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Nokia Looking for Dismissal of Apple Suit

Today, 2:00 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

Nokia has asked the Delaware judge overseeing the lawsuits between Apple and Nokia to toss Apple's claims that Nokia is engaging in monopolistic behavior. Apple says that Nokia is in breach of contract and is demanding unreasonable royalties for wireless patents. Nokia said Apple's allegations are "designed to divert attention away from free-riding off of Nokia’s intellectual property." Nokia also accused Apple of "revisionist history, misleading characterizations, unsupported allegations and flawed and contradictory legal theories to turn these fruitless negotiations into a multi-count federal lawsuit." Nokia indicated that the two companies tried to come to financial terms with some of the patents in question, but in the end were unable to make any agreements. Nokia said that Apple's offers were "unremarkable." Both companies have filed lawsuits against one another and have also appealed to the U.S. International Trade Commission to block the import/export of one another's handsets until the lawsuits are settled. The ITC has said it will begin hearing evidence in October 2010, and it hopes to issue a final ruling by June 2011. The Delaware-based case won't be scheduled for trial until April or May 2012.

Sprint TV Scores ESPN Mobile

Today, 1:40 PM   by Philip Berne   updated Today, 1:46 PM

Sprint and ESPN today announced the launch of ESPN Mobile TV as part of the Sprint TV streaming video lineup. The announcement comes soon after Sprint confirmed that it would lose its NFL Mobile app to Verizon Wireless. In addition to ESPN commentary programs, viewers will also have access to a selection of live games, streaming over Sprint's data network. These will include some NBA Playoff and regular season games, MLB games, Men's and Women's NCAA Basketball games, including the men's conference championship and the women's championship games, and more. No football programming has been announced for the new streaming station. In all, ESPN promises more than 800 live games and events. The new channel will be available on a majority of Sprint's devices, and will be a free service for subscribers enrolled in Sprint's Everything Data plans.

Samsung Publishes Info About Two Unannounced Devices

Today, 1:32 PM   by Eric M. Zeman   updated Today, 3:45 PM

Today Samsung published information about two entry-level devies that are headed to the TracFone network. Both are dual-band GSM devices.

• SGH-t155g: This clamshell has external icons that light up when the phone has unread text messages, missed calls or other alerts.
• SGH-t105g: This candybar style phone supports multiple languages and text messaging and has a built-in speakerphone.

According to Samsung, both phones will be available for sale by Friday, March 19. Pricing remains unknown.

Quickie:
FLO Tunes In to CNN

Today, 8:30 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

Today Qualcomm's FLO TV unit announced that it has struck a deal with Turner Broadcasting and will now offer CNN as part of its lineup of mobile TV channels. The channel includes programming from CNN/US, CNN International and HLN, as well as CNN.com content.

FCC Releases Apps to Test Broadband Coverage

Yesterday, 8:15 PM   by Philip Berne

The Federal Communications Commission today announced the release of a mobile tool to help consumers test the wireless broadband coverage in their area. The mobile version of the Consumer Broadband Test is available in the Apple iPhone App Store and the Android App Market. The test checks download speed and network latency using the Ookla, Inc. Speet Test and the Network Diagnostic Tool running on the M-Lab platform. Should consumers find a broadband dead zone, the mobile app will allow them to report the street address of that location. This will help the Commission formulate its National Broadband Plan. As part of the plan, the FCC will also gather data to help consumers understand the gap between real world broadband performance, and the advertised maximum speeds. Though the mobile app is available initially for the iPhone and Android devices, the FCC has made clear that it does not endorse any specific platform, and additional testing apps will be available in the future.

Twitter Updates Its Status With Location Tool

Yesterday, 7:18 PM   by Eric M. Zeman   updated Today, 8:51 AM

Today Twitter unveiled a new feature that allows users to automatically share their location with their Tweets. Users need to opt into the service via their accounts and can turn it off at any time. Twitter explained how it will work on mobile phones in a recent blog post. "For each Tweet, we will publicly display whatever location information you've elected to share. For example, if you update from Twitter Mobile and have specified that a particular Tweet should show your exact location, these coordinates can be seen on Twitter.com, Twitter mobile, and in third-party applications." Twitter said that it will also work with mobile apps that support location sharing. Twitter users wishing to share their location from their desktop will need to use Chrome or Firefox 3.5. Internet Explorer users (and versions of Firefox older than 3.5) will need to download and install Google Gears to make it work.

Unreal Engine 3 Scores a Headshot on Palm WebOS

Yesterday, 3:14 PM   by Philip Berne   updated Yesterday, 3:15 PM

On the official Palm Blog today, the company announced that Epic games has demonstrated the Unreal Engine 3, the gaming back end that drives Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War, among other titles. Licensees of the Unreal Engine 3 will be able to use the engine to build games for Palm's WebOS, though no specific titles were announced. The recent build of Unreal Engine 3 on Palm WebOS was made possible by the adoption of OpenGL ES 2.0 in the recently announced Palm PDK.

Google Shows Mobile Users What's In Stock Nearby

Yesterday, 2:28 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

Today Google introduced a new browser-based search tool that will let users see at a glance whether or not their search query is in stock at local stores. Searches for retail items performed from the browser will deliver local results, and a blue dot will be placed next to stores where the item is in stock. The feature will also note if the item is in limited quantities, and how far away it is from the user's current position. The feature only works with the iPhone, webOS and Android devices.

American Airlines Expands Mobile Boarding Pass Option

Yesterday, 12:40 PM   by Philip Berne

American Airlines today announced 19 new airports participating in its mobile boarding pass service. The new airports include Houston George Bush, New York La Guardia and Phoenix Sky Harbor, among others. Fliers can use any cell phone or smartphone with e-mail capabilities to receive a 2-D barcode, and then check in with the barcode image at their gate. Passengers with baggage can check in at self-service kiosks by scanning the barcode image.

T-Mobile Provides Devs with User Location Tools

Yesterday, 11:13 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

T-Mobile today announced that it has joined WaveMarket's Veriplace Cloud Location Platform Initiative. This initiative provides developers of mobile apps and services with the APIs (application programming interface) that they might need to enable their apps with geo-location features. Veriplace's infrastructure can locate 150 million handsets being used by T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint customers. It makes it easier for developers to enrich their applications and services with location information by reducing the complexity of all the location technologies, networks and devices involved. Veriplace works with both feature phones and smartphones.

Casio Brigade Stomps Over to Verizon

Yesterday, 8:33 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

Today Verizon Wireless launched the Casio G'zOne Brigade, which was first announced in November 2009. This mil-spec rugged device is a sideways clamshell that has both a numeric keypad on the front and a full QWERTY keyboard inside with larger display. It also offers push-to-talk capabilities in addition to having a 3.2 megapixel, camera with flash, microSD card support, 2.5mm headset jack, dedicated music and messaging keys, Bluetooth and 3G for data. The device supports Verizon's V CAST services, and has business-focused offerings such as Document Viewer and support for Verizon's Field Force Manager software. The Brigade costs $250 after rebate with new two year agreement. The Brigade requires a $10 data plan in addition to a voice plan.

T-Mobile's Rocket Launches March 14, Plans Tweaked

Yesterday, 8:14 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

Today T-Mobile USA announced that its first HSPA+ laptop dongle, the webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick, will be available starting March 14 for $100 after rebates with new agreement. T-Mobile also announced new plans for webConnect devices. Customers can choose an Even More webConnect data plan, which requires a two-year contract, and get 5GB for $60 per month or 200MB for $30 per month. Those wishing to avoid contracts can select the Even More Plus webConnect data plan, which costs $50 per month for 5GB or $20 per month for 200MB. All plans have overage charges costing $0.20 per megabyte. T-Mobile said that its entire 3G network has been upgraded to HSPA 7.2Mbps, which now covers more than 273 U.S. cities and 206 million people. T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is only available in Philadelphia, Pa., at launch, but T-Mobile plans to add more cities later this year, with much of its network planned to offer HSPA+ by the end of 2010. HSPA+ can reach theoretical download speeds of 21Mbps.

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