Vodafone buys majority stake in Crazy John's

Vodafone has entered into an agreement with phone retailer Crazy John's to acquire majority stake of 75 percent in the Australian mobile phone chain, owned by Patricia Ilhan, the widow of Crazy John's founder John Ilhan, and another 8.3 percent stake owned by National Australia Bank Ltd. Under the agreement, Vodafone will have access to over more than 120 stores across the country.

The development follows the partnership Crazy John's established with Vodafone shortly before Ilhan's death in October 2007, after cutting its ties with Telstra.

Sony Ericsson to launch Xperia shortly

Sony Ericsson has announced September 30 as the official launch date for its highly anticipated Xperia X1, which will be available in APAC, Western Europe, Central Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The handsets had been initially available to consumers in the UK, Germany, and Sweden. Availability dates for North America, China, Australia, and Russia along with some other countries will be announced by local markets in the coming months.

The Xperia X1 is the first product under Sony Ericsson's new premium sub-brand Xperia, designed to meet consumers' needs for a converged entertainment and mobile web communication experience.

Google's Android to hit markets in Dec

Google will foray into the mobile phone space with the launch of ‘Android' based ‘GPhone' in December. The handset will be built in alliance with HTC and will be 3G compatible. It is also said that Google is ready to launch the phone in alliance with T-Mobile in the UK amid developments, which have been kept as secretive as possible.

With features just as Apple's iPhone, the GPhone has already attracted a lot of attention and interest due to speculations that it may revolutionize mobile advertising.

Microsoft, RIM to launch Live Search for Blackberry

Microsoft Corp. and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced they are working together to integrate rich Live Search capabilities into the Blackberry Browser and Blackberry Maps.

Blackberry smartphone users will be able to use Microsoft Live Search as their search engine of choice within the Blackberry Browser. This search engine will leverage the wireless data optimization capabilities of the Blackberry solution to deliver results quickly for users on the go. Blackberry customers will also be able to use Live Search to perform contextual, location-sensitive searches or look for nearby points of interest from inside BlackBerry Maps.

Live Search on Blackberry will allow users to search the web's information'whether they're looking for the latest weather forecasts, images, stock quotes, restaurants, news headlines, or websites.

Google acquires Korean blogging co

Google has acquired Tatter, a Korean blogging software developer, which would help Google increase its market share in the country. Google has struggled to gain market share in Korea because many Internet users there are locked into Web portal-style services. These services funnel users through one central point for all their Internet needs and limit some of the freewheeling exploration of different sites that helps Google sell more ads.