BGR merely posting that "some tipsters are telling us..." does not a scoop make. The correct term would be "rumor". Show me an in-store price tag or some other hard evidence, then I'll give you a "scoop".

I credit Engadget for waiting for more proof before writing about it, lest they end up with egg on the face were it to surface (as some suspect) that the $99 deal is only through its online partnership with Wirefly, and not for those renewing their contracts.

Seeing the 3-year contracts and inflated monthly plans our northern neighbors have to deal with, I think a lot of them wouldn't mind even if it turned out this company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Al Qaeda... as long as it shakes things up in the industry...

Uh, it's an open device. Verizon can't do anything about it... they'd be in breach of contract with Google. They demo'd it on a Droid for a reason.

In other news, Garmin stock down 7%...

They're trying to convey that this is two steps ahead from what you're currently using, rather than one. It's awkwardly worded, but I'm sure the twelve marketing drones who thought of this at a "creative meeting" (oxymoron) just LOVED it.

Honey, make sure you wipe your feet when you come in... and afterward, for the love of god, stay away from the wall!

This predicted tsunami of customers rushing to T-Mobile kind of assumes its competitors would take the $50 price point lying down... it may take some time, but if churn just explodes at Sprint and elsewhere, I'd suspect they'll react in kind with their own plan.

Also, the other $50 carriers out there (Boost, MetroPCS, etc) are generally no-contract and sell phones with almost no subsidy; what I'm waiting to see here is whether T-Mobile will greatly reduce its phone subsidies themselves to make up for this lower monthly revenue. I'd be OK with paying $500 for a CLIQ or myTouch if it meant reducing my monthly bill by this much -- but I'm not sure the North American general public is ready for that model.

If the GSM bit is unlocked, I could be tempted... maybe. Dual-band or Quad-band GSM?

Um, wha? Like we don't have tons of GSM phones with old logos on them bouncing about... like, oh, I don't know, a T-Mobile unlocked phone currently with a Vodafone SIM in it. (cough)

A customer using network A on a phone with network B's logo on it is a trademark violation on network A's part... If this ridiculous theory were to get enshrined into law, the GSM ramifications would be ridiculous. AT&T and T-Mobile would have to start somehow banning anyone using their SIM in a phone that's not "theirs", in case that phone happens to have another carrier's logo screened on it. Insane.

Hope the judge in this case doesn't have his head up his arse.

Most Li-Ion batteries are designed to only be used down to 50% of their capacity; any lower and you cause permanent damage to it. This is why many cell phones, even when their batteries are "dead", still boot up to the splash screen... and then shuts itself off to protect its battery.

I've wondered what that would mean in the EV world. I'm taking a wild guess this is one manufacturer's way of "unlocking" that part of the battery on demand -- causing a hassle for drivers to do it to prevent everyone from just flipping this switch on a frequent basis. I'd rather cause permanent damage to my battery than get stuck on a freeway -- though I'd only have my dumb arse to blame...

Isn't this precisely the kind of little ignition source the Mythbusters tried to recreate but couldn't?

(In future news: All BlackBerry Storm 2 devices are now being recalled after 1337 reports of piezoelectric sparks triggering massive gas station fires across the continent!)