Counterfeiters have had two years to polish their iPhone look-a-likes, and today, are nearly impossible to identify on the outside, reports CultOfMac.com, which evaluated a video shot by MacMedics and clones being sold on eBay (NSDQ: EBAY). The knock-offs, which typically produced in China, are thin, boast a large display…

Lines started forming in at least Japan and Australia as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) kicked off its second worldwide release of the iPhone 3G S today, Bloomberg reports. The phone also went on sale in Austria, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands, and is now on sale in 14 countries—eight others debuted…

Israeli smartphone ad network Toda!Cell has raised $1 million in its first round of funding led by Israeli VC AfterDox which describes itself as a group of angel Investors, made up of present and former execs from Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), the mobile technology provider.

China’s mobile content giant KongZhong is acquiring Simlife International, a leading Chinese mobile game developer, the company said in a statement today. KongZong has agreed to pay $3 million in cash to the shareholders of Simlife. An additional payment of $1.25 million in cash and 6 million of the company’s…

Trouble for Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) in South Korea. The country’s competition regulator has charged the chip maker with unfair licensing terms, as well as charges that the San Diego-based company acknowledged earlier, according to Reuters, citing an unnamed source.

The largest Taiwanese Telecommunications Company Chunghwa Telecom has signed an agreement with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) to integrate the company’s oneSearch service into the carrier’s portal, according to Lin Jen-Hon (pictured, left), a VP of Chunghwa Telecom’s mobile business group. The Chunghwa Telecom executive told Dow Jones Newswires: “This is a…

Southeast Asia’s biggest telecoms firm SingTel launched a mobile download service Sunday for music and videos in its home market of Singapore, which it plans to take to other parts of Asia. The service, called AMPed, was developed with Universal Music and will help position the carrier’s offering beyond “just…

—China Limits SMS To Combat Spam: China is limiting the amount of SMS that a number can send in a bid to combat spam. China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom have signed an agreement saying that one mobile number cannot send more than 200 messages per hour or 1,000…

Singapore-based mobile marketing firm i-Pop has raised $5 million in a first round of funding. The round was led by Mingly Corporation Singapore, with participation by Infocomm Investments, a fully owned subsidiary of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). I-Pop, which was founded in 2002, will use the funds…

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) may be having difficulties breaking into the content arena, but there’s a few sectors remaining, where it likely won’t bump into the likes of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) or Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO)—that’s in providing services to emerging markets. Nokia said today it was rolling out its “Life Tools”…

—DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) Launches Euro Manga: DoCoMo Netherlands (subsidiary of the eponymous Japanese telco) will launch a mobile service for downloading manga, beginning today in France. Customers of French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom will be able to use the service to download French translations of famous manga into their mobile…

France Telecom reportedly is in talks to buy into Indian mobile operator Aircel, currently majority owned by Malaysian operator Maxis. France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) is seeking to buy a 20-25 percent stake in Aircel, which has about 19.6 million subscribers and is valued at between $7 billion and $8 billion,…

Two months ago during Apple’s quarterly financial call, COO Tim Cook said that their goal is to start selling the iPhone in the Chinese market “within the next year.” Now MacWorld is reporting that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is showing signs of progress. The most compelling information is that a Chinese…

LG Electronics (SEO: 066570) is planning to launch an app store in its home market of South Korea in July, reports Reuters. It’s unclear at this point whether the store will be available to LG phone owners around the world. According to an LG spokesperson, the mobile phone maker launched…

Over the next few years, the handset industry will increasingly polarize between low-end feature phones and high-end smartphones, according to two separate reports released today by Yankee Group and Juniper Research. Yankee Group said that 41 percent of consumers in North America are likely to choose a phone with an…

Ad-funded, youth targeted mobile service provider Blyk is bringing its model of free talk-time and texts in return for viewing advertising to India. Mint reports that senior level recruitment is already underway, according to an unnamed source who was approached for a job at the new operation. Blyk spokesperson Ann…

Intel’s investment arm Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Capital has invested $43 million (¥4.15 billion yen) into UQ Communications, a Japan-based WiMax mobile services provider. The company said it would use the money to continue expanding its UQ WiMax service in Japan, and said it hoped to provide WiMax coverage to 90…

Japan has long been ahead of the pack when it comes to mobile content, but the rest of the world is catching up with the availability (if not the take-up) of high-end games, video and TV and internet. Japanese are now moving to create content on their mobile phones…novels have…

Will third time be luck for the Chinese digital media entertainment provider Hurray? After failing at two previous attempts to be bought, the Nasdaq-traded company has received a new offer from Shanda (NSDQ: SNDA), the online gaming biggie in China, for a majority stake. Under the proposal, Shanda will commence…