Hedgehogging: hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.

Following the failure of its U.S. mobile virtual network operator business, the Walt Disney Co. is now turning its attention to the east with plans to launch an MVNO service in Japan. We can just hear the Disney Mobile execs explaining things: “Hey, ‘Hello Kitty’ works there, why can’t Disney Mobile?” Brilliant.
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With the holiday selling season in full effect-hey at least it’s after Halloween-we have had a chance to get our hands on a number of new handsets looking to capitalize on the loose change burning the hole in everyone’s pockets. Quick synopsis: The LG Voyager looks like the most promising iPhone-killer, though it still fails to match the ease of use of the Apple device; HTC’s Touch is small and offers cool feature, but relying on Microsoft’s OS and the need to sometimes use a stylus and sometimes not holds it back.
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AT&T Mobility announced it will sell the new Pandora music application. The service allows users to listen to streaming radio stations on their phones. AT&T Mobility is going to sell the service for $10 per month. Interestingly, Sprint Nextel was the first carrier to offer the service, and currently charges $3 per month for it. Are we the only one who is confused by this pricing discrepancy? Or is this further explanation of why AT&T Mobility is going gangbusters and Sprint Nextel is having a bit of trouble.
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It’s never too soon to start planning some new year’s resolutions. The editorial staff at the newspaper would like to take this time to remind our dear audience that suing is mean. Really mean. And not very fun to cover (although there are exceptions). And it tends to hold up the advances in the industry. Just last week judges dismissed charges by Nokia (against Qualcomm) and Neilson Mobile (against M:Metrics. So if you have a lawsuit out there against a competitor, it would be nice if you settled before the end of the year. And if you are contemplating suing your rival, please don’t.
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We have also been able to play with some Bluetooth headsets-though usually only after dark so our friends don’t see us. Aliph’s Jawbone has won wave reviews by those who test these things for a living, and while we admit the device is definitely one of the better performing headsets out there, it still lacks enough volume for our quickly deteriorating hearing. On the plus side the Jawbone eschews the drive to miniaturize that has helped us not lose the device . yet.