It’s been about five months since Apple’s iPhone debuted on Verizon’s network and already it’s the carrier’s top-selling handset. This according to BTIG Research (registration required), which spent the past three weeks asking 250 Verizon and AT&T stores across the United States to name their No. 1 smartphone. Of the Verizon stores surveyed, 51 percent …

Earlier this week Nortel postponed the bankruptcy auction for its collection of 6,000-plus wireless patents by seven days, citing a “significant level of interest” in them. Now the source of that interest has been identified: Intel, Ericsson AB, and patent risk solutions provider RPX, who’ve all been accepted as qualified bidders in the June 27 auction. Also qualified as a …

Despite Research In Motion’s best efforts to silence them, questions about the battery life of its forthcoming PlayBook tablet have followed the company into the new year. In a sequel to his original research note suggesting the PlayBook’s battery life is “relatively poor” compared to rivals, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu reiterates that claim, saying he would be “very surprised …

Earlier this month, Ari Jaaksi resigned as head of Nokia’s MeeGo division, citing “personal reasons” as the cause for his departure. Turns out “personal reasons” was actually a euphemism for “I’m joining Palm.” Sources close to the company tell me that Jaaksi has hired on as Senior Vice President of webOS at Hewlett-Packard’s Palm division. He’s to start in November, …

This may well be the largest consumer telecommunications refund in history. Verizon Wireless said Sunday it will pay up to $90 million in refunds to some 15 million subscribers who were charged for data usage or Internet access, though they weren’t on data usage plans. The company will credit current customers who were billed for bogus data sessions between $2 …

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A prominent consumer electronics company has asked authorities to help it retrieve a prototype phone from the journalist who revealed it–prematurely–to the world. Nokia N8 Bonnie Cha/CNET Sounds a lot like the Gizmodo/iPhone 4 prototype debacle, doesn’t it? But it’s not. This time, the consumer electronics company is Nokia, the journalist is …

I’m not quite sure, but make no mistake Hewlett-Packard has cut some former Palm staffers from its ranks as it closes its acquisition of the smartphone maker. I’m hearing different numbers from sources (once) close to the company, so it’s difficult to put a firm number on them. Sounds like it’s not too, too many though. Double digits, not hundreds. …

Looks like Palm is suffering a bit of post-acquisition talent drain. Mobile user interface master Matias Duarte has left Palm and evidently hired on at the most obvious of places: Google. Duarte, who lead development of Palm’s WebOS user interface as the company’s senior director of human interface and user experience, has jumped ship, Palm confirms. And while the company …

A word of warning to AT&T subscribers who would switch carriers when the company’s iPhone exclusivity deal with Apple finally ends: The cost of doing so will soon rise–substantially. Come June 1, AT&T is raising its early-termination fee on smartphones to $325 from $175. The increase comes amid speculation that AT&T’s iPhone-exclusivity deal with Apple is nearing its end. But …

The iPad 3G’s first weekend at market was a successful one, though not quite as successful as that of its Wi-Fi-only predecessor. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimates that Apple sold about 300,000 iPad 3Gs between Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, including 52 days of preorders. That’s approximately what the original iPad sold during its first day of availability, including …