Mobiles reviews

Motorola is close to selling its wireless equipment business to Nokia Siemens for $1.2 billion, as the beleaguered company moves closer to splitting itself in two.

Verizon may want the iPhone, but the carrier may decide that it doesn't actually need it, amid deepening ties with Google and the growing success from its portfolio of "Droid" phones.

Location-based social network Foursquare is in talks with "everyone" in the search space, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, looking for a data partnership deal.

Sprint plans to release the Motorola i1, the first push-to-talk Android-based smartphone, on July 25 for $150 with a two-year contract.

Apple plans to start selling the iPad in nine more countries this Friday, making the popular tablet available in a total of 19 countries.

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Motorola has agreed to sell the majority of its wireless infrastructure business to Nokia Siemens for US$1.2 billion in cash. Read the full story here.

Today Microsoft announced that its Windows Phone 7 smartphone OS has reached the technical preview stage, which means that prototype handsets with the latest build of the OS can now be sent out to developers. Microsoft claims that thousands of these prototype ASUS, LG, and Samsung devices will be heading out to developers over the next few weeks. Read the full story here.

Today Apple announced that the iPad will launch in 9 new countries on Friday, July 23rd, including Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore. The Apple iPad will be available in Apple's retail stores as well as Apple Authorized Resellers. Pricing for each country has not yet been announced. Read the full story here.

The world's leading cell phone and smartphone manufacturers took little time in putting out official responses to the video presentation shown by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the Apple "Antennagate" event this past Friday. Read the full story here.

Orange UK has announced that it will soon offer the Sony Ericsson Zylo Walkman phone to its customers. The Zylo offers the Walkman music player and is among the first devices to feature FLAC audio playback support. The player also offers TrackID, and the PlayNow music store. The Zylo provides easy access to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and lets users share their photos to Flickr and Picasa, as well as upload videos to YouTube. The Zylo comes equipped with a 3 megapixel camera, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, a 2.6-inch 320 x 240 pixel display, and up to 16GB of microSD storage. Pricing and tariffs have not been announced at this time. Read the full story here.

Today Sprint announced that the Motorola i1 Android-powered smartphone would be available to its Nextel push to talk customers starting on July 25. Read the full story here.

Today Verizon Wireless announced that its V CAST Apps store front is now available on most BlackBerry smartphones. The software is currently available on the BlackBerry Bold 9650, the Storm 2 9550, the Curve 8530, and the Tour 9630. Verizon Wireless will roll out V CAST Apps to the Storm 9530 and Cure 8330 in the coming weeks. Read the full story here.

Sony Ericsson has announced it will soon offer its Vivaz phone in light pink. The company also stated the phone will be available in select markets at the end of this quarter. The Vivaz phone is equipped with an 8.1 megapixel camera, GPS support, WiFi, an 8GB microSD card, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 3.2-inch touchscreen display with a 540 x 360 resolution. Read the full story here.

Today Research In Motion announced to developers that it has added tower-based location detection to its BlackBerry OS 5.x (or higher) development platforms, which means that applications will be able to get a quick, general location fix without resorting to on-board GPS use. The new functionality requires that the developers add support for it in their applications. Read the full story here.

Today Verizon Wireless confirmed that it has pulled the plug on the Microsoft KIN ONE and KIN TWO social networking phones. The ONE and TWO are already missing from Verizon's website, though KIN accessories remain on sale and Verizon has said that Microsoft will continue to run the KIN servers required to keep the phones in service. Microsoft disbanded its KIN development group two weeks ago and moved its members into the Windows Phone 7 smartphone development group. Read the full story here.

O2 in the UK, wanting to join in on the Galaxy S fun, is now offering the Samsung Galaxy S to customers. This Android 2.1 powered device offers a host of premium features, including a large 4-inch Super AMOLED display, a fast 1GHz processor, a 5 megapixel camera and camcorder with 720p HD recording, and Bluetooth 3.0. Read the full story here.

Verizon Wireless has started pushing out the 1.13.604 firmware update for the Motorola DROID X Android smartphone. Improvements in the update include redesigned weather widgets, a better battery status indicator, favorite contacts sorted by frequency, and improved 3G mobile hotspot abilities. Customers should expect to soon see a notice on their phone about the availability of the update. Read the full story here.

A superior Iusacell network, high definition display and multifunctions satisfy the most demanding users Read the full story here.

AT&T plans to sell the Sharp FX, the latest device from the Sidekick brand of messaging phones, after rival T-Mobile pulled the plug on the line earlier this month.