Mobile

With Cupcake barely starting to cool, Google's Android team has started circulating the ingredients that will make up the Donut release of its Android mobile operating system.

Google is using sweet treats as code names for future Android releases, and Donut is next on the list, following the release of Cupcake in May.

According to several reports citing Android developers, including one from The Boy Genius Report, Donut code started making its way around the community of developers that work on Android this weekend. Among the notable additions are support for the CDMA networks used by Verizon Wireless and … Read more

At long last, Microsoft is publicly getting its Windows Mobile application storefront under way. On Monday, Microsoft opened the door to submissions from developers in 29 countries. To sweeten the deal and to drum up excitement, Microsoft has also announced the Race to Market Challenge, a contest of superlatives that will end with Redmond doling out four touch-screen Microsoft Surface tables to four winning developers.

All applications, games, and widgets certified in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile before December 31 will be eligible to win one of four categories: most downloaded freeware, most moneymaking app (calculated by the number of … Read more

There is still no official word about when or if Verizon Wireless will ever get Apple's iPhone, but the wireless operator has confirmed it will be getting the Palm Pre early next year.

The company's chief operating officer, Denny Strigl, spilled the beans on the impending smartphone availability during a conference call with analysts and investors discussing the company's second-quarter earnings on Monday. The Palm Pre, which was highly anticipated for several months, is currently only available on Sprint Nextel's network.

Since Sprint and Verizon use the same underlying cell phone technology, it shouldn't come … Read more

Verizon Communications has had a change of heart about using Wi-Fi to extend its wireless broadband offering as the company announces free access to Wi-Fi hot spots for its Fios and DSL Internet customers.

On Monday the company announced that customers subscribed to its Verizon Fios Internet service with 20Mbps per second downstream and 15Mbps upstream or faster and customers who subscribe to its 3Mbps/768 Kbps or higher DSL service will be able to connect to Verizon Wi-Fi hot spots, at no additional charge as part of their broadband service.

Verizon has partnered with the Wi-Fi service Boingo to … Read more

Updated 8:27 a.m. PDT with information from the conference call.

Verizon Communications' second-quarter profits took a hit as the weakened economy caused some corporate customers to cut spending. Meanwhile, the company continued to see strong growth in its wireless and consumer TV and broadband businesses.

The company's second-quarter results, released Monday, were in line with analyst predictions.

Verizon said it earned $3.16 billion, or 52 cents per share, in the quarter. During the same quarter a year ago, the company earned $3.4 billion, or 66 cents per share.

Excluding special items, the company said it … Read more

Reports began to surface Sunday charging that AT&T had blocked broadband access to parts of the notorious (and powerful) Internet forum site 4chan, which the telecom company confirmed on Monday. Late in the evening, a fake story surfaced on CNN's iReport citizen journalism site alleging that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had been "found dead in his multimillion dollar beachfront mansion" after a cocaine overdose.

Suffice it to say that the two events are likely connected. Access to 4chan has since been restored for AT&T broadband customers.

For those who stepped in … Read more

China's telecommunications market is on track to generate $187 billion by 2014, fueled by mobile uptake in its rural areas and by 3G technology, according to Pyramid Research.

The latest annual report from the analyst firm estimated that the country's telecoms market generated $110 billion last year, "making it the second largest telecommunications services market in the Asia-Pacific region after Japan."

Pyramid estimates that the Chinese market will surpass Japan by 2014, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.8 percent between this year and then.

Daniel Yu, Pyramid Research analyst said: "China, … Read more

Ericsson cast the $1.13 billion winning bid in an auction for the wireless assets of bankrupt Nortel Networks, the companies said Saturday.

The Swedish telecommunications giant picked up Nortel's CDMA and next-generation LTE wireless technologies. As part of the agreement, at least 2,500 Nortel workers supporting CDMA and LTE will be offered jobs at Ericsson.

CDMA, or code division multiple access, is one of two major networks operating in the U.S. and is used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. LTE, or Long Term Evolution, is 4G wireless technology that will potentially replace today's mobile … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has a lot to say about the mobile operating system he held off on--Android--and not so much about the phone he has backed, Palm's Pre.

At Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here on Friday, he said that he's limited on what he can say about how the Pre is doing because Sprint reports earnings shortly.

Despite that, he told the audience that the primary constraint for selling the Pre has been the number of devices that Palm has made--not demand for the product, he said.

"There have been shortages of the … Read more