12:30 PM -- Verizon Wireless has long marketed itself as favoring substance over style. Its selection of phones has always been about as inspiring as Jose Mesa on the mound with a playoff series on the line (more on that later). I remember even back in the Bell Atlantic days my friends used to whine about the lack of hip devices. "Dude, I don't know what to do. AT&T sucks, but the only cool phone Bell Atlantic has is the StarTAC."

This is why Verizon's newest lineup of mobile phones is interesting. It represents a shift toward putting more of an emphasis on "cool." For example, the LG Voyager looks and acts an awful lot like the iPhone.

Verizon says the devices were in development before the unveiling of the iPhone. That may be true, but Verizon had to have known about the iPhone before it was publicly announced since it rejected Apple's exclusive offering of the device before it eventually went to AT&T. So the emergence of "cooler" phones with touch screen controls could very well be a way of preventing subscriber defections to AT&T's iPhone.

And now for something completely different...

The MLB playoffs start in about three hours, so let's get our predictions in now.

National League
Phillies over Rockies in 5: Philly may have Jose Mesa who is more than capable of losing a series by himself, but part of me feels the Rockies might suck.

D-Backs over Cubs in 4: I think it's more accurate to say the Cubs didn't lose the NL Central as opposed to the Cubs won the NL Central. Whereas the Rockies might suck, the Cubs definitely suck.

American League
Angels over Red Sox in 4: Beckett will win game 1 at home, but remember that Dice-K is currently running on fumes, Schilling has long been finished, and Wakefield's knuckler hasn't fooled anyone in two years. And we haven't even gotten the game to Eric Gagne yet.

Yankees over Indians in 4: That being said, I could also envision Indians in 3 since (a)Wang is much less effective on the road, (b)Clemens could easily implode before the end of the first inning in game 3, and (c)our Copy Chief really needs this.

— Raymond McConville, Reporter, Light Reading