SAN FRANCISCO—Mobile video upstart Veeker said it has acquired ThumbJive, a developer of youth-focused wireless applications. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Veeker, which has been operating in stealth mode, hopes to gain traction with technology that allows users to communicate instantly over...
HERNDON, Va.—GigaBeam Corp. picked up Department of Defense orders through its system integration partner, WirelessGuys Inc., for the company’s wireless fiber links. GigaBeam touts its wireless fiber products, called WiFiber, as being similar to terrestrial fiber in terms of speed. The products operate in...
SEOUL—South Korea’s Pantech & Curitel Communications Inc. will provide its portfolio of CDMA-based handsets to UTStarcom Inc. for sale in North America under a three-year agreement, the company announced.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Pantech already is a leading supplier of CDMA handsets to...
WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission officially launched its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, naming Ken Moran as its acting chief. The agency has been in the process of creating the new bureau for about a year; FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced his intent to...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.—The Wireless Infrastructure Association, better known as PCIA, said it drew its highest attendance numbers—1,400 registrants—to its annual trade show held last week in Nashville, Tenn. The attendance tally marks a 5-percent increase from last year’s results, and signals the third year in...
SAN DIEGO—Digital Orchid is looking to expand its portfolio and global footprint with the acquisition of mobile game publisher Blue Tech. Blue Tech is a 2-year-old vendor based in Madrid, Spain, and is the parent company of Java developer Kato Studios. Digital Orchid provides...
ATLANTA—Air2Web said it snared $25 million in a financing round led by The Carlyle Group. The wireless software company said it will use the new funds to further its work in mobile marketing as well as expanding into other geographic markets. Existing investors Vantage...
IRVINE, Calif.—Mobile search vendor AskMeNow said it launched a national TV advertising campaign to promote its search service. The company’s ad campaign includes 30-second spots that demonstrate the service. The spots will appear on channels including Comedy Central, VH1, ESPN and Fox News, said...
MADRID, Spain—Mobile transaction provider mBlox said it is working with application service provider Dynetic to provide an SMS-based bidding service to eBay in Spain. The service uses mBlox’s SMS services to alert customers when they have been outbid on an item on eBay. Customers...
NEW YORK—Nokia Corp. announced five new GSM phones—the company insists the devices are "multimedia computers"—for the United States, but did not announce any accompanying carrier deals. Three of the devices—the N70, N73 and N91—are optimized for music. The devices include enhanced memory with 1...
DUBLIN, Ireland—Those waiting anxiously for a .mobi domain needn’t wait any longer. The company behind the controversial, mobile-exclusive top-level domain opened registration today, allowing the general public to register wireless Internet sites with the suffix. Mobile Top Level Domain Ltd., which manages the domain,...
SHENZHEN, China—The Bluetooth Special Interest Group isn’t going to take it anymore—at least that’s the message heard around the world as the group announced it orchestrated a successful raid in a Shenzhen, China, factory suspected of infringing on the Bluetooth SIG’s registered trademarks. The...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—With the quiet addition of its new t719 flip phone, which offers BlackBerry Connect service and an e-mail-friendly keypad, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. now supplies just over one-third of T-Mobile USA Inc.’s handset portfolio. The t719 uses the same SureType keypad—a QWERTY alternative...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—T-Mobile USA Inc. wants its users to get more from life, but the carrier looks to be getting less from Catherine Zeta-Jones. The Bellevue, Wash.-based operator plans to drop its high-profile spokeswoman, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, in favor...
SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. handed Indian device-maker Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. a royalty-bearing license agreement to make and sell CDMA2000 handsets and modem cards. Qualcomm says HFCL is its first patent licensee among Indian developers. With a population of more than 1 billion, India has...
DALLAS—The Open Mobile Alliance Ltd. (OMA) will lead a consortium of companies looking to create an open gaming specification for high-end wireless games. The OMA said the members of the mobile gaming initiative—which was launched early this year—will join the OMA’s Game Services Working...
By Chris Ambrosio, director, Wireless Device Strategies Service, Strategy AnalyticsEditor's Note: This is the third column in a new weekly feature at RCRNews.com, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless...
LOS ANGELES—Amp’d Mobile added another distribution partner, inking a deal to stock its handsets through more than 600 Circuit City Stores Inc. outlets beginning next month. The deal marks a concession of sorts for Amp’d, which had hoped to keep its brick-and-mortar distribution at...
By Julie Johnsson CHICAGO—Moments after tennis superstar Maria Sharapova won her first U.S. Open title this month, Motorola Inc. scored a major victory of its own.With primetime TV cameras rolling, Ms. Sharapova plucked a gold Dolce & Gabbana Razr cell phone from her racquet...
NEW YORK—The race to join the mobile marketing playground continued to heat up with separate announcements from Cascada Mobile and Crisp Wireless. Crisp Wireless said it will team with VML, a Kansas City, Mo.-based marketing technology firm to develop and market mobile advertising offerings...
The brave new world of wireless advertising is giving rise to a wide variety of business arrangements between network operators, content owners and mobile marketing firms. And carriers are working to ensure their place in the value chain. Marketing messages on the wireless Web...
Exchanging data over wireless networks is expected to grow at a steady rate in North America, according to the latest data from ABI Research. The firm said it expects growth of 16 percent each year through 2011, with a bit of a boom in...
Ice, Ice Baby can finally get its due as a classic, at least in ringtone form. Acclaimed jazz composer David Baker said he wants members of his orchestra and the audience at the first performance of his "Concertino for Cellular Phones and Orchestra" next...
NEW YORK-Demand is strong at T-Mobile USA Inc. retail stores for the recently launched Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry Pearl, according to a national channel check by UBS analyst Maynard Um. The device, announced Sept. 7, combines productivity functions with multimedia and consumer-oriented style....
