Sony at early Thursday Japanese time formally completed its buyout of Ericsson's stake in Sony Ericsson. The move now leaves Sony Mobile Communications as a completely Sony-owned company. Bert Nordberg would still be CEO of the mobile group, which it revealed had about 100 million euros ($130.3 million) in stated working capital.
Google's future Jelly Bean version of Android, unofficially known as Android 5.0, might be focused even more on larger screens than recent versions. A rumor from Taiwan suppliers late Wednesday claimed to Digitimes that Jelly Bean was "further optimized" for tablets. Some elements of Chrome or Chrome OS would supposedly be in place to allow a live dual-boot: users could flip from Windows to Android without having to shut down one or the other.
Apple's latest lawsuit versus Samsung is considerably wider than outlined in its bid for a preliminary ban. Although it's focusing immediate attention on the Galaxy Nexus, a total of 17 devices are alleged to be infringing a twice-as-large set of eight patents. The batch includes the Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0 as well as two tablets previously left alone, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and the Galaxy Tab 8.9.
HP's chief Meg Whitman in a presentation at her company's Global Partner Conference on Wednesday was concerned that Google's likely completed Motorola acquisition would create a chilling effect in mobile. While she knew Apple's iOS by definition was closed, she was concerned Google might flip on the concept of openness now that it had its own hardware manufacturer, according to Channel Buzz. To her, this signaled the importance of Open webOS, since it might be the only option for some.
Gigabyte has announced the newest member in its line of Android dual-SIM smartphones. The GSmart G1355 carries a 4.3-inch 480x800 touchscreen and runs Android 2.3. Pricing is kept down through performance, as it's powered by a single-core, 800MHz Snapdragon processor.
NVIDIA in a mix of quarterly and yearly results disappointed investors even as it teased quad-core phones coming quickly. It expected its first fiscal quarter of the year to get it between $900 million and $930 million in revenue, under a $944 million average investor target, with a lower 49.5 percent margin on what it sold than the 52.1 percent most wanted. The company didn't say what prompted the particular outlook.
Yesterday the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) advised the FCC that LighSquared's implementation of its LTE network "inavoidably" would interfere with GPS signals and recommended that the company not be allowed to continue with its deployment. The FCC then followed up by keeping in place a temporary stop to the wireless backbone provider's build out. A collateral consequence of the FCC's actions is that Sprint may have to repay $65 million back to Lightsquared that it received as part of its $9 billion deal with the beleaguered company.
T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom may be looking to offload T-Mobile UK after AT&T dropped its bid for T-Mobile USA, insiders asserted Wednesday. Tips to Bloomberg had it in the early phases of considering a British "exit" now that AT&T's $39 billion proposal had been deemed anti-competitive. The choices could include anything from letting Orange UK take over the other half of the Everything Everywhere partnership to an outside company.
Even though Nokia's flagship Lumia 900 isn't expected to hit US shelves in basic black or blue until March, at least one phone importer, Negri, has begun accepting pre-orders for the white-colored variant of the smartphone. Its version is the international model of the phone, images of which were first leaked by Nokia itself earlier this month. Unlike the locked version, to be sold for the AT&T network, this model will support HSPA+ (3G) but not LTE 4G.
French handset and tablet maker Alcatel will bring a new Android handset to the Mobile World Congress show this month. The OT-915 will run on Android 2.3 and sport a hardware QWERTY keyboard, ElectricPig revealed. It also adds a 2.8-inch touchscreen with a 320x240 resolution and is an above-average 11.9mm thick.
Late last month, an International Trade Commission (ITC) Administrative Law Judge threw out Barnes & Noble's key claims in its patent dispute with Microsoft that the software company was abusing patents it held on elements of the Android OS in order to push the operating system out of the market. Earlier this week, an edited copy of the judge's ruling was made available to the public (PDF). The judge was now known to have been of the opinion that, while Microsoft's actions were "hard bargaining," they didn't represent misuse of the patents.
The FCC put forward a proposal for rule changes on Wednesday that could significantly speed up better coverage for CDMA carriers in the US. It would use the same strategy that was used for the 700MHz and 1,700MHz (AWS) auctions, where licenses would be handed out based on auctions for regions. The earlier approach relied on analog signal propagation at cell sites and was now more of a hindrance than a help in areas where coverage had long since been filled out, the agency said.
Samsung will reportedly no longer build the 32GB version of its HSPA+ version of the Galaxy Nexus. Corey from phone importer Expansys posted at the XDA Developers forum that he had been told Samsung had dropped the higher capacity. Reasons for this aren't known, and the handset has never actually been released in the market.
HTC's future Tegra 3-powered smartphone may soon shed its Endeavor codename for the final One X moniker, PocketNow believes. Its original codename was Edge, and the phone was expected to launch as the Supreme. A subcontractor is said to have reserved a Danish domain name htc-one-x.dk.
Verizon has seized on the strategy behind its Droid RAZR price cut and applied it to the Droid Bionic on Wednesday. Motorola's older 4G Android phone has had its price cut by at least $50 to $100 on a contract by sacrificing storage. While it still has 16GB built-in, the 16GB microSDHC card has been dropped both to lower the immediate price and let only those who need it pay for a card themselves.
HTC will bring what it calls an "early access preview" of Android 4.0 and related updates to its Sensation and Sensation XE phones in Europe. According to The Verge, the customization will differ from previous versions of Sense, and initially be offered only to those enrolled in its Elevate beta program. The update is promised to be coming to the handsets in the coming days.
Cisco has posted a formal appeal of the EU approval for Microsoft's acquisition of Skype. The networking giant accepted the merger on a basic level, but it wanted the European Commission to have imposed interoperability requirements. Making Microsoft adhere to standards would prevent it from trying to "control the future of video communications," Cisco said.
A pair of discoveries from Russia's WP7Forum have potentially given much more insight into the differences for the Windows Phone Tango update. Every user will now have the option of attaching more than one picture or other media clip to an MMS, addressing one of the more common complaints. Also, those coming from a basic phone or switching Windows Phones will now have the option of exporting contacts to the SIM card's memory, not just importing them.
Google revealed that its has restored the ability to issue new prepaid cards to its Google Wallet as of Monday afternoon. The service was put on hold on Saturday as a problem allowed users to re-provision an existing prepaid card to another user. This issue has also reportedly been addressed, and Google said it hasn't recorded any known abuse of the flaw.
Motorola gave out a detailed timetable of its promised Android 4.0 upgrades that stalled them for most users. In spite of promising most updates early in the year, the original Atrix, the Atrix 2, the Photon 4G, and all international variants on the Xoom 2/Xyboard tablet wouldn't start seeing updates until the summer. The initial batch doesn't start until the spring, when the international RAZR, the international and Family Edition Xoom Wi-Fi models, and the China-only MT917 and XT928 should get their upgrades.
LG's upcoming X3 smartphone was benchmarked and its main specs leaked ahead of an expected MWC debut thanks a source speaking to MoDaCo. The NVIDIA Tegra 3-powered device is said to run on 1.5GHz on a single core or 1.4GHz on two or four cores. As on other Tegra 3 devices, a fifth 'companion' core exists for idle task operations to help extend the life of the 2,000mAh battery.
Apple filed with the New York state court handling Kodak's bankruptcy to ask for permission to sue the camera maker over patents. It wanted both a civil lawsuit and an ITC trade dispute over patents relating to digital cameras, photo frames, and printers. The iPhone designer didn't believe it necessarily needed to ask before suing, but was practicing an "abundance of caution" before it went ahead.
HTC could get into its own proper music service and more if sources are accurate. Beats co-creator and Interscope-Geffen-A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine was said by GigaOM's contacts to be working with HTC on a streaming music service that would be built-in with each phone and tablet. Details of how it would behave weren't yet ready, but it was being crafted as an anti-Spotify service to avoid giving the incumbent too much of an "iTunes-like" edge.
Research analytics firm Gartner has released its Q4 report, which shows that Apple took a 24 percent share of the global smartphone market -- the largest share of any single smartphone maker. This was aided by pent-up demand following the extended 15-month period where the iPhone 4 was on sale resulting in Apple achieving a a 121.4 percent of year-over-year increase in iPhone sales over the October to December period. While Apple reported that it shipped 37 million iPhones during the last quarter, Gartner estimates that 35.5 million of these ended up in users' hands helping to push Apple past LG as the world’s third largest mobile phone maker.
Proview Technology has said that Chinese customs authorities have told them a ban on the import and export of Apple’s iPad would be difficult to enforce, according to Reuters. The Hong-Kong based company is currently locked in a dispute with Apple over its use of the iPad name, which Apple believes it legitimately purchased from the Proview and trademarked in China and nine other countries. Customs authorities in China have said that any attempt to ban the iPad from China would meet opposition because of its popularity.
Verizon staff have been offered the opportunity to pick up an exclusive version of the Motorola Droid RAZR in red, matching the company’s signature color. Staff have been give the choice of a 16GB version for $99 or a 32GB MAXX model for $199 due to arrive in April. The models will also come with a unique number engraved on the rear of each device, a bonus docking station, as well as the word’s ‘Limited Edition’ inscribed on the front.
Samsung's Indian branch brought out four dual SIM card phones with the surprise introduction of a genuinely new model. The Galaxy Ace Duos keeps the original Ace's 3.5-inch, 320x480 display and defining form but adds the Duos line's twin SIM slots to let GSM users keep two lines. It still uses Android 2.3 and hinges on an 832MHz processor with a large 1,650mAh battery, but it adds CDMA and EVDO Revision A 3G for some local carriers, like Reliance and Tata.
Gerber, a maker of multi-function emergency and hiking tools, has created a special device for outdoorsmen who can't be in the wild without their smartphone. The new Steady is a multi-tool that incorporates into its design a screw-in camera/phone mount and two small legs. When unfolded, the legs work with the tool's body to create a tripod.
Another AMD executive departure has fueled speculation Tuesday. Graphics division CTO Eric Demers is known to be exiting the chip designer as of February 17. Former Apple executive and current primary CTO Mark Papermaster would temporarily take over during his absence.
Swedish developer Scalado has previewed a new photo editing tool for mobile devices. The app, Remove, lets a user highlight and then remove an unwanted object from an image on their smartphone. Remove can actually get rid of the object before or after the photo is taken.
An anonymous slip Tuesday hinted that Verizon may get both a cheaper Galaxy Nexus and new colors at the same time. Sources told Droid-Life that the company would get 16GB versions of both the existing silver and the previously international-only white edition. No 32GB white model would exist in a likely attempt to avoid overstock.
Apple through indirect means confirmed a longstanding expectation of Japanese language support in Siri. While direct proof of conversation wasn't mentioned, 9to5 in a quick check found that Siri now included Japanese along with the existing English, French, and German. The mention supported hints of extra language support coming by March.
Verizon took a very strong cue from Apple on Tuesday after a demonstration of a next-generation store concept. The 3,100 square foot "Evolution 2.0" store illustrated to PocketNow in Toms River, New Jersey moves away from the traditional carrier store's emphasis on wall displays and frequently dummy-only units by having brightly-lit central tables with working demo devices. At least the demo shop will make a point of fully staffing the store with 21 full-time workers, cutting the time in the store from as much as an hour to just minutes.
Samsung's latest sub-sized smartphone, the Galaxy Mini 2, has shown at the FCC for approval. The phone, a successor to the Galaxy Mini, was first revealed last week, possibly code-named Jena. It is expected to carry an 800MHz processor and run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
The Nokia Lumia 610, expected to be unveiled at the upcoming Mobile World Congress show, should be the least expensive Windows Phone handset to be offered on pay-as-you-go plans. TechRadar's sources say this will be the case when the phone goes on sale in UK shops, where it will be priced aggressively, suggesting it will be Nokia's entry-level Windows Phone smartphone. The handset will also likely use the Tango version of the Windows Phone OS to keep prices down.
A series of US government switches to iPhones has culminated in the General Services Administration starting to allow agencies to hand out iOS and Android devices to workers in addition to BlackBerrys. If a government body like the Department of Justice needs a given app or feature, it can now treat hardware using the Apple or Google platform as an equal. When relevant, workers can pick their own device from an approved list, although they won't get a bring-your-own-device option.
Google+ gained some parity on iOS with an update (App Store) on Tuesday. The new version now supports the same Instant Upload as its Android counterpart, letting users automatically send photos and videos to the private storage on their account both as a backup and for future sharing. It's unlikely the iOS version can start uploads in the background like its Android equivalent given OS policies.
Microsoft has just revealed over Facebook that it has released version 2.3 of its popular Windows Phone app for the social network. New improvements include the performance of the News Feed, a fresh profile and panorama design, and banner images. Users also get improved navigation and a Pages view, along with the ability to access Groups.
Meizu signaled on Tuesday that it was getting close to bringing an official upgrade to Android 4.0 to its 2011 smartphone, the M9, by starting up beta testing. Along with its Chinese work, a posting at Meizu Me has opened a very limited number of slots for those who live elsewhere to get test firmware early. The candidacy system at least outside of China is based on subjective merit and more likely to go to experienced fans first.
Samsung answered rumors that it might split off its LCD division. Representative James Chung wouldn't confirm or deny the talk to Reuters, saying only that the company was "internally reviewing various options." Nothing had been locked in, he explained.
IAC has hoped to reinvigorate the idea of live TV on modern devices by starting up Aereo at a special event on Tuesday. The platform streams over the Internet but is getting mover 20 channels of true broadcast HDTV through huge grids of fingertip-sized tuners at Aereo's end. A cloud-based DVR with 40 hours of space lets viewers save favorite shows to watch later.
Today's deals from DealNN include price breaks on iPhones, HDTVs, and more. Cowboom.com has recently lowered the cost of the refurbished 16GB iPhone 4, complete with HD video recording and editing capabilities, multitasking support, and a 5MP camera with LED flash. Currently featured at DealNN, this iPhone has now dropped to only $259.99 in price and offers savings of up to $340.
Sony on the eve of the PlayStation Vita's first US wave has kicked off a record $50 million ad campaign to recapture its place not just from Nintendo but from Apple. The most Sony has ever spent on any PlayStation launch in the US, the campaign includes both online spots as well as traditional billboards and TV spots. Where PSP ads focused on younger gamers, though, Sony's new Vita ads (below) will focus on adults, where the allure is to "never stop playing" PS3-level games while on the road and with others.
HTC might be the first company outside of Sony itself to get its devices PlayStation certified. A rumor from Pocket-lint sources had them being cleared to use PS1 and PlayStation Suite-specific games sometime this year. The approval would come in the second half of the year, likely ruling out a Mobile World Congress mention in two weeks' time.
Cisco in a yearly state-of-affairs report on Tuesday showed both a rapid growth in data and aggressive predictions for the next four years. Mobile data use had grown 133 percent over the course of 2011, which it didn't see slowing down. As mobile viewers got more devices as well as faster connections, video use would become 70 percent of mobile data and lead to 18 times more data used per year in 2016, at 10.8 exabytes every month.
The Readability iOS app is still waiting for approval at the App Store, according to a Twitter post by one of the developers, Geoff Teehan. The delay has been long enough, Teehan remarks, that an Android version of Readability has already been finished in the interim. That app is not yet available on the Android Market.
Chinese smartphone giant Huawei has continued its push for an increased presence in the US. Currently best known as a relative new comer that has targeted the bottom to middle tier of the Android market, the company has shown it has aspirational tendencies with new high-end devices planned for North American release. The latest sign is news that it is planning on moving its R&D to Silicon Valley, staffed by up to 600 employees.
Sprint may be working to offer an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for Samsung's Epic 4G Touch handset. The carrier has added to its official website an RDF page for the Epic 4G Touch running Android 4.0.3, fueling speculation that an update is currently working its way through the development process.
Though most users would be suspicious, a recent scam spam has spread from email and forums to Twitter, Facebook and now text messaging, according to a recent Apple Support forum posting. Users have reported seeing unsolicited texts and social-network posts claiming that "Apple" is seeking 1,000 testers for text messaging on the iPhone 5. The links go to the websites celltestnkeep.com or cellphonetesters.com and ask for email or a text message "code" to sign up.
MediaTek has announced a new mobile chipset, the MT6575, that promises to bring Android 4.0 to entry-level smartphones. The hardware is based on a 1GHz Cortex-A9 processor, stepping up from the 650MHz chip of the previous-generation components that were utilized in Lenovo's A60 handset.
