I expected that iPhone 3G service from AT&T would be more expensive compared to the original iPhone - $30 per month for data on top of voice service, a $10 increase), but the telco slipped in a poison profit pill by removing SMS text messaging from the plan.

Instead, you can pay $5 per month for 200 messages (the amount included in the original iPhone plan); $15 per month for 1500 messages, or $20 per month for unlimited messages. If you sign up for a FamilyTalk plan, your choices are either $30 per month for unlimited or $0.20 per message.

Well instead of paying money to send text messages you can do it with using AOL’s downloadable instant message client for iPhone 2.0, which is free. Just like the full-blown AOL IM system, you can add buddies that are the phone numbers of cell phones you want to send SMS to, and you establish a two-way conduit. The recipient still pays for SMS (if they have a fee) on their end, but if it’s another iPhone user, you could coordinate with them via SMS to use instant messaging instead.”

The secret to finding the perfect parking spot in congested cities is usually just a matter of luck. But drivers here will get some help from an innocuous tab of plastic that will soon be glued to the streets.

The system uses a wireless sensor embedded in a 4-inch-by-4-inch piece of plastic, fastened to the pavement adjacent to each parking space.

This fall, San Francisco will test 6,000 of its 24,000 metered parking spaces in the nation’s most ambitious trial of a wireless sensor network that will announce which of the spaces are free at any moment.

Drivers will be alerted to empty parking places either by displays on street signs, or by looking at maps on screens of their smartphones. They may even be able to pay for parking by cellphone, and add to the parking meter from their phones without returning to the car.