The exclusive rights to Apple's iPhone was obtained by Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile unit for Germany, much like AT&T for the United States.

However, the company is currently facing legal issues due to a restraining order issued by a regional court in Hamburg. Accordingly, the case was started by T-Mobile's rival Vodafone Group PLC. The full details after the jump!

New details have come in for the Google phone whose rumors have been going on and off for some months now. The Google phone is coming, but not as a competitor to the messiah of all phones, the iPhone. Instead, it aims to compete with Microsoft's Windows Mobile service.

Google's objectives are expected to be more software based, aiming to expand their advertising services, rather than competing with the hardware of the iPhone. It's also expected that they'll be migrating their Internet applications to run on the mobile platform. The advertising function is theorized to subsidize part of the phone's cost.

What new functions can they offer the mobile scene though? Most mobile carriers declined to comment on the subject, but as Arun Sarin of Vodafone points out, Google is already accessible from a number of devices, "you don't need a Google phone to do that." Some also speculate that its reception in the mobile world may not be as successful as on the Internet.

The Google phone won't be limiting its services to only one mobile carrier like the iPhone. Analysts also suspect that Google won't be making the phone itself but will only offer its software to manufacturers. Their software will be based on open-source Linux software, according to executive informants who wish to remain unnamed.

It was probably inevitable; the fact that Apple's iPhone is now available with a software unlock in more than 40 countries all over the globe before it's even supposed to be officially available in some of these areas.

The image (left) shows the list compiled by the iPhone Dev Team of 32 countries and 69 carriers with the iPhone software unlock already been tested and good to go. The phones were confirmed to have working incoming and outgoing calls, as well as SMS compatibility, EDGE/GPRS access, and non-visual voicemail access.

In actuality, however, the list above has recently been appended with an additional 10 countries and 11 carriers according to additional contributions from the source's website. With the growing number of software unlocked iPhones being made available worldwide, who knows? Perhaps you'll find a working iPhone just around the corner from where you live before you know it.

Additional countries and carriers include:

• New Zealand/Vodafone
• Spain/Movistar
• Poland/Orange
• Czech Republic/Vodafone
• Bahrain/Batelcom/MTC Vodafone
• Israel/Cellcom
• Hungary/T-Mobile
• Belgium/Proximus/Base/Mobistar
• Kuwait/Wataniya
• Ireland/Meteor

It seems Vodafone is set on giving the iPhone a run for its money in Britain. While the iPhone is yet to hit British shores, Vodafone is already gearing up their own music download service that would compete Apple's own. They are now looking to other mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia to spread their service.

It was once believed that Vodafone will be providing the exclusive network service for the iPhone as AT&T did for the US, but analysts now suspect this won't be the case.

Instead of the exclusivity deal, Vodafone may in fact pull through with the music download service as they have already signed an exclusive deal with the British music firm Omnifone.

Vodafone's new service will offer certain handsets the option to download an unlimited number of songs from a selection of 1 million for a weekly fee of GB£ 1.99 (around US$ 4). The service will launch later this year and will be available for 2.5G and 3G compatible phones from Vodafone.

Motorola is giving Linux a big push with plans to install the OS on 60 percent of its mobile handsets within the next two years. The Razr2 V8, Motorola's follow-up to its GSM Razr phone, will be the company's first Linux phone in the U.S. when it debuts here within two months.

Christy Wyatt, Motorola's vice president of ecosystem and market development, said that Linux will be a big help in expanding the mobile phone software developer community. Motorola has also formed the LiMo Foundation along with NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Samsung, and Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) to further consolidate the dev community with a single Linux platform.

While Linux will be the dominant platform for Motorola phones, the company still expects to sell handsets running on different platforms to specific target markets. Windows Mobile devices will be aimed primarily at enterprises while Symbian phones will be marketed in Europe. Low-end phones with simpler and more closed platforms will also still be produced.

Motorola also plans to roll out Linux-based CDMA phones. According to Wyatt, a lot of porting and development work has to be done first on CDMA phones, however. A non-Linux CDMA handset comparable to the Razr 2 V8 will be released in the meantime.

It has been reported that the iPhone will launch in the UK this Monday, July 2, with Vodafone being named as the official carrier. There have been no confirmations, however, new reports have pointed out that Vodafone may be one of three of carriers, with support from T-Mobile of Germany and Carphone Warehouse, after a joint agreement was reportedly signed to carry the new phone in Europe... with 3G support!

It is believed that the new developments could save iPhone from the recent criticism that it doesn't actually do well as a phone at all and carry well on its other features because of a 2G service limitation in the US. This also carries the recent disappointment revolving around American iPhones being tied to a single carrier: AT&T.

And while shipment dates for the phone are as yet unspecified, it was reported to be "on course" for Jobs' year-end date announced last year. Rene Oberman, CEO of T-Mobile, was reported to have been "ecstatic" over the joint contract by inside sources and is anticipated to make a showing at the launch on Monday.

However, until the more formal announcements have been made or until developments at the launch party confirm these reports, we will leave the insider tips neatly wrapped under rumors.

After Morning Blog released an unflattering image of the supposedly top-secret Palm Gandolf just a few days ago, two more pictures (of far better quality) were "leaked", showing that the device is running what looks like Windows Mobile Standard - or Smartphone, depending on how you want to call it.

If that's the case, then it would be the first Palm to use the Windows Mobile, steering away from its usual touch-screen interface. The picture does not offer any other information, other than the Vodafone brand (which tells us that this will be offered in Europe as a GSM device), and the two home and back buttons characteristic of devices using Windows Mobile Standard.

It's not yet clear whether the device pictured is the Treo 800w; Palm Infocenter did mention that Verizon will release Treo 755p and Treo 800w sometime this year, but we'll definitely check this device out as more information comes our way, so stay tuned!

 

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has announced that a bunch of leading games publishers have joined forces with 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone to simultaneously launch key games titles over all five of the UK networks.

The following publishers have joined in on this industry first: Electronic Arts, Glu Mobile, Gameloft and I-play. As part of the deal, four games -- Glu Mobile’s Transformers, Gameloft's Guitar Legend, EA Sports' FIFA 08 and an unannounced fourth title -- will be published across all five major service providers.

"We have been working with the network operators on a number of initiatives to grow the market of mobile gaming, and this is work that builds on the official charts we publish," said Michael Rawlinson, ELSPA's Managing Director. "We want mobile games publishers to become more involved with ELSPA so that we can assist them further in this growing and exciting area of gaming."

It has been suggested before by analysts that Vodafone would be the iPhone's official carrier in Europe, but AppleInsider reports that Vodafone may not be the only European wireless carrier under consideration.

According to AppleInsider, MarketWeek reported last week that Germany-based T-Mobile is being favored as the sole outlet for iPhone sales in the continent. Other European such as O2 and Orange were said to have been in the running but were unsuccessful in reaching the later stages of contract negotiations.

Some analysts suggest though that it might be in Apple's best interests to get more than one operator to distribute the iPhone in Europe because "the European market is more fragmented than the U.S."

Here's a bit of bad news for those who bought their new Nokia N95s from Orange and Vodafone in the UK. According to IT News, both operators have decided to disable the new handset's built-in VoIP feature.

IT News also reports that a Nokia spokeswoman told vnunet.com that Orange specifically asked for the N95's VoIP feature to be switched off. "This a handset-specific issue," she said. "In this particular instance Orange was asked by Nokia whether they wanted the functionality switched on or off, and Orange selected off."

Vodafone, meanwhile, said in a statement that they don't offer VoIP services because "the technology is not yet mature." The company noted that internet telephony requires "in-depth testing, a solid end-to-end customer experience, billing integration and customer service support which is not currently available".

Internet telephony firm Truphone, however, had another explanation. Truphone claimed that the move by both operators was made in order to protect themselves from the rapidly-growing threat from VoIP services, which can provide cheaper calls over data networks such as WiFi.