For those who love tech there's nothing like a launch day. For those who adore tech, there's nothing like a launch Midnight. Thus, the scene at Verizon wireless stores in East Coast centers. Reportedly, more than a hundred people were lined up at midnight Thursday night outside a Verizon Wireless store in midtown Manhattan to be among the first to buy the new Motorola Droid.

A double set of bad news sent Garmin stock tumbling on Wednesday. Not only did rival Tom Tom release a good earnings report, Garmin also had the bad luck of seeing an announcement regarding a hot new Droid phone that will challenge its standalone GPS units.

Verizon Wireless and Research in Motion (RIM) announced on Monday that the much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm2 will launch on the Verizon network on Oct. 28th. The new RIM device will be available from Verizon
Wireless Communications stores, online at www.verizonwireless.com, and through business sales channels.

Verizon's recent Droid ad slammed the iPhone, but was coy about a Droid release date, saying only November. However, a little decoding seems to indicate that's conservative.

Over the past few weeks, Verizon has been slamming the iPhone with ads such as "there's a map for that," which points out the well-publicized issues with the iPhone and AT&T's network. They've also been announcing a series of Google Android phones, and their latest spot (nicknamed iDroid or simply the Droid commercial), about the Verizon Droid device, hits the iPhone right where it iCan.

A customer service and satisfaction survey issued in a recent press release by J.D. Power, names Verizon FiOS, DISH Network and DirecTV as the top television service providers.

A report from TheStreet.com earlier this week stated that Verizon was snubbing the Palm Pre, which would have dealt a major blow to Palm's comeback chances. Other analysts disagreed with the initial report, and we not appear to have confirmation that the Palm Pre is coming to Verizon after all.

An AT&T sales rep in Charlotte, NC, where their MicroCell trial is taking place, has corrected the pricing numbers for AT&T's femtocell device, designed to fix issues with holes in AT&T coverage. While initial reports showed a somewhat egregious $19.95 service fee for monthly service, it now appears that's only if someone wants unlimited talk time.

The "Take Back the Beep" Campaign that David Pogue started in late July seems to be working. The campaign was a response to the annoying canned carrier messages you receive when you want to leave a voicemail.

AT&T's recent earnings numbers were down, but the iPhone itself buoyed the company's earnings. Thus, this sort of news, which has been rumored for some time, is definitely not welcome. Reports today indicate that Verizon and AT&T are discussing a version of the iPhone for that network.

It was rumored earlier that AT&T was working on infrastructure upgrades prior to launch of the "new" iPhone later this year. It looks like those upgrades are now confirmed.