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Google to buy Modu patents, hopefully leave Nokia alone
It took complete failure to do it, but it looks like Modu founder Dov Moran finally found that new source of capital he went hunting for last November. In an effort to pay back creditors and unpaid wages, the firm's patent portfolio is slated to be snatched up by Google for roughly $4.8 million. What's Mountain View going to do with a mess of ultra-lite modular phone patents? It didn't come up, but we wouldn't be too surprised if it had something to do with its Danger-powered hardware wing and Android Open Accessory. Putting Modu to rest hasn't phased 'ol Dov, though; Israeli news source Calcalist reports that he's already invested three million smackers in a mysterious new start up -- about which Moran remains tight lipped. Goodnight, Modu; we'll always remember you as the audacious underdog who had the brass to tell Nokia to say their prayers.
Modu barely alive after failed bid for capital, laying off most of its employees
Modu hasn't really stormed the market with any of its miniature offerings just yet, and even with the just-announced Modu T and the upcoming Android-based Modu W offering a chance to turn things around, it looks like Modu is up against the financial ropes. Founder Dov Moran just announced that the company had failed to raise money in Tel Aviv, and he's going to have to lay off most of his workforce to stay alive. Modu currently employs around 30 people, and it's naturally going to have trouble building and selling phones with any fewer, but Dov says the company will "continue to sell its products" and he's going to be on the hunt for "other sources of capital."
Modu reveals the T, a tiny modular Brewphone, keeps us waiting for the Android-based W
Modu Mobile finally came clean about the T-phone today, but we're afraid it's bittersweet news -- it's not the lilliputan Android device we've been lusting after for months (that's coming "in the near future") but rather a Brew-based tri-band phone with a 2.2-inch QVGA touchscreen on the relatively old QSC6270 chipset. Thankfully, it does have a host of modular accessories that up its geek quotient radically. You can "camerafy" your Modu by sliding it into a 5 megapixel shell, "sportfy" it with an exercise armband sleeve, "boostify" by slotting it into a combo speaker dock / base station, or even "textify" by adding a vertical QWERTY keyboard. Considering the phone is apparently still Guinness-certified as the lightest touchscreen device in the world, we imagine these combinations will be similarly svelte, but we'll still be waiting for the Android-infused Modu W to appear, thank you very much. PR after the break. %Gallery-104718%
Modu W (a.k.a. T-Phone) scores FCC approval
Modu's tiny, Android-based T-Phone still hasn't made much of a public showing outside of a rare in the wild appearance last month, but it has now finally turned up at the FCC, which hopefully means its getting closer to a release. Judging from the manual that the FCC has kindly provided, it looks like the phone is now called the Modu W, but complete specs are otherwise still a bit hard to come by. It is presumably still hanging onto its title of the world's lightest touchscreen phone, however, and there's still a curious lack of any mention of 3G capabilities -- previous reports have suggested data use would be WiFi-only. Here's hoping that's not the case, but it looks like we're going to have to wait for Modu to get official with this thing to know for sure.
