Palm Treo 800w released: Sprint is offering the EVDO/Wi-Fi phone with Windows Mobile 6.1 and built-in GPS. The phone is $250 with a two-year contract. This is apparently the phone that Palm should have released a couple of years ago; now, it's unfavorably compared to the iPhone except for keyboard entry and
the ability to subscribe ($10/mo) for
Stephouse steps into Portland, Ore., void: Local firm Stephouse has built out 5 sq mi of business-grade wireless availability in downtown Portland and 2 sq mi in an underserved part of north Portland using Proxim gear for both Wi-Fi and WiMax service. Wi-Fi use is $20 per month or 1 free hour per day up to 10 free hours per month. The offering seems to focus on the business side, though, in competition with services like Towerstream. Prices aren't listed on the company's site.
Hartford drops Wi-Fi effort: Connecticut's troubled capital city has given up on city-wide Wi-Fi. No surprise. No firms ready to build for free, no money, no tangible goals. My wife grew up in the suburb to the west--West Hartford, prosaically enough--and speculates that the lack of county-oriented government in Connecticut has doomed Hartford to be a civic wasteland. It's recovering a bit as housing affordability goes up, and there's more going on in the city than there used to be. But there won't be Wi-Fi. Incidentally, the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, home of one of the world's first bloggers, is near financial ruin. It's a great piece of American history; I'm hoping it's saved again--it's had many lives since Twain built it and went bankrupt.