April 20 - 9:25pm EDT   Samsung Electronics on Sunday announced the launch of the previously announced 'Soul' mobile phone, calling it the company's flagship product in the first half 2008. Beginning later this month (and next), the "Soul" will be available in France, UK, and Germany through major European mobile operators and in most of GSM supporting open markets. The tri-band phone features a 5-megapixel camera with a 4x digital zoom, face detection, image stabilizer and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) as well as 7.2Mbps HSDPA data access for advanced 3G network support. Soul is available in three different colors: 'Sterling Steel,' 'Soul Gray' and 'Platinum Silver" for €400. [full story]

April 1 - 11:30am EDT   BenQ on Friday revealed details of its super-slim T60, measuring just over a third of an inch (8.9mm) thick and packing a 2.2-inch 320x240 resolution LCD screen along with a 3.2-megapixel camera. Software includes a caller black list function that screens out user-selected numbers. BenQ is pitching the GSM phone as a high-quality fashion accessory akin to fountain pens and money clips. [full story]

March 28 - 10:30am EDT   An expansion to New Zealand's cellular networks may open the way for the iPhone, a research firm observes. TeleGeography says it has learned from Telecom New Zealand's director of mobile operations, Martin Butler, that it is a "good inference" that the company will bring over the iPhone. It is in the middle of building a new, $300 million NZD ($241.2 million US) GSM/EDGE network, which should support the 850MHz frequency of the iPhone. Commercial rollout of the network is expected sometime in November, and should reach 97 percent of New Zealand's population. [full story]

March 27 - 4:50pm EDT   J.D. Power and Associates on Thursday released the first volume of its 2008 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study, which rates the major wireless carriers in seven specific areas relating to quality based on surveys of users. The bi-annual report rates each provider on a demerit point system, measuring their performance on a problems per 100 calls (PP100) scale, with lower scores translating to better performance. The report concluded Alltel, T-Mobile, Verizon and US Cellular are the top-ranking providers in their respective regions. [full story]

February 28 - 4:05pm EST   One final victory has been granted before the temporary ceasefire begins between Nokia and Qualcomm. The US International Trade Commission has affirmed a ruling it issued in December, which said that Nokia had not violated three patents relating to GSM, GPRS and EDGE technology. The case in fact backfired for Qualcomm, as the ITC determined that one of the patents was invalid. [full story]

December 20 - 3:15pm EST   Air France has become the world's first airline to equip an international flight with a form of regular cellular technology, says the Associated Press. One of the company's Airbus A318s now lets users send e-mail and text messages through an onboard GSM antenna, which connects to a satellite that in turn transmits to the ground. The main obstacle for the service, at the moment, is infrequency; aside from only being a part of a six-month test, not all flights on the A318 will have access. To this end a "No Mobile" light has been installed in the plane. [full story]

December 7 - 6:05pm EST   A new Chinese iPhone knock-off is being sold on the internet, billed as "High quality copy UNLOCKED IPHONE AV-P688 SIMILAR STYPLE IPOD GSM CELL PHONE WITH MP3 MP4 FUNCTION”. iTech News Net reports that performing a Google search for the device yields several results for sites that are selling the imitation iPhone. While the iPhone features simplistic finger-driven touch functionality, the doppelganger uses four physically movable buttons surrounding the home button to navigate around the device, and reportedly requires a stylus for the screen. The CECT P168 sells for $200. [full story]

November 30 - 12:50pm EST   AT&T chariman Randall Stephenson confirmed a 3G-capable iPhone arriving some time next year, coinciding with hopes expressed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in September. "You'll have it next year," Stephenson told Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster, referring to a faster 3G iPhone. What's more, iPhone estimates from Apple's wireless carrier partners in Europe expect roughly 100,000 iPhone sales for each carrier during 2007. Meeting those sales goals would put a quarter million iPhones in the hands of European customers, bringing Apple's global iPhone sales count to around 2 million. [full story]