July 2 - 3:50pm EDT   While it was reported just yesterday that Toshiba's first full touchscreen smartphone, the TG01, will be officially unveiled at a launch event in London on July 9th, it is now known the handset will make its debut in the UK at provider Orange on the same date. The wireless provider already has a product page up for the device; pricing is unknown but may be unveiled at the July 9th launch event. [full story]

July 1 - 3:10pm EDT   Palm's UK event for the Pre will likely reveal O2 to be the sole carrier if tips are authentic. More than one source has told The Guardian that earlier rumors are true and that Palm is likely to imitate Apple's strategy for the island nation, which both gives O2 sole network rights and Carphone Warehouse the only third-party rights to sell the phone on O2's behalf. Reportedly, it has also echoed O2's coup for the iPhone by thwarting an attempt by Orange to land the same deal. [full story]

July 1 - 10:05am EDT   Palm today told the UK press that it will hold an event July 7th regarding the Pre. The company stops short of confirming it as a launch event, but it's commonly assumed by Pocket-lint and others that the gathering next week will provide details of Pre with GSM and HSPA-based 3G and will likely include a release window as well as details of which carriers will sell the smartphone. Pricing is also a possibility. [full story]

June 24 - 8:25am EDT   HTC at a press event this morning launched its third-generation Android phone in less than a year. The Hero is designed as a web- and music-focused phone with a touchscreen-dependent design like the Magic but is even more compact. Its key, however, is a new interface known as Sense: like TouchFLO, it offers quicker access to calendars, contacts, the time and the weather as well as a quick launcher for the phone dialer. These are all accessible as Android-standard widgets. [full story]

June 16 - 6:45pm EDT   Several European carriers, including Orange in France and T-Mobile in Germany, have announced pricing for the iPhone 3G S. The new handset will be available from Orange on June 19th, with the 16GB model carrying a price of €149 (~$205 USD). Customers choosing the 32GB variant will have to pay €229 (~$315 USD) for the device. [full story]

June 16 - 10:10am EDT   Israelis should finally be able to buy the iPhone in the near future, announcements reveal. Partner Communications -- which operates the Israeli division of Orange -- says it has signed an agreement with Apple Sales International, which will allow it to sell iPhones domestically for a period of at least three years. Partner is in turn expected to buy a minimum number of iPhones each year, representing a "significant portion" of all its cellphone purchases. [full story]

June 2 - 7:30pm EDT   HTC has sent invitations to a press event to be held in London, UK, according to PhoneMag.com. The teaser simply reads "Come see..." but does not provide any additional details regarding the focus of the event. The company already announced the HTC Snap earlier this year, although a number of reports have provided details surrounding the Android-based Hero handset. The device is said to launch exclusively through Orange in Europe later this year. [full story]

May 29 - 10:10am EDT   LG picked Friday to launch another full touchscreen phone to its rapidly growing mix. The GT505 has the 3-inch touchscreen and 5-megapixel camera that define most of LG's 2009 phones but centers on social networking with updates 'pushed' to the phone in real time, much as smartphones handle e-mail. LG also promises a better start on GPS than for most non-smartphones with both native support and a trial version of turn-by-turn app WisePilot. [full story]

May 27 - 4:50pm EDT   The HTC Hero smartphone, running on the latest open-source Android operating system, will be offered exclusively by UK wireless provider Orange in Europe, according to a Wednesday Pocket-Lint report. If this proves true, it would be the provider's first Android-based handset, and is expected to be released sometime in 2009. [full story]

May 13 - 5:10pm EDT   Nokia today launched a Comes with Music edition of the 5800 XpressMusic in Britain. The addition is exclusive to Orange UK and comes in a unique black-and-silver trim. Improving on the special-run 5800 available elsewhere, the touchscreen phone now gets a two-year subscription to Nokia's unlimited, copy-protected music service. It continues to let buyers keep their downloaded tracks whenever the subscription ends. [full story]

May 1 - 10:20am EDT   T-Mobile's UK division may merge with a rival or even sell off its assets if it can't recover from major losses, its CFO Timotheus Hoettges said at the cellphone carrier's annual shareholder's meeting. The British group may have to write down the equivalent of $2.4 billion in costs for just the first quarter of 2009 and is considering any steps it can take to cut these expenses. Which is more likely isn't known, though the executive sees a merger as one of the most practical ways to address the problem. [full story]

April 24 - 12:05pm EDT   UK-based wireless provider Orange is now offering what it is touting as being the smallest, lightest and least expensive touchscreen device in the country with the Vegas handset. Features of the handset, which looks like an HTC Touch, include a 2.4-inch display, a 1.3-megapixel camera on the rear panel and what looks like a front-facing camera for video calls, though Orange makes no mention of such a capability. [full story]

April 15 - 9:20am EDT   LG Germany today accidentally revealed the company's plans for the Viewty II in a company blog post ahead of an official schedule. Since admitting that the information had been posted a "few days" early in a retraction, the company confirms that the photo-centric handset will have an 8-megapixel camera and a new emphasis on video; a simpler interface will let users flip to video and video capture in a true 480p (720x480) resolution, or much higher than the at best 640x480 used by competing phones. [full story]

April 8 - 4:05pm EDT   British cellular carriers O2 and Vodafone are being asked by the government to share their 3G spectrum as part of an effort to supply rural broadband. Although the two providers are currently the exclusive holders of the 900MHz band for faster wireless data, officials at the independent regulator Ofcom are asking the two to allow at least one other carrier to share the space and build out coverage in those areas that aren't already served. [full story]

March 26 - 9:25am EDT   International phone carrier Orange is preparing to sell subsidized MacBooks, according to Mobile. The UK magazine says it has learned that MacBooks will go on sale through Orange this summer, significantly discounted as a result of being tied to a two-year mobile data contract. No deal has been firmly cemented, but it is believed that negotiations are in a late stage, only requiring details to be arranged. [full story]