News

The FCC has revealed the Sony Ericsson r306a clamshell, the first US phone from Sony Ericsson to feature an AM tuner and dedicated controls.

The phone comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera with video recorder, Bluetooth, and triband US GSM/EDGE support.

The pSony Ericsson r306a has the capability to use the built-in TrackID service to identify songs and record broadcasts to the phone's internal memory.

Citizens from Sri Lanka will have from now on  to carry a certificate of ownership for their cell phones after Sri Lanka  has been introduced a new legislation designed to thwart terrorism. It would make it illegal to share a cell phone with a friend, as they obviously would not have a certificate for your phone.

The legislation, which comes from the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, also states that all people buying a cell phone must present a photo ID. The law also requires that retailers must prove that the source of their handsets is legitimate.

China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in China, reportedly added 7.5 million subscribers in the month of June alone, bringing its total up to 415 million subscribers. According to China's Ministry of Information Industry, there are now over 600 million cell phone subscribers in the entire country.

Thanks to its size and population density, China's mobile networks have been growing extremely quickly, with many users dumping their landline for a cell phone.

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has just approved the HANG UP act. Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace (HANG UP) is a bill that is now headed to the U.S. House of Representatives and would permanently make in-flight voice calls illegal.

HANG UP would still allow for data services such as internet browsing, email, and instant messaging to be available, and only aims to keep voice calling from polluting the sound waves inside the airplane. If approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, the bill would still need to pass through the Senate and be signed by the President before it would become a law.

The Samsung Instinct has received a firmware update that includes a number of small tweaks as well as updates made to its base code. Users should notice increased audio volume when using Bluetooth, less fluctuation in the phone's signal and battery indicators, and the ability to set a saved image as the background wallpaper.

Samsung Instinct owners can manually update their cell phones over the air by going to Menu, Settings, General, and choosing Update Phone. Sprint will be pushing out a text message to all Instinct owners over the next few weeks that will also alert them of the update.

This firmware update also makes changes to the base code of the Instinct, in preparation for a much more significant upgrade that is planned for later this year.

T-Mobile will launch its new Family Allowances service in August. This service allows parents to control how much money family members are allowed to spend on T-Mobile services on a monthly basis as well as control other aspects of phone use. they can limit the number of talk minutes, messages, and downloads (games, ringtones, etc) that a family member can access in a month.

A phone will still be able to access normally available "unlimited" features that the family plan might have access to, such as MyFaves or free mobile-to-mobile minutes.

A service can be completely disabled by setting its limit to 0, and the system also provides parents with a way to block voice and messaging to the family from specific numbers.

The service will go online sometime in August for $2 per month. T-Mobile has not said how long that introduction rate will be available, though.

Today Motorola posted its Q2 2008 earnings and sales results. The company is on #3 market share position although the sales on Q2 2008 are down with 20 percent from the last year. With a better than expected 28.1 million phones shipped in the second quarter, Motorola has just barely managed to stay ahead of South Korean rival LG, which recently posted Q2 sales figures of 27.7 million units.

Motorola's two other units did slightly better. Home and Networks Mobility's sales were up 7 percent to $2.7 billion, and the Enterprise Mobility Solutions group's sales were up 6 percent to $2.0 billion.

Sprint has lost a California lawsuit regarding its Early Termination Fees (ETFs). The court found that Sprint's practice of charging customers an ETF for canceling their contract early to be unlawful and has ordered the carrier to pay $73 million to its former customers.

All carriers who require customers to sign up for a contract on their cell phone service utilize ETFs to deter customers from canceling the contract early. This court decision sets a new precedence and will affect other lawsuits against other mobile operators. Sprint is reviewing the findings and will have an opportunity to respond.

Motorola's i776 iDEN cell phone has passed through the FCC's rigorous testing procedures recently, likely headed towards either Sprint or Boost Mobile. It comes with an old-school stub antenna, a built-in GPS receiver, a camera on the front, alongside an external display, a built-in bluetooth and a miniUSB port which allows the i776 to be used as a wireless modem, as well.

The FCC has recently approved a new version of the HTC Touch Diamond dubbed the 'DIAM110'. It supports dual-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850/1900MHz) and features a large touchscreen display and 3.2 megapixel camera.

HTC's finger-friendly TouchFLO user interface makes using the handset a breeze, and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional allows the handset to keep you organized on the go.