Mobile

AT&T is accusing Google of being a hypocrite when it comes to Net neutrality because it blocks certain phone calls on its Google Voice service.

The carrier has written a letter to the Federal Communications Commission claiming that Google has violated the agency's Net neutrality principles, which Google has long supported. Google defended its position in a blog post written by Richard Whitt, Google's main lobbyist and telecommunications lawyer in Washington, that basically said AT&T is comparing apples and oranges.

In a letter to the FCC filed on Friday, AT&T said Google … Read more

Will it or won't it? That's the question that Palm Pre fans are asking. They want to know if the Palm's touch-screen phone will be offered by Verizon Wireless early next year.

TheStreet.com reported late Thursday that sources close to the companies said Verizon was considering not offering the phone on its network, as had been expected. But now analysts are saying the rumors are likely bogus.

"Our checks continue to point to healthy carrier demand for the Pre early in calendar 2010," Deutsche Bank's Jonathan Goldberg said in a research note published … Read more

As promised, AT&T's iPhone finally has the capability to send multimedia messages to another phone number. Whatever AT&T had to do to gets its act together, the carrier did it.

The update went live just a moment ago, and I've successfully sent my first MMS on CNET's iPhone 3G. I was able to exchange photos both with another iPhone and a Samsung SPH-M330 on Sprint.

You'll need to connect to iTunes to receive the update, which should download in seconds. We were able to send an update immediately, but you may have … Read more

Two prominent Web-based programming advocates have left Mozilla for Palm, arguing that the time has come to use browsers to bypass Apple's controlling role in mobile applications.

Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, who help run the Ajaxian site for elaborate Web interfaces and who worked on Mozilla's Web-based Bespin tool for collaborative programming, announced their move to Palm on Friday.

Palm is a logical place for them to go. The Palm Pre has won accolades as a competitive mobile phone, and its foundation for applications is a WebKit-based browser, meaning that Palm programs are essentially Web programs.

"… Read more

One in five households worldwide will be wired up to the Internet by year's end, according to new estimates from Gartner.

The number of households with fixed broadband connections is expected to reach 422 million across the globe this year, a jump of 10.5 percent over 382 million in 2008, the analyst firm said Friday. This number will further swell to an estimated 580 million by 2013.

Over the next four years, global broadband services revenue will also help offset declining voice revenue and account for 40 percent of the consumer fixed voice, Internet, and broadband services market … Read more

Updated at 3:30 p.m. PDT with information from the conference call.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday said it sold fewer BlackBerry phones than analysts had expected and that the company's quarterly earnings were hurt by a legal settlement.

Even though RIM still saw strong sales of BlackBerrys, the news sent the company's stock price tumbling in after-market trading. Many are now wondering if RIM's disappointing sales are an indicator of a wider smartphone slowdown or if the news is an indication that the company is losing its edge in an increasingly competitive market.… Read more

The Palm Pre may not be coming to Verizon Wireless after all.

According to a report from TheStreet.com, Verizon Wireless execs are reconsidering whether to begin offering Palm's touch screen smartphone in January as many have anticipated.

The Pre was announced at CES in January amid much fanfare. And after months of anticipation, Palm launched the device in June exclusively on Sprint Nextel's network. Shortly before the device was launched on Sprint's network, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said it would offer the Pre on the Verizon Wireless network within six months.

Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse said the device was exclusive to Sprint through 2009, which left many market watchers expecting a Verizon version to land sometime in January 2010. Hopes for a Verizon version of the Pre were bolstered recently when Palm's new CEO Jon Rubinstein said he expects the device to be offered on other networks very soon.

But now it looks like Verizon is having a change of heart. The Street.com said its sources have cited several reasons why Verizon execs may be getting cold feet. For one, the Palm Pre has had modest sales compared to sales of competing devices such as Apple's iPhone or Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices. According to story, Sprint has not sold more than a million Pre phones so far, which has spooked the Verizon execs.

Another issue is that Verizon supposedly wants its VCast application and download store to be featured on the phone. But this will compete directly with Palm's own app store.… Read more

TechCrunch is reporting that Nokia has just acquired social travel start-up Dopplr. The rumored acquisition price is between 10 million and 15 million Euros, which is around $15 million to $22 million.

In an effort to stop the bleeding at the cell phone giant, Nokia has been acquiring a string of smaller companies. With intense competition from Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry, Nokia has been struggling to keep pace in the mobile industry. Om Malik compares the acquisition spree at Nokia to what we have seen at Yahoo in the last few years.

It will be interesting to … Read more