NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu, NEC and Panasonic are discussing a joint venture with Samsung that could be created as early as next year, Reuters reported recently. The companies will develop new smartphone baseband chips in an attempt to compete directly with Qualcomm, which currently has an 80% grip on the baseband chip industry. NTT DoCoMo will be the majority owner in the Japan-based joint venture and the total investment is expected to be about $390 million. The joint venture will help each firm cut down procureme...

Images of what could be a next generation iPhone headed to China Mobile have been re-published by Sohu.com. Is it the real deal? It might be. For one, it runs an unannounced baseband software (version 06.10.01), which could hint that Apple’s prepping support for China Mobile’s 3G TD-SCDMA network. Also, in June, a China Mobile employee said that the iPhone 5 would be arriving in September, and there have been reports of Apple’s COO Tim Cook sitting in meetings with China Mobile execs, which ...

Apple’s next-generation iPhone may launch even later than September this year, as has previously been rumored on numerous occasions. Apple has stuck to a summer launch for each new iPhone model released thus far, but the February introduction of Verizon Wireless’ iPhone 4 and the imminent release of the white iPhone 4 do suggest Apple may deviate from its previous schedule. Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo cited supply chain checks in a note to investors on Monday, in which he suggests A...

If you have an iPhone 4, and are itching to use it on another network, the Dev-Team has got you covered. Early this morning, MuscleNerd announced that ultrasn0w unlocking software — version 1.0-1 — has been updated to work with the iPhone 4. The newer, more inclusive version of ultrasn0w will work with iPhone 4 baseband 01.59 and iPhone 3GS/3G basebands 04.26.04, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, and 05.13.04. If you’re itching to port your number (and your iPhone 4) to another network, jailbreak your iPh...

Dev-team member MuscleNerd gave an update — via Twitter — on the carrier unlock progress of the iPhone 4…and so far, things are looking up. The baseband-unlocking code used by the dev-team on the first, second, and third generation iPhones (ultrasn0w) needs to be completely rewritten for the fourth generation model — thanks to a new baseband employed by Apple. MuscleNerd quips:Next step is to keep the task backgrounded like we did for 3G/3GS http://is.gd/dh7Jh. Backgrounded task is ...

No doubt Apple is leery of having its iPhone OS so easily and frequently hacked (its notoriously weak security being one of the many reasons the iPhone has yet to really take off in the corporate world), but Cupertino’s latest security precaution isn’t likely to win any favor. Just days after a scrappy young iPhone hacked discovered an unlock exploit for OS 3.1.3 baseband 05.12.01, Sherif Hashim received an ominous message on his iPhone after attempting to log into iTunes: “This Apple ID has...

About a week ago, geohot released an update to his iPhone jailbreaking software dubbed Blackra1n RC2, and while that was all well and good for all you AT&T guys, it did leave those of us who need a baseband unlock on our iPieces wanting more. Enter blacksn0w. Demoed on YouTube, the blacksn0w exploit will provide a baseband unlock of the 3.1.x firmware allowing your iPhone to run on your preferred GSM carrier. Blacksn0w will be released to the jailbreaking baseband unlocking masses on November 4th and can ...