Apparently, the news we got (and saw on the company's website) yesterday concerning AT&T's offer of a SIM-only service plan was off the mark... or so says AT&T. According to the telco's reps, a SIM card can be had sans-contract, saying that its attitude towards the service hasn't changed and that pre-paid, post-paid, or any other millions of varieties of arrangements can be made to tap into its sweet service. So move along folks, nothing here to see.

It looks like all that shouting AT&T has been doing lately about its "openness" is starting to manifest itself in the way the company does business. It's come to our attention that the mobile telco has started offering a SIM-only plan, thus providing the ultimate in open options. The idea being, of course, that you can bring any random / crappy / salvaged GSM-compatible handset the provider's way, and it'll let you hook a towline onto its satellites. Of course, you could just get one of those cheapo giveaways and pop out the card, but this is so much more open and free, like San Francisco in '69, a car-less road, some land of your own, and a good old-fashioned whiskey on the rocks. Oh, you still have a sign a two-year agreement... enjoy your freedom!

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

Sure, we've seen the local-news-on-your-handset card pulled out before, but unlike similar alternatives, this one should work with any network and on any phone capable of handling the video. A group of ten ABC-owned television stations have announced that they will be offering up "free video content" for cellphones, most of which will consist of ad-supported streaming news clips. The service will be powered by Local Wireless, and will be available to users near WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WLS-TV in Chicago, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, KGO-TV in San Francisco, KTRK-TV in Houston, WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, NC, KFSN-TV in Fresno, California, WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, and WTVG in Toledo, Ohio. You know the drill: give it a go, and post your adoration / gripes below.

[Via Textually]

Well finally, iPhone activation made easy -- and free, we can barely believe it -- by the fine people at PQ Computing Inc. We know DVD Jon's solution works a treat, but some folks had issues with the HEX edits required on the iTunes executable and others reported no success at all. While branded as an "iPhone Unlock Toolkit," all this little gem does is activate the handset's iPod and other features without need for any AT&T plan. Download, run, and easy peasy lemon squeezy, your iPhone is activated -- though it is Windows only at the moment, Mac is labeled as coming soon. If you test this tool out, drop us a line and let us know how it went.

[Thanks ddww804]

Emoze, the Emblaze spin off, had another high noon showdown of sorts versus a Blackberry (we aren't making this up, peep the poster over yonder) at CTIA. Standing back to back -- one was armed with a run of the mill mobile, the other a Blackberry -- the mailslingers took three steps away from each other and then fired blank emails to Gmail, a large screen displaying the mail account clearly showed Emoze as the winner. OK, so we know this isn't going to convince the Blackberry-toting masses to abandon the device, but what Emoze was actually doing was demonstrating its new push mail service. The first generation Emoze client had a desktop connector that had to be running on your PC in order for the push to work; but this new release does away with all that in favor of a built in Exchange Outlook Web Access component. The Emoze client will securely sync email, calendar, contacts, and tasks from every major handset maker to just about every type of mail server. But the best part is that it doesn't cost one red cent, so hit the read link and go get some.

In the never ending one-upmanship battle with its competitors at Bell and Telus, Rogers has announced free long distance calling between its Home Phone service and mobile subscribers. Called the My Home Connection benefit, this plan is a freebie for all existing and new customers (yes, that's right -- free!). An interesting thing to note, this plan also extends to free calls to Fido users – this may be the only arena where the two companies blend even though they have the same parents. We think this may well be the first marketing shot in what will likely become the equivalent to sweeps week up here -- number portability. March 14th is the day that Canadians will finally be able to switch wireless Telco's and keep their existing number. You can expect great new devices and plans as all parties try to lure subscribers their way. Now, where is that TyTn announcement?

If you're just not satisfied with simply uploading your zany videos to YouTube, and don't want to wait around until next year to get a cellular version (or don't have Verizon Wireless), you should point your cellphone's browser to TinyTube. While not accessible from a non-mobile device (it's just YouTube content, anyway), the site provides a scaled-down version of the original for quicker loading and less strain on your wee resources, and offers up "low, medium, and high" playback settings to cater to varying connection speeds. So if you're the type who finds elation in instant gratification, and enjoy the freer things in life, hit the read link (with your handheld, of course) and head on over.

Softbank -- the folks who could be (but probably aren't) in cahoots with Apple -- is pulling out all the stops to lure customers away from those larger carriers in Japan. Soon after "vowing" to undercut any prices offered by rival firms NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, the little guy has now gone one step further by offering free handsets at the point of sale. Of course, there's always a catch, and customers looking at high-end phones will be faced with "a monthly fee" for the luxury of toting the latest and greatest, and will also be forced to sign a "one or two year" contract. But before you get too down on your luck, Softbank estimated that a "digital TV phone" would only run customers about ¥390 ($3.30) per month, which seems awfully cheap when Verizon somehow charges even more to automatically restore your contact list.

Google has done quite a swell job tunneling its variety of niceties into mobile form, but syncing your online Google Calendar with that already-crowded version on your mobile / PDA isn't happening without some help from a generous third party. Toffa has unveiled GooSync beta, which "will seamlessly synchronize almost any mobile device with your Google Calendar" without charging you a dime. The seemingly impressive system starts by logging on and initiating a sync to GooSync's website from your handheld, which channels the info on your Google Calendar directly onto your cellphone, all without plugging a single cord into your device. While the list of supported phones is entirely too lengthy to list, be sure to hit the read link to find out if you can be a lucky guinea pig, and stop fiddling with two calendars at once, yeah?

[Thanks, Travis]