Apple

Steve Jobs has given in.Apple Inc.’s CEO said the company will let outside developers create applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, reversing a policy that allowed the devices to run only Web-based third-party applications. The company in February will …

Music and messaging may be the mantra for holiday sales, according to conventional wisdom, but Sprint Nextel Corp. is taking no chances. The carrier will offer the HTC-branded Touch on Nov. 4, for $250 with a two-year contract and mail-in …

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier –Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said it does not expect the FCC’s upcoming wireless spectrum auction to affect the ratings …

Nokia Corp. will answer the iPhone’s splashy user interface with advancements in its own Series 60 UI that runs its smartphone offerings, the Finnish giant said at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London.Nokia will offer the upgraded UI to rivals …

With the content-centered, postpaid mobile virtual network operator market in decline, analysts have already begun talking about the next evolution of the MVNO model. Apple Inc.’s iPhone is one example. So is recently launched Sonopia.Juha Christensen, CEO of Sonopia, compares …

The Weather Channel launched a new weather application optimized for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPod touch. Indeed, being that the iPhone doesn’t support third-party downloads, the new offering is less an application and more of a Web site optimized to …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Current Analysis’ …

The uproar over Apple Inc.’s and AT&T Mobility’s travails with hackers could help Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. gain visibility, tout the virtues of their own unlocked devices and, naturally, steal a march on their crafty competitor.Nokia denies any coincidence …

The term “win-win” rightly makes sober people sick, but it might be applied to AT&T Mobility’s news that it will carry HTC Americas’ Tilt device, beginning Friday, at $300 with a two-year contract. AT&T Mobility gets an enterprise-grade smartphone supporting …

Verizon Wireless is covering its bases. The nation’s second-largest carrier unveiled four new phones today, including a touchscreen-with-QWERTY keypad model from LG Electronics Co. Ltd., without mentioning prices. You’ll have to wait for prices until the phones launch sometime before …

Comedian Bill Murray, in an early Saturday Night Live skit, posed as a Spanish-language game-show host with the tagline: “Who is muy macho?” He would offer two studly Hollywood actors for contestants to choose from. Murray should reprise his skit …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Jupiter Research’s …

TODAY BEGINS THE FOURTH QUARTER-the crazy, blow-out-the-pipes holiday season for most retailers, including those in the wireless industry. Financial numbers for the past three months are due soon.The numbers, of course, may answer some questions about how well companies delivered …

Tracfone Wireless Inc. has turned up the heat on the cellphone black market, securing a slew of court judgments to halt the resale of prepaid phones altered to work on cellular networks other than those of the prepaid mobile-phone company.“TracFone …

The good news is that Apple Inc. has a lot of fans.The news that’s too fresh to characterize as “good” or “bad” is that Apple fans include inspired hackers and mere meddlers who seek to break the tenuous bond between …

Looks like Apple is warning (read: threatening) its iPhone users with a statement about the horrors of unlocking the device. Key, terror-inducing phrases like “irreparable damage,” “permanently inoperable” and “voided warranty” are littered throughout the company’s missive on the topic. …

Qualcomm Inc. hired Apple Inc.’s top attorney as its general counsel, while Apple replaced that attorney with Oracle Corp.’s general counsel.Donald Rosenberg leaves Apple after less than a year of service to take the reins of Qualcomm’s worldwide plate of …

Apple Inc.’s latest software update for the iPhone apparently is turning unlocked devices into bricks, according to media reports and Internet blogs today.iPhone owners with unmodified devices also are reporting that the software update is eliminating contact information, photos and …

Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about …

Thick as a brick. That’s how dumb you’d have to be to fiddle with your iPhone, according to Apple Inc. Indeed, the company warned that fiddling may well turn the high-end gadget into a brick.The iPhone maker yesterday attempted to …

Sometimes when you’re in the thick of things in this industry, it’s difficult to remember the big picture, so today I want to go to the top of the summit and look down.The technologies under construction today, whether it’s WIMAX, …

“It’s official” is the phrase that introduces news from Apple Inc. when months of Apple-fueled media frenzy reach fruition with actual announcements.Last week, the top operators in the United Kingdom (O2), Germany (T-Mobile) and France (Orange) said they will sell …

The next big thing in mobile virtual network operators may not look much like the MVNOs that have been launching-and sometimes crashing-in the past couple of years. With the hype around the space settling into caution, observers see a new …

Record labels and carriers are looking for creative ways to keep the lucrative ringtone party alive. But a handful of startups have taken a cue from music group REM, asking, “Why don’t we give it away?”Ringtones for years have been …

AT&T Mobility announced earlier this month that it has expanded its W-CDMA/HSDPA service to McAllen, Texas (population: just over 125,000). That’s great news for McAllen, but a stark reminder that the nation’s No. 1 carrier has yet to launch its …