A Canadian merchant bank has called on Research In Motion to consider a sale of the company or its patent portfolio in order to return the cash to the shareholders.Jaguar Financial is recommending that RIM's Directors appoint a Special Committee of the Board consisting of four or five of the current seven independent directors to pursue a shareholder value maximization process.The bank argues that the company's "chronic underperformance and repeated delays in executing its strategy" have led ...
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The days of waiting for smartphones to upload video may be numbered. Rice University engineering researchers have made a breakthrough that could allow wireless phone companies to double throughput on their networks without adding a single cell tower.

Rice's new "full-duplex" technology allows wireless devices like cell phones and electronic tablets to both "talk" and "listen" to wireless cell towers on the same frequency -- something that requires two frequencies today.

In 2010, Sabharwal and R...
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IT.Telecom Desk

Nokia Symbian Anna, the latest software update for Symbian smartphones has been made available for download using the latest Ovi Suite (version 3.1.1) on a PC, or over-the-air directly to smartphones, says a press release.

The Anna significantly enhances the user experience on Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7.

A new user interface, virtual QWERTY keypad in portrait mode, split-screen messaging, enhanced Nokia Maps, better web browsing and stronger security are among o...

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These are momentous times at Apple (AAPL). Just a couple of weeks after Steve Jobs stepped down, new CEO Tim Cook gets to launch a major product: the iPhone 5.

With Apple under increasing pressure from a deluge of Google (GOOG) Android devices, the stakes are high for the new iPhone, said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at research firm Digital Route.

"Given that Android has become much stronger competitor since the last iPhone release, Apple must show some killer features/apps to make a bigger de...

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A restructuring at Telefonica will see the company shift around 2,500 jobs from Spain to offices around the world as it folds its Spanish networks into its larger European division.Currently, the company has a European division, made up largely of the former O2 mobile networks, but treats its home market of Spain as separate from that. Under the plans announced today, the company will retain its global HQ in Spain, but the management of the Spanish networks will be combined with the rest of t...
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The UK's telecom regulator, Ofcom has pushed back the country's radio spectrum auction by at least three months following rumoured threats of legal action from the main mobile networks.The auction paperwork was due to be published by the end of this year, but will now be published sometime in the first quarter of next year, with the auction itself taking place about thee months later.

The auction - offering 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum blocks -- is estimated to raise upwards of UK£3 billion for...

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Links to share products on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter are now available for all items sold in Apple's online store, including third-party products.

The gradual roll-out of the social networking features began last month, but was initially limited to only a handful of Apple-specific products, namely the iPod classic and Mac Pro. But as of Monday, all products in Apple's online store now sport links to Facebook and Twitter.

Using the links, users can share products with their fr...
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A number of major websites -- including Vodafone's Group website -- were disrupted yesterday after an apparently Turkish group of hackers were able to break the DNS server that underpins them.

When you type in a website address, your ISP looks up the underlying IP address of the website via a DNS service. If that is compromised, then it might send back the wrong IP address -- which is what appears to have happened in this case.

None of the company's actual websites were directly targeted by the...
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Following the report that an Apple employee lost one of the company's prototype iPhone 5 handsets a couple of months ago, there has been some confusion over the role of the San Francisco Police Department in the affair.

Some reports suggested that although no formal complaint was filed with the police, when Apple staff visited the home where they had tracked the phone to, they were accompanied by police officers.

This had raised some queries as to how the police could ...

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An Apple employee has reportedly lost one of the company's forthcoming handsets -- reportedly an Apple iPhone 5 -- after taking it out with them to a local Mexican restaurant and bar.Unlike the lost iPhone last year, this handset appears to have simply been sold on eBay by someone presumably unaware of the significance of their find.­

According to a report by Cnet, the phone went missing in late July and Apple's security have been working to recover the missing phone.

Apple hasn't filed a lost...

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Forty percent of adults mobile phone users in the USA now have smartphones, according to July 2011 data from Nielsen.

Android is the most popular operating system, with 40 percent of mobile consumers reporting they have a smartphone with an Android OS. Apple's iOS is in second place, with 28 percent of the market.

Among those who say they are likely to get a new smartphone in the next year, approximately one third say they want their next smartphone to be an iPhone and one third say they want a...

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Sony has confirmed that it will launch its previously announced Android based tablet devices next month. The Sony Tablet S comes with a 9.4" touchscreen display, NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor, and weigh 598 grams in the Wi-Fi version. A Wi-Fi/3G version of Tablet S will be available from November 2011.

Also available from November, "Sony Tablet" P is geared for "mobile communication entertainment", with an folding design and dual screens. Weighing 372 grams, "Sony Ta...

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Patent holding company and regular lawsuit filer, Mosaid Technologies says that it has bought a Luxembourg company that owns approximately 2,000 wireless patents and patent applications originally filed by Nokia.

The company, Core Wireless Licensing will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mosaid.

Mosaid says that the patents and patent applications cover technologies used in a wide range of mobile communications devices and services. Approximately 1,200 patents a...

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Samsung has shown off another new smartphone -- the Galaxy Note -- an LTE capable 1.4Ghz processor phone that comes with a large 5.3" display and pen based touchscreen interface.

The Galaxy Note's pen input functionality is combined with the touchscreen, and can be used for sketching and artwork. Pictures, voice recordings, typed text, handwritten notes or drawings can all be captured via a single application and converted to a 'memo', to be edited, annotated and shared...

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French conglomerate, Vivendi has reported that its first-half revenues rose by 1.9% to reach EUR 14.25 billion (US$20.6 billion), while the adjusted net income jumped by 20.2% to EUR1.83 billion (US$2.65 billion).

This performance is notably due to the EBITA increase and the SFR transaction tax impact as of January 1, 2011.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi: "Over the past few months, Vivendi has reached a significant milestone. The group has acquired a 44% interest in SFR,...

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planning to invest upwards of US$100 million in their mobile payments joint venture, people with knowledge of the project have told Bloomberg News.

The Isis joint venture is owned by Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile USA.

The mobile networks may invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the venture -- but only if it gains subscribers -- in an attempt to catch up with the mobile wallet platform unveiled by Google earlier this year.

Isis aims to bring mobile commerce...

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Researchers from MIT and Princeton University have developed a system that uses a network of smartphones mounted on car dashboards to collect information about traffic signals and tell drivers when slowing down could help them avoid waiting at lights. By reducing the need to idle and accelerate from a standstill, the system saves petrol, and in tests it helped drivers cut fuel consumption by 20 percent.

Cars are responsible for 28 percent of the energy consumption and 3...

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South Africa's mobile phone consumers are overwhelmingly loyal to their network providers, with 95 percent having been with their current provider for an average of 4.2 years. What's more, 81 percent said they recommend their network providers to friends and family, reinforcing the importance of word-of-mouth and reputation in the mobile industry.

These and other findings were released today as part of Nielsen's inaugural Mobile Insights syndicated study in South Africa...

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In an effort to stop information being leaked, Samsung's legal team appears to have accidentally leaked some information about the next generation Google Phone.

That Google was working on a replacement for its Nexus S smartphone is no surprise, but there has been speculation not just about what the specifications would be, but also who would make it for them. The Google takeover of Motorola being too recent a development to have any impact on this new phone.

Now Samsu...

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Although there have been on-off rumours about the upcoming iPhone 5, that have suggested it will have a larger screen size than the current model, it is being reported now that it will have a smaller than 4 inch screen.

The current model comes with a 3.5" screen, and there had been expectation that the next model would come with a 4.2" screen, assisted by shrinking the width of the surrounding fascia to keep the handset portable.

Citing sources from upstream panel suppliers, Taiw...

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