Best Rumor from CTIA Day One

Why aren't members of Google's core voice team showing up for scheduled meetings at the CTIA: Wireless Association trade show? Because they all are away putting together an acquisition of Skype, or a partnership with it, surmises TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington.

Samsung Instinct Available in June

Sprint Nextel will roll out the new Samsung Instinct, a full touch-screen device running on the Rev. A network, in June. Sprint will have exclusive right to sell the device, initially.

Samsung Instinct will be seen as a competitor to the Apple iPhone, of course.

It is designed for fast Web browsing, email access, commercial-free radio and Sprint Navigation, powered by Telenav, with GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings.

Live Search for Sprint, powered by Microsoft, provides easy access to directory information on-the-go, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click to call access

Sprint TV offers live and on-demand programming.
Sprint Exclusive Entertainment offers made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video.

Sprint Music Store allows users to browse and wirelessly download full-length songs directly to their phone for 99 cents each.

Pocket Express offers up-to-date information on sports, weather, news, movie showtimes and other options customized to the user's zip code.

Three dedicated keys on the lower portion of the handset make operation of the device very straightforward and easy to navigate, the company says. The phone key always takes the user back to essential voice calling and features including speed dial, visual voicemail, contacts and the dial pad. The back key is a consistent way to take a step back in the operation.

The home key on the Samsung Instinct provides quick access to the four menus of functionality:

"Favorites" provides one-touch access to the things a user does most, making customization and personalization extremely simple. Web sites, TV channels, text messaging friends and much more can be saved in the Favorites menu so the items used most are always at the user's fingertips.

"Main" includes applications such as Messaging, Voicemail, GPS Navigation and more.

The "Fun" menu brings up music, TV, photos and games.

"Web" takes a user straight to Web site options.

Samsung Instinct features Visual Voicemail, allowing users to listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a simple tap of the screen.

Both corporate and consumer (POP3) email accounts are supported.

Multitasking capabilities allow the user to play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games,.

Pricing for Samsung Instinct has not yet been announced. In order for customers to experience the full capabilities of the device, Samsung Instinct requires activation on a Sprint Everything pricing plan offering unlimited data starting at just $69.99 per month.

133 Million Global WiMAX Subs

The WiMAX Forum projects more than 133 million WiMAX users globally by 2012. The forecast is based on the results of an independently commissioned research study that further estimates 70 percent of the WiMAX users by 2012 will use mobile and portable WiMAX devices.

Best Buy Gets First HTC Touch Dual

HTC Corp. says the HTC Touch Dual will debut in the United States in the second quarter, with Best Buy getting rights to sell the device first. The HTC Touch Dual combines a touch screen and slide-out keypad, and runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional software.

The HTC Touch Dual, which will be available through select Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile retail outlets, and online at BestBuy.com and htc.com.

Lots of Bundle Shopping

Analysts at Compete say there has been a strong upsurge in comparison shopping by users investigating triple play and quadruple play bundles offered by leading telecom and cable companies.

The data suggests that cable providers are more exposed, at the moment, than are at&t or Verizon.

Compete suggests wireless services are providing more stickiness at the moment.

Nokia N810 for Xohm

Nokia's N810 mobile Internet tablet will be one of the first devices available for use on the Xohm WiMAX network Sprint Nextel Corp. is launching commercially in April.

The device has a 4.13-inch touch screen and is among at least 10 devices Xohm expects to have available at launch.

The Xohm N810 also connects using Wi-Fi. Presumably the big attraction of the Xohm network is its ability to function more like a mobile Internet service than a conventional mobile service, so devices should skew towards mobile Web, mobile Internet and other devices that benefit from the "always connected" feature.

The three initial markets are Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Offline Google Docs Coming

Google's word processing application will now work offline, Google says, with the new feature available over the nextfew weeks, apparently. Changes made to offline documents will synchronize automatically when users go back online.

The offline feature is enabled by the Google Gears browser plug-in, which uses JavaScript APIs to enable offline access for applications such as Google Reader.

The "work offline" feature obviously is an important feature for traveling workers.

Zoho and Transmedia, which also offer online productivity suites, have been offering offline access to their word processing applications, Zoho Writer and Glide 2.0, since last year.