Been holding on to that now-antique EDGE device to keep from extending your contract with AT&T? Well, if you've been experiencing some sluggishness -- and not just general EDGE sluggishness, mind you -- you might have more to blame than just those recent outages. Open for Business reports that AT&T has been quietly lowering EDGE signal strength to give more 3G love to all you iPhone 3G and Bold users. To add to the shadiness of the situation, AT&T reps are all offering up the same solution -- buy a 3G device. Unsurprisingly, AT&T's Mark Siegel has denied Open for Business's claims, and says that the mega-carrier is not requiring anyone to switch to a 3G phone. We'll put on our Sherlock Holmes outfits and try to do some digging, but it's not like we actually expect these guys to admit to a move that would definitely lead to a lot of backlash.

[Via MobileBurn]

Were you hoping to spend the day glued to your iPhone or BlackBerry, keeping an eye on our live Macworld coverage while in the office? If you've got AT&T on the East Coast, you'd better make sure your wireless data connection is operational. Just like in September we're getting a number of tips from people on the right side reporting outages and error messages when attempting to connect. Meanwhile we're not finding any issues out here in SF or Vegas, and the Midwest appears to be going strong after last week's shenanigans. We've pinged AT&T for deets, but let us know -- what're you seeing on your end?

Update: We still haven't received official word either way, but by the sounds of it data is back up for at least most of you. We'll keep after AT&T for some sort of confirmation.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

If these fine specimens look familiar, well, they should -- one's already been announced (albeit on a different carrier) and the other two have been thoroughly scooped. Motorola's CES haul includes the eco-tastic Renew W233, a simple candybar destined for T-Mobile that features a neutral carbon footprint and components made of recycled water bottles; the Tundra VA76r, a rugged 3G flip with push-to-talk that previously launched on Rogers and has its sights set on AT&T this time around for a January 13 release; and the headliner of the bunch, the SURF A3100. The WinMo 6.1-based SURF -- alias A3000, alias Atila -- features a full 2.8-inches of touchscreen adorned with a custom skin designed by Moto, 7.2Mbps triband HSDPA, a 3-megapixel autofocus cam, AGPS, and support for microSD cards up to a purely theoretical 32GB in size. Though the radio is fully equipped for North American action, no stateside launch is in the cards just yet; for now, you'll find the SURF in Asian markets before the quarter's out.

[Via Phone Scoop]

We've got a whopper this week over at Classic's Ask Engadget, and we're soliciting your help. Real simple: what's the best smartphone available for under $200 on contract? And... go!

Ever since the Dev-Team kinda sorta promised that they would have a neatly packaged iPhone 3G unlock ready for release by the year's end, we've all been waiting on pins and needles, counting down the moments until freedom was in hand yet again. Now, a cryptic message on the crew's blog has been followed up with a not-at-all secretive image (shown above), which shows that whatever magic they've got going on will work with the latest (v2.2) iPhone 3G firmware. According to a related writeup at yellowsn0w, we're clearly told that the unlock tool will be made available by midnight PST at the latest, though we're hoping those guys have their AM / PM mixed up -- otherwise, you might be waiting until noontime tomorrow. At any rate, now you've more than a day off and black eyed peas to look forward to tomorrow, right?

Via yellowsn0w and MobileCrunch]

We've officially gotten ahead of ourselves. Millions of Americans -- and billions of people around the world -- have now entirely ditched landline service in favor of wireless, and for perfectly good reasons: wireless is more functional and entertaining, its uses stretch well beyond voice alone, and like the term "mobile phone" suggests, we can take it with us virtually anywhere we go. What we've failed to consider, though, is that wireless is still in its infancy -- so much so that it's still being wholly gutted and upgraded every few years to take advantage of new technologies and higher data rates, and with that constant churn comes unreliability. When's the last time your POTS provider waxed poetic about a next-generation network?

We're getting way too many tips on AT&T being down for it to be a coincidence -- how's it going for you? Both EDGE and 3G are pretty spotty for us at the moment in Illinois, but they're working in NYC, which jibes with reports of a Midwest-specific outage, but we're also hearing there are troubles nationwide. We've pinged AT&T for an official statement, but in the meantime let us know if things are working for you wherever you are.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

2008 was, to say the least, a banner year for Windows Mobile hardware. Windows Mobile software... well, that's another story; we're still patiently waiting for the same thorough overhaul we'd hoped for years ago, but in the meantime, manufacturers have done an absolutely stellar job of taking the platform to its limits and packaging it in ways that could make any smartphone envious. For this first time, VGA screens (and beyond) have come to market en masse, and -- unlike the 8525s, Tilts, Moguls, and XV6800s of yesteryear, the latest batch of QWERTY sliders look like they've actually got a lick of intelligent industrial design in their DNA.

So these puppies are similar, yes, but they're not the same -- so let's take a quick look at what separates the Sprint Touch Pro, from the Verizon Touch Pro, from the AT&T Fuze, from the Sony Ericsson X1 (whew!).

Ha, you or someone you love just paid full retail for an iPhone 3G a few days ago, didn't you? We've always heard that the best deals come after Christmas, but people just never learn. All smack talk aside, those who didn't get a new cellie under the tree, but did acquire a Benjamin or so courtesy of cash-stuffed holiday cards, can certainly score a big deal today. AT&T is now offering the 8GB iPhone 3G in refurbished form for just $99 with a two-year agreement, while the 16GB refurb is $199 on contract in either black or white. Call us crazy, but we don't foresee these hanging around in stock for too awfully long.

[Thanks, Brenson]

Way back in autumn of last year, AT&T agreed to give up seven markets in its Dobson Communications buy in order to get the all-important FCC stamp of approval; just a few months ago, Verizon Wireless was forced to sell licenses in six markets in order to improve competition in the Rural Cellular markets that it was acquiring. Now, that whole nightmare of red tape has been all wrapped up, as suits and cube dwellers no doubt frantically tried to tie up loose ends before the New Year that should've been knotted weeks ago. Essentially, the deal means that AT&T Mobility has acquired some former Rural Cellular properties previously acquired by Verizon Wireless, while VZW has acquired from AT&T Mobility some former Dobson Communications properties. All the nitty-gritty details are in the read link below should you care to venture down.

[Via phonescoop]

We've suspected for a while that LG would be bringing a version of its ultra-thin, 5-megapixel Secret slider to AT&T, and now, we've got some hard evidence to back it up. The latest rebate form for the carrier -- dated December 26 to January 24, though that definitely doesn't guarantee the phone will launch in that timeframe -- lists a $50 discount on the CF750 Secret along with the Motorola VA76r "Tundra," a rugged flip that has already launched on Rogers and will be coming to do battle with Samsung's beefy Rugby. Exciting times to be on AT&T, eh?

[Thanks, Kal]

So HTC is running this wild contest where they're giving away a Fuze a day for 120 frickin' days -- that's a lot of days and a lot of Fuzes -- and as if that wasn't enough, there'll also be a grand prize winner getting $25,000 in cold, hard cash and four first place winners nabbing $15,000 American Express gift cards. Oh, and both the grand prize and first place prizes include a pair of Fuzes to boot!

So hey, we may not have 120 of the things to give away, but HTC was gracious enough to hook us up with a single Fuze to pass on to one of our lovely readers. Would you like it? Here's how it works:

• Leave a comment below. We'll be picking a winner at random. Seriously, just do it.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
  
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers or US contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winners will be chosen randomly.
• Entries can be submitted until 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time on December 19, 2008. After that we're all done. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Sometimes it's the unsung workhorses that deserve the lion's share of the praise, and that might just be the case with the aging Samsung BlackJack II -- a phone that you probably wouldn't expect to top Consumer Reports' January 2009 ratings of popular smartphones. Sure, it may not be the shiniest device on the market these days, but you've got to admit it's just about as functional as you'd ever need a business-class handset to be with GPS, HSDPA, and WinMo 6.1, which gladly sucks up Exchange accounts until you're blue in the face. When you factor in the fact that it runs just $80 these days on an AT&T contract in a choice of four colors... okay, yeah, we can kinda see it. The iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1 don't play second fiddle terribly often these days (they were way down in the middle of the Consumer Reports pack in this testing cycle, in fact), so let's just let this old dog have one more moment in the spotlight, shall we?