GovTechGuy writes “FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said Monday that his agency is going to make it harder for mobile carriers to hit customers with mystery fees on their monthly bills. The practice, known as ‘cramming,’ typically involves charging customers between $1.99 and $19.99 per month for services they either didn’t use or didn’t request. The FCC announced fines totaling nearly $12 million against four carriers for cramming last week.”

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Now they’re just teasing us. Earlier in the week we got some pretty solid visual verification about the existence of an Android-based PlayStation Phone. Now a Sony executive is all but admitting that such a device is in the works.

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Microsoft is gonna actually release a sync tool for us Mac users in a timely manner…now they just need to get us to switch from an iphone lol

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The HTC Mondrian is slated to arrive on AT&T with Windows Phone 7 and is featured in the lastest Microsoft ads to hit the internet.

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Enough with the talk and quick, fleeting glimpses. Microsoft’s finally ready to let us and 1,200 developers play with the next Windows mobile platform.

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kkleiner writes “Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA has developed a microscope attachment for a cell phone – turning the device into a sort of mobile medical lab. It’s both lightweight (~38g or 1.5 oz) and cheap (parts cost around $10). The cellphone microscope can analyze blood and saliva samples for microparticles, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and water borne parasites. Ozcan and his team have recently won three prestigious awards for (more…)

alphadogg writes “Hoping to understand what a new generation of mobile malware could resemble, security researchers will demonstrate a malicious ‘rootkit’ program they’ve written for Google’s Android phone next month at the Defcon hacking conference in Las Vegas. Once it’s installed on the Android phone, the rootkit can be activated via a phone call or SMS message, giving attackers a stealthy and hard-to-detect tool for siphoning data from the phone (more…)

tad001 writes “The Japanese phone giant KDDI has developed a way to track users movements in fine detail. It works by analyzing the movement of accelerometers, found in many handsets. Activities such as walking, climbing stairs, or even cleaning can be identified, the researchers say. The company plans to sell the service to clients such as managers, foremen, and employment agencies.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AT&T tells the FCC that, with consumers embracing VoIP and wireless, it’s time for the agency to schedule a sunset date for landline telephony. But the move could force the Commission to resolve many long-delayed questions about unbundling and the Universal Service Fund.

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andylim writes “Plans for a universal mobile phone charger have been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body. The charger has a micro-USB port at the connecting end, using technology similar to what is commonly used with digital cameras. It is not compulsory for manufacturers to adopt the new chargers, but the ITU says that some have already signed up to it. ‘We are planning to launch the universal charger (more…)