October 7 - 8:15pm EDT   Vodafone recently launched an official website for the upcoming BlackBerry Storm 9500 handheld for its customers in the United Kingdom, offering users a 360 degree view of the device, as well as views of several of its features. While Vodafone is silent on when to expect shipment (a notice on the page merely says "Coming Soon"), the company highlights a promotional give-away, in which there are 20 of the devices for users to win before October 25th. [full story]

June 25 - 4:25pm EDT   Dow Jones reports that Telefonica SA has received 300,000 pre- registrations in the United Kingdom and Spain to buy the iPhone 3G. A company spokesperson said that individuals have been reserving units of the device on the Telefonica Web site. Telefonica will begin selling the 3G iPhone July 11 in Spain, the Czech Republic and twelve Latin American countries. Apple's own retail stores in the UK may not be able to sell the iPhone 3G on July 11th, an industry publication reports. The issue stems from Apple's new activation policy, which forces customers to subscribe to a given carrier in-store, rather than at home through iTunes. [full story]

June 3 - 8:25pm EDT   Apple on Tuesday further expanded its international iTunes U offerings into four new countries: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. According to Macworld, the free resource provides students with access to a wide variety of educational rich media from colleges and universities around the world, including UC Berkeley, University of Melbourne, Texas A&M, MIT, Yale, and Trinity College Dublin, among many others. [full story]

December 10 - 9:15am EST   Some 40 new Apple retail stores will open in 2008, a company executive says. Speaking at a press event for the 14th Street store in New York City, senior retail VP Ron Johnson has said that Apple will expand with an international focus in the new year. The first Brazilian store is in fact opening this month in the Shopping Iguatemi mall in Sao Paulo, and the city will get a second store within 2008, located inside Shopping Marketplace. Apple is meanwhile rumored to be negotiating for space in the Torre Mayor office complex in Mexico City, a structure that includes 33,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. [full story]