The Economic Times quotes Microsoft India's Visual Studio director of developer tools Sudeep Bharati as saying the low-cost version will have a different spec than Chassis 1 and will be launched by the end of 2010. To re-cap, there will be three flavours of WinPho 7 device, pre-determined by Microsoft. Those based on the Chassis 1 spec will be heavy-duty touchscreen-only devices built around a 1GHz processor, while Chassis 2 devices will sport slide out Qwerty keyboards.

Having first shown-off its new smartphone - the LePhone - at CES earlier this year, Lenovo has officially launched it to target market of China. Reuters reports that Lenovo said at the event that it expects mobile internet products, which we take to include ARM-based mini-notebooks like the Skylight, to constitute between ten and 20 percent of its revenue within five years. Chief exec Yang Yuanqing was at the event and he said the mobile internet devices market will overtake the traditional PC market in that period. This is why Lenovo, together with most other PC OEMs, is keen to make its mark now.

 

With as many as 150,000 British tourists thought to be stranded abroad thanks to their flights being scuppered by Icelandic volcano dust, Lonely Planet has spied an opportunity. The guidebook firm has announced that it's making 13 of its European city guide iPhone apps free until Thursday.

Mobile Entertainment  

 

3Com will be combined with HP's existing ProCurve offering to form the new HP Networking portfolio, which in turn is part of the HP Converged Infrastructure strategy. The way in which HP is looking to differentiate itself from the likes of Cisco in this market is by providing greater flexibility, lower cost of ownership and a simplified client interface.

Samsung is launching an £8m ad campaign to promote the first 3D TV sets to go on sale on the high street in the UK. The TV campaign should spark what has been dubbed the "3D summer" as rivals, inlcuding LG, Panasonic and Sony, line up marketing activity worth tens of millions of pounds as 3D TV sets hit the UK high street for the first time. Samsung's 3D TVs will be the first to go on sale, starting on 27 April, with the company's £8m ad campaign launching the next day during the Champion's League semi-final on ITV1. The £8m campaign will include TV, press, outdoor and online advertising over a three-month period.

That iPhone 4.0 leak that hit the web yesterday? Well, Apple has now effectively confirmed that the handset is a real iPhone prototype in a legal letter requesting the device be returned. Read on to find out the fate of the new iPhone…In a letter to Gizmodo, which revealed that it had taken possession of the leaked iPhone 4.0 handset yesterday, Apple Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, says: “It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is in possession of a device that belongs to Apple. This letter constitutes a formal request that your return the device to Apple.”

Total bids top €299.1 million as telcos focus on lucrative 800 MHz band. Germany's mobile spectrum auction is becoming more competitive, with the total of all bids Monday coming to EUR299.1 million up from EUR191.4 million at the end of Friday. Germany is selling spectrum in 800 megahertz and 1.8 gigahertz, 2.0 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands. The auction is set to be a benchmark for others in Europe, being the first in which operators can secure valuable spectrum for long-term evolution, or LTE, networks that will allow users to watch high definition video and get much faster downloads on mobile devices.

 

Research by ICM and adaffix showed 25 per cent of all calling customers are not able to speak to an actual person, and that 63 per cent of customers trying to call a business in vain would to be willing to switch to another company. This is where adaffix comes in, as it displays the numbers for other businesses, which can then be dialled with one click.

 

Bebo UK plunged into the red last year as post-tax profits fell 143% year on year in the 12 months to the end of May 2009, a performance that led its parent, AOL, to decide to sell or shut the struggling social networking website. The social networking website's UK business moved from a healthy post-tax profit of £2.6m in the previous year to a loss of £1.1m, a 143% year-on-year fall, according to figures for Bebo UK Ltd filed at Companies House. AOL acquired Bebo in 2008 for $850m (£550m).

An Irish Judge has upheld the right of a creator to protect his creations as a fundamental human right. In a scathing and occasionally lyrical ruling, Judge Peter Charleton also pointed out the internet is merely one communication tool of many, and not "an amorphous extraterrestrial body with an entitlement to norms that run counter to the fundamental principles of human rights". It's the strongest refutation of the idea most famously expressed at Davos by John Perry Barlow, in A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, which warned: "You have no sovereignty where we gather."