In an unlikely — and potentially extremely fruity — coupling, Orange is teaming up with Apple to bless Orange customers with a free iTunes movie rental every Thursday. The service is called Film to Go, and is a bit like a trendy, digital, one-day-later version of the popular Orange Wednesdays service, which scores you two-for-one …

As a nation, we’re apparently addicted to our blowers, yet phone networks aren’t the ones cashing in, as contracts get cheaper and we use more data. Ofcom‘s annual report on mobile-phone use reveals that nine out of ten people in Britain own a mobile phone, and nearly a third own a smart phone. Not only are mobile phones ubiquitous, but one in seven households has ditched …

Samsung Galaxy S Josh Miller If you’ve got a taste for plain old vanilla Android Froyo or Gingerbread, finding a smartphone without all of a carrier’s and manufacturer’s extra toppings is harder than you might imagine. Custom interfaces that sit on top of the Android foundation cost phone makers (and sometimes carriers, who can also weigh in) time and money …

When it comes to the mobile world, it’s all about apps. Screenshot by Nicole Cozma More than ever, people are using apps to augment the capabilities of their smartphones. They can remind you of your next meeting, play the latest Lady Gaga song, and make catapulting virtual birds into evil pigs a family pastime. Likewise, they’re increasingly important to the …

London burned this weekend as rioters and looters took to the streets of Tottenham. It’s been widely reported that the trouble was co-ordinated through Facebook, Twitter and even BlackBerry Messenger, but can we really blame social-media software? The spotlight has mainly focused on BlackBerry Messenger. BlackBerry phones have a reputation for being worn in the belt holsters of power-suited executives, but they’re …

New images emerged over the weekend that confirm the Samsung Hercules as T-Mobile’s take on the Galaxy S II. While the full specifications have yet to be uncovered, a TmoNews source suggests that the Hercules has a 4.5-inch display, which would make it larger than the smarpthones that other U.S. carriers are expected to deliver this fall. We’ll have to …

Research In Motion is slated to launch its first QNX-powered BlackBerry, code-named Colt, in the first quarter, according to a report today. BGR The timing of the launch is still conditional on the testing process, according to Boy Genius Report. Also of note, the blog reports that the first phone won’t feature support for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server because of …

Verizon Communications said it couldn’t agree to a new contract with its workers, resulting in the first strike at the telecommunications giant in 11 years. The strike began at 12:01 a.m. ET today as union leaders representing 45,000 workers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states decided to call a strike. A majority of the workers are field technicians or work …

After 45,000 Verizon workers walked off the job this weekend, Chief Executive Lowell McAdam issued a letter today to management justifying the need to extract better contract terms, saying that the company must make “additional hard decisions” to keep the cost of its wireline business in check. The strike represents the first work stoppage for Verizon in 11 years and …

The mobile world moves at a breakneck pace, and it’s difficult to keep up–even without the technical jargon most industry insiders throw around. And they do love to toss those terms about. This week, I continue with the techno-babble trend with a few more network terms for 4G. (Who doesn’t love those?) So for some light reading, here are a …