Droid RAZR, Galaxy Nexus, Rezound release dates slip out on Verizon

With Apple now setting a new standard following the release of the iPhone 4S, attention has shifted to the other smartphone-makers of the world and the imminent release of the latest generation of competing devices. Three of those phones now have potential release dates pinned to them, for Verizon at least, thanks to a leaked product listing obtained by Android Central.

Three noteworthy upcoming phones are listed on the sheet. Motorola fans will be pleased to note that the just-announced Droid RAZR is nearly upon us, with a Verizon release set for the coming week, on October 27, assuming the product listing is accurate.

The other two new and noteworthy phones on the list are both seemingly set to arrive on November 10. The HTC Rezound and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the flagship handset for the launch of the Ice Cream Sandwich update for Android operating systems. All three phones will apparently be available for $299.99 with a contract. This still doesn’t qualify as official confirmation, but it ought to be enough to get Android fans stirring.

Oracle to buy RightNow Technologies Inc

Software company Oracle says it is buying RightNow Technologies Inc. for about $1.5 billion so it can offer a broader range of software and services that help businesses manage customer service.

Oracle Corp. said it offered $43 per share for the tech service company from Bozeman, Montana.

RightNow's board has agreed to the deal which is subject to shareholder approval. Oracle expects to complete the deal by late this year or early next.

RightNow's main product helps companies manage customers' questions and complaints. It is delivered over the Internet or "cloud" - rather than by installing software directly on computers.

Mobile Phones don't Cause Cancer

Mobile phones do not increase the risk of cancer, according to a large study involving more than 350,000 people by Danish researchers published Friday.

The results, released on the British Medical Journal's website, chime with a series of other studies that have reached similar conclusions.

Scientists from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen looked at people aged at least 30 who subscribed to mobile phone contracts and compared their rates of brain tumors with non-subscribers between 1990 and 2007.

Outside experts said the large scale of the trial was impressive.

"This paper supports most other reports which do not find any detrimental effects of phone use under normal exposures," said Malcolm Sperrin, director of Medical Physics at Britain's Royal Berkshire Hospital and Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

At the end of May, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer decided cellphone use should be classified as "possibly carcinogenic to humans," putting then in the same category as lead, chloroform and coffee.

But just over a month later the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection's committee on epidemiology said the scientific evidence increasingly pointed away from a link between mobile phone use and brain tumors.

The number of mobile phones has risen hugely since the early 1980s, with nearly 5 billion handsets in use today, prompting lengthy debate about their potential link to the main types of brain tumor, glioma and meningioma.

EU launches Satellite Navigation System

A Russian rocket launched the first two satellites of the European Union's Galileo navigation system Friday after years of waiting for the start of the program billed as the main rival to the ubiquitous American GPS network.

The launch of the Soyuz from French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, marks the maiden voyage of the Russian rocket outside the former Soviet Union, with European and Russian authorities cheering at liftoff.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said it is the first time that two teams work together on the launch of the Soyuz.

"We have been able to combine the best spacial activity aspects of both governments, that of France and that of Russia," he said. "I am convinced that will yield us good results."

The rocket is expected to place into orbit the Galileo IOV-1 PFM and FM2 satellites during a nearly four-hour mission. The two satellites will be released in opposite directions.

"The first part of this mission went well," Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace, the commercial arm of the European Space Agency, said in a brief statement.

He said the rocket is expected to travel over Asia, Indonesia and the Indian Ocean.

Antonio Tajani, the EU's industry and enterprise commissioner, called the launch "a great result" that sends "a very strong political message."

"Europe shows that she is capable of managing a big project just days from the European economic summit," he said.

The EU had all the pomp and speeches about the dawning of a new age prepared for Thursday, but was forced to postpone it for 24 hours because of a leaky valve that kept a Russian Soyuz rocket grounded at the launch site in French Guiana.

The Galileo system has become a symbol of EU infighting, inefficiency and delay, but officials are hoping it will kick off a trans-Atlantic competition with the American GPS network.

GPS has become the global consumer standard in satellite navigation over the past decade, reducing the need for awkward oversized maps and arguments with back seat drivers about whether to turn left or right.

Now, the EU wants Galileo to dominate the future with a system that is more precise and more reliable than GPS, while controlled by civil authorities. It foresees applications ranging from precision seeding on farmland to pinpoint positioning for search-and-rescue missions. On top of that, the EU hopes it will reap a financial windfall.

"If Europe wants to be competitive and independent in the future, the EU needs to have its own satellite navigation system to also create new economic opportunities", said Herbert Reul, head of the EU parliament's industry, research and energy committee.

There are still several more years to wait, but the satellite launch is a major step in getting Galileo on track. It will start operating in 2014 as a free consumer navigation service, with more specialized services to be rolled out until 2020, when it should be fully operational.

After the initial launch, two satellites will go up every quarter as of the end of 2012 until all 30 satellites are up.

The EU hopes its economic impact will stand at about euro90 billion ($125 billion) in industrial revenues and public benefits over the next two decades.

The idea for the program first rallied support in the late 1990s, and its development has been pushed back with delays ever since. When it became clear in 2008 that private investors weren't lining up to finance Galileo, the EU decided taxpayers would underwrite most of the program.

The European Commission said development and deployment since 2003 is estimated at well over euro5 billion ($6.8 billion). Maintaining and completing the system is expected to cost euro1 billion ($1.35 billion) a year.

Officials hope to delay the launch of the Russian Soyuz rocket by only 24 hours, although a new date will be announced once the investigation is complete, said Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman and CEO of Arianespace, the commercial arm of the European Space Agency.

The launch was originally scheduled for last year, but adverse weather kept delaying construction of the Soyuz facility.

C Spire to sell iPhone 4S

Apple Inc. has said that C Spire Wireless, the country's eighth-largest phone company, will start selling the iPhone 4S in a few weeks.

That's a major coup for the small company, which provides service in Mississippi and surrounding states. So far, only the three biggest carriers sell the iPhone in the U.S. C Spire is bypassing the rest, including T-Mobile USA and U.S. Cellular, in getting the right to sell it.

Neither C Spire, which was known as Cellular South until a month ago, nor Apple explained why C Spire was getting the phone rather than the No. 4 carrier, T-Mobile.

Analyst Jan Dawson of Ovum found the announcement puzzling. He said, "Leapfrogging T-Mobile certainly feels like a slap in the face, and you could argue that there are others that should have come first".

The iPhone 4S isn't compatible with T-Mobile USA's high-speed wireless data network, so Apple would have to change its design or make a version specific to T-Mobile. But Dawson believes that's a minor hurdle to overcome. The iPhone 4 exists in two versions for different networks already. Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp.'s network is compatible with one of them, but it isn't selling the phone.

Sprint Nextel Corp. began selling the iPhone last week. AT&T Inc. had it exclusively for more than three years, until Verizon Wireless started selling it in February.

Verizon, the largest carrier, has more than 100 million phones and other devices on its network, which compares to 1 million at C Spire. While it's tiny in comparison to other U.S. carriers, there are several overseas iPhone carriers that have fewer subscribers.

Hu Meena, the CEO of C Spire, testified in Washington in 2009 that small companies like his were denied access to the most attractive phones, as those were tied up with exclusive arrangements with the larger carriers.

C Spire, which is based in Ridgeland, Miss., has subscribers in Mississippi as well as the Memphis, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. areas.

Microsoft soon to launch Mango smartphones

Microsoft Corp, which has been trailing Apple Inc and Google Inc in the fast-growing smartphone market, said it will launch Mango-powered handsets from top makers including Nokia Oyj, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and HTC Corp in coming weeks.

The smartphone sector is currently dominated by Apple and Android phones, which together make up about half of the market, with Microsoft seen as slow to react to the rapidly rising popularity of mobile devices.

But some analysts say Microsoft still has time to catch up, especially given uncertainties among handset makers after Google's planned purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc sparked worries that Google may one day produce its own handsets.

"We've seen hardware manufacturers very nervous about what Google is doing. I think anyone who turns around and competes with you is a cause for concern," said Andrew Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows phone division.

Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd's recent outage problems might also ultimately help competitors such as Microsoft, analysts said.

Mango vs Apple, Ice Cream Sandwich:
Microsoft sees the United States, Europe and China as its top markets for handsets based on its new Mango operating system.

"As the price comes down, emerging markets do become a huge opportunity, but also the existing markets in western Europe and the U.S., because as the price point comes down, more people will get into the smartphone market," Lees said.

Lees said there were currently more than 30,000 applications for Windows smartphones, compared with about 500,000 applications in Apple's App Store.

Microsoft would introduce its Mango handsets in China for the first time next year. China is the world's biggest mobile phone market, with more than 900 million subscribers, although only a fraction are smartphone users, many of whom use Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy.

Microsoft would launch Samsung and HTC Mango smartphones in the United States and Europe over the next week or so, with Nokia following in various markets, Lees said.

Fujitsu Ltd has already rolled out a Mango smartphone in Japan.

Microsoft's comments come a day after Samsung and Google held the Hong Kong launch of the first smartphone powered by the new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

Ford automobiles to read text messages aloud with SYNC upgrade

Announced yesterday, Ford is rolling out a software update to Ford’s SYNC software that will allow text messages to be read aloud while driving the vehicle. While the system requires a compatible smartphone, users will likely hear the messages through the speakers in the car. The smartphone communicates with the software through a Bluetooth connection. This upgrade to version 3.2.2 of the software will be able to be applied to all SYNC Generation 1 2011 and 2012 vehicles as Ford is planning to retrofit Bluetooth MAP support into those Generation 1 vehicles. Users with incompatible smartphones or older cell phones will have to upgrade their phone in order to take advantage of the new feature.

This upgrade is made possible through Bluetooth Message Access Profile otherwise known as MAP. This protocol was designed to allow for transmitting email, SMS and MMS between mobile devices. However, the amount of MAP-enabled mobile devices is currently limited and have been included within the Blackberry Curve (9300), Blackberry Style (9670), HTC EVO 3D, HTC Sensation 4G, Motorola Atrix, Motorola Droid Bionic and Motorola Photon. Apple’s popular iPhone doesn’t support the MAP feature yet, but the company did join the Bluetooth Special Interest Group board recently. Microsoft has also been slow to show support for the MAP technology in its lineup of smartphones.

Users that are interested in getting the upgrade can visit the Sync My Ride site in order to determine eligibility. The upgrade is available in both Ford and Lincoln vehicles that are equipped with the SYNC technology. According to a 2009 study from the Transportation Institute at Virginia Tech, texting while operating a vehicle increased the chance of getting into an accident by more than 23 times. With the release of the SYNC upgrade, Ford is attempting to encourage alternative methods to checking text messages in order to keep the focus on the road.

Motorola Droid RAZR : Thinnest Smartphone

Motorola's Droid RAZR is the thinnest smartphone on the planet.

Mobile phones have come a long way in the last decade, moving from a mix of modest clamshell and candy-bar designs to widescreen smartphone powerhouses. And while huge lists of advanced features are all the rage these days, many still look back on the phones of yore with fond eyes. One of the most popular handsets of yesteryear was the Motorola RAZR, and now, 5 years since the company ceased production of the iconic flip phone, they are reviving the name. The new Android-powered device is called the Droid RAZR, and while it's nearly unrecognizable compared to its older brother, it just may be what smartphone fans are looking for.

The svelte new smartphone sports a dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of 1080p video recording, and 4G LTE support. The RAZR's massive 4.3" Super AMOLED touchscreen looks dazzling, and is encased in Gorilla Glass for added protection. The device is splash resistant, with Motorola promising that even the phone's internals are meant to survive a bit of water.

One of the biggest selling points of the original RAZR was its thin form factor. The Droid RAZR continues that trend, measuring a laughably-narrow 7.1mm - making it the world's thinnest smartphone. By comparison, the recently-released Droid Bionic measures 10.9mm, and the iPhone 4S checks in at 9.3mm. The back of the new phone is made of woven Kevlar, in case it ever gets caught in a Hollywood-style shootout. It will run Android version 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box.

The original Motorola RAZR:
The original Motorola RAZR debuted in 2003 and in just three short years it racked up over 50 million units sold, largely due to its super-thin profile and flashy appearance. But as smartphones began to grow in popularity, the modest features of the RAZR sent it straight to the bargain bin. But with that kind of name recognition, the new RAZR - which boasts a much more powerful OS and huge list of features - may be able to capture some of the old phone's magic, which is something many Android devices seem to be lacking as of late.

The Droid RAZR will be released in November as a Verizon exclusive and will cost $299 with a new 2-year contract. A suite of accessories will also be poised for a launch-day release, including keyboard and laptop docks that will expand the phone's capabilities to a larger screen. If you want to experience the rebirth of the RAZR line, you can pre-order the device starting on October 27.

Google unveils Ice Cream Sandwich phone: Samsung Galaxy Nexus

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has unveiled its new smartphone that runs on Google's latest Android operating system, the latest weapon in its battle to topple Apple's iPhone.

The launch of the "Galaxy Nexus", which comes almost a week after the new iPhone 4S went on sale, was initially scheduled for October 11 but was delayed following the death of Apple chief Steve Jobs as a gesture of respect.

Samsung - the world's number two mobile phone maker - and Apple are also engaged in a series of patent lawsuits over the technology and design of smartphones and tablet computers.

"We are very proud of this milestone," Samsung's Mobile Communications Business president JK Shin said as the new phone was unveiled in Hong Kong.

The Galaxy Nexus is the first device to use the new Android "Ice Cream Sandwich" - a title that continues Google's tradition of naming its operating systems after desserts in alphabetical order.

The firms said the new handset offers easier and quicker Internet browsing, an improved camera and enhanced security using face recognition technology.

It also features "Android Beam", a function that allows content to be shared between two devices by simply touching them together.

The smartphone will be available in the United States, Europe and Asia from November, before being gradually rolled out to other markets.

The launch of the Galaxy Nexus come as Apple's iPhone 4S has already notched up sales of more than four million units since launching in seven countries on Friday.

The Apple handset will be available in 22 other countries, including much of Europe, by the end of October, and more than 70 countries by the end of 2011.

However, Samsung is seeking a ban of sales of the new iPhone in Japan, Australia, France and Italy, citing what it called patent infringements regarding mobile technology, part of an escalating legal saga between the two.

The legal battle over the $100 billion smartphone and tablet computer market began in April in the US when Apple accused Samsung of "slavishly" copying its market-leading iPhone and iPad.
Apple has since sought a ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab in Germany, Australia and other countries, prompting Samsung to file counter-suits.

The Korean firm Samsung is pressing Apple hard in the lucrative smartphone business.

Samsung Galaxy Player 4 and 5 available in US

Samsung's two-fold answer to the iPod touch, the Galaxy Player 4 and the Galaxy Player 5, is now available in the U.S.

These Android Gingerbread-based devices both closely resemble an Android smartphone, but they lack the phone component, just like the iPod touch. They're a good choice for someone who already has a phone but wants all the perks of Android as well as access to the apps in Android Market without having to sign a two-year contract.

Both devices sport a 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 8 GB of storage memory, expandable with microSD memory cards (up to 32 GB) and dual cameras. The Galaxy Player 4 has a 4-inch touchscreen and costs $230. The Galaxy Player 5 has a much more video-friendly 5-inch display, comes with a bigger battery and costs $270.

For comparison, Apple's iPod touch with 16 GB of storage memory costs $199, while the most expensive version with 64 GB of memory costs $399.

One can pick up the Samsung Galaxy Player 4 and 5 at Amazon and other retail stores.

Droid RAZR shows off a super slim figure

October 18 is a date that most Android fanboys have circled on their calendars, first Motorola is hosting a press conference and then later in the night Google and Samsung are hosting an event in Hong Kong. It is assumed that Motorola will be announcing the Xoom 2 tablet and a phone called the Droid RAZR. Droid-Life was able to find a leaked press image of the Droid RAZR.

It better be thin seeing how the tag line for Motorola’s press conference is Faster, Thinner, Smarter, Stronger. The RAZR is rumored to house a 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, LTE antenna, and 8MP camera. The phone is also supposed to have a gorilla glass screen, be wrapped in Kevlar, and be splash resistant to meet the “stronger” claim.

It wouldn’t be a true RAZR phone unless it was insanely thin, so much so that it better be one of the slimmest phones on the market. The fact that it is an LTE device, gives an indication that it might not be as thin as we hope, seeing how the Droid Bionic is currently the thinnest LTE phone and is 11mm thick at its thinnest point. To put that number in context the iPhone 4S is 9.3mm thick, and the original Samsung Galaxy S 2 is 8.49mm thick so the RAZR has some work to do to catch up to those two.

It seems odd that Verizon would carry both the Droid Bionic and Droid RAZR, as it seems that there is not much difference between the two phones. Both have a 4.3 inch screen, dual core processors, and LTE radios.

iPhone 4S faster than all Android Phones

Apple does not even list the new iPhone 4S' internal technical specs - RAM, graphics performance, and processor speed - on the iPhone's "Tech Specs" page. Though, reports have surfaced, which suggest it's basically the same on the inside as an iPad 2. Arnold Kim of MacRumors notes it has the same Apple A5 processor and 512 MB of RAM as an iPad 2, but "is likely underclocked" to 800 MHz compared to the iPad's 1 GHz speed. The underclocking may be necessary in order to fit such a powerful processor into a smartphone chassis and have reasonable battery life.

According to benchmarks compiled by Anand Lal Shimpi and Brian Klug of Anandtech, a stock iPhone 4S outperforms pretty much every phone on the market out of the box.

Graphics - Rendering Egypt offscreen:
The 2.1 version of an app called GLBenchmark forces smartphones and tablets to render graphics onto an offscreen canvas, roughly the size of a laptop monitor. The original iPhone 4 was at the bottom of the benchmarks, rendering the scene at only 11.2 frames per second - slowly enough to be noticed as choppy. Slightly above it was the Nexus S - a single-core superphone - then the LG Optimus 3D, the 10.1 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the Motorola Droid Bionic. The Samsung Galaxy S 2 was the only real standout from the Android pack, but the iPhone 4S beat it handily, rendering the scene at over 70 frames per second compared to about 40. Only the iPad 2 beat it, due to its higher clock speed.

Browser performance:
The "Sunspider" Javascript test is a measure of how well a device can handle (non-Flash) interactive web pages. Older smartphones like the original Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS took about 5 seconds to render the test page, while the iPhone 4 beat out even the Galaxy S 2 at 3.5 seconds. The iPhone 4S, on the other hand, took only 2.2 seconds, and was just barely beat out by the 8.9 inch Galaxy Tab. The iPad 2 did not appear in the test results.

Processor speed:
Processor benchmarking seemed to confirm the theory that the iPhone 4S is clocked at 800 MHz. Its dual-core processor was benchmarked as having almost double the power of the old iPhone 4, though, which had a single-core 800 MHz processor.

Android devices were not compared in the processor speed benchmarking, but the iPhone 4S beat them all by a mile in every other measurement.

RIM offers free apps to BlackBerry customers

Canada's Research In Motion Ltd will offer free premium apps worth more than $100 to appease BlackBerry customers frustrated by service disruption last week which ran for days and affected millions.

Research In Motion said the complete selection of premium apps would become available to download at BlackBerry App World for four weeks beginning October 19.

Enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free technical support as an apology for the outage.

The offering, to compensate for a system failure that left tens of millions of Blackberry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing, could be expensive for RIM and it remains to be seen how many customers will see the offer as an acceptable response.

Analysts have said the company faces a wider problem from the damage to its reputation and loss of corporate customers who no longer think they can rely on the device.

"We've worked hard to earn their (customers') trust over the past 12 years and we're committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect," said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

"We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again."

RIM co-CEOs Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie apologized last week to millions of Blackberry customers for the four-day outage which tarnished the company's reputation and set back its drive to catch up with the likes of Apple Inc and its iPhone.

Some mobile operators such as Spanish group Telefonica SA have already said they will compensate customers, although analysts believe they will also be looking at whether they can pass on some of those costs to RIM.

The apps include games such as Bejeweled, a translation service and the music discovery tool Shazam.

Francisco Jeronimo at IDC said the decision was a clever move by RIM because it would help customers to discover the app service. He said the company was likely to have struck a deal with app developers to keep the cost down.

"More important than the offer itself, is that RIM is showing goodwill and being humble. They recognized the problem, apologized and now they are compensating their users."

Nissan developing a 10 minute battery charger

Announced earlier this week, Nissan has designed new battery technology for electric vehicles that cuts charging time from eight hours down to just ten minutes to fully recharge the battery. Assuming electric vehicle charging stations become more widespread across the United States, a driver could potentially take a long-distance trip from New York City to Los Angeles only having to stop for ten minutes at a time to recharge the vehicle. Researchers at at Kansai University in Japan claim that the breakthrough in this charging method comes from swapping out the electrode utilizing carbon inside a capacitor to an electrode using tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide.

The downside to the announcement is that perfecting and commercializing the technology is likely going to take up to a decade to reach consumers. While Nissan waits for the 10-minute battery charger, the company is aggressively supporting quick-charging stations that can recharge a battery to 80 percent capacity in approximately 30 minutes. Nissan is working with DBT, Europe’s largest charging station manufacturer, to build smaller DC fast chargers that will cost user $15,000 and become available during early 2012. DBT is also scouting locations for a U.S. manufacturing plant that will likely roll out the new charging stations to U.S. locations.

The pharmacy chain Walgreens recently announced intentions to install 800 electric vehicle chargers at retail locations around the United States and DC fast charging stations will make up nearly 20 percent of those units. Some locations aren’t able to utilize DC charging stations due to limitations in the power infrastructure. Walgreens is hoping that consumers with electric vehicles will soon associate the store with charging and encourage more people to shop at its retail locations. The company is taking a “wait-and-see” approach on rolling out charging stations nationwide to get a better understanding of the popularity of the chargers.

Wealth managers prefer Apple over RIM

Wealth managers prefer using Apple products for business rather than Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices, a survey by Aite Group showed.

Of 402 financial advisers polled, 45 percent said they would choose an Apple iPhone or iPad, while 14 percent would pick a BlackBerry.

The research firm, which focuses on financial services, conducted the survey in March, well before the recent RIM outage which left large pockets of BlackBerry users around the world without access to email and other functions.

The study found that using mobile devices was increasingly important to advisers, many of whom service clients with hand-held devices who have access to online brokerage services.

Nearly half the advisers surveyed said having access to business applications was an "important" or "very important" part of their technology strategy for 2011.

Apple's iPhone looks set to ditch rival phones

Apple Inc's latest iPhone looks set to become its bestselling device ever, and one reason appears to be disenchantment with rival smartphones.

Nearly one in four people who thronged Apple stores from Tokyo to San Francisco said they were ditching BlackBerries, discarding Nokias or even giving up Google Android-based phones, hoping for something better.

The majority of the 127 iPhone 4S buyers polled informally by Reuters in the United States, Japan, Australia, France, Germany and Britain were Apple diehards upgrading their devices.

But 28 claimed they were making a switch, with some saying they were disillusioned by Research in Motion after this week's global BlackBerry outage that enraged millions.

Apple had already pre-sold over a million during the first day it went live on the Internet - a week before it hit stores selves in seven countries on Friday.

RIM's BlackBerry and smartphones by manufacturers such as Nokia - which abandoned Symbian and will this year unveil devices based on Microsoft software - have been losing ground to the iPhone, which is facing a serious threat only from Android phones.

The new phone looks similar to the previous iPhone 4 but has a faster processor, better camera and a voice-activated software dubbed "Siri", which lets users ask the phone questions and helps in logging calendar items.

Away from the notoriously fickle consumer-gadget marketplace, Apple also appears to be making strides.

Apple appears to be a winner when workers get to pick their own phones, in a trend known as the consumerization of IT. Companies can save money when they let employees buy their own phones and pay their own monthly bills.

An Aite Group poll of 402 wealth managers conducted before the outage found that 45 percent would choose an iPhone or iPad, compared with 14 percent for a BlackBerry.

Motorola to sell cheaper version of Xoom tablet

Motorola Mobility Inc. has said that it will sell a cheaper version of its Xoom tablet computer that's geared toward families. The device will be available starting Sunday and will only be sold at Best Buy Co. stores.

Like the existing Xoom, the Xoom Family Edition has a touch screen that measures 10.1 inches at the diagonal, a dual-core processor, front and rear cameras and runs Google Inc.'s tablet-geared Android software, Honeycomb. It has less memory though: 16 gigabytes, compared with 34 gigabytes on the existing Xoom. Motorola said Family Edition will cost $379 - $120 less than what the cheapest Xoom currently costs - and it will come with a number of family-friendly apps built in.

It's unclear how long the Xoom Family Edition will keep its lower price tag, though: In a press release, Motorola called it a "limited-time value price."

As more companies enter the burgeoning tablet market in hopes of competing with Apple Inc.'s extremely popular iPad, the pressure is on to drop prices in order to woo consumers.

Microsoft Completes Skype Purchase

Microsoft and Skype are now one company. The Redmond, Washington-based technology giant completed its acquisition Friday of the once-upstart, Internet-based communications company.

In a posting on The Official Microsoft Blog, Tony Bates, the former Skype CEO who is now head of the new Skype division, said the deal-closing "represents a huge leap forward in Skype's mission to be the communications choice for a billion people every day."

Bates said Skype's position would be at "the intersection of social, mobile and video communications." He added that the company's goal was "to transform communications," which meshes with Microsoft's goal of creating "communication across every device and every platform."

In a video message, Bates said both Skype and Microsoft are "disruptive, innovative, software-oriented companies." The envisioned world is one of "complete, pervasive video communications, something that's across all parts of your life."

In May, Microsoft said it intended to buy Skype for $8.5 billion. Last week, Microsoft cleared its last major regulatory hurdle when the European Commission approved the purchase.

One of the questions had been whether Microsoft would hinder Skype's interoperability with other companies, or if it would integrate Skype with its widespread Windows operating system, creating market advantages others could not match.

On the first matter, the commission found that Microsoft would have no incentive to diminish Skype's interoperability, since it's to the advantage of the Skype brand that it be available via as many partners and platforms as possible.

Concerning whether Microsoft could integrate Skype with Windows, as it had been accused of doing with its Internet Explorer browser, the commission reasoned that most users could readily download a version of Skype if they wanted, and that most users who buy a PC with Skype installed were already registered Skype users.

Video is a growing part of communications, and of Skype. According to statistics released recently by Microsoft, about 42 percent of all Skype-to-Skype minutes were video calls, and there were 1.8 billion hours of Skype video calls made in the year ending in August.

Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, and it has about 124 million registered users. It is the largest Internet communications company, but has had difficulty being profitable. eBay bought the company in 2005 for an estimated $2.6 billion, but then sold it to an investor group last fall for an estimated $2 billion.

Sprint gets its 1st iPhone

Apple stores got the longest lines as the new iPhone model launched Friday, but there were lines at Sprint stores too, as the carrier got a chance to sell the phone more than four years after the first model was launched.

Product chief Fared Adib said, the iPhone had broken Sprint's record for first-day sales of any phone. Sales were above the company's expectations.

Sprint Nextel Corp. joined bigger carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless as a seller of the phone. Spot checks in Philadelphia and San Francisco showed that the lines outside Sprint stores were longer than at its rivals.

Meanwhile, a representative for AT&T said, it had activated a record number of iPhones and was on track to double its previous single-day record for activations.

Sprint is struggling to compete with the bigger carriers and expects the iPhone to help it keep subscribers.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Ben Abramovitz said talks with about 50 people in line for the phone at a Sprint store revealed that most of them are current Sprint customers looking to upgrade, particularly BlackBerry users looking for a more Internet-friendly phone. He also found some AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA customers looking to switch.

Sprint will be paying a lot of money to put iPhones in customer hands: It's subsidizing each iPhone 4S by about $400 to get it down to the $200 price for the 16 gigabyte version. It's also selling the cheaper iPhone 4.

Credit ratings agency Moody's Investor Service downgraded Sprint's debt, sending it further into speculative-grade, or "junk" territory. Part of the reason is the cash drain that iPhone sales will cause before they start paying off through higher monthly service fees.

The chief reason behind the downgrade, however, is Sprint's decision to upgrade its wireless network for faster data speeds. Sprint revealed that decision a week ago, to the dismay of investors.

Lenovo becomes world's second largest PC maker, HP on top

Chinese computer maker Lenovo moved up a place to become the world’s second largest PC maker, according to figures released for the third quarter. Dell dropped from second to third place.

Separate figures released by research firms Gartner and IDC on Wednesday had Hewlett-Packard (HP) remaining in top spot in terms of PC market share. Gartner’s figures showed HP as having 17.7 percent share of the market in the third quarter, Lenovo 13.5 percent and Dell 11.6 percent.

Despite selling the most PCs, HP’s new CEO, Meg Whitman, said last week that a decision would be made by the end of this month on whether the company will stay in the PC business – a business which, despite healthy sales for the California-based company, isn’t proving to be a particularly big money-spinner.

A look at the overall figures for worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter shows growth of 3.6 percent on those of a year ago, said IDC, falling slightly short of the firm’s projections.

Gartner, which reported a similarly low growth rate, said that the growing popularity of devices such as tablets was a factor. The global recession also meant consumers were being more careful about how they spent their money.

However, IDC senior research analyst Jay Chou believes sales will pick up next year as updated laptop models with extra features are brought to market.

Among the top five PC vendors, both Gartner and IDC showed Beijing-based Lenovo as experiencing strong growth on the same quarter a year ago, at 25.2 percent and 36.1 percent respectively. Taiwan-based Asus, the fifth biggest PC maker, also showed strong growth. HP’s growth was less impressive, with both research firms putting it at just 5.3 percent.

Despite Acer’s poor showing, the figures demonstrate to some extent the growing strength of Chinese companies in the global electronics market. Both research firms pointed out that Lenovo’s strong figures were partly as a result of its purchase of German electronics maker Medion in June and the launch of a joint venture with Japan’s NEC in July, giving it better access to European and Japanese markets.

As for the US PC market, HP remained in top position with regards to market share for the third quarter, while Apple showed the strongest growth.

BlackBerry services improved after 3 days' outage

BlackBerry services improved in several regions including Europe, the Middle East and India on Thursday after three days of outages that have incensed users.

Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM) has blamed a backlog of emails from Europe for the glitches which have starved millions of users around the world of instant access to emails and messaging.

"From 6:00 am BST (British Summer Time, 0500 GMT) today, all services across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as India, have been operating with significant improvement," a statement on BlackBerry's UK website said.

"We continue to monitor the situation 24/7 to ensure ongoing stability. Thank you for your patience."

RIM said on Wednesday that an initial technical failure had prompted a build-up of messages in its network, triggering a cascade of problems around the world that affected many of the firm's 70 million subscribers.

"It is a backlog issue," RIM software vice president David Yach said, ruling out any rumours of sabotage or hacking for the problems that started on Monday and continued despite initial claims that the issue had been resolved.

Apple inventory suggests new iPhone 4, iPod Touch

Rumor has it that a look into Apple’s internal inventory system might have revealed at least a couple of the company’s coming announcements before its Oct. 4 iPhone event.

According to a report from 9to5Mac, new model numbers have appeared in Apple’s internal inventory system that suggest some new variations on the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch. Both new model numbers carry the letter “A,” suggesting they’re minor variations and are likely devices we’ve already seen before.

The first are three new models carrying the codename N81A; N81 is Apple’s identifier for its latest generation of iPod Touch devices, and the A suggests that these are the same devices with a smallish change. Over at 9to5Mac, the speculation here is that Apple is releasing three white models to go with the three black models of iPod Touch that are already available: the 8GB, 32GB and 64GB iPods. That makes pretty good sense, given that 9to5Mac previously published plans that seemed to confirm a batch of white iPod Touches as being in the works.

The second set of models is much more interesting. These are two SKU numbers carrying the codename N90A, which suggests two variations on the N90 – the code that refers to the iPhone 4 that’s currently available to the public. The “A” in this case suggests two new variations on the iPhone 4 we know, quite possibly an 8GB model that will come in both black and white.

Rumors have been flying around for a while now that Apple intends to release two new iPhone models during its Oct. 4 event: the full-on upgrade known as the iPhone 5, with new internal hardware and a redesigned case, and a cheaper variation on the iPhone 4.

This N90A iPhone could very likely be the cheaper iPhone 4 we heard about, with a scaled-back hard drive to keep its cost down. There’s been some talk that this could be a carrier-free phone that users could pay for in full up front, allowing them to avoid the cost of getting on a two-year contract with carriers such as AT&T or Verizon.

So it seems likely that if these codename numbers are to be believed, we really will see a couple of new iPhones next week. It’s unlikely that the N90A refers to the next iPhone model, although many rumors have been up and down that Apple won’t be releasing a full-on iPhone 5, but rather an incremental update known as the iPhone 4S. Still, if that were the case, the iPhone 4S would carry its own new model number, likely N94, which has popped up in the software development kit code for the next update to Apple’s operating system, iOS 5. The Verizon iPhone 4 got its own codename, N92, when it was released earlier this year, so it seems unlikely that the iPhone 4S wouldn’t get a new number as well.

Apple Releasing a Voice Interface for the iPhone

With the iPhone 5 being unveiled next week, the rumor mill is working overtime. In fact, even the invitation for the Oct. 4 event, which reads "Let's talk iPhone," has sprouted rumors that the new model will offer new voice-recognition features that could transform the way smartphone interaction works.

Previous Apple invitations have included hints about the coming product. If the "let's talk" invitation is a hint, the voice-recognition features could represent a fully integrated voice-control interface that accompanies, and in some cases replaces, the touch interaction.

This new voice control could include the ability for a voice-based virtual assistant to access data stored in calendar, contacts, music files and other locations, and use them in conversations between the device and the user. The possibility of new voice features is supported by the fact that Apple bought voice-recognition application provider Siri in 2010. The company has previously released some voice-to-text features.

Various Apple-watching sites are describing the voice-recognition features as a dramatic change, not only allowing the user to schedule an appointment or find a retailer, but offering a revolutionary voice-based interface that once again changes the expectation for smartphones. The aptly named Assistant, according to some reports, will also be able to ask the user questions if, for instance, it's not clear which phone number to use.

Hopes that the newest iPhone could support 4G transmission technology are not high, given reports that the company is waiting for smaller and less power-hungry 4G chips that won't be available until 2012. There have been reports in past months that the company was testing iPhones with 4G Long-Term Evolution support, but the consensus is that, for Apple, elegant style will triumph over speed, at least until the new LTE chips are available.

A research vice president from China Unicom said at the Macworld Asia conference that the iPhone 5 will support HSPA+, a not-quite-true-4G technology with speeds up to 21 Mbps, compared with 7.2 Mbps for 3G.

There are also reports that Apple's internal inventory system shows three new iPod Touch models, likely in the same 8 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB configurations, as well as updated iPhone 4 models and a next-generation iPhone, with a dual-core A5 processor and 1GB of working memory. Some observers have suggested that the next-generation device will be marketed as the iPhone 4S, not as the 5.

RIM committed to PlayBook

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) dismissed a report that it was pulling the plug on its PlayBook tablet computer.

Major US retailers, meanwhile, slashed the price of the PlayBook by up to $200. The move comes a day after Amazon unveiled a tablet rival with a $199 price tag.

RIM stressed its commitment to the PlayBook after Collins Stewart analyst John Vihn said the Canadian company has stopped production of the device.

"Any suggestion that the BlackBerry PlayBook is being discontinued is pure fiction," RIM said. "RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market."

Sales of the PlayBook have been sluggish since the device went on sale in mid-April with a $499 price tag for the 16-gigabyte model, $599 for the 32GB version and $699 for the 64GB model.

Best Buy, Staples and Office Max were offering the PlayBook for $299, $399 and $499 on Thursday. Office Depot was selling the device for $100 off.

The PlayBook was still being offered for its original price at RIM's online store and through US carrier Sprint.

Amazon unveiled a tablet computer, the Kindle Fire, on Wednesday which costs $199, less than half the price of the market-leading iPad from Apple.

The cheapest iPad costs $499.