Current Analysis

Business-networking site LinkedIn, facing more competition as other sites court business users, replaced its chief executive Wednesday with one of the company's cofounders. Reid Hoffman took over as CEO, a position that had been held by Dan Nye.

Jeff Weiner, a former Yahoo executive vice president, will become "interim president," handling day-to-day activities and overseeing all company executives.

There's a Nova in Palm's future. In January, the famed-but-faded mobile-device maker will unveil a new operating system with that code name at the Consumer Electronics Show.

According to Business Week and others, Palm's hiring last year of ex-Apple engineer Jon Rubinstein has led to a new team that hopes to guide the company back to the ranks of mobile innovation.

Falling Behind

The growing support for Google's Open Handset Alliance includes more research and development dollars from major names in the technology industry.

Earlier this week, the alliance, a group of technology and mobile companies working on the Android mobile operating system, announced 14 new members. They are AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek Computer, Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International, Huawei Technologies, Omron Software, Softbank Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba and Vodafone.

"The ecosystem is growing larger. The critical names on this announcement are

The new Android-based G1 sold by T-Mobile is now out in an unlocked version -- for developers. Last week, Google announced on its Android blog the availability of the Android Dev Phone 1, a device that is unlocked for SIM cards and in the hardware.

Any SIM Card

The Dev Phone can use any GSM carrier's SIM card, and the unlocked bootloader will work with custom Android builds as developers try out new applications. Google noted that the bootloader in the Dev Phone is different from the retail G1, allowing a developer to access handset features with custom builds.

Nokia on Tuesday released its N97 smartphone, describing it as "the world's most advanced mobile computer," which will "transform the way people connect to the Internet and each other." Jonas Geust, a Nokia vice president who heads up the N series, called the N97 "the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence."

'Social Location'

The BlackBerry Storm has been debuting around the world, but rumors are spreading about a possible shortage in the U.S. News reports also indicate Research In Motion discovered a security flaw in the Storm that has left Verizon Wireless scrambling to update the firmware in the final hours before its U.S. release on Friday.

Neither RIM nor Verizon were immediately available for comment. The much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm will be available exclusively from Verizon in the U.S.

AT&T and Samsung on Monday introduced the Samsung Eternity, yet another touchscreen phone. The differentiator is that the phone supports AT&T Mobile TV, and the wireless carrier is offering a 30-day free trial for new subscribers.

The black-and-chrome device has a 3.2-inch touchscreen and haptic support that vibrates to confirm selections on the touchscreen.

AT&T has become the latest Internet service provider to test limits on bandwidth usage, with a trial this month of caps for subscribers in Reno, Nevada.

The company -- the largest Internet service provider in the United States -- said about five percent of subscribers use about 50 percent of capacity.

$1 Per Gigabyte

Research in Motion, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless are hoping to take the holiday season by Storm with Wednesday's announcement of a new RIM touchscreen smartphone. The BlackBerry Storm, available later this fall, will be offered exclusively to Verizon Wireless customers in the United States and to Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand.

'Revolutionary Touchscreen Technology'

The first Android-powered phone isn't the only big news on the mobile front this week. Applications for the Android operating system are already making their way to market.

On Thursday, Visa announced plans to make mobile payment-related services for the Android platform, while PacketVideo stepped out on Wednesday with news that it would launch CORE, a multimedia application framework that powers more than 260 million devices worldwide, for Android.