Posts on handset makers, carriers and Oracle

I wrote a number of earnings stories during this period on AT&T, Microsoft, Motorola and Sprint.

But I also got a couple of stories out of covering a Sprint developers' conference in Santa Clara:

Sprint touts 4G possibilities at developer conference

Internet-ready Ford F-150 at Sprint conference

Sprint removes barriers to Google Voice, Skype, Vonage

I also followed the continuing opposition to the Oracle acquisition of Sun when a deal critic came to Silicon Valley from Europe.

Oracle-Sun critic doubts Oracle's 'promises' to support MySQL

I ended the week receiving my demo of the Samsung Moment from Sprint, which I played with over the weekend and posted my review of Nov. 1, the day it went on sale:

Samsung's Moment has arrived

Samsung Moment from Sprint

A couple of days I posted two stories in one day, earning me the number 1 position as top San Jose Examiner for having the most page views.

Persuasive Marketing

I've been blogging the last few months for Persuasive Marketing, a blog site from the firm Attain Marketing, based in North Carolina. Lorraine Kauffman-Hall, who once worked PR for a tech company I covered in Silicon Valley, is now with Attain and asked me to write about PR from the media's perspective. Here are some of the posts:

Top Ten things PR people show never say to the media (Part 1):

Top Ten things PR people should never say to the media (Part 2):

Ignore Facebook at your peril:

Twitter me this:

Posts the week of Oct. 19

Apple produces strong earnings on iPhone, Mac sales

Apple freshens Mac Book, puts big screens on iMac

At least Sun and Oracle logos have merged,
in this image on a staircase at Oracle OpenWorld
this month in San Francisco.

Opposition to Oracle-Sun deal grows, Sun layoffs

Gov. Schwarzenegger at Oracle gathering

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a surprise appearance at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco Oct. 14 to "pump you up," he told an audience of technology geeks.

Schwarzenegger endorses Oracle-Sun Deal

Busy day Monday with Sidekick debacle

Monday Oct. 12 was a busy day as I tried to keep up with changing developments in the story of T-Mobile dealing with irate customers because they lost the data backup for their Sidekick smartphones. It seems Microsoft and Danger (the latter, the maker of the Sidekick that was acquired by Microsoft in 2008) suffered a server malfunction that wiped out nearly all the data of users it was supposed to be storing.

T-Mobile store in Antioch, Calif.

Here's the initial report on it, updated once with more information.

And here's the second story about how T-Mobile said the situation had been resolved.

My report on AT&T Prepaid phone plan

AT&T is offering a new prepaid calling plan, one of many carriers pushing prepaid plans as an alternative to post-paid plans where the subscriber is tied to a contract for two years.

On AT&T, Apple, BlackBerry and other gadget news

A couple recent posts of mine on Examiner.com:

AT&T reverses course on VoIP on iPhone; an analyst doubts its stated motives:

AT&T allows wider use of Skype; urges FCC light touch

Apple quits U.S. Chamber of Commerce over global warming skepticism

Apple takes a stand on climate change

Good news for BlackBerry users

BlackBerry to support Adobe Flash

Palm dilemma: how to price Pixi when Pre prices falling

Prices falling for Palm Pre