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RIM reportedly scraps the Colt and Milan, leaving London as sole BlackBerry 10 device?
And then there was... one? BGR is reporting that the folks at Research in Motion have not only scrapped plans for the BlackBerry Colt, originally expected to be the first BlackBerry 10 superphone out of the gate, but the rumored Milan as well (which was also reported by N4BB). If true, this would leave the BlackBerry London as the one and only QNX-based device in the works, suggesting RIM is taking a huge gamble by putting all of its eggs in one basket when it launches the new OS later this year. Additionally, the site reports that the London will have a slightly different design from the prototype leaked a couple months ago, and that the Milan wasn't actually a BlackBerry 10 device at all, but instead was supposed to run OS 7. Remember this is all according to "people familiar with the matter," which means the rumor is completely unconfirmed at this time.
London scraps plans for cellular coverage on the tube, bums Huawei out
Technical complexity and financial naiveté have meant that London's ambitious plans to cover its underground train network with cellular signal by the 2012 Olympics are hitting the scrapheap. In spite of Huawei's most generous offer to provide £50 million ($81m) of equipment for the project for free, the London Mayor's wish that UK mobile operators be the ones to foot the installation bill -- without a penny coming out of public coffers -- has unsurprisingly found little favor. Compounded with the logistical hellride of trying to get everything up and running by next summer, that's now led to a mutual agreement among all parties concerned to abandon the project. Mind you, the plans to get WiFi up at 120 stations in time for the Olympics are still on track, so at least we'll be able to pull down some data before diving into those dark, damp tunnels.
Motorola Ivory E18 luxury phone developed, scrapped
If you're considering a luxury cellphone, you've probably given some thought to the Aura -- either as an object of unattainable techno-lust, or as a way to lighten your wallet by a grand or two (don't even get us started in Vertu). According to Mobile Review, Motorola wasn't planning on stopping there: The Ivory E18 (a name which either evokes elegance or animal cruelty, depending on your POV) featured a slider with two movements (a short slide for function keys, and a longer for the T9 keypad), a small footprint, and a 3 megapixel camera. The price? Well, for the stainless steel chassis you were looking at about €2,000 (about $2,821 at the moment). Also planned were phones with gold and platinum chassis, which would take the purchase price up to "several tens of thousands" of Euros. If Motorola wasn't aware of the sheer silliness of such an extravagant phone, at least the carriers were -- apparently it was lack of interest on their part that caused Moto to sack the project. Make sure you hit that read link for the whole story -- in Bulgarian.[Via Unwired View]
