10th June 2008, 2:31 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

The Department of Justice has said that in order to acquire rural wireless provider Alltel, Verizon Wireless must divest some of its existing wireless assets. In particular, Verizon Wireless will have to sell off Unicel assets in Vermont, New York, and Washington states. The DOJ has filed a lawsuit that will force Verizon Wireless to comply with the divestiture before the acquisition can proceed. Last week, Verizon Wireless announced its intent to acquire Alltel for $28.1 billion.

more at PC World / Yahoo News »

10th June 2008, 2:18 PM   by Eric M. Zeman   updated Today, 1:48 PM

Verizon Wireless has confirmed that it will be rolling out an improved push-to-talk offering later this summer to compete with Sprint's PTT services. Sprint recently launched QChat phones and services in several markets, including Colorado, Kansas, and Ohio. It will be expanding the availability of QChat over time. QChat permits standard CDMA-based phones to interact with iDEN phones and vice versa. Verizon will respond with the launch of new phones and an improved PTT service. It did not provide a time frame for the launch, nor did it say exactly what technology it will be using to improve it's PTT service and make it competitive with Sprint's QChat service.

... Read more »

10th June 2008, 2:09 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

First announced in the third quarter of 2007, HP has set June 30 as the worldwide ship date of its iPAQ 900 Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone. The 900 has tri-band UMTS/HSDPA and quad-band GSM/EDGE radios, as well as GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3 megapixel camera.

more at HP »

10th June 2008, 10:59 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

Motorola announced that it will begin to include the 700MHz and 2.6GHz frequencies in its networking equipment in order to support network operators' migration paths to LTE.

09th June 2008, 5:36 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

AT&T has altered the pricing of unlimited data plans for the 3G iPhone. Customers who purchase a new iPhone on July 11 will have to pay $30 per month for unlimited data, which is $10 more per month than what current iPhone owners pay. Over the course of a standard 2-year agreement, 3G iPhone owners will end up paying $40 more for the device and data services than the current generation iPhone. 3G iPhone business users will pay $45 per month. The 3G iPhone will, however, be able to access AT&T's higher-speed 3G network, which the current iPhone cannot.

more at New York Times »

09th June 2008, 4:39 PM   by Eric M. Zeman   updated Yesterday, 2:43 PM

Leap Wireless is prepared to launch its Cricket wireless services in St. Louis, Mo., beginning tomorrow, June 10. Cricket will open nine company-owned stores, and will be available in 80 additional retail locations. Cricket has also introduced a new service, unlimited SMS messages to Mexico for $40 per month.

more at RCR News »

09th June 2008, 3:35 PM   by Eric M. Zeman   updated Yesterday, 3:05 PM

Today at Apple's WordWide Developer's Conference it announced the next version of the iPhone, complete with 3G. This new iPhone has thinner edges, a black, plastic back cover, a flush 3.5mm headset jack and solid metal buttons. It carries over the same 3.5-inch display, and has improved audio quality. Apple says that talk time with 3G will be 5 hours, and stand-by time will be 300 hours. 3G browsing time will be 5 to 6 hours, with 7 hours of video playback, and 24 hours of audio playback. GPS will be built into the device. The 8GB version will sell for the price of $200, a 16GB model will sell for $300, and it will also come in white. It will be available July 11. It will support tri-band UMTS/HSDPA bands at 850/1900/2100MHz. Coincidentally, the FCC approved the 3G version of ... Read more »

09th June 2008, 3:14 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

Apple today announced that the iPhone Application Store will be available in 62 different countries around the world. For applications that are smaller than 10MB, users will be able to download wirelessly via cellular or Wi-Fi connections. For apps bigger than 10MB, users will need to download them to a PC. App developers will set the prices for most applications. Apple also announced that developers will be able to create and push apps in an ad-hoc manner to up to 100 different iPhones. Apple cited the example of a professor pushing applications to his/her students.

from Engadget

09th June 2008, 3:09 PM   by Eric M. Zeman   updated Yesterday, 1:19 PM

Apple today said that the 2.0 firmware update for the iPhone will be available for free in early July. Apple noted some new features to come with the firmware upgrade, including an enhanced calculator with scientific mode, bulk email move/delete, parental controls, and contact search. Another new feature will allow you to save images sent to your email inbox to the iPhone's photo gallery application.

from Engadget

09th June 2008, 11:14 AM   by Eric M. Zeman   updated Yesterday, 10:37 AM

Digia recently announced a touch-based web browser specifically for mobile phones that use the UIQ platform. Called Digia @Web, the browser is based on the S60 open-source WebKit engine. It has been ported to UIQ by Digia and has been optimized for use on phones that have touch screen user interfaces. A public beta will be available to UIQ phones later this month.

more at Digia » / more info »