Is anyone listening to Silent Tuesday?

iPlan costs hit Apple shares

[FT] Shares of Apple fell more than 2 per cent after Apple and AT&T revealed three new pricing plans for iPhone. Koman's take: Check. $80 for voice and data. Well, if you have to check your cell bill, you can't afford it.

Apple announces data plans

[Apple PR via AppleInsider] All three plans include unlimited data, Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll-over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. With everything else already included, iPhone customers can easily choose the plan that's right for them based on the amount of voice minutes they plan to use each month. In addition, iPhone customers can choose from any of AT&T's standard service plans.

iPhonies

[NewsforReal] Millions of Americans will chuck their perfectly good cell phones, sending them off to either a local landfill or shipped across the sea to some third world nation where peasants will retrieve the precious metals and chuck the unwanted toxic materials into their landfills or the sea.
... Products that actually enhance life and personal productivity don't need a lot marketing. I knew months before the first personal computer was going to be available at my local Radio Shack, and I was there the day it arrived ... But products like the iPhone require lots of buzz-creation, since they are not really needed by anyone. At best they are nothing but show-off enhancements on existing gadgets.

Will iPhone change the way we live?

[SF Chron] "The iPhone has the potential to raise the level of technology that each one of us carries every day," said Kevin Almeroth, associate director for UC Santa Barbara's Center for Information Technology and Society. ... With its sleek, simple design, the iPhone targets the average Joe and Jane, making smart phones more accessible than before. ... But the iPhone in its current form ... isn't running on the fastest cell phone network. Its touch screen interface may not be that easy to use. It doesn't have GPS ... It doesn't let users download music and videos wirelessly....

Judge denies GOOG's bid to keep MSFT under antitrust oversight

[FT] Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who oversees the terms of the four-year-old agreement that settled the US antitrust case against Microsoft, refused to consider a Google application to have the agreement extended beyond November, when large parts of it expire. She said Google’s only course of action was to lodge its complaint with the US justice department - which has said it is satisfied no further action is needed. Koman's take: You will recall that the DOJ lawyer making that call used to do a lot of business with Redmond.

GOOG targets nonprofits with Google Earth program

[Computerworld] Google Outreach Google has launched a program to help nonprofits use Google Earth to raise awareness of their missions and better demonstrate what they do.

GOOG launches news in images

[Googlified] Whenever you hover over a photo, the headlines list on the right will highlight the headline that’s related to the story, and displays a snippet of the news story. It's actually quite groovy.

Arrington's latest spokesblogging gig

[ValleyWag] He joins a "conversation" on gaining the user's trust -- on searchforbettersearch.com. Never heard of it? It's a pop-up site which turns out to be registered to Hakia, a new search engine, which is one of the clients of Federated Media, the company that sells Techcrunch ads.