AT&T and T-Mobile USA have each signed 10-year pacts with Transit Wireless today, the wireless company in charge of building a wireless network that will be available at a number of subway stations in New York City.

Six stations will be wired by the end of 2011, and the networks will work on the platforms and in the stations, but not on the moving trains.

Then entire subway system is expected to be wired by 2016.

The deals will give T-Mobile and AT&T subscribers access to the wireless network when it is up-and-running.

Verizon and Sprint have also been contacted for similar contracts.

"The network is designed and planned to carry many carriers," adds Transit Wireless CEO Chris Jaeger. "Our aim is to have discussions with other carriers to see if they are interested parties in coming on to this network."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has confirmed today that the company, along with AT&T, will hold a press conference on October 11th to unveil the initial lineup of Windows Phone 7 devices.

Says Ballmer of the devices: "We've got to move forward, not shoot for yesterday. We've got to shoot ahead in a way that's delightful to users, accessible to developers and prioritize everything else we do around those elements."

Microsoft's smartphone business has been lackluster, to say the least, over the past few years with the icing on the cake being the failed Kin series which lasted two months in stores while selling under 10,000 units.

The company's smartphone market share has dived in the past few years, falling to under 12 percent in the United States as of this summer. RIM, Android and the iPhone account for the top 80 percent.

Samsung, LG, Dell and HTC are expected to launch Windows 7 phone devices by the end of the year.

LG Electronics has said today that it has dropped all plans to release an Android 2.2-based tablet this year, instead delaying their tablet release until the Q1 2011.

"We plan to introduce a tablet that runs on the most reliable Android version ... We are in talks with Google to decide on the most suitable version for our tablet and that is not Froyo 2.2," added LG.

With that quote, it appears that LG is waiting for Android 3.0 Gingerbread, which is expected to be the most stable version of the operating system yet. It is also expected to be optimized for tablets.

By the first quarter of next year the tablet market will be very crowded, with the highly anticipated releases of the RIM PlayBook, a second-generation iPad and the Samsung Tab.

LG is the world's third largest mobile phone maker.

T-Mobile USA has announced today their second HSPA+ smartphone, the MyTouch, which is an evolution of the MyTouch 3G and MyTouch 3G Slide.

Unlike the recently launched 3G slide, the MyTouch offers high-end specs, along with the support for T-Mobile's fast data network.

On the aesthetic side, the MyTouch is all metal, moving away from the plastic look and feel of its predecessors.

Inside is a second-generation, 1Ghz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, HSPA+ 14.4Mbps networking, Android 2.2 Froyo, HTC Sense, a 5MP rear camera and a 1.3MP front facing camera for video conferencing.

The screen is 3.8-inches with an 800x480 resolution. Swype, Adobe Flash 10.1, Wi-Fi calling and "Rock Band" for Android are all pre-loaded.

The phone also has an updated Genius Button, which allows for hands-free calling, texting and writing.

Additionally, despite lacking an HDMI-out port, the phone has DNLA for media sharing.

Made available in-stores at Target on Sunday, the Apple iPad has now made its way to giant e-tailer Amazon, placing the "Kindle-Killing" tablet right next to the very popular Kindle e-reader.

Amazon is now the second online retailer to offer the tablet besides Apple itself.

The e-tailer is carrying all six models of the device, the 16/32/64GB Wi-Fi models and the 16/32/64GB 3G/Wi-Fi models.

Amazon's move to offer the device should help them increase Kindle e-book sales, as Amazon has made the Kindle app available in the iPad App Store.

Most users seem to prefer the Kindle store to Apple's own iBook store, although both are very similar.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., is showing its progress in the future of WiMAX technology at CEATEC in Tokyo, Japan. With UQ Communications, Samsung is demonstrating WiMAX 2, based on IEEE 802.16m, that can achieve speed of 330Mbps. Using the WiMAX 2 system and device, Samsung and UQ are showing Full-HD 3D videos and 16 Full-HD videos on 4 LFD TVs simultaneously.

"It is expected that the demands for Wireless Broadband will exponentially grow. In this regard, the recognition of real worth of Mobile WiMAX, a true 4G technology, will increase not only in Japan but also around the world," said Akio Nozaka, President of UQ Communications. "Through this demonstration at CEATEC, we aim to show the excellences of new world by Mobile WiMAX, in cooperation with Samsung."

WiMAX 2 standards are expected to be finalized by November 2010. Samsung is seeking to take the lead in its rapid commercialization and deployment and show itself to be a leading system and device provider for Mobile WiMAX. Samsung plans to introduce the first commercial solutions of WiMAX 2 in the end of 2011.

Rumors suggest that Western Digital has overcome some technical hurdles and will be able to deliver 3TB hard drives to retail soon. According to Tech Arp, Western Digital will be updating its Caviar Black, Caviar Blue and Caviar Green lines, adding models with 3TB capacity. The drives are reportedly being prepared for retail after WD solved some compatibility problems with 32-bit Windows.

Tech Arp's source claims that the launch will happen sometime in mid-October. Seagate launched a 3TB external FreeAgent hdd during the summer, but has not followed up with a discrete drive yet. Due to 32-bit addressing in 32-bit operating systems, problems arise attempting to use an internal hard drive with more than 2TB storage capacity.

WD's new 3TB drives will use larger 4KB storage sectors as part of the Advanced Format Sector Disk technology, and most systems should be able to use the 3TB models for storage. UEFI will be required instead of a standard BIOS however to boot from a hard drive with over 2TB capacity.

Microsoft has said this week that it will be bringing back the popular Windows 7 Family Pack, a $150 bundle that gives users three upgrade licenses to Windows 7 Home Premium.

For the upgrade to work, the computers must already be running XP or Vista and have Windows 7's minimum hardware requirements.

If you were to purchase three licenses separately, the cost would be $320.

Microsoft has made the bundle available online and at participating retailers. Amazon, for example, has the bundle on sale for $140.

Just like last time, the bundle is available "while supplies last."

Starting on October 22nd the pack will go international to Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, and Australia.

The basic input/output system (BIOS) used in most shipped commercial PCs is way past its use-by date according to many within the industry. As computer technology improves, some problems can arise due to the continued use of BIOS, such as drive size limits. For this reason, the industry is moving increasing toward the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).

"Conventional Bios is up there with some of the physical pieces of the chip set that have been kicking around the PC since 1979," said Mark Doran, head of the UEFI Forum. He said that creators of the original BIOS only expected its lifetime to extend to about 250,000 machines. "They are as amazed as anyone else that now it is still alive and well in a lot of systems. It was never really designed to be extensible over time."

Brian Richardson, head of the technical marketing team at BIOS software developer AMI, said that BIOS is starting to hamper development as 64-bit computing becomes more common. "Drive size limits that were inherent to the original PC design - two terabytes - are going to become an issue pretty soon for those that use their PC a lot for pictures and video," Richardson said.

Toshiba has used the CEATEC 2010 event in Japan to show off its first commercially available 3D televisions that do not require a viewer to wear 3D glasses. The 12-inch and 20-inch televisions will be available in Japan in December, aimed at early adopters. Additionally, Toshiba also showed off a laptop prototype featuring a 12-inch 3D display that doesn't require glasses for the effect.

The technology uses an internal imaging system that provides nine different perspectives (parallaxes) of each single 2D frame which the viewer's brain superimposes to create a 3-dimensional impression of the image. Toshiba engineers developed a powerful engine and an algorithm to extrapolate these perspectives out of the 2D frame and used a perpendicular lenticular sheet, an array of lenses, that enable the viewer's brain to superimpose the perspectives.

The screens reportedly offer a wide viewing area in front of the display and allows for eye movement and head movement without disrupting the 3D image. Viewers can switch between 2D and 3D easily. "With its new 3D TVs without glasses Toshiba once again aims to offer the highest possible picture quality" says Sascha Lange, Head of Marketing, Visual Products, Toshiba Europe.

Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced today that Spotify is now available for Windows phones 6.X. The announcement was made at an event at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology. The popular legal music streaming service had previously promised to add more devices to Spotify mobile, and has worked with Microsoft to port to Windows phones over the past few months.

The full list of features for Windows Phone includes:

• Search, browse and play millions of tracks
• Stream over WiFi or 2.5/3G - All your existing playlists are available
• Offline playlists - Play your music without an internet connection
• On-the-fly sync - Every track you add to a playlist appears on mobile and computer
• What's New tab
• Wirelessly sync your local files to your phone
• Starred tracks - tag all your favourites into a special list

Spotify on Windows Phone demo

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook Inc. and Skype SA are in talks to share communication services through both services. The partnership would allow Facebook users to sign into Skype using their Facebook Connect accounts, allowing them to use the text, voice and video communication services offered by the Internet telephone leader.

The integrated functionality, expected to be announced within weeks, would appear in the Skype 5.0 update. Skype claims to have 560 million registered users, of which 124 million use at least once a month. Facebook touts 500 million registered users. A partnership between the two heavyweights would increase pressure on Google Inc., which has been struggling to respond to the rise of Facebook.

Google has taken aim at Internet telephone services with Google Voice and voice communication through GMail. It has attempted to lure users to new social services such as Buzz, but has generally failed to hurt the competition so far. According to comScore Inc., U.S. Internet users spent 41.1 billion minutes on Facebook during August 2010, surpassing the 39.8 billion minutes spent using Google services.

The Apple iPad is now officially available at Target brick-and-mortar stores.

All six models of the popular tablet are available for would-be owners.

Starting with the 16GB/Wi-Fi model at $499, all the way to the 64GB/3G/Wi-Fi model at $829, the retailer says all Target credit-card holders will receive a 5 percent discount.

There are currently 1743 Targets in the United States, with the company planning to remodel 400 of the stores in 2011.

A recent NPD survey showed that a full 80 percent of early adopters said they were "very satisfied" with their device, as compared to 65 percent for buyers who purchased over 60 days after launch.

The survey also said that early adopters use the device for over 18 hours per week, and that time is actually increasing for over 30 percent of those owners.

Verizon Wireless has said today that it will pay up to $90 million in refunds to 15 million mobile phone users who were wrongly or overcharged for Internet usage on their devices.

The FCC has been actively investigating many complaints about unauthorized charges and Verizon has hinted at settling with the FCC over the case.

Current subscribers will get a credit of $2 to $6 off their next bill and former customers will receive refund checks.

Verizon says the charges affected customers that do not have data plans but were still charged by inadvertent "episodes" of Internet access.

The FCC has said they have received hundreds of complaints since 2007 from Verizon customers who complained they were being charged excessively after mistakenly hitting a button that automatically opens Verizon's Web portal.

"Verizon Wireless values our customer relationships and we always want to do the right thing for our customers," added the company.

The NPD Group has said this week that early adopter iPad owners are the most satisfied with their device and also use it the most often.

Early adopters are consumers that purchased the tablet at launch, or within 60 days, as defined by NPD.

On the other hand, more recent purchasers are much less active with their iPad.

A full 80 percent of early adopters said they were "very satisfied" with their device, as compared to 65 percent for buyers after launch.

The survey also says that early adopters use the device for over 18 hours per week, and that time is actually increasing for over 30 percent of those owners.

"Clearly early adopters love their iPads and are finding increasing opportunities to use them," says NPD.