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Apple has chosen T-Mobile, O2, and Orange as its European launch partners for the iPhone after wrangling a revenue-sharing agreement, according to the Financial Times.

The four companies are set to announce their partnership by the end of the month, the report said. The deals would require the carriers to share 10 percent of all revenue from voice and data services over the iPhone with Apple, according to the report. Apple has a revenue-sharing agreement in place with AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S.

No new details surfaced in the report about the type of … Read more

This is the sixth in a series of posts from the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University. The previous installments looked at process technology, multicore designs, IBM's Power 6 efforts, Vernor Vinge's keynote address, and Nvidia. Other CNET coverage may be found here. This is sort of an experiment for me; I usually prefer to have time to review my work before I publish it. If you see anything wrong, please leave a comment!

We began Tuesday morning with a session on assorted technology developments.

The first talk was from Sun Microsystems, about the company's Proximity chip-to-chip interconnect technology. Today, to put multiple chips in a package--a common technique in high-end servers, for example--each chip will be individually connected to the package substrate through conductive… Read more

Vlingo is a new mobile voice service launching today. It centers around a small Java app that lets you talk into your handset to create a text message instead of using your phone's keypad. The service is its own SMS client, piggybacking off your phone to send the message, although it forgoes using your phone's native SMS app, or word dictionary. In addition to texting, Vlingo is launching with voice to text services for mobile music stores and mapping services. The maps come courtesy of Yahoo, and can be zoomed and navigated just like accessing the mobile version … Read more

In July, I got an invoice from AT&T that I thought was an aberration--it was slightly longer than my previous bills with my Razr, but my last invoice spanned the period where I had both phones--maybe that was it, right? Well, I just got my latest iPhone-only bill, and it turns out that the eco-unfriendly bill was not an aberration.

So, while my monthly total bill is now a noticeable $10 cheaper because I changed my data and SMS text plans, my monthly paper invoice has grown noticeably larger and heavier--89 pages in total--about 30 percent bigger than … Read more

Yes, they've been on sale for only two months, but refurbished iPhones are now available for purchase on Apple's Web site. You can get both versions at a $100 discount with free shipping. That puts the 8GB model at $499 (17 percent off the original price) and the 4GB model at $399 (21 percent off). All the features are the same, including that required AT&T two-year contract, unless that is, you can get around it.

While the $100 discount may be good news to wannabe iPhone owners with smaller budgets, it sparks a interesting question. Just … Read more

If you see this bird hovering outside your window, you may be in trouble.

The Boeing A160T Hummingbird, the latest in unmanned chopper stealth and endurance, is under serious consideration by the U.S. Special Operations Command. Possible missions would include direct action, precision resupply and hairy extractions from behind enemy lines.

Remote-controlled helicopters are nothing new, as Boeing is quick to point out. This one is based on an old Robinson R22, which is still used as a trainer and to round up cattle. The main feature that makes the A160T unique is that it uses a rigid rotor … Read more

The Boy Genius Report has two interesting tidbits today about some BlackBerry models that may be coming to a T-Mobile store near you. The first rumor is that there will be some new BlackBerry Pearls, but before you get too excited, the only different feature is the color of the phones. Apparently, the carrier will release a midnight blue, a red, and a gold version of the Pearl, all with a tentative release date of September 4. The other speculation is that T-Mobile will introduce the BlackBerry 8320 aka the BlackBerry Curve with Wi-Fi on September 24. From the picture, … Read more

AT&T and LG have just announced the LG Trax, a slim flip phone with HSDPA speeds. This allows it access to broadband services like AT&T Music and AT&T's Cellular Video service, plus it'll also support AT&T's new video-calling service called AT&T Video Share. Other features of the LG Trax include text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging, a 1.3-megapixel camera, in-camera photo editing, quad-band support, a music player that supports MP3s, WMAs, and AACs, a microSD card slot, and stereo Bluetooth capability. From the looks of it, … Read more

It looks like Pearl Jam isn't the only band that has had its politically charged comments bleeped from concerts streamed from AT&T's Blue Room Web site.

AT&T issued a statement on Friday admitting that this kind of thing has happened before. And the company once again apologized.

"It's not our intent to edit political comments in Webcasts on attblueroom.com," the company said in a statement. "Unfortunately, it has happened in the past in a handful of cases. We have taken steps to ensure that it won't happen again.&… Read more