Mobile Phone News

Filed under: Software, Apple, OS X

Mom-and-pop shops and giant corporations are clearly still trying to wrap their heads around the iPhone SDK, probe its capabilities and limitations, and figure out just what kinds of apps to bring to the table, and Microsoft is no exception. The company maintains a fairly active Mac development division — a bit of a redheaded stepchild for the company, but a profitable one at that — so it totally makes sense that they’d want to bring the iPhone into the fold from that angle. Indeed, the head of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group (of which the Mac fiends are a part) have assigned a small handful of engineers to figuring out how, if at all, they can add value to Apple’s talkabout; some sort of Office extension is an obvious one, but recent acquisition TellMe is also looking into whether it can shoehorn any voice recognition goodies on there as well. The strange bit, of course, is that this flies in the face of Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile, which itself could use all the engineering help it can get to roll out its long-promised killer revamp as quickly as possible; then again, Office Mac is itself an affront to Windows, so maybe it’s business as usual in Redmond.

[Via iLounge]

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Filed under: Handsets, Features, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcom, ATT, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

We’ve just received a fresh round of release dates on AT&T, and if we had to pick a single word to describe the theme in this place, it’d be “colors.” Shades upon shades of phones — Bot. new and old — will see a release on AT&T in the next couple of months, starting with the Sony Ericsson Z750a, the first 3G Sony Ericsson to be released by a carrier in the States (but not in North America — that honor belongs to Rogers); it’ll hit in your choice of gray, pink, or purple in early April. Like the a737, the a437 gets done up in a whole spectrum — gray, gold, and red, to be specific — come mid April, alongside the workhorse Motorola V3xx in lavender, pink, gray, platinum, and red (noticing a trend with this whole gray thing?). it seems like the V3xx releases will be spaced out over a few weeks, for whatever reason, tapering off by the end of May. The at this time-ancient UTStarcom 5700 finally sees release toward the end of April more than a year after we first saw it in the FCC’s business, giving a decrease-end choice to the Windows Mobile faithful. Finally, May should bring about the LG CU720 Shine in black, following its initial offerings of silver and red.

Oh, and it seems like the Motorola Z9 and the black Centro should be widely available pretty much any minute at this time — stay tuned. Strangely missing from the list is the Vu, though that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be released by the end of May, it merely means that AT&T’s not sure yet. Surprise, surprise.

[Thanks, Kal]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola

The board of directors has agreed to split Motorola into two independent, publicly-traded companies. The new entities will be called Mobile Devices and Broadband & Mobility Solutions. The Mobile Devices business will focus on the design, manufacturing, and sales of mobile handsets and accessories globally. The Broadband & Mobility Solutions business covers Moto’s enterprise, government, public safety, and home and networks business. Greg Brown, Motorola’s president and CEO, says the reason for the split is easy, “Creating two
industry-leading companies will provide improved flexibility, more tailored
capital structures, and increased management focus - as well as more targeted
investment opportunities for our shareholders.” Right, weren’t those the reasons for the Palm split? The matter is of course subject to regulatory approvals, but Motorola hopes that the transaction is complete “in 2009.”

P.S. We’re not sure whether this is a sad or happy Moto logo day. Regardless, we went with sad until we see signs of a turnaround.

[Thanks, Matt E.]a

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