Nokia and Philips announced a new collaboration to bring consumers the ultimate user-friendly home experience supported by the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) protocol. Naturally, the Finnish giant’s idea is to go well beyond handset business, to allow users to do such things as play music from their mobile phone to their home stereo, control…
Verizon Wireless, Microsoft sign 5-year mobile search and advertising agreement
As we briefly mentioned in Steve Ballmer’s keynote recap, Verizon Wireless and Microsoft signed a five-year agreement that will see the Redmond giant providing portal, local and Internet search as well as mobile advertising services to customers on Verizon’s devices. The deal will go into effect in the first half of 2009 when Microsoft Live…
UIQ bankrupt, mobile platform is officially dead
With the UIQ codebase integrated into the SymbianSymbian OS holdings Foundation’s comprehensive , UIQ’s future as a stand-alone mobile operating system is bleak. And, with news today that UIQ, which is jointly owned by Sony Ericsson and Motorola, has filed for bankruptcy, the UIQ platform is all but dead. We’ve been expecting UIQ to slowly…
RIM Extends Certicom Takeover Bid Window
Despite the raucous opposition, BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion is extending their deadline for finalizing aquistion of security firm Certicom from the 15th. of January to the 27th. To be fair, RIM could just keep on pushing the deadline back, but odds are if the shareholders haven’t bitten by the end of January, odds are the…
Polish Mobile OpCos working together on Mobile TV?
The four Mobile OpCos in Poland are working together on a bid for a DVB-H license. The operators, PTC, P4, Polkomtel, and PTK Centertel will each have a 25% stake in the JV. Apparently “The Office of Electronic Communications” is holding the tender for DVB-H spectrum, with applications to be in by mid-Jan 09. See,…
Unlocked and contract-less iPhone 3G available in France
Following on the legal kerfuffle in France that forced Apple and Orange (France’s once-exclusive iPhone 3G carrier) to stop selling iPhones locked to Orange’s network, French retailer FNAC is now selling unlocked and contract-less iPhone 3Gs in France. The French Competition Council recently ordered Orange to temporarily cease its exclusive partnership with Apple, forcing Apple’s…
Certicom and RIM Butting Legal Heads over Acquisition
Not one to welcome RIM with open arms like others, security firm Certicom is following up on tough talk with threats of legal action opposing a takeover, which BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion will openly counter. Word has it Certicom is going right to the Ontario Superior Court in order to block RIM from buying them…
Panasonic’s Sanyo Acquisition Set to Cost $9 Billion
Talks between Panasonic and Sanyo initiated last month regarding an acquisition have come to a boil and a price of $9 billion ($1.47 per share) has been set. We might not see many Panasonic handsets this side of the pond, they’re big in Japan, having hit the 100 million sales mark earlier this year. Sanyo’s…
Sprint Shows Off CDMA/WiMAX Dual-Mode Modem
Sprint and Clearwire have been cleared to go forth with their plans to build-out a national WiMAX wireless network, and it’s only a matter of time before WiMAX modems start to flood the market. The first such device is a dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX modem. Sprint, a 51 percent majority owner in Clearwire, has announced their new…
French Regulators Kill Orange’s Apple iPhone 3G Exclusivity
French telecom regulations threatened to keep the iPhone 3G out of France last year, and it looks like French telecom authorities are attacking the iPhone once again. More correctly, regulators are attacking Orange’s exclusivity deal to sell Apple’s iPhone 3G in France. The French Competition Council has ordered France Telecom’s Orange to terminate its exclusive…