Qualcomm may be many things, but it ain't stupid. On what basis do we make that bold claim? Historically, it's been very good about supporting and profiting from standards that aren't its own with one hand, even as it's pushing alternatives with the other. They've pulled this trick recently with comprehensive LTE support with CDMA migration -- a double whammy, considering that CDMA is Qualcomm's baby and LTE goes head to head with Qualcomm's UMB. Now, the firm is pairing up its MediaFLO mobile TV tech on a single hunk of silicon with support for ISDB-T, used in Japan and Brazil; essentially, the idea is that free programing would flow over ISDB-T and pay channels would come down on the FLO signal. It's an interesting concept, we suppose, but with mobile TV yet to be a profitable venture in most parts of the globe, it might be still be an idea just a bit ahead of its time.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Sharp is showing off a nifty little (if you can call 22 millimeters of thickness "little") one-seg clamshell with a pivoting screen for Softbank customers, the 911SH. The phone apparently looks to displace the outgoing (and similarly-styled) 905SH, though it's not much of an upgrade -- the camera remains unchanged at 2 megapixels, Bluetooth carries over, and the Aquos-branded screen rocks the same 400 x 240 resolution, though it gets upped to 3 inches. The major draws here, then, appear to be the switch from miniSD to microSD expansion (if you can really call that an upgrade) and the availability of seven tasty colors.

[Via Mobilewhack]