As Mac App Store Launch Looms, Apple Announces Closing of OS X Downloads Page.

Apple isn’t generally the company you see exhibit overlapping qualities. Each product and service has a distinct purpose. This point could of course be argued for the rest of eternity, but for the sake of time and this article, we’ll assume Apple’s products are always unique. With that said, Apple announced tonight in an email sent to OS X developers that the Apple.com/downloads/osx web page will soon be no more. On the same day that the Mac App Store is set to go live — January 6th — the aforementioned link will go dark.

It’s really not all that surprising. If we take the previous statement about overlapping, Apple, and distinct to heart, we’d quickly come to the conclusion that Apple would never intend to have two store fronts open catering to the exact same market with the exact same product.

Still, it’s sad to see it go. As you wipe away the tears filled with memories of years past, hop inside and check out the official email from Apple themselves…

Bell Canada Fined $1.3 Million After Violating National Do-Not-Call List. #bell

I’m pretty sure that most of you would agree with me that telemarketers have the worst job in all of the human races’ existence. There’s no saving grace, no perks, and no enjoyment because everyone hates you. In fact, people hate telemarketers so much they go out of their way to add their phone numbers to these miles long lists designed to prevent telemarketers from invading their lives. And for Canadian cellular carrier, Bell, they had to learn the hard way that you just don’t go ignoring do-Nnot-call lists without facing some stiff penalties.

Today, the Montreal Gazette ran a story detailing Bell’s unfortunate business dealings and even more unfortunate fine totaling $1.3 million! For those keeping note, that’s the largest fine for violating a do-not-call list in Canada’s history. Truth be told, it wasn’t just the simple violation of the list that got the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission upset. Bell actually contracted a 3rd party to call on their behalf in an attempt to either fool those who over see such do-not-call lists and/or avoid any potential fines levied against those violating said lists.

It’s a big win for consumers who go out of their way to rid their lives of nuisances like telemarketers only to have their own carrier sell them out.

Novatel USB551L Does Verizon LTE For Windows and Mac. #vzw4g

Some may question the need for yet another LTE modem running on Verizon’s network, but we here at Gadgetsteria say “the more the merrier”. On that note, this particular Novatel USB551L LTE modem stands out from the current of modems offered by LG and Pantech by not only supporting Windows machines, but Macs as well. Finally, OS X users can enjoy the super speedy bits that LTE provides. One other, less boast-worthy feature is still an unknown at this point, though is nonetheless worth a mention. All we’ll say is that the flyer above makes no mention of backwards compatibility with older EVDO/3G networks. If the Novatel is in fact LTE-only, it will leave you with quite the tie-breaker — Mac support or wider coverage with 3G/4G capabilities? Decisions decisions…

Swype Reopens Android Beta With Latest Update. #swype

Today, popular Android keyboard, Swype, was once again updated with performance improvements and bug fixes aplomb. And with the update comes a fresh wave of open betas available to end users. All you have to do is point your browser over to http://beta.swype.com/ and download the appropriate files. One important note for users with Swype pre-installed from your carrier — DO NOT install the beta. It won’t work and your phone may or may not continue working afterwards.

With the particulars out of the way, we’d highly suggest that if it’s a Swype beta you seek, that point your browser to the link above before things get closed downagain. Let us know how it goes for you!

Digital Storm Announces xm15 Hybrid Laptop Powered by Nvidia. #digitalstorm

Apple may pride themselves in offering dual-graphics options that offer the best of both worlds — Integrated graphics for battery life and discrete graphics for power — but they aren’t the only game in town with some engineering prowess up their sleeve. Popular custom PC builder, DigitalStorm, has officially taken the wraps off of their new Nvidia-powered, lightweight dual-graphics laptop dubbed the “xm15″. This lighweight 15″ laptop employs Nvidia’s Hybrid Optimus technology with a discrete GT 425M 1GB video card that tag teams pixels with the integrated Intel video driver for lighter-duty needs.

Bringing up the CPU side of things, customers have the option to choose between the Intel Core i5 520M and 540M as well as the Core i7 640M. The aforementioned chips hum along at 2.4GHz, 2.53GHz, and 2.8GHz respectively. As for pricing, the bottom end Core i5 520M-equipped model starts out life a dollar shy of $1k, while the higher end Core i7 640M model begins at $1,367. A pretty sweet deal if you ask us.

Press release after the break…

Gmail Users Can Enjoy Free Phone Calls Through 2011.

This past August, Google unveiled a new feature within Gmail giving users the ability to place phone calls on their computer quickly and easily. Sweetening the deal came by way of “free” phones through the end of 2010.

Today, Google has come forward and changed their story, though for the better. Now, Gmail users can make free calls for the rest of 2010 and all of 2011. The reasoning behind Google’s actions here aren’t yet known. While Google makes truckloads of money every day, paying for people to conduct millions of phone calls during the same time period can’t be cheap.

We’ve reached out to Google for clarification and will report back when more is known.

T-Mobile Releasing HSPA+ MiFi in Q2 2011. #4g #tmobile

Now that the ITU considers HSPA+ “4G”, T-Mobile is pushing ahead even harder with their HSPA+ network and accompanying devices. While we already have the Web Rocket 2.0 HSPA+ USB Data stick, one thing that has been missing so far in T-Mobile’s big marketing push is a speedy HSPA+ MiFi router piggybacking on said network allowing not only you, but several other devices to enjoy the speedy network as well.

Thanks to the leaked document above, it appears that we won’t have to wait too much longer as T-Mobile will be joining the rest of the civilized 4G world in Q2 2011 with their very own HSPA+ MiFi device. According to the documentation above, the HSPA+ MiFi will support 21Mbps speeds at launch, though no word on if a software upgrade will bring support for the faster 42Mbps speeds T-Mobile is aiming to roll out next year is made. But considering that HSPA+ has so far been giving increased speeds to other hardware via software upgrades means there’s a good chance the same thing will apply here as well. Above all else, HSPA+’s backwards compatibility is a very big selling point in the next-gen wireless wars, especially because it allows extremely quick upgrades network wide.

For now, there isn’t any information regarding a specific launch date, device pricing, or data plan pricing. With that said, we figure T-Mobile will follow the other carriers who have already done the whole MiFi thing — Expect to drop anywhere between $0-$200 on the device itself and ~$30-$50 on the service.