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Apple Inc. said Thursday that it will publish the guidelines it uses to determine which programs can be sold in its App Store.
The move follows more than two years of complaints from software developers about the company’s secret and seemingly capricious rules, which block some programs from the store. Get the full story »
AT&T said it has invested nearly $350 million in its wireless network in the first half of 2010 to improve customer service in Illinois.
It’s part of an capital investment of nearly $700 million in AT&T’s wireless and wireline networks in Illinois in the first six months of the year. Get the full story »
Verizon Wireless said Thursday it will offer no-contract data plans for many of its 3G multimedia phones and smartphones, including those from its premier Droid line of devices.
The prepaid data package costs $30 a month for unlimited access. For $10 a month, customers can get a data plan for their multimedia phones, or those that aren’t designed for intense Web browsing as smartphones are. The $10 data plan is capped at 25 megabytes a month.
The prepaid segment has grown rapidly in the last few years, fueled both by recessionary pressures on consumers and newer generations of phone users that dislike being tethered to a two-year contract. Major carriers such as Verizon have traditionally focused on post-paid subscribers, who tend to be a more reliable and lucrative source of revenue. But with increased competition from no-contract carriers such as Cricket Wireless, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, which have smartphones in their line-ups in addition to no-frills handsets, other companies have started to sweeten their prepaid offerings as well. Get the full story »
Google Inc. is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Google Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin has been leading conversations with the labels about what a new Google music service would look like, according to these sources. Get the full story »
Google Inc. and AOL Inc. have agreed to extend their search partnership for five years and expanded their pact into mobile search and online video, two areas expected to grow as the media business transitions to digital communications.
The deal helps Google protect its dominant share of the fast-growing Web search business from smaller competitors, including Microsoft Corp. and IAC/InteractiveCorp. Get the full story »
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Thursday she is suing a California company for charging consumers for identity protection services that they never requested.
The lawsuit, filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court, claims that ID Lifeguards Inc. of Glendale, Calif., charged $157,562 on the phone bills of 5,071 Illinois consumers between September 2009 and March 2010. Get the full story »
Communications regulators on Wednesday put off a controversial decision on Internet traffic rules, giving industry and consumer groups a chance to forge a compromise while avoiding a politically sensitive issue ahead of the November elections. Get the full story »
Motorola Inc. plans to spin off its mobile phone and television set-top box businesses with $3.5 billion in cash when the Schaumburg-based company splits in two early next year.
Motorola SpinCo Holdings Corp., the entity created in preparation of the separation, disclosed the capitalization amount in a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Get the full story »
Time Warner Cable has your number and if you don’t want them to give it out, it’s going to cost you more. It’s not the only telecom that charges monthly to keep your phone number unlisted. But it is the only one that just doubled the fee.
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion will give India access to secure data from Sept. 1, a government source said Monday as the country pushes RIM, Google and Skype to set up servers in India due to its security concerns.
On Monday, the interior ministry said RIM had offered India a few proposals to gain access its secure data and that the feasibility of the solutions would be assessed within 60 days. It did not give details of the solutions. Get the full story »
Activist investor Carl Icahn has upped his stake in Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. to about 10.6 percent from a 9.99 stake he disclosed earlier this month, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Get the full story »
Google is adding a new e-mail feature that may persuade more people to cut the cords on their landline phones. The service unveiled Wednesday enables U.S. users of Google Inc.’s free Gmail service to make calls from their personal computers to telephones virtually anywhere in the world.
Paying for a shopping spree by waving a smart phone may be more exciting than swiping a credit card, but according to Consumers Union, it might not be as safe.
The nonprofit testing and information organization, which publishes Consumer Reports, called on regulators Tuesday to implement protective standards on mobile payments.
Dell Inc. put its first U.S. smartphone on sale on Tuesday, making the computer maker the latest technology manufacturer to enter the competitive mobile handset market.
The Round Rock, Texas-based company said its 3.5-inch touchscreen phone, dubbed the Aero, runs on Google Inc.’s Android operating system and is available for $99.99 with a new two-year contract from AT&T Inc. and $299.99 without. It can be ordered on Dell’s Web site. Get the full story »
The Securities and Exchange Commission has introduced e-mail alerts that will allow the public to be notified when new feedback is posted on its Web site about rulemaking for the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill.
It has had e-mail alerts for a year on other matters and has since sent 11 million updates to nearly 14,000 subscribers. Get the full story »
