Cody Taylor

Although Apple has downplayed the possibility of a stripped-down iPhone, the Royal Bank of Canada is reiterating claims this week that the company is gearing up to announce two new versions of its touch-screen handset, including an entry-level model that lacks both 3G connectivity and an unlimited data plan.

Apple’s on again-off again negotiations with China’s largest mobile carrier, China Mobile, have supposedly come to a standstill yet again. According to Interfax China, China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is none too thrilled with the idea of Apple selling apps directly to China Mobile customers.

David Burnett recommends an eWeek article on the leading contenders to make an iPhone out of an iPod Touch. Of course your newly phone-capable iTouch needs no activation and no binding carrier contract, just Wi-Fi. One of the companies working in this space, JaJah, is bundling the software with back-end services such as billing, so that carriers — or anyone really — can offer free-calling iTouch phones.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft will unveil the new free cloud service later this month dubbed “My Phone” to let owners of Windows Mobile handsets to back up entire phone to online storage, sync various pieces of data and transfer info to another phone – all over-the-air. How does a free service like this competes with Apple’s a year MobileMe?

Leaving your mobile phone charger at home when you go for a two week long vacation may just be the norm one day as scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Rice University, United States, have successfully created a microchip that uses 30 times less electricity while running seven times faster than today’s best technology.