2008

LAS VEGAS — Microsoft and Harrah’s Entertainment introduced a high-tech interactive bar table Wednesday that lets patrons order drinks, watch YouTube videos, play touch-screen games and even flirt with each other.

All over Beijing, Olympic countdown clocks tick off the seconds that China has awaited for seven years: the moments until Aug. 8, 2008, at 8:00 pm, when the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics begin.

Music lovers, listen up. Buying a portable music player is so, well, 2003. If you carry a cellphone, and chances are you do, then it’s likely all you need to enjoy your favorite tunes while on the go.

Conservationists called for a freeze on all tower registrations and re-registrations until the Federal Communications Commission complies with environmental statutes at issue in a court ruling earlier this year, likely signaling no let-up in a long-running feud over how to …

The pace of action on the world’s infrastructure stage has increased over the past several months, with a number of major carriers announcing multibillion-dollar buildout plans, intellectual property owners realigning their stances, and infrastructure vendors desperately trying to keep up …

NEW YORK – The key to moving the needle in mobile advertising? Make it easier for would-be advertisers to spend money on the stuff.That was the takeaway from the roundtable discussion that kicked off day two of the Mobile Marketing …

Verizon Wireless appears to have been inspired by the company it is currently working to acquire.Just days after the carrier proposed purchasing Alltel Communications L.L.C for almost $30 billion, Verizon Wireless announced a new plan that bears a striking resemblance …

The forthcoming apps from Oracle mirror the look and feel of Web 2.0 social networking services — including MySpace and Facebook.

Belgian private equity group, GIMV has brought the entire Open Transport Network (OTN) division at Nokia Siemens Networks for a undisclosed amount.

Meraki, a municipal Wi-Fi provider has announced it will

Airlines can’t afford to spend money on much of anything beyond fuel these days, but that’s not stopping them from pouring cash into the technology that will let passengers surf the web at 36,000 feet. Most of the systems they’re …

A first for European consumers, free mobile TV is landing on their fingertips as 3 Italia starts offering free mobile broadcast TV, based on DVB-H. The user will be able to watch TV channels between 8 am and midnight at …

I guess you have no choice but to announce a few handsets that have been leaked all over the place or it was all just coincidence. Whatever the case, Verizon Wireless has just pulled back the covers on the LG …

The iPhone install base will balloon and users will download at least two applications next year, according to a Piper Jaffray assessment.

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier–R.W. Baird raised its 2009 EPS estimate on Verizon to $2.97 from $2.89 on news of the company’s pending acquisition of …

The push to make magazine pages more interactive is building mass and, dare we say it, even real momentum as major publishers and advertisers adopt a pair of technologies centered on the cellphone. Hearst Magazines, the most recent example, is …

Concerts are nothing new on mobile. Sprint Nextel Corp. aired the first concert on mobile in 2005 with a huge marketing push behind a Bon Jovi concert that year. Others have followed since then.Verizon Wireless gets the nod for being …

Two big mobile players made headlines in the past few days, but they seem to be headed in very different directions.Apple once again displayed its marketing chops, grabbing headlines in both the mainstream media and the trade press as it …

The Justice Department’s agreement to let Verizon Wireless purchase Rural Cellular Corp. so long as the No. 2 mobile-phone carrier sells off a handful of licenses in Vermont, New York and Washington, was perhaps the easy part. Getting the $2.67 …

Qualcomm Inc. is downplaying a Supreme Court decision that restricts the ability of a patent holder to continue to collect royalties after an invention is sold or licensed, despite urging the high court not to rule as it did and …

AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA Inc. have exchanged lawsuits claiming the other has breached agreements related to the carriers’ providing Wi-Fi access in Starbucks Corp.’s locations across the country. Earlier this year, Starbucks announced a deal with AT&T Mobility for …

UTStarcom Inc.’s infrastructure business has gone private. The company, which also makes a range of cellphones, has sold its mobile solutions business unit to private equity firm OpenGate Capital for an undisclosed sum.UTStarcom’s stock was up slightly on the news …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t. If you wish to …

A Wisconsin-based startup that once partnered with Motorola Inc. to help it patent wireless-camera technology is suing Moto for fraud, patent infringement and breach of contract. Memorylink Corp. developed technology that allows users to stream video over wireless devices. Today, …

The once hotly contested push-to-talk market appears set for a competitive resurgence as the nation’s two largest CDMA carriers are rolling out new PTT initiatives that should prove more compelling to consumers addicted to “the button” than previous efforts. Sprint …