Skype announced today it has agreed to acquire group messaging service GroupMe. Financial details of the deal were not revealed. “Skype and GroupMe have a shared vision of creating applications and experiences that are the daily communications choice for a billion people,” Skype CEO Tony Bates said in a statement announcing the deal. “The GroupMe …

Verizon Communications said today its workers are heading back to work August 22 without a contract, signaling some progress on a new contract. The New York telecommunications provider said the company and the two unions representing the workers–the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers–have made headway in their talks over a new contract. The workers, …

Droid Bionic pricing leaked? Droid Life After nearly nine months of waiting, it seems we’ll finally see the Droid Bionic hit stores soon, with the rumored date of September 8. We still don’t know for sure how much it will be, but Droid Life spotted a leaked Verizon document that priced the highly anticipated phone at a whopping $299 after …

The Galaxy S was resized to match the iPhone 3G, according to an investigation by the Dutch sister site of Computerworld, Webwereld.nl. Webwereld It appears Apple may be hiring Photoshop artists alongside lawyers for its legal battle with Samsung Electronics. Webwereld.nl, the Dutch sister site of Computerworld, claims that Apple is using an image of the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone …

An AT&T executive has confirmed to employees that the next iPhone will launch in early October, Boy Genius Report reported today. An AT&T vice president has reportedly warned employees to “expect things to get really, really busy in the next 35 to 50 days, so prepare your teams accordingly.” An AT&T representative declined CNET’s request for comment. The BGR report …

Bad news, chaps: your smart phone may be slowing your sperm. A new article claims studies show a “possible link between cell phone use and semen quality”. The article, written by Dr Sandro La Vignera from the University of Catania, appears in the Journal of Andrology and looks at a number of studies on humans and animals. The results require …

Hewlett-Packard has turned out the lights on its WebOS smartphones and new tablet, the TouchPad, so what should you do if you’ve already got one of these products? Todd Bradley announces that WebOS will be designed to run on desktop and laptop PCs. James Martin/CNET That’s a good question. Here are a few (somewhat humorous) suggestions from CNET: Put them …

Sprint Nextel is in talks with the cable companies over a new round of investment that may lead to a full takeover of 4G partner Clearwire, according to Bloomberg. Sprint is in discussions with investors Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks, Bloomberg reported today, citing anonymous sources. The report said Sprint is weighing using the investment to fund …

BlackBerry blacksmith Research in Motion (RIM) is working on a music service for its smart phones, in a bid to move on from their involvement in the recent London riots and make its mobiles more musically tempting than their Spotify-toting iPhone and Android rivals. Called BBM Music, its subscribers will have access to about 50 songs at a time on …

HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou says his company is sticking with Google, despite the fact that the company plans to acquire one of HTC’s mobile-phone competitors. HTC CEO Peter Chou Stephen Shankland/CNET In an interview today with The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Chou downplayed the possibility that HTC would try to develop its own operating system in lieu of …