Latest phones and cell review

According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, Sprint's board of directors is trying to decide the best course of action for its future with respect to their WiMax network. Sprint and Clearwire are together building out a nationwide WiMax 4G network. Sprint owns 54% of Clearwire. Clearwire, however, doesn't have the funding available to complete its portion of the network buildout. Sprint's dilemma is to decide whether or not to come up with the funding itself, or seek outside help. The Journal's sources have indicated that at least some of the members of Sprint's board are considering the idea of allowing T-Mobile USA (owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom) to invest in Clearwire and help fund the rest of the 4G WiMax network. The Journal says that some of Sprint's board members are adamantly opposed to the idea of seeking help from a competitor. T-Mobile has problems of its own. T-Mobile has a growing HSPA+ footprint across the U.S., and expects to have 200 million Americans covered by the end of the year. However, T-Mobile has no 4G strategy. It doesn't own the spectrum necessary to build out a Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G network of its own. Both Sprint and Deutsche Telekom have made overtures before about finding ways to help one another, but the matter has become more urgent, reports the Journal, as Clearwire will need more cash by the end of 2010. On top of that, both Sprint and Clearwire have made public statements that put the future of WiMax as their 4G networking technology to question. Management of both companies have indicated that they are open to the idea of potentially switching from WiMax to LTE. Neither Sprint, Clearwire, nor T-Mobile has confirmed the Journal's story.

Motorola has said that it will set aside $3.5 billion for the handset and set-top box unit that it plans to spin off during the first quarter of 2011. Motorola will split its remaining businesses into two entities, with the phone and cable box business forming one, and its enterprise computing business forming the other. Motorola wants the freshly created mobile unit to have the best chance for success possible, so it will part ways with a $3.5 billion cash infusion earmarked for operations and acquisitions. Motorola's legacy business will assume all the existing debt and pension costs moving forward. Motorola has banked its mobile business' future success on Google's Android platform, and so far appears to be making a turn-around.

A shiny new slider from Motorola has appeared on the FCC's site with iDen push-to-talk capabilties in tow. The phone, identified as the Motorola i706, features a metallic face and a metal band around the shell, with a large walkie-talkie button on the side. The naming is in line with Motorola's other devices on Sprint's Nextel network. A user manual posted on the FCC site identifies the PTT capabilities as Motorola's Mototalk technology. The phone seems to be a relatively simple device, with a USB port and a 2.5mm headphone jack.

New releases from Research in Motion and Nokia headlined the month of August, plus Motorola's update DROID heading for the US.

Palm today announced WebOS 2.0, the newest version of its smartphone platform. In addition to the new system software, Palm also announced that it will offer a matching software developer kit to select developers starting this week. WebOS will include new features for end users, and the SDK will offer new tools to developers. As far as improvements go, WebOS 2.0 refreshes the way stacks work, which can now be clustered into groups to reduce home screen clutter. Palm has renamed the Universal Search feature to Just Type, and it will support actions such as initiating emails, messages, etc. Palm is also offering developers APIs (application programming interfaces) that will work with Palm's TouchStone charger technology, allowing them to integrate their applications into the charger and other accessories. WebOS' Synergy contact management application receives new tools for developers, who will be able to access more of its code and integrate their own apps/services within Synergy. Other new features are aimed more at developers, such as improved Java performance, HTML5 integration, and new PDKs (plug-in developer kit) that will support C/C++ games and applications for easier porting of apps between platforms. Palm is giving developers an early look at WebOS 2.0. It hasn't announced when WebOS 2.0 will be available for end users.