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Technology & Electronics

CNN says Wal-Mart will sell the T-Mobile G1 (the first Google phone) at a discounted priceOctober 28

According to CNN, Wal-Mart will start selling the T-Mobile G1 for $148.88 (with a two year contract) on Wednesday.

That's about $50 less than the phone costs at T-Mobile stores.

It's an interesting move because while selling the phone at Wal-Mart will open it up to a bigger population, it could also lessen the phone's cachet.

Like the iPhone 3G, the T-Mobile G1 was hotly anticipated, but unlike the iPhone, there were not long lines at stores when it was released last week.

Apple and AT&T are now selling the iPhone 3G at Best Buy stores, but they waited to do that until the phone was already a big hit with consumers.

Selling the phone so soon at Wal-Mart may cause some analysts to think it's a desperation move to bolster a phone that hasn't caught on yet. Or it could cost-conscious consumers who may have dismissed smartphones as too expensive to start buying them.

Phillies fans Google their World Series parade dreamsOctober 27

If you've been following the World Series (or read my previous post), you know that a professional sports team from Philadelphia has not won a championship since 1983.

And with the Philadelphia Phillies one win away from winning the World Series, you can't blame Phillies fans for imagining what the celebration of a title might be like. In fact, during the 25 years of suffering, it's been common for Philly fans to talk with starry eyes about  "a parade down Broad Street," a main drag that goes by the sports stadium.

But Philly fans like me are also superstitious, so it's not uncommon for one fan to tell another to cut the parade talk until the World Series title has actually been won. After all, we wouldn't want to upset the baseball gods and jinx ourselves.

Thanks to technology, we know some Phillies fans are getting ahead of themselves.

Right now, the fourth most popular search on Google is "phillies parade." And #23 is "phillies world series parade."

My guess is a lot of the people doing

Oprah says the Amazon Kindle is her favorite gadget, offers $50 coupon; will that make you buy one?October 24

On today's Oprah show, the talk show queen will reveal her favorite gadget, which according to her Web site, is the Amazon Kindle, the electronic book reader that debuted last year. (Check out my review and video)

The Web site says that Oprah got a Kindle as a gift this summer and it "changed her life."

"I'm telling you, it is absolutely my new favorite thing in the world," Oprah says.

Amazon has a video trailer of the show on its site.

We all know the power of Oprah's endorsement when it comes to books and other goods, so the question is whether her blessing will boost sales of the $359 gadget that lets you wirelessly download and read books, magazines and newspapers.

The top three ways a Phillies fan in Florida uses technology to keep up the passionOctober 22

Today is a big day for me and everyone else from Philadelphia. The city's professional baseball team is in the World Series for the first time since 1993. If the Phillies win the World Series, it will be the first championship for a Philadelphia professional sports team since the 76ers won the NBA title in 1983.

So naturally, when your hometown is so starved for a championship, you tend to get a little excited when things go well. But living 1,000 miles away from home as I have for the past four years makes it a little harder for me to stay as excited as I would be if I were still living in Philadelphia.

That's where technology comes in.

Sure, I've been able to read the local newspaper online for years, but what I'm talking about goes beyond that.

Here are my top three tech tools for Philadelphia fans living away from home.

These tools will also be useful for fans of other teams living away from home, unless you are a Rays fan :)

1. Slingbox

This device seems to have been invented for sports fans. If you aren't familiar with it, I featured it as one

New MetroPCS service displays the names of callers on cell phonesOctober 18

Cell phones have had Caller ID for years, but unless the person who is calling you is in your phonebook, all you see is the person's number.

MetroPCS, a small cell phone company that provides flat rate wireless services has just introduced "Screen-it," which it says is the first service to display the calling party's name on cell phones.

The service is similar to the caller ID that has been available on landline phones for decades.

MetroPCS is hoping that this feature will help make it easier for customers to ditch their landline phones for a cell phone only lifestyle.

Screen-it is included with MetroPCS' $50 cell phone plan and it can be added for $2 to other plans.

It's somewhat surprising that Caller ID with the caller's name hasn't been available until now. Perhaps some of the bigger cell phone carieers will follow suit.