NEC, Casio, Hitachi to merge handset businesses

Japanese electronics makers NEC Corp., Casio Computer Co. and Hitachi said Monday they will combine their mobile phone handset-manufacturing operations by April next year in a bid to boost their competitiveness at home and abroad.

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Impoverished NKorea gets new mobile network

An Egyptian telecoms giant launched an advanced mobile phone network in North Korea on Monday, the latest attempt to introduce a global symbol of personal freedom into one of the world's most tightly controlled societies.

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Western Union Pushes Cell Phone Transfer

The Western Union Co. said Thursday it is teaming up with cell phone service providers to develop a system that would allow consumers to transfer money from country to country via their mobile phones.

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Cell Phones Found Inside Four Prisoners

Cell phones, complete with a charger and data chips, were found in the body cavities of four inmates at a maximum-security prison, and they had used the phones to direct criminal activities on the street, officials said Wednesday.

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Companies Discuss Plans for Cell Phones

Matsushita and NEC said Friday they are in talks with Texas Instruments Inc., a major maker of computer chips for handsets, about collaborating on next-generation cell phones.

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China Claims 400M Mobile Phone Users

China's mobile phone market, already the world's biggest, has passed 400 million users, the government said Thursday.

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Plans for a £2bn Home Office surveillance project to track details of everyone's email, mobile phone, text and internet use have been put on hold after a consultation raised concerns over its technical feasibility, costs and privacy safeguards.

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MOBILE phones are likely to be automatically barred from accessing premium ring tones, games and information services after the consumer watchdog threw its support behind the move.

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GPS navigation devices were the latest must-have tech toys just two years ago, and shares of device makers like Garmin and TomTom were soaring.

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A blushing burglar turned himself in to North Shore police after realising he had left too many clues behind.

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The National Basketball Association will give its digital offering the full court press, introducing complete live games on mobile phones, including Apple's iPhone, for $40 a year.

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A new mobile phone charger that will work with any handset has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body.

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THE operators of a mobile phone text scam that preyed on the desperate and dateless were slammed with $15.8 million in fines for breaching anti-spam laws in Queensland's Federal Court.

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A federal judge has dismissed the music industry contention that when a cellphone's ringtone begins playing, copyright infringement starts happening since others can hear the song, essentially arguing that a mobile phone is a portable concert hall.

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Distracted Driving Poll: Should texting while driving be against the law?

Two good pro and con articles from US News & world Report:

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Pity the theatregoer whose persistently ringing mobile phone caused Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig to stop their Broadway show and ask it be answered.

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We have just received an email from the press secretary to Steven Joyce, Minister of Transport, in response to an email we sent to Andrew Knackstedt of the NZ Transport Agency this morning.

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The Transport Ministry has clarified the terms of a new law that restricts the use of cellphones in cars, saying that from November it will be illegal to use a mobile phone as a satellite navigation aid while driving.

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You're surely aware that your cellphone bleeds radiation into your face the whole time you're on the phone with your mom, best friend or lover, right? Yes, it's a fact we try not to think about most of the time, but now there's a tool out there on the internets for the more reali …

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Teens and texting is a subject that's often discussed in pathological terms. They're texting in class! They're sexting! They're running up $5,000 bills! They need thumb therapy!

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The lack of SMS integration is a perennial complaint for Australian Twitter users. Chime goes a fair way to solving that problem, letting you update your Twitter status via an Australian phone account.

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THE telecommunications ombudsman has started investigating complaints about Optus's decision to introduce a clause in its mobile contracts, allowing the carrier to block access to any number it chooses.

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T-Mobile UK and Orange are to merge - becoming the UK's biggest mobile phone firm with 28.4 million customers.

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Vodafone's 3G network coverage in Perth has now been restored after an 11-hour outage caused by "routine network maintenance".

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If your little tyke is itching to text, the NYT has a round-up of texting devices aimed at children as young as three who want to talk with their thumbs.

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Mobile retailer Allphones faces a class action lawsuit from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which will argue on behalf of 74 franchisees that the retailer engaged in unconscionable conduct.

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Eiko Moori, a 24-year-old office worker, felt the pull of manga one day when she saw an ad on her mobile phone screen.

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School officials in St. Ansgar in northeast Iowa are considering buying equipment to jam cell phone signals if they can do so legally.

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A UK firm that turns mobile messages into text faces questions over its privacy standards, technology and finances following a BBC investigation.

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The market for mobile applications, or apps, will become "as big as the internet", peaking at 10 million apps in 2020, a leading storefront believes.

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Within seconds of the first explosion in Jakarta, Twitter lit up with first-hand accounts from people on the ground - well before the big media companies could scramble into position.

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