Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

Laptops with built-in WWAN modems aren’t anything new, but there’s a hodgepodge of hardware and services available — a situaton the GSM Association is trying to simplify with the new Mobile Broadband standardization initiative. Sure, it’s mostly an excuse to get another sticker on your gear, but companies like Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, Toshiba, Qualcomm and a bunch of carriers are on board to ensure that Mobile Broadband-certified machines will be ready and able to connect in some 91 countries around the world — and what’s more, they’re committed to spending a cool billion dollars in the next year promoting MB as a “compelling alternative” to WiFi and WiMAX. That should be an interesting dilemma for the carriers that also run hotspot networks, but we’ve got a feeling everyone’s happy as long as the sub fees keep rolling in.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Reuters Italia is reporting that the 3G iPhone will be announced by the Italian carrier TIM (and presumably the rest of Europe) on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Better yet, Reuters’ source within TIM says that the 3G iPhone will be available immediately, Tuesday at the latest. Availability is still rumored for sometime in June for Italy. It’s been awhile since Apple did an announce-and-launch on the same day. And quietly distributing 3 million or so iPhones around the world even with Apple’s stealth is no easy task. And we still haven’t seen it, or anything from Apple hit the FCC. At this point, the biggest surprise of WWDC would be for Jobs not to announce a 3G iPhone.

Update: After some initial confusion over the translation, Reuters says that it will be announced on Monday or Tuesday.

[Via ToTouch, thanks Giovanni]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Displays

It seemed obvious back in mid-December of last year that Polymer Vision wasn’t going to nail its timetable for production versions of the 3G-equipped, e-ink wonder known as the Readius. Now word is that the company will have a commercial version of the phone / e-book reader available sometime in mid-2008 in Italy via Telecom Italia — provided that everything goes according to its diabolical plans. If you’ll recall, the device features a foldable, grayscale, 5-inch QVGA display, and boasts a slew of features, including HSDPA, a 400MHz ARM CPU, and a battery life up to “six times longer” than current mobile phones. We’ll admit we’re intrigued, but don’t make us wait too long over here, okay?

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