mobile devices

Dell engineers are developing a pocket-sized, Internet-connected device that will use the Google-backed Android mobile operating system, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper, citing "people familiar with the company's plans," said two people who have seen prototypes described the new product as similar to the iPhone but without cell-phone functionalities. Dell is expected to release the device later this near, the paper reported, although there is also a possibility the product might not be released.

'Entirely, Absolutely' Plausible

The new and flourishing category of netbooks is also becoming a breeding ground for new computer operating systems. The Google-backed, Linux-based open-source Android mobile platform has been moving into netbooks from smartphones, and on Tuesday Intel announced a new beta version of its Linux-based Moblin operating system for netbooks and other mobile devices.

A new study from the International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030, the energy demands of gadgets globally will collectively drain an amount of electricity equivalent to the total power consumption of two of the world's largest developed countries.

According to the intergovernmental organization, consumer gear currently accounts for 15 percent of household electricity consumption, and its share of the total is rapidly rising. Without new policies, noted IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka, the energy consumed by high-tech gear will double by 2022 and increase threefold by 2030.

AT&T, the exclusive wireless carrier for Apple's iPhone in the U.S., is working to double its 3G speeds. AT&T officially completed the build-out of its 3G network in June and is aiming for speeds of 3.6 megabits per second, Scott McElroy, AT&T vice president of technology realization, told Telephony Online.

Currently, AT&T offers 3G speeds of 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps for a typical download and 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps for an upload using High-Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System (HSDPA/UMTS) technology.

Nokia on Thursday reported its worst quarterly profit in more than a decade. Nevertheless, the cell-phone maker's shares rallied in the wake of optimism expressed by CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

The Finnish company said its profit declined to 122 million euros (US$160.7 million), from 1.2 billion euros (US$1.6 billion) a year earlier. Sales fell 27 percent.

Skype is coming to Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, and to various models of Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices. The Luxembourg-based company will make that announcement Tuesday as it looks to further expand its user base of 400 million worldwide into the most popular mobile devices.

Data leakage and data loss is at an all time high. USBs, or memory sticks, which are now used to download and transport large amounts of sensitive data, may be largely to blame. A recent survey by Texas-based data security experts Credant Technologies found that, in the last year, 9,000 USB sticks have been forgotten in pockets when people take their clothes to the local dry cleaners.

The much-ballyhooed press event Tuesday on Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus for iPhone OS 3.0 has generally been hailed as uniformly good news for iPhone users. Although it will be months before the upgrade is released, iPhone users will be able to download it for free, and iPod touch users will be able to purchase the upgrade for just $9.95.

Bundled into the new OS are numerous features for which iPhone users have been clamoring, including Multimedia Messaging Service capabilities, stereo Bluetooth, cut and paste, and push notification for applications.

A struggling Motorola has sold some mobile-messaging assets. The handset maker on Tuesday announced it's selling Good Technology to Visto, a mobile push-synchronization platform. Visto has its sights set on competing with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, but analysts are skeptical about its chances in an entrenched market.

Good Technology offers wireless messaging, mobile VPN data access, device management, and handheld security for enterprise customers. Visto says adding Good's service suite in the U.S., Europe and Asia will allow the company to offer a broader range of solutions.

Nokia plans to work with Qualcomm and Skype to dramatically expand the capabilities of the handset maker's next-generation smartphones. The deal with Qualcomm is a sharp reversal from the two companies' heated back-and-forth exchanges about cell-phone royalty fees over the past three years.