Lenovo’s purchase of the mobile phone arm it sold off last year signals its intention to penetrate the global market, but the move could dilute its core computer business, according to a Shanghai-based analyst. The Chinese computer maker last week announced it bought back Lenovo Mobile Communication Technology in a deal worth $200 million in …
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December, 2009
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3 December
Make an iPod touch into an iPhone with 3’s MiFi bundle
Would you like an iPhone for free on a £24 contract? Sure you would, but you can’t have one. You can, however, bodge together an iPod touch and a MiFi wireless modem, add a dash of wishful thinking, and just pretend. Mobile network 3 is offering a MiFi and an 8GB iPod touch, including 5GB of data per month, for …
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3 December
Midomi 3.0 seeks song lyrics, knows what’s hot
Fans of Midomi, the song-identifying app for iPhone, will still recognize the app when the iPhone prompts an update to version 3.0, even if they don’t recognize the new name: SoundHound. The app’s core remains the same with its outsize orange button you tap to sing, hum, or record a song you want to ID, buttressed by another button for …
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3 December
Nokia to reduce smartphone offering by half in 2010
Nokia N97 Corinne Schulze/CNET The smartphone space has grown extremely competitive over the past couple of years, and though in a numbers race Nokia continues to sell more smartphones than its competitors, particularly overseas, the Finnish handset manufacturer is slowly losing its grip on the top spot. Realizing the changing landscape, Nokia announced on Thursday that it will reduce its …
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3 December
AndroidStats helps users keep up with growing number of apps
As the number of apps and games continues to grow for Android, it’s getting harder to keep on top of everything. Rather than trying out every title that enters the Android Market, I like to look for specific genres of apps. For instance, I really enjoy casual games on my T-Mobile G1. I always find at least a few minutes …
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3 December
Comcast snags NBC Universal to build $37 billion venture
It’s official. Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, announced Thursday that it is buying a controlling stake in the TV network and movie studio NBC Universal. The total value of the blockbuster media industry deal, which had been rumored since September, is estimated at around $37 billion. The new joint venture will merge Comcast’s cable channels, which are worth about …
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3 December
Sprint to phase out QChat
Sanyo Pro-700 Sanyo It was back in April 2008 that we saw Sprint Nextel come out with a bevy of new QChat phones like the Sanyo Pro-700 and the LG LX400, which were designed to offer push-to-talk interoperability between CDMA and iDEN networks. Now, however, it seems that Sprint is doing away with its QChat offerings altogether, in favor of …
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3 December
Mobile phones help battle Yuletide boozing and bonking
Christmas is traditionally a time of babies in mangers, warm family embraces, and pagan tree worship. But, for those of us who are more into Babycham than the baby Jesus, Christmas can be a liver-destroying drink-a-thon. You Booze, You Lose, a new iPhone app from Channel 4, hopes to help you rein in the Christmas spirit by giving you a …
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3 December
MySpace Music stumbles into the UK: Eugh
MySpace Music launched in the UK today, and we just don’t get it. Not only is it ludicrously late to the party (even Sky — a TV company — beat it to market), it’s just horrible to use. The idea is that you can stream as much free music as you want (think Spotify, Sky Songs, et al), from major …
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3 December
So long, Napster, and thanks for the nine MP3s
For those who don’t know, I’ll start this tale by briefly recounting the origins of Napster. It started ten years ago as a brilliant, but illegal, introduction to downloading music on the Internet. It was really only surpassed by AudioGalaxy in its ingenuity, but the record industry got scared and had it shut down. Of course, such a recognisable name …
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