Fan of Google Maps? Use it a lot on your cell phones? Maybe you use Loopt to stay in touch with friends and family and check out what they’re up to and where they are? Well, starting today, Google’s new Latitude feature looks to steal their lunch. Google not only lets you see yourself on the map, but your friends as well (assuming they accept your invitation and opt-in to sharing their location with you). Google Maps for mobile with Latitude is available now for Android (it’s in the current RC33 update that’s being rolled out), Blackberry, Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile. The Apple iPhone version will be available soon as part of the Google Mobile App. And, if you don’t have a smartphone (uh, why are you even visiting this site?), you can even add the Google Latitude Gadget to your iGoogle homepage. If you use Google Gears or Google Chrome, the location of your desktop or laptop can be tracked, too. Pretty awesome stuff. Just don’t go askin’ any BGR writers to share their location, we’re pretty private people, you know.

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We said it, you doubted, we said it again and now it’s finally here – Fido has launched the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. That’s right – it’s 2009 and a wireless carrier just launched the Pearl 8100. Okay, so the 8100 is pretty much obsolete at this point and the fact that Fido has the nerve to ask for $400 month-to-month or $25 over 3-years is nothing short of absolutely insane. Hey, nothing is stopping you from bringing in something hot like a Bold or Curve 8900 instead. God knows you’ve earned it for being so patient during the long, arduous wait! Anyway, just like we said the data plans are as follows:

• $15 – Unlimited personal email and IM
• $25 – 500MB
• $30 – 1GB
• $60 – 3GB

Happy now, Canada?

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It’s hardly a surprise at this point, given the carrier’s historical dominance, but it’s still worth noting. According to the almighty JD Power and Associates, T-Mobile has earned the highest possible ranking in their survey of customer service provided by the major cell companies in the US. T-Mobile, widely acknowledged as one of the industry leaders in providing spotty service exemplary customer service, has won the top honor 7 out of the last 8 years, losing narrowly to Verizon in last year’s contest. JD Power determined the following specifics about T-Mobz’ commitment to its customer base:

• T-Mobile ranked highest among all wireless providers in Overall Customer Care Performance, above all its competitors and significantly ahead of the industry average.
• In interactions between consumers and customer care representatives, T-Mobile ranked significantly above the industry average.
• T-Mobile ranked highest in online customer service and walk-in interactions at retail stores.
• T-Mobile scored well above other wireless carriers and the industry average with the lowest average hold times.

There ya have it. While the carrier’s 3G footprint is dismal, and general coverage lags well behind the rest of the pack, the company has been bringing some exciting devices into the fold as of late, and its continued commitment to distinguishing itself via the customer service route has proven effective.

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Electronic Arts reported its earnings yesterday and while things are hardly as catastrophic as, say, a company like Sony, EA did manage to fall short of projections. Revenue came in at $1.65 billion, short of the $1.90 billion projection and revenue for the fiscal year yielded around $4.2 billion compared to a projection of $4.68 billion. As a result, EA announced some big moves in an effort to slow the bleeding – 1,100 layoffs and the closing of 12 game studios. That’s the bad news of course. The good news is that EA finally plans to get on board and begin focusing major efforts on Nintendo’s Wii, the run-away leader as far as console sales are concerned. This might not be the best news Microsoft and Sony have heard all week as they will likely see several currently-exclusive titles hit Nintendo’s console, but an active EA presence on Wii will bring a new dynamic to the console. More importantly, it will give EA access to to a huge audience that had been previously untapped. How EA’s franchises will translate to the popular console remains to be seen but if there’s one thing that can boost EA’s revenue, it’s the Wii.

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Garmin and ASUS have just announced that they’ve entered into a strategic alliance and have subsequently re-branded the Garmin nuvifone as the nuviphone G60. What’s more is that both companies have promised to deliver several devices in 2009 with another device slated to make a charming pirouette entrance at Mobile World Congress. With the entire nuvifone lineup obviously very navigation oriented, the million dollar question is what OS will the lineup will be running. Apparently a ASUS chairman said at today’s press conference that it has yet to decide which OS to use with the G60 and that “[ASUS has] expertise in WinMo, Linux and Android, but we believe the software is more important than the OS.” While the aforementioned statement seems on the surface to be an example of extravagant exaggeration, we suppose that there is some truth to it as the people who are going to be picking up a G60 aren’t going to be doing so because of whatever OS it ships with. Now if you have a good memory for these kind of things you’ll recall that it wasn’t too long ago that we though the G60 would for sure be shipping with Android based upon statements from Garmin’s Asian Pacific Marketing Director, but then again companies obviously reserve the right to change their minds at any time. Expect to see the G60 out by the end of this quarter – a daunting task considering it’s still OSless…

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