> As we wait for Mio's new duo of GPS handhelds, the company is showing a somewhat more modest sibling to its A701 handset. Review
> Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week announced an ambitious WiFi plan, to be completed by 2009, that would grant every Angeleno and every visitor to the southern California metropolis free access to the wireless Internet. A San Francisco Examiner's editorial speculates that one reason Villaraigosa was offering a muni-WiFi plan for LA is the fact that he and SF's mayor Gavin Newsom are regarded as the two leading candidates for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor, and with SF muni-WiFi moving along (inching along would be more accurate), Villaraigosa could not afford for his city to fall behind.
> SoftRISC has confirmed that its field-deployed VoIP codec solutions will provide VoWLAN capabilities on Paragon Wireless's GSM/VoWLAN Dual-Mode Smart phones.
> The Windows Live WiFi Suite, including the Hotspot Locator, is moving over to MSN, entailing a name change (to MSN WiFi Center and MSN WiFi Hotspots). MSN Wifi Hotspots will soon be available at http:/hotspot.msn.com, featuring more than 130,000 WiFi hotspots.
> Toledo will know today whether any companies will bid to provide a citywide WiFi network. Locals complain that city hall has made too many of the muni-WiFi decisions behind closed doors. Report
> Wal-Mart pioneered the use of RFID technology for inventory and supply-chain tracking, but its ambitious RFID program is bogged down. Report
And finally... John Updike once explained that he wrote his short stories "to give the mundane its beautiful due." We were reminded of Updike by SeattlePI's Monica Guzman whimsical look into what it is that people actually do when they sit in a coffee shop--in this case, Chocolati at the 1700 block of 45th Street North--and connect to the Internet.