Filed under: Cellphones

So patent holding firm Klausner Technologies figures it has this whole litigation thing down to a T at this point, having already sued a who’s-who of companies having anything to do with visual voicemail in the past and ultimately coming away with a whole bunch of lucrative license agreements for its efforts (eleven, to be exact). Needless to say, any new company that tries to break into the game at this point is probably going to get treated with the same warm, fuzzy love, and Verizon and LG are experiencing that firsthand. Klausner has announced that it has filed suit against both companies in Texas federal court, presumably in response to Big Red’s recent launch of the refreshed Voyager featuring visual voicemail software on board. Given the track record Klausner has, guys, you might just want to cut to the chase here and pay up.

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Filed under: Cellphones

There aren’t exactly all that many details left to announce, but Verizon has just gotten official with its late to the party Visual Voicemail service which, for the time being at least, is only available on the LG Voyager. As we had heard previously, the service will run you an extra $2.99 per month on top of your usual bill, and you’ll be able to store up to 40 messages for 40 days, with an option to create up to 10 greetings and 20 distribution lists. Unfortunately, Verizon didn’t take the opportunity to announce any firm plans for a roll-out to any of the other phones supposedly in line to get the service, with it only going so far as to say that additional devices will be getting it in the “coming months.”

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Filed under: Cellphones

There’s still plenty of emerging details and news on the iPhone 3G kicking around, but here’s what you need to know from the minor bits floating around over the past few days:

• Jobs also told NYT that Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi was, in fact, intended to reduce Apple’s reliance on third-party chip makers. Specifically, he said, “PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods.” So, guess that’s that.
• Per the feature showing up missing on a number of Apple’s international iPhone 3G product pages, iLounge compiled a list of carriers which may or may not planning on implementing visual voicemail. Vodafone in Europe, for example, will not have it at launch, and will delay its rollout until later this year.
• A video of a new iPhone beta build running on live hardware shows videos now in portrait or landscape modes, and includes video playlists. We’ll take it.
• Although DT’s iPhone page reads differently, German paper Welt has it that that T-Mobile Germany will be selling it for €1 — so basically free, not unlike O2’s iPhone 3G launch in the UK.

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Read - Jobs mentions PA Semi plans
Read - Visual voicemail support varies from carrier to carrier
Read - Beta build with portrait-mode video
Read - DT releasing it for €1 (see also their iPhone page)

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Filed under: Cellphones

It looks like Samsung’s Instinct won’t just be kinda-sorta doing some iPhone stuff — it will be doing actual iPhone stuff. Sprint announced that it has licensed Klausner’s Visual Voicemail (yes, Visual Voicemail) for use in the familiar looking device, adding weight to the argument that this is the carrier’s official play for the iPhone market. If you’ll recall, Klausner sued AT&T and Apple over the feature, which it claims violated two of its patents. Now all they need to do is throw Cover Flow, Google Maps integration, and some wiggly icons on there, and this race will really get heated.

[Via I4U News]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

As we expected, Apple just loosed the iPhone into Ireland and Austria. €399 nabs the 8GB model while €499 takes the 16GB unit home. T-Mobile has the honors for Austria as it does in Germany while O2 carries the flag in Ireland as it does in the UK. Interestingly, Irish subscribers are not entitled to Visual Voicemail or free WiFi even though they are offered by O2 UK — neither country offers an unlimited data plan. Tsk tsk. Regardless, early adopters from those countries already had their unlocked iPhones months ago which makes the launch just a formality at this point.

[Via MacRumors]

Read — Austria
Read — Ireland

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Filed under: Cellphones

Apple’s already drawn a bit of unintended attention for the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail feature, and it now looks like its facing a bit more heat on the matter, with Klausner Technologies now suing both it and AT&T for alleged patent infringement. Specifically, Klasuner is claiming that the Apple and AT&T violated two of its patents by “allowing users to selectively retrieve voice messages via the iPhone’s inbox display” and, according to Apple Insider, its seeking damages and future royalties estimated at some $360 million. But that’s not all, Klausner also apparently filed similar claims today against Comcast, Cablevision, and eBay (Skype, specifically), with damages and future royalties in those cases clocking in to the tune of $300 million. What’s more, all this apparently follows two other lawsuits over the very same patents, which Klausner’s attorney says they’ve litigated successfully. As is often the case, however, it’s now up to the federal court in the Eastern District of Texas to sort things out.

[Thanks, Mark]

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