This week in etilities: the DTV transition finally happens, two highly anticipated phones are placed under the spotlight, and AT&T takes a beating in the media.

The Digital TV Transition has finally happened

We’ve been talking about this for a long time, and it finally happened on Friday. Endgaget has a good summary of lead-up coverage here. As was expected, millions of people were still not ready, but the consensus seems to be that the transition was mostly smooth and that the delays did help in preparing more households for it.

New smartphones: the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS

This was a big week for smartphones, with the release of the Palm Pre and the announcement of the iPhone 3GS. Both phones have gotten a lot of media attention and generated much emotion among their respective fan bases. We are thrilled that the technology behind smart phones is further maturing, allowing you to take advantage of your online services everywhere you go.

AT&T wireless under fire

This week should have been a good one for AT&T (Etilities Forum), given that they are the only authorized iPhone carrier, but it was not. Indeed, not only is the carrier not ready to handle the 3GS’ new Multimedia Messaging Service or tethering capabilities, but this was pointed out pretty explicitly by Apple during its developer’s conference. This is being seen by some as a clue that it is going to be parting ways with AT&T as soon as it is legally able to do so.

Adding insult to injury,  AT&T also announced that it is charging $399 and $499 for an early upgrade as opposed to the $199 and $299 price tags if you are a brand new customer, which has generated much anger among current iPhone owners.

One thing is for sure: AT&T has a lot of PR work ahead…

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