Mobile

Good news for Canadian iPhone owners. On Wednesday, Skype for iPhone finally crossed the border into Canada, where it is now available for download from the App Store. The well-known voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, app first became available for the Apple smartphone about five months ago, on March 29.

Skype for iPhone handles the basics of its desktop PC-to-PC and PC-to landline calling service. It offers free calls between Skype users over a Wi-Fi connection; Apple won't allow 3G-based data calls.

The app can, however, use 3G and EDGE data connections for non-call-related activities such as signing … Read more

Thought about staying up until the wee hours of the morning (Australia time) to get the information on the new iPod? No need--the new iPods apparently have been leaked.

Thanks to an unceremonious cat out of the bag from third-party case manufacturer Cygnett, we now have pictures of what Apple's new iPods apparently look like.

Both the iPod Touch 3G and iPod Nano G5 sport a camera on the back (according to the Cygnett blog post which leaked the cases), and the Nano continues the trend of the elongated screen that we've seen on previous models.

It's … Read more

Hoping to capitalize on the momentum created by the release of its Pre smartphone, Palm on Wednesday will unveil a smaller, cheaper smartphone called Pixi.

Apparently geared toward younger consumers than those targeted by the Pre, the playfully named smartphone will be longer but slimmer than the Pre and will sport a smaller multitouch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a 2-megapixel camera, Palm said. However, like its smartphone sibling, the 3.5-ounce Pixi will still have 8GB of memory and GPS capabilities.

In addition to a new Facebook application, the Pixi will also be able to integrate LinkedIn contacts … Read more

Earlier on Tuesday, Sprint published an enticing deal to customers of competing carriers by offering a $100 service credit to anyone who bought a Palm Pre and ported his or her old number to Sprint. Sounds like a great deal, right? Well, it would have been had it lasted.

Sprint has since pulled the offer, saying the promotion was posted in error and issuing this statement:

After further internal review today, the offer of a port-in service credit of $100 to new customers who buy the Palm Pre has been pulled because it was put into the system in error. … Read more

Yahoo announced three new mobile applications Tuesday as the company continues to focus more on developing specific applications for the iPhone and other select smartphones like the BlackBerry.

The most widely publicized application to be announced Tuesday is Flickr for Mobile. This application is only available for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. It's free from the iTunes App Store. And it allows users to upload, share, and tag photos and videos. Flickr already has a browser-based mobile app at M.flickr.com.

Yahoo also created two new mobile applications for a few BlackBerry models.

Yahoo Finance for Mobile … Read more

Telefonica, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has announced a $1 billion share swap with Chinese operator China Unicom.

Under the agreement, announced Monday, each company will buy $1 billion in shares in the other company. In addition, the partners will cooperate in business areas. For example, they will jointly acquire infrastructure and equipment and jointly develop wireless service platforms.

"We are looking forward to enhancing the partnership and achieving a win-win situation for both parties," Chang Xiaobing, China Unicom's chief executive, said in a joint statement from the companies. "We believe that the … Read more

Orange and T-Mobile are to merge their British operations to create the U.K.'s largest mobile carrier, their parent companies said Tuesday.

The as-yet-unnamed joint venture will have a combined customer base of about 28.4 million people, or 37 percent of the market, with the deal expected to complete in November. Orange chief executive Tom Alexander will be chief executive of the new company, with T-Mobile UK chief executive Richard Moat as chief operating officer.

The companies said the merger will cost between 400 million and 600 million pounds ($655 million and $983 million). It is expected to … Read more

On Friday, Mozilla released Fennec Alpha 3 for Windows Mobile, the latest in Mozilla's effort to put its Firefox browser on a mobile phone. As with Fennec 1.0 beta 3 for the Maemo platform found on some Nokia Internet Tablets, Fennec for Windows Mobile makes changes to the mobile browser's theme, and its scrolling and panning performance.

In particular, it's using what's called a tile cache rendering system to hold onto the part of the screen that has already been rendered. As you scroll and pan around, it should take less time to refresh the … Read more

Nokia has released a test version of the software development kit for its Ovi application platform.

The kit's availability was announced Thursday at the Nokia World 09 event in Stuttgart, Germany, along with the release of a new application programming interface (API) for developers who want to integrate navigation capabilities into their applications.

The Ovi software development kit, or SDK, is a Web-based toolbox for developers that lets them create Web services and applications for handsets running either of Nokia's two smartphone operating systems: Symbian and Maemo.

Developers can write applications using standard Web technologies such as CSS, … Read more