• rumor Facebook is reportedly working on their own phone, according to TechCrunch. The guy behind the iPhone app is one of the reported principals on the project.
• skepticism Phones are a lot different from friends. Is Facebook really suited for this? And with all the privacy problems they’ve had, would anyone trust them? source

• They have a press conference scheduled for Friday. However, while it will be about the iPhone 4, there’s no word on whether or not it’s actually about the antenna issue, which Consumer Reports went out of their way to turn into a full-fledged PR crisis the other day. On the scale of smart public relations moves, it certainly beats Steve Jobs telling a customer, “You’re holding it the wrong way.” Unless they plan to stonewall some more. source

• Do you know how many urban hipsters would use something like this to charge their phones? Oh wait, it’s a Nokia product. Nevermind. That’s fine, though, because it’s not designed for urban hipsters, but developing countries lacking electrical outlets. source

• good AT&T will FINALLY allow data tethering via the iPhone, after blocking it for years.
• bad AT&T will no longer offer unlimited data plans, but instead two tiered data plans.
• okay Old customers won’t be forced to switch, but new customers will have no choice.

The new charges

• $15the cost per month for the 200-megabyte “DataPlus” plan; it’s $15 for each additional 200 megs
• $25 the cost per month for the 2-gigabyte “DataPro” plan; it’s $10 for each additional gigabyte

The bullet points

• » Why do this, anyway? Because AT&T found in its research that most customers only used a certain amount of data, and a small number of users accounted for most of the bandwidth-sucking data usage. Take that as you will, kids. On the plus side, AT&T is at least trying to make the new charges somewhat friendly to consumers, allowing for retroactive changes between the two plans.
• » The wildcard, of course? AT&T is the first company to do this. Which means that Verizon, Sprint, all those other companies? They still have unlimited data plans. And if Verizon gets the iPhone like is being predicted, it seriously puts them at an advantage. source

• YES people prefer buying phones in person, not online source

• YES and it tethers to your phone,
  unlike the iPad source
  

• They had this business to themselves for years. Now everybody’s joined the party. The U.S. is probably tough for them now.
• Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder • On Research in Motion’s declining sales this quarter. The company’s BlackBerry is being attacked on all fronts, by both the iPhone and the upstart Motorola Droid. As a result, the company only shipped 10.5 million devices, half a million off from estimates. They’re still profitable (and profits are up), but the sales suggest future weakness. source

• $89.99 for unlimited voice and text if you are on Verizon – which is a good deal, but doesn’t include data plans (though those have been improved quite a it)
• $89.99 for the same thing from AT&T – unless you’re on a smartphone like an iPhone, in which case you can get unlimited with a data plan for $119.99 source