NYC

Well, we already know that a certain tractor manufacturer isn't particularly fond of LightSquared and its GPS-bustin' LTE technology, but  other  companies with yellow logos apparently harbor a much different sentiment. Really, though, who wouldn't be smiling when there's a supposed $20 billion in it for you? According to the ever-familiar "people familiar" with the story, as quoted by  Businessweek , LightSquared is getting closer to a long-rumored 15-year deal that would pay Sprint $20 billion in exchange for piggy-backing on its aggressive network expansion. This would help LightSquared get up to speed much more quickly, get Sprint access to some lovely LTE, and together completely revitalize the paper maps industry. Businessweek

Last November, to the surprise and dismay of many, the European Commission decided it needed to stimulate some homegrown innovation in the mobile space and pulled together €22 million in a public/private investment designed to help Symbian get ahead. It was intended to turn Nokia's former lover into the Embedded Operating System for Europe (hence the name SYMBEOSE), but alas the breakupbetween Symbian and the Finnish mobile maker was too much to overcome. The EC has decided, quite rightly, that there's no sense in continuing its symbtopia project, and now a member of Neelie Kroes'team has confirmed the entire venture has been cancelled. European taxpayers (two of whom you see on the right) will also be glad to know that no money has exchanged hands, so the bullet has been well and truly dodged. Guess that's why they're looking so happy. Update:  Nokia has confirmed the foregoing in a statement, which you can find after the break. "Nokia has been made aware...

Microsoft this morning added Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE to its stable of Windows Phone hardware partners, but look at that image above and you'll find one name missing. Yes, Michael Dell's surname is a notable absentee from the group of Mango manufacturers, which prompted us to reach out to someone in charge to see what's what. A Microsoft rep informed us that the company has nothing to announce on that front at present, but urged us to "stay tuned," whatever that may mean. If you're wondering where Nokia is, fret not, it's still very much in Microsoft's future plans, it just got a separate mention. As to Dell? Not a peep in the entire keynote. This comes only a day after a  Wall Street Journal  article mentioned Dell's intention to reduce its presence in the consumer market and focus on its enterprise strengths -- could an abandonment of Windows Phone be one of those steps? Update:  Dell is not off the list of WP7 hardware manufacturers. Microsoft t...

Man, social networks have taken on a loose definition as of late, haven't they? Toyota just announced plans to launch one for its customers, and while our initial reaction was an eye-roll and sighs of "what the world needs now," the truth is that it's really just a system that uses Twitter and Facebook to let you know when something's amiss. Dubbed Toyota Friend (and built on Salesforce.com's private Chatter network), the service will dish up battery power warnings to electric vehicle owners, along with maintenance tips -- advice that can pop up on phones, tablets, and "other advanced mobile devices." In addition to their friendly neighborhood car dealerships, folks can befriend other cars and the friends and family who own them, though it's unclear from the press release below why you'd care. (Okay, we suppose if we had a teenage driver we might want to know if they were about to break curfew.) If that all sounds like bunk, you probably won...

Steve Ballmer made an appearance today at BlackBerry World 2011 and after briefly pimping Windows Phone live on stage, announced a partnership between Microsoft and RIM to integrate Bing into BlackBerry products. In addition to making Bing the default search and map provider for all BlackBerry devices going forward, the services will be added at the OS level instead of being bundled as a series of apps. This will provide features ranging from voice and location-aware search to panorama stitching. It also suggests that we'll likely see another iteration of the BlackBerry OS beyond version 7 -- based onQNX, perhaps? -- sometime before the holidays. Update : We dropped in a video after the break demonstrating a future (aka, this coming holiday season) where Bing is integrated into the BlackBerry OS. Hope you can handle the hipness.