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

Word has it that German mobile virtual network operator Debitel is offering to rebate almost $900 to people who want to buy an unlocked iPhone (retail price about $1,500) in an attempt to try to take away T-Mobile’s current exclusivity in offering the device. Another brilliant MVNO strategy!-paying nearly $1,000 to acquire a subscriber. It’s difficult to imagine how these MVNOs keep burning through venture capital and end up going out of business.
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Not only will a gPhone be able to work on Verizon Wireless’ network under its new open-access alternative, we’re betting that soon an aPhone, ePhone, iPhone, oPhone and uPhone (likely from YouTube) will also come to market in 2008.
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Clarity Communication Systems Inc. is combining location-based services offerings with push-to-talk over cellular technology in a pretty cool way. Its application, which can run on various radio-access technologies, is targeting the companies and agencies that need PTT. The company’s “Where2Talk” app allows a dispatcher in the office to use a PC to track employees in the field, and then uses that “situational awareness” to build a call based on users’ locations. As Sprint Nextel continues to lose unhappy iDEN customers, someone’s got to pick up those subscribers.
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You have to wonder how far some people will push. Public Knowledge is mad because Verizon Wireless said it would open its network to others, which the group has been pushing for. BUT, VZW has the audacity to make sure that these devices and apps won’t bring its network down. AND that it isn’t letting someone else do the testing. AND it might continue to financially subsidize its favorite devices, which makes the “other” devices less attractive. Damn VZW for still trying to continue to be in charge of its own business.
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Talk about poor timing: Just as Verizon Wireless got the industry buzzing it would switch to LTE for its fourth-generation technology, xG TechnologyInc. said its first xMax base station and antennas have been installed in Daytona Beach, Fla. xMax technology is supposed to be faster and cheaper than WiMAX and other so-called 4G technologies, but it definitely is getting drowned out from LTE excitement.