Mobile 2.0

It was speculative before given the lack of independent confirmation, but now apparently Apple has gone on record to confirm that the original deal signed with AT&T for iPhone exclusivity back in 2007 was a five-year deal. That means at least some legal hoops would need jumping through if we’re ever going to see that oft-rumored Verizon iPhone before 2012. Engadget reports that court documents filed by Apple in a California class-action suit confirm the original AT&T exclusivity deal had a five-year duration....

Ah, cellphones and dodgeball, they go together like… well… they don’t really go together at all, but that’s not stopping Samsung Mobile from organizing what will purportedly be the world’s largest dodgeball game on May 12. The practice of launching a stunt to herald the advent of a new product is nothing new — remember when the Droid took over Times Square? And Samsung is no stranger to the record realm; it attempted to make the World Record for collecting the largest donation of mobile phones in one location in April at the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, TX (the company failed)....

There has been widespread speculation about the release date of Apple’s next generation iPhone, including (yet another) report that the Verizon iPhone is finally coming this year. Now we have perhaps the most substantial evidence yet that a new version of the Apple smartphone is coming to AT&T in June. Boy Genius Report confirms from multiple sources that AT&T has blocked its employees from taking vacations during the month of June....

The fact that Opera Mini was admitted to the App Store was a huge surprise, but judging from the popularity of the app, it was the right move, at least from the users’ point of view. At one point, Opera Mini was the most popular free app in all regional App Stores, as you can see in the screenshot below. Right now, the situation has changed slightly, but Opera Mini is still on top everywhere except in Australia, where it holds the second place....

Palm, the smartphone pioneer, is on the block. The company, which in recent years has been eclipsed by the iPhone (and to some extent by Google’s Android OS), failed to make much of a comeback with its most recent Pre and Pixi phones. Now Bloomberg reports the inevitable: Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners have been tasked with finding a buyer for the ailing company, and bids may be sought as early as this week....

One month ago we heard about the official Twitter app for BlackBerry, which has been in the works for quite some time now, bringing features such as automatic URL-shortening, easy photo-sharing, push and message list integration and search filtered by geolocation. Today, the first public beta of the app is available in the BlackBerry App World. Based on the feedback from closed beta testing, the developers have added several additional features....