It's a tenuous peg for a prediction, we know, but ShiftAge is prepared to regard the fact that Sydney's Dymocks bookstore has sold out its first order of the iLiad e-book reader as the first rumble in a tectonic (should that be techtonic?) shift in the marketplace - one that will make 2007, in retrospect, the year of the electronic book. 

Vodafone has abandoned plans to ditch its new cheap data plans on December 31, after a stunning response to the 5GB for $39 per month offer since it was rolled out as a year-end special on December 7. The company says the plans are responsible for a threefold increase in data connections.

ShrinkAge has just come upon a question in an online forum that we realise marks a sort of Mason-Dixon Line between those of us who are TechnoPlods, and the digital nobility - what we call TechnoPeers. We just came across that question in the online forum devoted to the Asus Eee PC at eeeuser.com. The question is this: "What size soldering iron?"

It gives us great pleasure to welcome one of the truly great technology wordsmiths Charles Wright into the fold of iTWire bloggers. Known for his outstanding passion and insight in the consumer electronics and computing areas but above all his masterful writing skills, Charles is a wonderful addition to the iTWire team.

Australian retailers are wondering if they might have another Blackberry phenomenon on their hands, with the rapid sell-out of the first shipments of Asus’ diminutive $A499 Eee PC (pronounced simply “the E PC”).