Is the mobile phone really mature enough for brick phones to make a retro comeback? According to the makers of the ironically named Mini MOB, the answer to that is yes. The Mini MOB is definitely designed in the retro brick phone style, but at only 3.5 cm wide, it could probably be considered a scale model. It includes some pretty standard specs -- camera, MP3 player, 128 MB card for the SD slot -- but also happens to have an amazing battery life of 30 days standby, and a full 72 hours of continuous talk time! That's almost enough to get us interested in picking one up, but at £160 ($320+) it ain't an easy decision.

[Via TechDigest]

Even 6 months ago, it would have been inconceivable to imagine the CEO of the biggest cellphone operator in the US sniping at its primary competitor's hints at becoming more open. The key point being that none of the cellphone operators in the US are actually "open" by any objective definition, so maybe AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson should have bitten his tongue rather than stating that his company is "probably one of the most open networks in the world," in a mild rebuke to Verizon's open network plan for 2008. Also Randall, stating that "all of the handsets we sell are Java-equipped" might be a little unwise considering that AT&T's flagship handset, and probably the most widely publicized handset (ever?) is clearly not. At least the debate is moving forward: hopefully his statement that "[all carriers] are all going to be open over time" will come to fruition with a little more gentle prodding coupled with the occasional kick up the arse.

[Image source]

If we ignore all the nonsensical parts of this Inquirer article, then we see that T-Mobile USA might be about to make an announcement regarding their US 3G offering. According to a rep, the company will be making an announcement on December 6th on the subject, which sounds to us like the Government might have finally shifted off of T-Mobile's turf. That's all the relevant details we have, so set your calendars if 3G networks news announcements are your kinda thang.

[Thanks, Frank P.]

Bringing the iPhone to Europe was big, but potentially bigger for Apple is the Chinese market, which probably explains why China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is in talks with the company over its much publicized handset. Mr. Jianzhou admitted in a speech at the GSM Association's Mobile Asia Congress that he doesn't like the revenue sharing agreements that Apple has managed to wrangle: you and every other mobile executive worldwide, Wang! But who knows, maybe the fact that China Mobile has 349.66 million subscribers will be enough for Apple to make one two very big exceptions and do a more traditional deal. Whatever happens, the Chinese market is likely to throw some curveballs at Apple's usual pitch.

For now it's not much more than a plan to announce a plan within the next few weeks, but since it involves Google and cellphone networks, we'll take it. The Wall Street Journal has the news that Google will announce its mobile offerings within the next two weeks, which could take the form of hardware, software packages, or -- most likely -- an open platform for phones that third party developers can build on. Interaction is the key word here: Google's platform won't involve locking down features, rather, it'll open them up so that they work together. How exactly the company will execute this plan will be revealed within the immediate future: although with most phone manufacturers already subcontracting development of their phone's software platforms, it doesn't sound like it should be too difficult a job to muscle in.

[Thanks, Harry; via MarketWatch. Image credit]

In a wrap-up of the state of 4G networks over at BusinessWeek, the battle between the three competing 4G network standards -- WIMAX, Long Term Evolution (LTE), and Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) -- is appraised, with WIMAX clearly edging out its other rivals. This could be a two horse race before long if Verizon chooses to back GSM's successor LTE over CDMA's sequel, UMB. That would leave Qualcomm without one of its most significant backers for CDMA's spiritual sibling, although it'll do just fine thanks to the multiple 4G patents it holds. Ultimately though, in all of this space there's very little discussion about what the consumer wants: do we really need two or three different standards that probably won't inter-operate, leaving us back at the square we've always been at? Frankly, for all the benefits that 4G is purported to bring, we'd like something a little more imaginative than the usual bickering amongst the big shots.

Update: Although it didn't come from VZW, last month Vodafone's chairman Arun Sarin made it clear that Verizon will go for LTE. Bad news for UMB!

According to a Boy Genius Report that shows an alleged leaked advertisement, Rogers could be launching the iPhone on its network on December 7th. You're gonna need to take this with a big grain of salt though: the depicted iPhone doesn't show the Rogers logo on the actual iPhone, a red bow effect awkwardly cuts through text on the iPhone, and some comments point out that the Rogers logo is drawn incorrectly. We're leaning towards Photoshop job at this point -- what happened to the trademark dispute? -- but if it's true, Canadians could be looking at paying $499.99 of their dollars plus signing up to a three year contract in order to pick up their own iPhone. Is the border really that far?

[Thanks, Rich]

Mirroring the premature trademark dispute surrounding the launch of the Cisco iPhone in the US, Apple's Canadian launch of its respective iPhone could be delayed due to a trademark dispute with a product that shares the same name as Apple's gadget. Comwave Telecom in Toronto owns the trademark rights to the name "iPhone" in Canada for use on its VoIP products and services, and has filed a complaint with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office over Apple's application for the trademark rights of the name for its future Canadian version of the iPhone. Sounds like a case of how much Apple is willing to pay, or how long they're willing to delay.

As if anyone expected it to stay locked down forever, the layers of security surrounding v1.1.1 of the iPhone firmware are being peeled away. TUAW's Erica Sadun managed to get read / write access to the phone's directories during her liveblogging session, and the hackint0sh forums are abuzz about a new hacking method that uses buffer overflow via "carefully crafted" TIFFs that crash Mobile Safari. Neither of the new hacks approach the relative ease of use that we'd seen pre-v1.1.1, but it's still early days yet. Apple, throw us a bone here, will ya?

[Thanks, Julian]

Read - Liveblogging the big iPhone 1.1.1 hack (TUAW)
Read - A new exploit discovered (hackint0sh)

Whenever stock traders gossip, there's usually a lot of disinformation, and there's always an element of plausible deniability: both are the case here, with stories about a possible buyout of Sprint by British firm BT apparently circulating. Sprint's recent stock boost is one of the consequences of the rumors, so whatever's going on, it's good news for stock holders of Sprint. For the rest of us, however, this is just another unpredictable aspect of the stock market: and lets face it, if a deal does go through, it'll be months or even years until consumers see any perceivable difference in services (if any.) Until it does, we'll remain blissfully unaware of all those big money discussions taking place behind mahogany doors on both sides of the Atlantic.

Steve's response to our question about the lack of 3G on the iPhone was kinda reasonable -- battery life is a major issue on current 3G chips -- but that doesn't mean the technology isn't improving rapidly. According to The Street, we could see an iPhone with a 3G capable chip by the first quarter of next year. Of course, Apple declined to comment -- they never talk about future products -- but we wouldn't be surprised if the company dumps a proper HSDPA / UMTS device onto the market around that time, and Steve Jobs did make it pretty clear that 3G battery life constraints should be lifted by "later next year," and that 2nd and 3rd gen iPhones are certainly in the works. We seriously hope they come sooner than later: EDGE + WiFi is a horrible compromise these days, what with 7.2Mbps mobile connections starting to pop up around Europe.

[Thanks, Adam P.]

After all this time, and after all these complaints, could the solution to ugly cellphone masts have been as simple as a concrete radome? That is essentially all Ericsson's Tower Tube concept is: a glorified case for the ugly antennae that connect your daily calls. Apparently, construction of the radome releases 20% less CO2 than traditional steel structures, and the concrete is secure enough to not require extra site fencing, and will therefore occupy significantly less space than the masts we currently live alongside. Sounds like a win-win to us. Let's get 'em built!

[Via Just Amp]

UK Drivers caught texting or operating a range of gadgets behind the wheel -- including MP3 players and GPS systems -- could face a new maximum of two years in prison. Currently the crime is punishable by £2,500 fines or community orders, although the most common offense is using a mobile phone whilst driving, which results in a £60 fine and three points on a license. Shifting to a higher category of dangerous driving from the previous category of careless driving might not solve the problem of people ignoring the current restrictions: if the current problem is poor enforcement, then it's hard to see extra deterrence making a difference. But hey, the cops over there seem to think that hovering drones and unbridled surveillance does the trick in other areas of criminality, so who are we to argue?

[Via PocketPCThoughts]

We can't be certain what Palm's playing at with this teaser brochure on its website: either it's talking about the launch of a European marketing campaign for the Centro on September 12th, or Palm's managed to pull a fast one and is ready to launch the Centro (or another unseen phone) in the next two weeks. We're guessing the former, but at least this promotion tells us something about this phone, Centro or not: the first people to get their hands on one will be European. Check out the website, and if you live in The Netherlands, the UK, Germany, or Italy, enter your details to potentially win not one, but five Palm smartphones.

[Via Treonauts]

Although no records were broken, this year's Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships went off successfully, with one 38 year old engineer and former potato thrower called Tommi Huotari causing a buzz for throwing a cell only meters short of the recently attained 95 meter record setting throw: "surprisingly, a potato flies further," he said. Tommi should know better than to compare a cellphone to a spud. For a fair comparison, he should at least try flinging a bar of Chocolate.

[Via textually]