Personal communications

SAN DIEGO -- Though a significantly smaller show than January's Consumer Electronic Show and February's Mobile World Conference, MobileCon 2012 still kicked off its first day with a handful of new phones. However, hardware companies didn't hog all the fun; there was plenty of carrier news as well.

T-Mobile T-Mobile introduced its first Windows Phone 8 handset, the Nokia Lumia 810. Available withiin weeks, the Lumia 810 has a 4.3 inch touchscreen, an 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss technology, and interchangeable back plates that enables the device to charge wirelessly.

Another T-Mobile device, the LG Optimus L9, … Read more

If you're a Windows Phone 8 fan on Verizon, listen up. A leaked image of what reportedly is a Verizon-branded Nokia Lumia 820 has surfaced. … Read more

Research In Motion, the ailing smartphone maker with seemingly more lives than the average cat, may not dish out the new range of BlackBerry 10 devices until March, according to Jefferies analyst Peter Misek.

Writing in a research note seen by Forbes, Misek noted: "We had hoped for a January launch but now see a March launch as more likely."

RIM has previously said that the new range of BlackBerry 10 devices will arrive in the "first quarter," between January and March, after pushing back the scheduled date from later this year.

Speaking to CNET in … Read more

If you're a Sprint customer in Minnesota, Washington, and Oregon, you may be experiencing a significant wireless network outage. Several reports including TechCrunch and the Seattle Times have said Sprint's data service is inoperable.

The computer system of regional Alaska Airlines looks to have been hit by the glitch, too, causing the company to list flight delays. Apparently the trouble started when a key fiber optic cable was cut earlier this morning.

Judging from Sprint's response to CNET, the problem has still not been resolved. See below to see exactly what Sprint had to say.

Vringo, a company that offers ringtones, but has increasingly relied on licensing its patent portfolio, is the latest to take aim at ZTE.

The company announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the Chinese telecommunications equipment company, saying that it has violated three of its patents. According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.K. High Court of Justice, Chancery Division Patents Court, Vringo alleges that ZTE's cellular network technologies, as well as its GSM/UMTS multimode wireless handsets, are violating its patents.

ZTE has suffered through an awfully tough day. In addition to getting … Read more

Perhaps to challenge Verizon's supremacy, AT&T held an exciting press event in New York. On display was everything from the new HTC One X+ to Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 flagship phone, Nokia's Lumia 920. … Read more

The ultraslim PC market, which includes ultrabooks and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina display, is set for explosive growth in the coming years, according to one researcher.

Last year, just 3.4 million ultraslim PCs were shipped worldwide. By 2015, that figure will grow to 65 million, according to new data from NPD DisplaySearch. By then, ultraslim PCs will account for a quarter of all mobile PC shipments.

As NPD DisplaySearch notes, ultraslim PC adoption has been quite slow. According to the researchers, that has been due to high prices across the line and "a lack … Read more

RIM needs a halo smartphone desperately to stem the tide of consumers drifting to Android and iOS. Apparently such a handset, the Aristo, is right around the corner. … Read more

A group of wireless-industry companies -- including AT&T, Clearwire, and HP -- have agreed to a patent pool that could mean fewer lawsuits over the use of LTE technology, Via Licensing Corporation announced today.

The technology-licensing company said it hopes more companies will join the program. In addition to AT&T, Clearwire, and HP, the initial companies contributing their patents to the pool are DTVG Licensing, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, and ZTE.

The LTE patents are so-called "frand," or standard-essential patents, which are technologies required to be licensed on "fair, … Read more