Land Rover Contracts with Sonim to Make Branded Phones

Land Rover and Sonim Technologies have entered into an agreement to develop and launch co-branded mobile phones. A total of three phones are already in the works, with two -- the Land Rover S1 (pictured) and Land Rover S2 G4 -- slated for launches in the first half of 2009, and the third following later in the year. The phones will be rugged, submersible, and certified to withstand salt, fog, humidity, transport and thermal shock and a 1.6-meter drop to concrete from any angle. Land Rover and Sonim are working with designer Scott Wilson to create the products, which will use GSM-based radio technology

Nokia May Turn to Linux in High-End Handsets

Speaking to Reuters, Ukko Lappalainen, vice president at Nokia's markets unit, said that the company is considering the use of open-source Linux in future handsets. Nokia already uses maemo Linux in its N Series Internet tablet devices, and suggested that it would use maemo rather than Google's Android platform. Lappalainen said that it would use Linux in its high-end phones

FCC Reveals T-Mobile Shadow II

Documents that appear to show the successor to the T-Mobile Shadow have become public on the FCC web site. The HTC-made device is very similar to the original Shadow, with the main differences being Windows Mobile 6.1, a faster processor, and a more rounded design. The draft user manual also lists separate battery life times for GSM and UMA, indicating the phone may support T-Mobile's UMA-based Unlimited HotSpot Calling service. The documents show nearly identical features, including 2.6-inch QVGA display, spinning scroll wheel, slide-out 20-key text keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, microSD memory card slot, and quad-band GSM/EDGE. No information is available on a release date.

Kawaii phone by Motorola

Kawaii Mobile Phone.

Designer: Joseph Liang.

The word “Kawaii” in Japanese is close to the word “Cute” in English. The difference is, there’s a large “counterculture” tied to Kawaii.

Ted Rogers passes away at age 75

Today is a truly sad day in telecommunications. One of its longest serving CEOs, Edward Samuel “Ted” Rogers, has passed away at the age of 75. Long suffering from congestive heart failure, Rogers was admitted to the hospital in early November and eventually discharged to the care of his family with Alan Horn taking the role of interim CEO. Unfortunately, Rogers passed away early this morning in his Toronto home but thankfully he was surrounded by friends and family.

Motorola Tunes In Another ROKR

Motorola announced a new ROKR phone today, the EM35. The EM35 is a slider aimed at the music-loving crowd, and has high-quality audio processing, along with dedicated music control buttons, built-in stereo speakers, stereo Bluetooth, FM radio with RDS and built-in internal antenna, and a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack. It has quad-band GSM/EDGE radios for network connectivity; a 3.1 megapixel fixed-focus camera with video capture, and runs Motorola's Linux-Java platform. Other features include the FastScroll navigation wheel to zoom through menus and pre-installed widgets for accessing Web-based content. It also has a new music application that enables users to listen to music while connected to the music store. Motorola said the device will be available by the end of 2008.