We could start off by telling you just how much this decision will hurt Qualcomm and just how celebratory the mood must be at Broadcom, but instead, we'll key you in on this quote: "The appeals court also rejected Qualcomm's request for a new trial." At long last, we may have actually heard the end of what has seemed like a never-ending battle between the aforementioned parties. Today, a US Appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that Qualcomm had indeed infringed upon two Broadcom patents while ruling that a third patent in question was invalid. The ruling is obviously a huge win for Broadcom, who will soon be bathing in Benjamins as Qualcomm is forced to pay mandatory royalties for the chips it sells during the "sunset period" ending January 31, 2009.

[Via Reuters]

SkyTerra's Mobile Satellite Ventures, ICO Global Communications and Qualcomm have jointly announced today a partnership that could have far-reaching implications in the mobile realm. In short, the trio has agreed to "integrate satellite and cellular communication technology in select multi-mode mobile baseband chips," which will essentially enable handsets to have "ubiquitous mobile communications coverage from anywhere in North America, including areas where traditional cellular service is currently unavailable or unreliable." The release proclaims that this hookup will lead to satellite connectivity being in mass-market devices, but only time will tell how long it takes for compatible handsets to get adopted by carriers. Unfortunately, we do know it won't happen prior to 2010, as that's the planned ship date for the newfangled chips. Thanks for the heads-up, guys -- but oh, how the tease hurts us.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Update: Images provided are of Mobile Satellite Ventures' design concepts.

Ooh, Qualcomm you been naughty. You might remember that last year Qualcomm was banned from selling various 3G chips that infringed on Broadcom's patents, but the big Q apparently believes that being in trouble is a fake idea, because it kept right on doing it -- to the point where a judge yesterday found the company in contempt for violating the injunction and ordered it to pay up gross profits from sales of its QChat push-to-talk tech to Broadcom. The court gave Qualcom 30 days to figure out how much it owes -- Sprint's paid over $93M to use the tech since last December, so it's not going to be peanuts. Qualcomm says it'll immediately comply, but is planning on appealing the order, so we'll how this all goes down.

Just in time for the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election, MediaFLO has added in a trio of news sources to give you your fix wherever you are. CNBC, MSNBC and FOX News have all been added to the lineup in order to give you varying views on the same topics at hand. Available to Verizon Wireless and AT&T subscribers, the channels will offer simulcast programming in line with what's happening on the tele, though we'd caution you not to watch too much coverage during your morning board meeting.

[Via phonescoop]

Sure took long enough, but it looks like Qualcomm is finally getting around to... uh, getting around to its pet project MVNO that's been on the back burner for the past year or so. The company's CEO says the delays in launching can be chalked up to the fact that it didn't want to be the primary investor in LifeComm; those issues have finally been fleshed out (read: there's money flowing in from other sources) and it'll be announcing a chief along with a concrete business model in September. Details are still exceedingly scarce on exactly what LifeComm intends to do, but it seems that it'll focus on providing specialized phones that help users manage health conditions and / or improve their well-being, and both enterprise environments and individuals will be targeted as potential customers. The MVNO debacle has stretched far and wide the past couple years, yes, but with a unique focus like this, Qualcomm could still have a breadwinner on its hands.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Sanjay Jha has a fairly daunting task ahead of him, but the new co-CEO is already vowing to stomp his foot down and make some changes for the better within three months. While speaking to an audience of analysts and media, the new Motorola exec stated that he would be reviewing the firm's device platforms / product roadmap within 90 days, and he's also planning to make "hires in areas where he doesn't have experience." Thankfully, that latter tidbit includes hires in product design, which -- judging by the looks of its Alexander -- really needs some fresh brains to step in. Of course, we wouldn't expect a new bigwig to say anything other than this, so the real test comes in T-minus eighty-some-odd days when we see how he delivers. The clock's ticking, Mr. Jha.

One of the longest-running -- and certainly most fascinating -- soap operas in the entire wireless world, the seemingly endless patent drama between Nokia and Qualcomm, has finally drawn to an amicable (dare we say anti-climactic) close. After just a single day of arbitration, the two firms have basically agreed to a patent swap, allowing Nokia to use all of Qualcomm's patents and vice versa. Furthermore, Nokia is just stone-cold handing over a bunch of patents it holds related to GSM, WCDMA, and OFDMA, which presumably means companies that are currently licensing those patents can get ready to start writing those checks to Qualcomm. What's more, Espoo's dropping its anti-competition claims against Qualcomm in Europe -- but beyond that, specific terms (read: cash money) weren't disclosed beyond the typical PR pleasantries that both sides are happy with the outcome. If this means we finally have to retire our Nokia-Qualcomm starburst graphic, we're going to pout like little children, so we can only hope these two lovebirds find something else to squabble over in the not-too-distant future.

Looks like that agreement between Nokia and Qualcomm to postpone the dozen or so lawsuits they've filed against each other worldwide while an arbitrator tries to help sort out the mess is starting to bear some fruit -- the two cellphone giants are headed to court in Delaware on Wednesday to start the healing. In essence, Qualcomm says that Nokia still owes license fees on a CDMA agreement that expired in 2007 since it's been using the patented tech, and Nokia says that it doesn't owe anything because it's shelled out over $1B since 2001 and giving Qualcomm any more cash would be unfair. Not surprisingly for these two, it's likely that the outcome here will essentially be a draw, with the judge ruling that Qualcomm can charge whatever it wants, but that Nokia didn't extend the agreement. We'll see how things go, though -- this is just the beginning of what could very well be the early start of close to the end. Video summary of the entire dispute after the break.

Though some newer firmware revs for affected HTC devices have touted video performance tweaks, the company's still not terribly interested in coming out with outright hardware-accelerated binaries to fully support the dormant ATI Imageon circuitry on board, citing a host of technical issues. That's been an ongoing source of ire for some in the user community who've complained of lackluster video playback performance, and after giving up on an official solution, there's been a grassroots effort for homebrew drivers that's finally starting to yield some paydirt. 2D (read: video playback, among other things) acceleration still isn't in the cards, but HTCClassAction.org has released binaries and sample vids showing improved 3D performance thanks to newfound Direct3D and OpenGL ES acceleration. On the issue of whether 2D efforts have been abandoned, the organizers say "we have not [abandoned it], it may still come. The simple fact is, that in this particular case, it was easier to work with the 3D drivers first." Anyone want to test these out and see if your hair's getting blown back by the blistering performance? Follow the break for the full video.

[Thanks, Bernard]

It doesn't sound like Qualcomm has all of its legal woes here in America worked out just yet, but apparently that won't stop fat-walleted USers from snapping up the forthcoming HTC Advantage X7510 real soon. Both Dynamism and On The Go Solutions are expecting stock any day now, and they'll be shipping to your US-based address so long as you're willing to accept a $1,299 charge on your preferred piece of plastic. Before you brush this off as absurd, listen to that devil on your shoulder whispering things like "5-inch VGA display" and "HSDPA." Hmm.

[Via Pocketables]
Read - Dynamism
Read - On The Go Solutions

As if things weren't confusing enough in the world of tiny computers, Qualcomm went and blurted off news about a $299 machine that will run Windows Mobile 7 on its Snapdragon mobile chip set. Qualcomm's senior veep Luis Pineda boasted that the machine will run WinMo7 and is more efficient than its competitors from the likes of Intel, AMD, and Via. When pressed, he wouldn't give up any additional hardware specs, but he promises a "big presence in Snapdragon-based devices at CES 2009". This isn't the first time we've seen mention of Windows Mobile 7, but it's quite possibly the first tie-in with a specific product group. We look forward to the Snapdragon-Intel-AMD-Via mobile computing war in the coming year, indeed.

Well well, what have we here? Nary a fortnight after Qualcomm committed $16.3 million in the UK to scoop up about 40MHz worth of nationwide spectrum to test MediaFLO there, along comes word that two huge across-the-pond players may be interested. If you'll recall, Qualcomm noted that it wouldn't be launching commercially in the UK sans a partner, but according to the Financial Times, O2 has expressed interest in the chipmaker's plans, specifically noting that "MediaFLO is a technology well suited to providing TV to mobiles." Beyond that, Auntie Beeb proclaimed that she was "watching the current situation with interest." We know, this could all boil down to nothing in a matter of seconds, but it's certainly worth keeping an eye on until that does / doesn't happen.

[Via IntoMobile]

Not too much news on the BREW front of late, but this one's pretty big. Just this week, Qualcomm and Adobe jointly announced Flash support for the BREW Mobile Platform. Reportedly, the software will "fully integrate and deliver Adobe Flash technology to mass market handset devices," and it'll also enable Flash developers to "create standalone applications that integrate mobile device functionality with web content and services." Beyond that, there's just a bunch of back-patting going on in the release, but if you're into that kind of thing, feel free to make you way down to the read link.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Even though we've seen a couple of US e-tailers offering HTC's latest Advantage, the X7510, up for pre-order, it seems that the handheld won't actually be sold here for at least awhile. According to jkOnTheRun, the X7510 possesses one of those hotly-debated Qualcomm chipsets that cannot be sold on American soil -- presumably due to all those legal issues the firm is currently wading through. Of course, folks that just can't fathom living another quarter without one can cough up the requisite dough to snag one from an importer, but otherwise, it looks like you USers are clean out of luck (at least for the moment).