I mean, wasn't the original Verizon ad that started this off about the size of the 3G network? Now AT&T is countering with speed, which is great and all, so long as you don't live in any major U.S. cities like San Francisco, where those speeds are available, occasionally, like a fleeting wind (this according to the Gizmodo guys who live there, particularly Blam).

But a headless Luke Wilson is hi-larious, right? Enough to get consumers to vote with their hearts and not use their heads though? Not a chance. I'm siding with the Misfit Toys on this one.

It's an opinion. It could be off the mark. Let me know in the comments where you fall in this great big objectivity-free ad war between cell phone carriers. [Youtube via CNET]

You've gotta love the FCC these days, right? First they ask Google, AT&T and Apple just what they hell they're doing rejecting Google Voice from the App Store. Then they just don't fuck around when it comes to backing net neutrality. And now they're calling Verizon on its insane $350 ETF it's forcing people into with their "advanced" phones. It doesn't get much more pro-consumer than this.

[FCC via Engadget]

Verizon's response:

A broad array of Americans who might not otherwise be able to afford broadband connections to the Internet with a home PC, or by paying full price for a smartphone, have an affordable way of participating in the online world when they choose a subsidized option.

Also noted is the fact that smartphones are available at full, unsubsidized price, although it's not mentioned that the monthly fee doesn't change with an unsubsidized phone and that said unsubsidized phones are incredibly expensive. Hey Verizon, haven't you heard that this is a recession? Have some consideration. [The Hill]

I have a Droid, and like it a lot, but I'm a little concerned that these ads are alienating buyers by making the phone seem a lot more complex and threatening than it really is. To a first-time buyer, smartphones are a pretty intimidating purchase, and while I understand the impulse to differentiate the Droid from the cute-as-a-button, simple-as-can-be iPhone commercials, the Droid commercials may be going too far in the opposite direction with the whole DROID SMASH aesthetic. But that's just me, and, well, I bought one anyway—what do you guys think? [YouTube]

The Android 2.0.1 update should be out by the end of the year, but Droid owners (the only ones lucky enough to play with Android 2.0 at the moment) will also get an OTA update with a few Droid-specific fixes. We're told these include improved camera autofocus (thank God) and better voice reception (although in my experience the Droid's reception is stellar). We'll let you know when it's released, which should be before New Years. [Android via Engadget]

Boy Genius Report hears that the deal will last only three days, from December 4th (tomorrow!) to the 7th. There's one caveat: The deal doesn't allow for a free Droid. If you buy either a Droid or a Droid Eris, you can get a Droid Eris for free (after rebate). A little lame, but if you split the cost with somebody else, it's still a pretty solid deal for two of the top Android phones on the market. You'll just have to figure out who gets the Terminator Phone and who gets the prettier Last Year's Model.

The deal also includes the enV Touch and enV 3, if you're into that kind of thing. Still unconfirmed, but we've got no reason to doubt it. [Boy Genius Report]

Dell's Vostro 1015, the rare business laptop that brings a halfway elegant design to the boardroom table, is now available. The base model of the 15.6" laptop costs $429 but only comes with a 2.2GHz Celeron 900 processor, so you will likely want to make the jump to the $629 model which sports a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T6670. You know, to ensure that Excel performs snappily. Or at least for making sure you can snappily Alt-Tab back to Excel when the boss strolls by. The $629 price tag also gets you 3GB of RAM, a 320 GB HD and Windows 7 Professional. To check out more details on the Dell Vostro 1015, head over to Dell.

The Samsung Omnia II is now available at Verizon for $200. Though the Omnia II sports a pretty 3.7" touch screen, that beauty is only skin-deep; John thought just about everything else was a hot mess. The phone runs WinMo 6.5 mucked up with Samsung's 3D-Cube TouchWiz 2.0 UI and is the first phone to feature Swype input technology, which may or may not save you some time when you're texting all your friends to tell them that your new phone sucks. The Omnia II packs a 5-megapixel camera, an 8 GB HD, and supports both social networking widgets and Microsoft Office Mobile. To be the first person to submit an expense report via Swype, head to Verizon.

The Nokia N900 Maemo which, Nokia will have you know, is mobile computer and not a smartphone, is now available. For $570 you can fetch an unlocked N900 with a 600 MHz processor, a 32 GB hard drive, a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 800 x 400 video, and all the other expected bells and whistles. The N900 has a slide-out hardware keyboard for all your texting—err, mobile computing—needs, supports playback of a wide range of both audio and video file formats and offers VoIP integration. All of this is packed into Nokia's Debian-based Maemo OS which the company's announcement boasted as offering "computer-grade performance in a compact size". Ooh and ahh at the impressive N900 and its correspondingly grandiose website here.

The Cinemin Swivel Pico Projector by WowWee, a $300 pocket-size projector designed for use with other pocket-size devices, is now yours for the having. The Cinemin swivels on a 90-degree hinge for versatile projection without a tripod, which is sweet like cinnamon but only offers 480 x 320 resolution, which is like the minimum of cinema, thus Cinemin. That might not be what they had in mind with the name but I'm sticking to it. You can get your hands on the little guy over at Amazon.

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED by and between Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless ("Verizon Wireless") and Defendant/Counterclaim Plaintiff AT&T Mobility LLC ("AT&T") that pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: (a) Verizon Wireless's claims against AT&T in the above- captioned action are hereby dismissed without prejudice, and (b) AT&T's counterclaims against Verizon Wireless in the above-captioned action are hereby dismissed without prejudice.

AT&T's suit in Georgia courts (which Verizon had not countered with a suit of their own) was dropped as well.

The legal back and forth stemmed from AT&T's sue-jerk reaction to Verizon's biting "there's a map for that" commercials, escalating in the media as AT&T responded with the help of Luke Wilson. And with a few simple documents, a great corporate slapfight comes to an end—at least in the courts. The not-so-distant future will reveal whether or not the ceasefire was sourced from some sort of advertising gentleman's agreement.

UPDATE: Apparently, one of the NY suits was not directly related to the maps argument. Verizon sued AT&T in NY courts, not for money, but to have the courts rule its claims of "Most Dependable 3G Network" were true. (Check the doc at Engadget, if you're interested.)

Yes, in 19 of the 26 cities surveyed, AT&T was ranked dead last in every category. Verizon was ranked the best, followed by T-Mobile, then Sprint and then, of course, bringing up the rear is our friend AT&T. You can compare their results to the results of our own nationwide 3G test here.

You've got to wonder if Apple can afford to stick this exclusivity contract out another year, what with decent competitors such as the Droid and the Pre now available. AT&T is as big a black mark on Apple's customer service reputation as they've ever had. And hell, for AT&T's sake it'd be nice to see some other carriers share the burden of iPhone data hogs. [9 to 5 Mac]

Sprint isn't giving in to the request and is proceeding to argue independent test results. I quite frankly don't care whether they give in, keep the claim, or change it to say that they're the best thing since sliced bread. I just want reliable service and calls that actually go through. [Electronista]

If you hate the gallery format, click here.

All pricing shown is with a new 2-year contract, and some deals may be temporary.

AT&T

iPhone 3GS
The iPhone 3GS is the best overall smartphone you can buy. It's really that simple. Best user interface, best internet, best apps, best media support—the list goes on. Okay, not the best network, but nothing's perfect. $199

BlackBerry Bold 9700
I miss the original BlackBerry Bold's king-sized keyboard, but the Bold 9700 squeezes the best of the BlackBerry for CEOs into an impressively tight form factor—faux leather back included—making it very possibly the best BlackBerry you can buy. $10

Bonus: Nokia e71x
It's free, and an actually good smartphone—my favorite Nokia phone on the planet. Free

Verizon

Droid
It's a terminator. A huge, disgustingly high-res screen, Batman-worthy industrial design, and the full power of Android 2.0 make it the best phone on Verizon—and the fact that it's running on arguably the best network in the US make it the second best smartphone you can buy, period. $150

BlackBerry Tour
Sure, it's notorious for trackball problems and it's missing Wi-Fi, but this is the BlackBerry of choice for email warriors if they're not on AT&T or T-Mobile—and it sure as hell beats anything running Windows Mobile. $50

Bonus: Droid Eris
If you're desperate to save $100 over the Droid, the Droid Eris will run Android 2.0 soon enough, and is smoother, smaller, and friendlier, if a little blander. $100

Sprint

Palm Pre
The Pre offers one of the best user experiences of any smartphone with Palm's webOS, and it's probably the best phone on Sprint, hardware build issues and comparatively dinky App Catalog aside. $80

HTC Hero
The best Android phone not running Android 2.0, HTC's Sense UI makes the sometimes confusing Android interface more digestible and has a few nifty tricks of its own, like integrated social networking. $100

Bonus: There is none. The Pixi's close ($25), but the fact that you can get the Pre for nearly as cheap undercuts a lot of the value, as much as we like the design and form factor.

T-Mobile

Motorola Cliq
Motorola's other Android phone is gussied up with Blur, a custom interface that's bright and friendly, with widgets for keeping track of everything happening on your social network. It's our favorite Android phone on T-Mobile. $100

Unlocked iPhone
No, I'm not kidding. A jailbroken and unlocked iPhone, even without 3G powers, is the second best smartphone you can use on T-Mobile.

Bonus: BlackBerry Bold 9700
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the first BlackBerry with 3G on T-Mobile, which is reason enough, really, but it's good the reasons listed above, too. $130

Yes, the first thing you may notice is that Swype technically uses a QWERTY layout. But instead of pushing each key individually, you drag your finger from letter to letter.

It's tough to tell if the speed gains are legitimate, given this video has been created by the Swype camp. I will say, however, given that this demo is one hand vs. two, the technology certainly holds its own. What do you think? Would you be willing to part with traditional QWERTY to spell words through nonsensical doodles?

Swype will debut in Verizon's Samsung Omnia II arriving early next month before making its way to an unnamed Android phone next year. [Swype via TechCrunch via OhGizmo!]

[Engadget]

Now, good on AT&T for fighting back with more ads and not more silly lawsuits and all, but the Verizon holiday ad lineup is pretty strong, and I don't see many Verizon customers losing sleep over Luke Wilson covering a giant coverage map with post cards.

As tipster Eric notes, AT&T selectively does not mention Edge, 3G or voice/data distinctions in this commercial, opting instead for vague blanket statements like "AT&T covers 97% of all Americans, that's over 300 million people."

To the AT&T customers I ask: Are you comforted by Luke Wilson?

Does Luke Wilson armed with some magnets beat the punch of Verizon's catchy slogan?

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Batten Sr remarked that people might "misunderstand" the commercials, "but that doesn't mean they're misleading." He continued to add that "most people who are watching TV are semi-catatonic" to begin with. Let's hope his train of thought remains during the follow-up hearing on December 16, because the case is starting to lose any entertainment value. [AJC via Engadget]

There's a rounding-error bug in the camera driver's autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle. That is, it'll work for 24.5 days, then have poor performance for 24.5 days, then work again.

The 17th is the start of a new "works correctly" cycle, so the devices will be fine for a while. A permanent fix is in the works.

But of course! I understand perfectly why a camera would be dependent on the date. Chances are good that this will have a legit fix before 24.5 days are up, but man, what a weird bug. [Engadget via GadgetLab]

When your lawsuits sound like press releases, it's because they probably are (not that we care, the whole case is pretty entertaining). Check out this opening statement from Verizon:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon's "There's A Map For That" advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon's ads are true and the truth hurts.

YA BURNT, AT&T! Verizon goes on to accuse AT&T of failing to adequately expand its 3G coverage to match demand for its smartphones, which is sort of a hard point for AT&T to argue. Verizon claims that its advertisements are "literally true" (instead of philosophically true? Metaphorically true? True in the sense in which it is used in animal husbandry, as in purebred? What?) and not misleading, and that AT&T has failed to provide customers with an accurate map of its coverage. It's pretty great, really—if you've ever wished the American legal system was more like it is on Law and Order, this whole statement is a gift. [Engadget]

There are two main problems: We like bills to be consistent, and we're risk-averse consumers.

To the first point, Sprint tried to offer a plan in 2004 where 300 minutes cost $35, and $2.50 for each additional 50 minutes. Seems great to me, no outrageous overage charges. But customers didn't like it because their bills would vary so much from month-to-month, so Sprint switched back to age-old tiered minutes plans.

Because we like consistent billing, the carriers institute ridiculous overage charges to convince us to spend up. That way we don't have to worry about any unforeseen costs, even if the fixed price plan ends up costing more than a variable pricing structure would.

The article also goes into how stupid expensive text message rates are subsidizing falling voice revenues, how wireless carriers would love to stop subsidizing phones, and more.

I know the average Gizmodo reader would like nothing more than to pay as little per minute as possible, but the average consumer thinks differently.

What's interesting is that this wholesale mentality does work, at least in terms of raw pricing. One minute of talk time costs 5 cents, and the average text message costs 1 cent. According to the article, that's the lowest average pricing in the developed world. The minutes do come at a bulk discount, it's just a matter of whether or not you use all of them.

I'll leave it to you commenters to discuss, but it's a good read into how wireless pricing in America got so complicated. [New York Times]