Verizon is going to launch soon the Gateway LT2016u netbook,  a 3G-capable models of the LT2000 series. The LT2016u packs an Qualcomm Gobi 3G module supporting both CDMA EVDO and EDGE/UMTS/HSPA 3G data.

The Gateway LT2016u is boosted by Intel’s Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. It has a 10.1-inch LD display, a 0.3 Megapixel webcam, multi-in-1 card reader, three USB 2.0 ports and 92% full size keyboard. It runs Windows XP Home.

The Gateway LT2016u will be available from Verizon Wireless for $249.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with 2-year contract.

[engadet]

• Verizon HP Mini 1151NR Netbook Coming on 17 May
• Gateway LT2000 Atom Netbook
• Gateway LT1004U Netbook PC
• Gateway LT3103u AMD Netbook
• Gateway LT1001g – Rebadged Aspire One

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Seeing the successful launch of the Samsung Corby S3650, Samsung adds to the Corby line two devices, the CorbyTXT B3210 and CorbyPro B5310. Both new stylish handsets are designed to fit the highly connected lifestyles of today’s younger mobile users.

The CorbyTXT is a bar-type phone with a 2.2-inch LCD display, a 2 Megapixel camera while the CorbyPro is a slider based on the design of the original Corby that gets a 2.8-inch touchscreen and a 3 Megapixel camera. Both phones come with full QWERTY keyboard, FM tuner, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, Cartoon UI, One Finger Zoom, Smart Unlock and built-in media player. The CorbyPRO B5310 includes also WiFi support.

Like the original Corby, these new Corby phones have Fashion Jackets (Changeable battery cover). The CorbyTXT works with quad-band GSM/EDGE while the CorbyPRO supports HSDPA 7.2Mbps, 900/2100 as well.

[samsung]

• Samsung Corby S3650 Touchscreen Phone for Young People
• T-Mobile Samsung Gravity QWERTY Phone
• T-Mobile Samsung SGH-t349 semi-QWERTY Phone
• T-Mobile Samsung Comback and Gravity 2 QWERTY Texting Phones
• AT&T offers Six New QWERTY Smartphones

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NorhTec is planning the InfoPad tablet, a mobile internet device that uses AA batteries, like the company’s Gecko EduBook. The InfoPad is powered by a XCore86 1.GHz processor and gets a 8.9-inch touchscreen display.

The device will probably come in November or December. It runs Linux OS.

[engadget]

• NorhTec Gecko Linux Notebook
• Gateway E155C Tablet PC
• Fujitsu Lifebook T2010 Tablet PC
• Gateway E-295C / C-140 Tablet PC
• Vye S41 Mini Tablet Unboxed

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i.Tech Dynamic introduces the SolarVoice 908, the first solar-powered Bluetooth headset. The headset comes with an integrated visible solar panel. It offers up to five hours of talk time, infinite standby time while in optimum sunlight and up to 140 hours of standby without sunlight.

The SolarVoice 908 supports Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR with Bluetooth headset, handsfree and A2DP profiles. It features noise reduction for call clarity, multipoint support. It gets a green flashing light to indicate solar charging. The solar headset has an ergonomic ear hook and innovative earbuds design that eliminate plugged-ear sensation and fatigue.

[i.tech]

• i.Tech Dynamic i.VoicePRO 901 Bluetooth Headset
• i.Tech i.Slider Bluetooth headset
• Tri-Solar LED Flashlight
• Q-Sound Solar Bluetooth Headphones
• iUnika GYY Solar-Powered Netbook

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Inside our own Matt Asay’s latest hymm to open source (as opposed to FOSS) is this simple message.

He accepts Microsoft as overlord. (Kent Brockman, right, from Wikipedia, famously welcomed “our insect overlords” in the episode “Deep Space Homer,” co-starring Buzz Aldrin as himself.)

Open source embraces interoperability, whereas free software takes a hard line that even Microsoft, despite its preference that customers use its complete software portfolio exclusively, won’t take.

This has always been true. FOSS is idealism, 80-proof distilled idealism, and the open source movement was born in 1998 as a reaction against that.

It’s not news. So why is Matt acting like it is? Here’s why:

Sometimes that openness will mean embracing Microsoft in order to meet a customer’s needs. After all, fierce partisanship and an unwillingness to compromise in software accomplishes is just as pointless, distasteful, and useless as it is in government.

Note our difference in emphasis. Matt put italics on “in order to meet a customer’s needs.” I think the more important message here is embracing Microsoft.

I do not think Microsoft is an evil empire, by the way. I accept the premise of the book “Burning the Ships,” that its IP policy is aimed mainly at letting Microsoft compete in growing markets than at demanding monopoly rents on Linux.

But Matt’s growing distaste for Eben Moglen and Bruce Perens and (especially, even personally) Richard Stallman is both unseemly and silly. Free software advocates have always been transparent and upfront on what they were trying to do. Microsoft, by contrast, has often been opaque, sometimes deliberately so.

The argument between FOSS and open source has never been about economic systems. It has been about the meaning of freedom.

It revolves around Stallman’s fourth freedom, the idea that when you are given something and you improve it you have an obligation to share the improvement so that the realm of freedom can advance.

Stallman calls this patriotism. Matt now seems to think it’s communism.

BSD licenses like Eclipse, Apache and Mozilla let people take more than they give and profit from it. Microsoft’s MS-PL license lets it do this on a massive scale. The fact that Matt now embraces this idea, and embraces Microsoft’s overlordship over everything it has copyrighted, doesn’t mean he’s a hero of capitalism and the rest of us are dirty rotten commies.

It means he’s a businessman. Business is not about ideals of any sort. Businessmen exist in every country, under every form of government. They even existed under Soviet Communism, even if they didn’t call themselves businessmen. Business is about seeking advantage, taking it, and building on it.

You can mix business with idealism, but you don’t have to. This is the revised bargain of open source. To the extent that Microsoft accepts this bargain businessmen involved with open source are free to accept Microsoft. Always have been.

Just don’t expect FOSS advocates to kiss your ring for it, or give up their ideals because you’ve made a deal. They have their values, you have yours.

Let’s leave it at that.