Fido Giving First Month of Service for Free, Google Has Voice-Recognition Virtual Assistant & Verizon’s $300 Galaxy Nexus Price Tag Too High?

Fido Giving New Customers First Month of Service for Free
Fido just launched the BlackBerry Curve 9360 and it seems they want to possibly entice a few more customers this holiday season. If you sign up with them you’ll be given the first month of service for free.
MobileSyrup

Verizon’s $300 Galaxy Nexus Price Tag Too High? Check Out These Deals
Now if you absolutely have to have a Galaxy Nexus today, Verizon stores are likely to be your first thought, but chances are you won’t be alone in your quest.
TechCrunch

Google Has Voice-Recognition Virtual Assistant to Compete With Siri
Google may be working on a voice-recognition assistant for Android under the codename of Majel, according to an unconfirmed report. AndroidandMe.com claims the company plans to expand its existing Google Voice Actions, already available on most Android phones, by adding a natural language processing feature.
Mashable

Intel Merges Four Mobile Units Into One, Argument Over Parking Spaces Forthcoming
Intel is combining its netbook and tablets, ultra-mobility, mobile communications and mobile wireless divisions into a “Mobile and Communications” super-unit. It’s aiming to catch up with the portable chip big boys like Qualcomm and NVIDIA.
Engadget

No Calls in Cars, Android Leads US Market Share & Nokia Again Rumored to Sell Smartphone Business to Microsoft

Rogers Discontinuing Portable Internet Service March 1st, 2012, Now Only Option for Rural Customers is a 4G HSPA+ Device
Bell and Rogers independently sell various internet products and the roll out has been slow, but certainly needed. Apparently Rogers customers who have signed up for the Portable Internet service have been informed that the service will be discontinued effective March 1st, 2012 – with the only option to switch to Rogers “4G” HSPA+ device, such as a Rocket Hub or internet stick.
MobileSyrup

No Calls in Cars, Even Hands-Free: NTSB Wants U.S.-Wide Cellphone Ban
That was the ruling the NTSB issued Tuesday, in what chairman Deborah A. P. Hersman called “a difficult recommendation, but the right recommendation.” Her five-member board agreed to a new set of guidelines that go far beyond laws that any states have on the books yet.
Mashable

Android Leads US Market Share, iOS May Have Stopped Growing, RIM is Still Falling
NPD just published its latest plotting of the great American smartphone OS rivalry, and although the report covers annual rather than quarterly trends, it’s perhaps more interesting to hold it up against the previous set of figures we saw — those for Q2 2011.
Engadget

Nokia Again Rumored to Sell Smartphone Business to Microsoft
Rumors again surfaced on Wednesday suggesting that Nokia plans to sell its smartphone business to Microsoft. Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest bank, issued a report to clients Wednesday morning that said Nokia will sell its smartphone division to Microsoft during the first half of 2012.
BGR

Nokia Lumia 710 Now Shipping, Rogers Samsung Galaxy S Glide Drops to $0.01 & Which Smartphone Has the Best Camera?

Nokia Lumia 710 Now Shipping, Global Rollout Slated for ‘Coming Weeks’
It’s been a few months coming, but today, Nokia announced that its Lumia 710 handset has finally hit store shelves in Taiwan, ahead of its broader international release.
Engadget

Rogers Samsung Galaxy S Glide Drops to $0.01 on a 3-year
Like touchscreens? Like slider QWERTY keyboards? Like Android? Like 3-year contracts? Rogers has dropped the price of the Samsung Galaxy S Glide to $0.01 today.
MobileSyrup

Which Smartphone Has the Best Camera?
Top of the line smartphone cameras now boast specs that rival compacts. The difference is that you get a phone thrown in for good measure and making the decision which one to buy is a difficult one, particularly for those not quite persuaded by the supposed 1080p and 8-megapixel goodness that all the top handsets declaim. As such it’s about time to pick the best of the bunch with a cameraphone shootout.
Pocket-lint

App Store Rewind: Apple’s Top Apps of 2011
Apple released the list of its best and most popular apps on Thursday. The App Store Rewind features 20 categories from Travel to Games, and names the top five apps of each category. This year the Rewind separated iPhone and iPad apps, with some of the apps overlapping.
Mashable

Developer Of ‘Social Keyboard’ Android App SwiftKey Raises $2.4 Million

TouchType, the London-based company behind the popular SwiftKey Android applications, has raise $2.4 million (1.5 million) in Series A funding in a round led by Octopus Investments.

SwiftKey is a keyboard app that leverages TouchType’s natural language engine technology (dubbed Fluency) to learn a user’s writing style and try to accurately correct and even predict their text input. The idea is for the app to reduce the number of keystrokes and speed up text entry on smartphones and tablet computers.

To date, SwiftKey has been downloaded more than 3.5 million times, TouchType says.

The company will use the capital to enhance its products, strengthen its executive, commercial and technical teams and to increase its worldwide presence, particularly in the US and Asia.

Octopus co-invested in TouchType with Cambridge Capital Group, Jon Craton (founder of Cramer Systems), Nick Hynes and Carl Uminski (CEO and COO of Somo, respectively),;Richard Brennan (former CMO of Orange) and Andrew Thornton (barrister with Erskine Chambers).