Wireless and Mobile Technology

SAN FRANCISCO / SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Apple Inc has signed deals to bring the iPhone to four Asian countries later this year, which should help the company surpass its sales goal of 10 million units by the end of 2008.

Research in Motion's sleek new BlackBerry Bold 9000 will support 3G networks worldwide, as well as Wi-Fi and GPS. Will it be able to withstand a 3G iPhone challenge?

InformationWeek - Superbly portable laptops from Dell, Toshiba, Panasonic, and Fujitsu promise mobile productivity in a slender package, but can this crop of lightweights get the job done?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile USA Inc and South Korea's SK Telecom Co, which controls U.S. mobile service Helio, are in early talks on a deal, a person familiar with the discussions said on Friday.

InformationWeek - Cablevision joins T-Mobile and Verizon in announcing plans to upgrade the area with advanced wireless networks.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Young, tech-savvy South Koreans are making coupon clipping a thing of the past and turning to their mobile phones instead.

They say everything comes to those that wait. A year after it went on sale in the rest of the world customers in Japan will...

Two giant offers for free Wi-Fi extended, one from AT&T to iPhone users, and another from Cablevision for its millions of home territory broadband subscribers.

Anyone who still doubts there is a bright future for technologies that create hybrid, online/offline applications need only consider Sun's JavaFX announcement at JavaOne this week. The Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:JAVA) event demonstrates that JavaFX, which was announced last year, is closing in on, or at least gunning for Adobe's AIR and Microsoft's Silverlight, as a developer's tool for producing new applications.

NEW YORK - Cable TV provider Cablevision Systems Corp. disclosed plans Thursday to offer high-speed wireless Internet service across its coverage area in the New York region.

MINNEAPOLIS - Consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co. Inc. is establishing a foothold in the European market with a $2.1 billion investment in the continent's largest cell phone retailer, allowing the American company to roll out its trademark big box stores in Europe, the companies said Thursday.

A day after Comcast and Time Warner Cable announced investments in a WiMax joint venture spearheaded by Sprint and Clearwire...

NEW YORK - T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the country, said Thursday it added 981,000 customers in the first quarter, which along with an acquisition brought its total to 30.8 million.

InformationWeek - Google has slashed the cost of its security service by 40% and added an optional protection feature for public Wi-Fi users in its continued efforts to lure businesses to Google Apps.

MINNEAPOLIS - Best Buy, the largest U.S. consumer electronics chain, has moved into Europe with a $2.1 billion investment in the continent's largest cell phone retailer, the companies announced Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - As US technology giants including Google place a multi-billion dollar bet on WiMAX, backers of the wireless data-streaming format say it will radically change mobile Internet use.

T-Mobile USA is now joining the 3G club. Earlier this week, the telecommunications company announced that it has begun the commercial rollout of its third-generation wireless network, starting with New York City.

InformationWeek - Earlier this week, T-Mobile said it plans to deploy the new high speed network across 20 to 25 of the major U.S. cities it currently serves.

InformationWeek - Nokia, the world's top cell phone maker, expects to sell 35 million Global Positioning System equipped phones this year, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Microsoft will increase its focus on making mobile phones part of its strategy to spread IT to people in developing nations...

China's 3G (third generation telephony) system will expand service to 10 cities after August's Olympic Games, the nation's...

LONDON (AFP) - The Carphone Warehouse Group, the mobile phone retailer, said Thursday it has agreed to sell 50 percent of its retail operations to US electronics group Best Buy for £1.1 billion in cash as part of an overall tie-up.

TOKYO - Softbank Corp.'s net profit nearly quadrupled to a record high last fiscal year on the strength of its rapidly expanding mobile business, the technology and Internet company said Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO - In another step in the worldwide march of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the top mobile phone operator in Latin America said Wednesday that it has inked a deal to bring the multimedia gadget to more than a dozen countries starting later this year.

WiMax, which brings fast wireless Internet communications, is finally coming -- but the long-promised advance might find competing technology LTE stealing some of its thunder.

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire breathed new life into their wireless broadband alliance Wednesday, securing $3.2 billion in much-needed financing from three cable TV companies, Web search firm Google and chipmaker Intel.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have resurrected their plan to offer high-speed mobile Internet service with the help of some deep-pocketed supporters.

NEW YORK - Sprint Nextel Corp. has finally rounded up the financial backing it needs to build a faster wireless network. But for consumers and the electronics industry, speed may be the least important thing about the new network.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp and top U.S. cable companies are investing in Clearwire Corp to introduce high-speed wireless Web services and get a head start on AT&T and Verizon, but analysts said the seven-way partnership may be too complex to succeed.

Consumers wanting a touch-screen, Web-browsing, 3G-capable phone don't have to wait for the rumored 3G iPhone. HTC's new Touch Diamond matches -- some would say "copies" -- the features on Apple's breakthrough device while offering the speedy connections of 3G networks.