May 16 - 2:40pm EDT   T-Mobile today opted for a weekend launch of the Sidekick Slide Scarlet, its first special variant of the Motorola-created messaging phone. The new model conspicuously changes the phone's trim from its original purple to a deeper red while keeping all of the features of the original: the Slide is still one of T-Mobile's smallest Sidekicks but offers the full feature set, including its 1.3-megapixel camera, EDGE Internet access, microSD storage up to 4GB, and dedicated AAC and MP3 playback. [full story]

May 13 - 5:15pm EDT   Activist investor Carl Icahn may use his clout to instigate a proxy battle that pushes Yahoo towards accepting a Microsoft takeover, CNBC says. Those talking to Icahn allegedly say he will push for the nomination of three or four candidates to Yahoo's board of directors that would favor a Microsoft buyout, giving just enough influence on the ten-person board to have it vote in favor of the acquisition that it has resisted in the past. Dissatisfaction with Yahoo's rejection of Microsoft offers could make this simple, the sources explain. [full story]

May 13 - 4:35pm EDT   Despite its reputation as a web-focused device, the iPhone is still clearly in the minority on the web, according to a tracking study by advertising startup AdMob. Using April ad requests as a means of gauging phone web use, the company finds that the iPhone accounted for just 1.1 percent of cellphone traffic in the US and 0.8 percent worldwide. Both results are dominated by Motorola and Research in Motion phones, with the four-year-old RAZR V3 leading the ranks at 5.3 percent worldwide and 9.1 in its home country; the BlackBerry Pearl (2.6 percent and 5.1 percent) and BlackBerry Curve (1.5 percent and 2.9 percent) were fourth and fifth, the study notes. [full story]

May 8 - 2:30pm EDT   Verizon has released a second phone today with the final launch of the Moto Q 9c. Like the version already making its way to Sprint and Telus, the 9c is more business-oriented than the Q 9m already in service at Verizon and uses the standard Windows Mobile 6 front end rather than a custom media layer. The switch gives the device DocumentsToGo for editing most Office documents on the road. [full story]

May 1 - 12:45pm EDT   A Chinese website claims to have obtained some of the first detailed images of Motorola's ZN5, a collaboration with Kodak. The focus of this is the phone's five-megapixel camera, which KeySJ says it can confirm has a xenon flash for better power. Also in place is an unusually large lens cover, which offers protection against dust and impact damage that most cameraphones currently lack. The phone may even be capable of capturing RAW files, something typically reserved for professional-grade cameras. [full story]

April 29 - 4:30pm EDT   T-Mobile's long-delayed 3G cellular Internet access will first be available as early as this week, says new information from BGR. The company's proprietary 1,700MHz service will reportedly become active on Thursday and should be available for subscribers in at least New York City; separate rumors also have the faster service available in Los Angeles and Miami in the near future. Other regional launches aren't yet known but should take place over coming months. [full story]

April 28 - 1:45pm EDT   T-Mobile will carry two new Sidekick messaging phones this summer, according to an apparent leak from TmoNews. Danger and at least one of its partners will release a mystery device nicknamed the "Gekko" on July 27th; a second known as the "Aspen" will follow shortly afterwards on the 30th. Details of the devices are unknown, though the possibility exists that the phones will either be special editions of existing models with new artwork in addition to possible replacement models. [full story]

April 25 - 10:15am EDT   Apple joins Motorola and Sony Ericsson as the firms losing cellphone marketshare in early 2008, according to a new study by research group Strategy Analytics. Sales of 1.7 million iPhones during the first calendar quarter of 2008 are said to have resulted in an actual drop in the iPhone's effect despite its young status, reducing the newcomer's marketshare from 0.7 to 0.6 percent from quarter to quarter. The drop is directly attributed to a combination of shortages as well as a glut of unsold units in Europe at the time. The phone is simply "overpriced" for the continent at its normal cost, Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawson says. [full story]

April 25 - 8:35am EDT   Motorola is developing a movie store for its phones, claims UK trade magazine New Media Age (registration required for full article). An alleged source at partner studio Paramount says that Motorola is in the "late stages" of offering a service that would offer full-length movies pre-formatted for Motorola's more media-friendly devices. Paramount is currently the only studio known to be involved, though others are allegedly in talks to add their own catalogs. [full story]

April 24 - 11:55am EDT   Motorola's pseudo-upscale W755 has been confirmed and expanded upon today in press shots obtained by BGR. Replacing one or more basic devices at Verizon, the clamshell should up the relative feature set of such phones by offering subtle touch-sensitive music controls framed around the external LCD, use a 1.3-megapixel camera seldom seen in the class, and support stereo audio over Bluetooth. Storage hasn't been explained but is likely to include a microSD slot to support the digital media files that would require music controls. [full story]

April 24 - 7:30am EDT   Motorola today reported a $194 million loss for the first quarter of 2008. The drop primarily echoed late 2007 results and is chiefly attributed to the company's declining Mobile Devices business, which includes the company's cellphone designs. The group has seen its sales drop by about 39 percent versus the same quarter a year ago and was the only of three major divisions to post a significant operating loss, losing $418 million. The Home and Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility divisions turned slight losses and significant profits respectively. [full story]

April 21 - 5:05pm EDT   Market research company ABI Research says in a new report that a Linux-based mobile operating system will find its way into in almost one out of every five mid- to high-end cellular phones by 2013. The study cites efforts by the LiMo Foundation, Google's marketing of its Android OS, as well as Nokia's Maemo and Trolltech purchases as some of the reasons the open-source OS system will grow. ABI's findings also conclude that despite the added cost of hardware necessary to support open-source operating systems, the move will offer better value because of the greater number of supported applications. [full story]

April 21 - 4:00pm EDT   Google remains the number one company in the world in terms of estimated brand value, says the research group Millward Brown Optimor. Google has held its spot for a third consecutive year, with a recent valuation of $86.1 billion, an increase of 30 percent over earlier results. General Electric holds second place in the current survey at $71.4 billion, while Microsoft is valued at $70.9 billion. The results are based on interviews with over a million people worldwide. [full story]

April 18 - 12:00pm EDT   Much of Motorola's cellphone launch roadmap for 2008 has been revealed courtesy of a leak on the Chinese-language site it168 and picked up by JAMP. Seemingly confirmed by the existence of phones launched earlier in the year, such as the ROKR E8, the escaped details validate reports of unannounced devices. New in the slip are the A810 and L800T: both will serve as mid-range phones with 2-megapixel cameras in either slider (A810) or candybar (L800T) forms. The A810 will serve as a music phone with a native 3.5mm headphone jack and a navigation wheel, while the L800T will be the company's first phone to support China's developing TD-SCDMA 3G network and is meant primarily ... [full story]

April 18 - 9:40am EDT   Motorola has finished its week by revealing (reg. required) an overhaul of its Mobile Devices division ahead of its expected spin-off into a separate company. The move sees new executives take over roles focused on targeting Motorola's phones at the right audiences. Company senior VP Rob Shaddock will now take over management of the division's consumer products and will watch over new sub-sections that tackle different classes of devices: a group headed by corporate VP Steve Lalla will handle mainstream products, while John Cipolla will take care of higher-end, media capable devices. [full story]