Mobile

The Wi-Fi Alliance and HomePlug Powerline Alliance have joined forces to promote the adoption of powerline and Wi-Fi networking technologies in smart-grid applications, which could mean more streamlined connectivity for consumers.

The Wi-Fi Alliance tests and certifies Wi-Fi products, including Wi-Fi Direct, to ensure their interoperability, and the HomePlug Powerline Alliance does the same thing for powerline devices.

The agreement, announced today, enables cooperative efforts for the joint technical review of Wi-Fi Alliance's and HomePlug's specifications and standards that facilitate interoperability of smart-grid applications. Both parties will also promote the adoption of wireless and powerline technologies.

The collaboration … Read more

Coverity, a company with tools to check for programming problems that pose security risks, has found 359 of them in a scan of the Android source code.

There are 88 high-risk problems and 271 medium-risk problems in the source code underlying the Android kernel used in HTC's Incredible phone, the company said Tuesday. Android uses the Linux kernel, but the Android-specific components have a higher defect rate than mainstream Linux, Coverity said.

Some good news for Google, though, is that the defect rate is still lower than the industry average of one defect per 1,000 lines of code. … Read more

Symbian, the mobile operating system that's huge in Europe but an afterthought elsewhere, has received a boost from its friends at home.

Symbian has been declared "The Embedded Operating System for Europe" by a consortium of European countries and companies, who have agreed to invest a total of 22 million euros (about $31 million at last count), 11 million euros of which will come directly from the European Commission. The idea is the "development of next generation technologies for the Symbian platform," wrote Richard Collins, technology manager for the Symbian Foundation, in a blog post.… Read more

Research In Motion and Apple are duking it out for the top spot in the U.S. smartphone market, according to the "Global Smartphone Report" released yesterday by Nielsen.

Among the 13,243 smartphone owners polled by Nielsen, Apple's share has grown steadily over the past year, with the iPhone grabbing 28 percent of them all in the third quarter. On the flip side, RIM has seen its share for the BlackBerry drop to 30 percent for the same period. Those numbers include all people in Nielsen's panel who own smartphones.

The difference in demand between … Read more

The dream of a London Underground network that's totally Internet-connected is getting a step closer to reality, as BT announced that Charing Cross would be the first Tube station to have Wi-Fi access.

The service is due to start today and will be trialed for six months, allowing people to log on to the Internet from Charing Cross ticket hall area, as well as the Northern and Bakerloo line platforms. There won't be access in the actual trains, apart from a few seconds when the doors are open--or if your train is stuck.

Read more of "Charing Cross is the first London Tube station to receive Wi-Fi&… Read more

Google's Android operating system continues to outpace the competition in the U.S., market researchers Canalys and NPD Group have found.

According to Canalys, Google's Android platform was running on 43.6 percent of all the smartphones purchased in the United States in the third quarter. It was followed by Apple's iOS, which captured 26.2 percent market share, and Research In Motion's OS, which tallied 24.2 percent share. Microsoft's mobile OS held 3 percent market share in the quarter.

NPD reported similar results to Canalys.

NPD found that Android was running on 44 percent of smartphones bought during the third quarter, though it claims Apple's market share was 23 percent. RIM was just behind Apple with 22 percent market share, according to NPD. The market researcher asserts that Android's growth over the second quarter--about 11 percentage points--was stolen from "RIM, rather than Apple."… Read more

India has canceled a ban of BlackBerry services that was scheduled to occur at the end of October.

A press release from India's Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday confirmed the news, saying that discussions with RIM had led to an interim agreement under which BlackBerry Messenger services could continue. This agreement provides the Indian government with access to the lawful interception of data over the BlackBerry network, according to the ministry. Further, RIM has promised India that it would offer a final solution by January 31, to give the government continued access.

Details of the agreement were not … Read more

Apple has sued Motorola over multitouch patents in two separate lawsuits.

The complaints, first reported by Patently Apple, were filed Oct. 29 and cover six patents. In the first complaint, the main document is only 9 pages, but one exhibit--patent 7,479,949--is broken into two parts and weighs in at a whopping 362 pages. Motorola on Oct. 6 sued Apple for patent infringement.

Read more of "Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints" at ZD Net.

The much-rumored and quickly denied Facebook phone could finally be unveiled next week--or at least something new relating to using the social network on mobile devices.

Earlier today the company began sending out invites to members of the press for a mobile-focused event next Wednesday at its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Back in September, rumors began swirling that the company was working with device manufacturers on a Facebook-branded handset. A Facebook spokesperson quickly responded by saying that it was flat-out false, and that "building phones is just not what we do."

Recent numbers made public by the … Read more