiculously long iPhone bills that quickly became a laughingstock of the cell phone industry. Customers with now get a summary bill that will run about three pages. Full statements will details of each phone call and data transfer will continue to be available on AT&T's Web site.

The first round of iPhone bills quickly became conversation pieces after the first batch was mailed. Because the bills detailed each time the user accessed the Internet, even if the surfing session lasted under a minute, the bills were tens of pages long. Though … Read more

AT&T informs the horned one on his iPhone that it is "removing itemized detail" from its bills to iPhone customers. That only took two months too long.

For customers who may be servants of the Lidless Eye, you can still get a full paper bill.

Seriously, who other than someone submitting an expense report to Mordor needs a bill with 10,000 $0.00 line items?

Despite what you may be thinking the Nokia 6085 is not a simple AT&T copy of the Nokia 6086. Though the two phones look a lot alike, the 6085 lacks the 6086's Wi-Fi support and it comes in four sparkling colors. Yet that's perfectly fine, as the 6085 reinforces Nokia's reputation for producing quality mid-range handsets. Though its internal and external displays could use a makeover, the 6085 is a functional cell phone with decent call quality and a low-key design. Multimedia performance wasn't fantastic, but that's not really the point of the … Read more

You might wonder why I'm posting again so soon after that twelve-post blogging marathon at Hot Chips. Well, I got a new gizmo last night and I just had to write about it.

Two years ago yesterday, I bought a Sierra Wireless AirCard 860 (a PCMCIA cellular modem card) from Cingular for my Apple PowerBook G4. I also… Read more