connectivity

With Wi-Fi hot spots blanketing the nation and its 3G network rolled out and expanding, T-Mobile felt the time was right to roll out its new webConnect USB Laptop Stick.

Manufactured by Huawei Technologies Co., this small, portable modem lets you connect to the Web on your laptop using T-Mobile's 3G network or Wi-Fi, and comes with built-in T-Mobile Connection Manager software to automatically detect the best available Internet connection.

In addition, the WebConnect laptop stick offers tri-band 3G connectivity (HSDPA/UMTS 1900/AWS/2100), so you'll be able to use it on compatible networks overseas. If you'… Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--A couple of days ago I wrote a story suggesting that the Twitter saturation level here at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival was so high that the service's value was being affected.

Now, after four full days here, I think that conclusion is worth a reality check: Twitter is out-and-out dominating SXSWi.

To be sure, the massive numbers of tweets that are being posted using the "#sxsw" tag is making it more difficult for those using Twitter to find specific information than was the case at SXSWi 2007 or SXSWi 2008. But the reality … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Given that you can't walk more than a couple feet at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival here without stumbling into someone tapping away on one iPhone application or another, it's easy to forget that just a year ago, there was no such thing as an official iPhone "app."

But now, of course, iPhone apps are one of the hottest technology segments of all. And since SXSWi is ground zero for cutting edge social media and the people who are often the earliest adopters of such technology, a series of companies have used the … Read more

Updated at 10:12 a.m. PDT.

AUSTIN, Texas--"A joke I always make here is that if your friend did something on the Internet and you didn't hear about it, did it actually happen?" Facebook senior platform manager Dave Morin said as he described the social network's renewed focus on a real-time stream of updates of friends' activities across the Web.

"We're happy to announce today that you have more control over the stream than ever before," Morin said, showing off screenshots of the recently redesigned Facebook homepage, which he said is … Read more

Location-based social network Whrrl has a new application for iPhone users called Whrrl 2.0. It lets you post photos and status updates that are tied to a geographical location. It includes integration with Facebook Connect and Twitter, meaning you can sign up and use the service with your Facebook credentials, and have your location updates and status updates from Whrrl cross-posted to both your social-networking profile and Twitter page.

Built-in privacy features let you pick how much of an update you want certain groups of people to see. For instance, when posting your location you can choose whether to … Read more

Facebook has extended Facebook Connect to make it easier for site owners to use the feature.

Connect, as I've written previously, is a powerful way for publishers to tap in to the Facebook community. When users leave comments on a site using Connect, those comments can also show on the users' Facebook profile pages, which acts as a form of free site marketing to the Facebook audience.

The company on Thursday released a new widget that enables Facebook comments to be added to any Web page. More from the Facebook developers' blog. See also the video demo, embedded here. … Read more

Lenovo and Research In Motion make different devices, but have one thing in common: their target audience.

Seeing that, the Canadian smartphone maker and the Chinese PC vendor have teamed up on Constant Connect, a new service that will make it easier to link ThinkPads and BlackBerrys.

A PCI Express card, available from Lenovo for $150, will enable e-mail from a user's BlackBerry to automatically sync to their ThinkPad's e-mail program, whether that be Outlook, or a POP mail account. The key is that the ThinkPad doesn't have to be powered on for this to happen: it … Read more

Here's a message for all the tech bloggers and reporters freaking out over the alleged Associated Press bombshell that some copy-paste legerdemain led to the revelation that Facebook valued itself at $3.7 billion at the time of the ConnectU vs. Facebook court settlement:

Please, chill out! This is not news!

While it had not yet been reported that the ConnectU settlement was a reported $65 million (though since it was in cash and stock, that value may have dropped with the onset of the recession), the $3.7 billion Facebook valuation has been around since July.

The New … Read more

Google has launched a new option for site owners using its Friend Connect service. Besides the usual friends and discussion widgets, sites can now have a "social bar" which can sit atop, or at the bottom of their page. This facilitates user log-ins, as well as letting you get a quick view at the latest activity including members who have signed in and comments they've left.

Google is pushing the new bar as an alternative to putting some of the other Friend Connect page elements on your site. For instance, having this installed without the other widgets … Read more