According to Om Malik, AT&T are addressing their overly-heavy VP ranks with some serious offloading, in a response to ongoing concerns about economic performance.  Apparently, VP-level executives are being offered severance packages to encourage them to jump ship from the carrier, with the alternative being that they are demoted to a lower position.  Meanwhile, there's juggling at AT&T's top level ... continued »

As promised, the LiMo Foundation have delivered the Release 1 of the eponymous Linux-based mobile device OS, which they're describing as the world's first globally competitive platform of its kind.  A modular, plug-in and hardware-independent architecture with a core open-source OS, Release 1 is notable for having been distributed already on a number of commercially available handsets from well-known manufacturers ... continued »

Motorola's MING series of Linux-OS based handsets may not be sold outside of China, but there they apparently sell like the proverbial hot cakes.  GSMArena has found images of the latest touchscreen MING, the A1600, which has GPS, WiFi and a 3-megapixel autofocus camera.  It also has the usual transparent clamshell cover and is fully stylus-controlled; things should move a little ... continued »

If there was any doubt that Nokia are preparing to announce the N810 WiMAX Edition at CTIA Wireless tomorrow, then this image of the device hot from the production line should do a pretty good job of assuaging those concerns.  The property of a hapless Nokia employee - who didn't seem to realise that putting photos of as-yet unconfirmed gadgets ... continued »

As competition for new customers increased, contract lengths and early termination fees (ETF) rose too. AT&T have gone back to the drawing board, no doubt after growing legislative pressure threatened to make a reconsideration mandatory, and rewritten their ETF policy; as of May 25th, the standard $175 ETF will reduce by $5 for every month you're with the carrier, ... continued »

When WiMAX finally gets its proper launch, many potential customers will be looking at it as a replacement for their home broadband connection (especially as Sprint seem to be positioning the system as primarily for nomadic use, i.e. multiple stationary locations) rather than an addition; Bridgewater Systems would quite like to step in and offer a pay-as-you-use alternative. They've ... continued »

PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster has thrown his prediction hat into the ring and suggested that Apple will have three distinct iPhone handsets in the market by January 2009, one of which will be the well-discussed 3G version of the smartphone.  The other two devices, he maintains, will be a "budget" iPhone - priced between $200 and $300 - and a ... continued »

RIM's leaking like the proverbial sieve, and The Boy Genius is standing underneath lapping at the fact juices.  Which is a roundabout way of saying that an internal source has just furnished them with some new hands-on impressions of the BlackBerry 9000.  After confirming the specs of the smartphone - a 624MHz processor, 480×320 screen, GPS, WiFi and 3G - and ... continued »

It seems odd, but it's taken Sony Ericsson up until now to release a 3G/HSDPA cellphone for use in the US. Rather than pick some brash smartphone to break that fast, they've picked the Z750a clamshell, available exclusively on AT&T. While the downlink speeds of up to 1,400kbps are the headline feature, the 2-megapixel camera, full HTML browser ... continued »

You would, frankly, have to be quite an attention seeker to pick up the Motorola Q9c Lime, freshly announced by both Alltel and US Cellular; the Windows Mobile smartphone may have a full QWERTY keyboard and 2.4-inch display, but it'll be the vivid colour that everyone is looking at.  If you're not so bold, but still fancy a 1.3-megapixel fixed-focus camera with flash, ... continued »