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Verizon dropped its plan to institute a $2 surcharge on online and over the phone credit card payments.

Verizon Wireless said today that it will not institute a $2 surcharge on payments made with a credit card online or over the phone, reversing course on a plan announced this week that quickly drew criticism from consumers.

“The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions,” Verizon said in a statement. “The company continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides.”

The company had planned to implement the new charge Jan. 15.

“At Verizon, Read more…

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Starting in January, Verizon will add a $2 surcharge to online credit card payments.

Verizon Wireless may have just joined Bank of America and Netflix in committing a strategic blunder of epic proportions.

Starting Jan. 15, the nation’s No. 1 wireless carrier plans to charge you an extra $2 each time you pay your monthly bill online with a credit card.

“The fee will help allow us to continue to support these single bill payment options in these channels,” Verizon said in a statement.

Really? Other companies are paying consumers to do away with paper bills and to pay online. Read more…

Did you get an iPad 2 or Kindle Fire for Christmas? Congrats on being on the cutting-edge of technology, at least for a few months. The shelf life for gadgets is shrinking fast these days as companies rush to crank out new entries.

Here’s a rundown on the technology developments I’m looking forward to in 2012. Two of the five items are Apple products, but that’s in line with general consumer interests (see Google’s top searches for 2011).

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The iPad will soon take center stage, again.

5. Apple iPad 3 – Unlike its predecessor, there is not a clear upgrade that the iPad 3 will need to maintain Apple’s top position in the tablet world. With the iPad 2, Apple had to add front and rear-facing cameras, features that were available on Android-based tablets before the iPad 2’s release in March. One of the iPad 2’s chief competitors this holiday season, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, is actually a downgrade in terms of features. For example, it doesn’t feature any cameras. The Fire’s main appeal is its $200 price tag. I don’t see Apple lowering the price on the entry-level iPad 3 to less than $500. Instead, the latest iPad release may be thinner, lighter and more powerful – standard updates from Apple. It’s also a good bet that the wireless carrier models of the iPad 3 will be 4G compatible.

Replaces: Read more…

The Denver Post

AT&T has ended its bid to acquire T-Mobile.

AT&T, the nation’s second largest wireless carrier, said today that it has dropped its bid to acquire smaller competitor T-Mobile.

After “a thorough review of options,” AT&T has agreed with T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG, to cancel efforts to merge. The proposed $39 billion deal was announced in March.

The Federal Communications Commission slammed the deal and the Department of Justice sued to block it, which would have left the industry with three nationwide wireless providers – AT&T, No. 1 carrier Verizon Wireless and No. 3 carrier Sprint Nextel. Perhaps Read more…

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UBS isn't sold on Dish Network's plans.

Dish Network lost nearly 400,000 net subscribers over the past six quarters. The Douglas County-based satellite-TV company is facing increasing competition, mainly from telcos, and consumer video viewing habits are rapidly changing amid the rise of streaming services.

UBS analyst John Hodulik cites those reasons for not being “enamoured” with Dish’s core business.

Though the Blockbuster acquisition could provide some upside, Hodulik has serious questions about Dish’s ability to realize the full value of the wireless spectrum the company spent $2.9 billion acquiring this year. He wrote in a research note today: Read more…

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How many hours per month do you waste because of software problems?

Three in five office workers have yelled at their computer, and nearly one in four say they’ve “wanted to quit their jobs because of frustration with software programs,” according to a survey released today by Denver-based business software services provider TrackVia.

Other findings from the survey:
- 5 percent said they wasted more than 10 hours per month because of software-related problems
- 22 percent said they wasted four to 10 hours per month
- 29 percent said they wasted one to three hours per month.
- 35 percent said they wasted up to one hour per month. Read more…

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The iPad 2 was the No. 10 search term nationally in 2011.

Google released this week its annual Zeitgeist list of the most popular search terms for the 2011, and like in years past, they broke out terms by city.

In Denver, news outlets and public services/agencies dominated the top 10 most popular search terms. Here are the terms (Google didn’t assign rankings for local searches. It just released the top 10): Read more…

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Facebook's major makeover opens to all users today.

Facebook is rolling out a dramatic new look for its 800 million users today.

Called Timeline, the update effectively turns your profile into a digital scrapbook. It’s an attractive makeover that allows users to easily browse status updates, photos and wall posts, whether from today, a year ago or when they originally joined the social network.

“It’s how you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in September when he announced Timeline.

Facebook will place a notification at the top of your profile when you’re eligible to check out Timeline. The company says you’ll have seven days to play around with the features before friends will see the new page.

Three things you may want to do to prepare for the update:

1. Find a nice wallpaper image. You’ll need one for the backdrop of your profile, essentially serving as the page’s Read more…

I hate 7-inch tablets, but for $199, Amazon has a chance against Apple with the Kindle Fire: dpo.st/ojUrZz

— Andy Vuong (@andyvuong) September 28, 2011

I sent that tweet nearly three months ago.

Since then, researchers have estimated that Amazon will ship nearly 4 million units of the Kindle Fire during its first quarter on the market, thanks in large part to the $200 price, which is $300 cheaper than the entry-level iPad 2.

But as it turns out, I’m not the only one who hates 7-inch tablets.

The New York Times reported this week that the Kindle Fire is “less than a blazing success” as complaints mount from early adopters. Amazon’s forthcoming software update may tackle some of those concerns, which include slow load times for Web pages and lack of privacy.

Any over-the-air fix, however, won’t be able to address the biggest drawback of all: its form factor. Read more…

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Dish CEO Joe Clayton said the company could seek to partner with T-Mobile.

Douglas County-based Dish Network could partner with T-Mobile if the wireless carrier’s proposed merger with AT&T falls through.

“We’re not interested in making money on selling our spectrum,” said Clayton told Bloomberg News. “We want to use it to create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We’ve got expertise in satellite-TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we’ll need some help with.”

Dish, which has spent more than $2 billion this year acquiring two companies with large blocks of wireless spectrum, could also partner with Sprint Nextel, the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier.

Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said in a research note today that Clayton’s statement about T-Mobile could ease some investor concerns about Dish undertaking an expensive wireless strategy Read more…