I’ve received several calls over the past few hours that there are outage and service down issues currently with mobile provider T-Mobile. I haven’t been able to reach a close friend of mine this evening – all I get when I call him is a fast busy signal. He just sent me the following message from T-Mobile customer service:

Important message for T-Mobile customers

Some T-Mobile customers may be experiencing intermittent service disruptions impacting calls and messages.

Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to restore service as quickly as possible.

There is a thread on the T-Mobile support forums noting, “Issues began at approximately 5:30 p.m. Eastern time.”  The forums say that it could take as long as 24 hours to get service restored.

Update: T-Mobile says that all service has been restored. You may now continue making your calls and telling the world on twitter that you had a turkey sandwich for dinner.

Additional coverage on Gizmodo and MocoNews notes that 5% of T-Mobile customers are affected.  Please leave a comment if you are using T-Mobile and your service is currently in service or is down.

Here are today’s startup and entrepreneurial updates:

• Announcing the Webs App Store – Webs
• Selling Ad Space: Tips from Top Design Blog Owners via Line25.com – BuySellAds
• MobBase: Drag and Drop iPhone App Maker for Bands – Readwriteweb
• The view from our new digs – iPling
• New tracking code format; please update your site if possible – Clicky
• Why I do Time Tracking – Swaroop CH
• Job of the day: Senior PHP Developer 86539 at GoDaddy.com

Here are today’s startup and entrepreneurial updates:

• How to Be Productive In Spite Of Monday Morning – task.fm
• The new TechVI is live – TechVI
• I’m not selling – RSS2Twitter
• Make Testing Your Online Advertising Easy and Effective – Startup Your Online Advertising
• The Blurry Picture of Open APIs, Standards, Data Ownership – Louis Gray
• Making the Shortest Path Even Quicker – Microsoft
• Paypal X Innovate – Stay ‘n Alive

Last week the NY Waterway announced the addition of a bus locator service to their bus fleet in NYC. The NY Waterway provides a ferry service around NYC and they have a bus fleet with over 40 buses. The company notes that their 40 buses makes them larger than many transit systems across the U.S.

The bus locator service is available via the addition of GPS transmission devices placed on their buses. Currently you need to call NY Waterway to find out when the next bus will arrive although the company says that mobile apps are coming soon. Not sure why you would launch without a way to get the information automatically via your computer or mobile device.

Earlier this year the NYC MTA launched a test of a bus locator service on several crosstown bus routes. Many other cities already have displays with a list of times until the next bus arrives. While I am not a fan of this functionality underground (there is never a long wait), I am a big fan of this technology for the bus fleet. The countdown timers can give you a quick indication if you should walk or take a cab.

Happy Halloween! I am dressing up like a blogger for the holiday – leave your costume and pics in the comments – here are today’s startup and entrepreneurial updates:

• Exit Strategy releases version 2 of their subway iPhone app and announces deal with the MTA – Exit Strategy
• Use the Doodle Gadget everywhere – Doodle
• Clicky API v4 released – Clicky
• Volkswagen’s Fun and Apple’s Attack Dominate The Top 10 Viral Video Ads Chart – Visible Measures
• Turn a user into a passionate customer *before* making them sign up for your service – Sachin
• Why Analytics Is an Essential Aid in Improving your websites ROI – Lancore

Here are today’s startup and entrepreneurial updates:

• 1-2-3 Punch of Display Advertising – Dapper
• Announcing Tonido Relay Service – Tonido
• Tatango has a lot of free time apparently – Tatango
• Reasons Google Should Make a Car – Simpleleap
• Echo adds social likes – Echo

I currently own a Samsung Ace mobile phone which runs Windows Mobile and is on the Sprint network. I love the phone – it does everything I need a mobile to do. Sure it doesn’t have a huge screen and it hasn’t helped me pick up any women like the iPhone apparently does, but it works great. I use the awesome Skyfire mobile browser for the web and unlike many, I don’t use Twitter or Facebook on my phone.

My contract with Sprint is coming to an end soon and I am considering what my next mobile device might be. I haven’t had much time to read any reviews of the latest devices. I do see a ton of advertising on television for three specific devices: Palm Pre (Sprint), Droid (Verizon), and the MyTouch3G (T-Mobile).  I’d like to share my thoughts about what I’ve learned about the three devices solely based on the television advertising. I have never used any of these devices.
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