China Mobile Reveals Ongoing Talks With Apple Over TD-LTE iPhone.

Customers of China Mobile can look forward to 4G iPhone support in the future, this according to a report by Reuters which quotes Chine Mobile’s Chairman, Wang Jianzhou. The main difference between TD-LTE and your run of the mill LTE is that with the TD standard, voice and data uplink/download channels are combined and split resources based on demand. Standard LTE (FDD-LTE) uses separate, fixed channels. In short: it’s more versatile. According to Jianzhou, China Mobile and Apple have been in talks for a solid two years, with the fruits of their labor to drop in the not too distant future, and ending China Unicom’s exclusive sales rights to Apple’s iPhone.

And to make it clear, China Mobile won’t be the only benefactor in this deal. As China’s largest carrier with a total 584million+ customers (compared to China Unicom’s 167.4 million), Apple has quite the pool of bodies to woo over to team iOS. So if an LTE compliant iPhone is in the cards for China, you can surely bet that a similar version is in the works for the states as well. Maybe not for iPhone 5, but iPhone 6 is looking like a sure bet. Thoughts?

Sense UI Theme Released For Symbian S60 And S^3 Devices.

The once great king in the mobile world, Symbian, is dying a slow, painful death. Among the many upgrades the platform needs, the most easily visible one is the UI. It’s old and stogy (of course, that’s what Maemo is supposed to fix). But thanks to the easily customized nature of the platform, 3rd party skins and themes can be easily installed. On that note, if you’d like to get the HTC Sense UI theme running on your Symbian S60 or S^3 device, a quick trip to the Nokia Mobile Blog will net you all the necessary files. A word of caution: If you’re really interested in this, you’ll want to download the needed files sooner rather than later. Past ports of Sense UI to other platforms have brought out HTC’s legal hounds. I can’t imagine this instance would be any different.

With that out of the way, we’ll add that the theme at least looks rather nice and includes the full swath of features present on any normal HTC handset, save for the obvious such as HTCSense.com support. So go ahead and give it a shot. Be sure to let us know how it goes!

Ridiculous: Modern Warfare 2 Blamed For Russian Airport Bombing.

Try and think back to November 2009 and the early half of 2010 when the Modern Warfare 2 “No Russian” controversy was boiling hot. (For those who don’t know, “No Russian” is a level in MW2 where you are forced to join a group of terrorists and level a fictitious Russian airport.) Now, at face value you may YouTube the level in question and then re-visit the events of the recent Russian airport bombing and say that the two are related. But that would be the dumbest connection you could ever make. Unfortunately, RussiaToday is making that connection.

I’m pretty sure terrorists have been blowing up landmarks and places all over the world, video game/movie/book or not. Saying MW2 is directly or indirectly the root cause of the recent bombing in Russia is based on a flawed thinking — the same flawed thinking that says all violent video games supposedly breed serial killers and other degenerates of society. Of course, the people who carry out these heinous crimes are already messed up in one way or another. But people need something to complain about I guess…

Bakrie Telecom Announces Bolt As Official Esia Browser.

Bakrie Telecom customers have some exciting news tonight — the Indonesian carrier has partnered with Bitstream, the makers of the fabulous Bolt mobile browser, to announce a partnership moving forward. “For the first time, Internet access can be done not only through smartphones but can also be enjoyed by phones in the mid-low end category”, says Erik Meijer, PT Bakrie Telecom deputy president director. Bitstream’s Bolt browser will be the go-to standard for Bakrie’s Esia line of services, which include EV-Do supporting phones such as the Nokia 6316 and Samsung Corby.

The use of Bolt is a notable one, as it is one of the best mobile browsers around. With features such as HTML 5 support, Flash, , light footprint, and pure blinding speed, Indonesian users can be sure they’re getting a top end product.

Those looking to stay up to date with the latest Bitstream has to offer can check out booth #2D23 at MWC February 14th-17th as well as checking out their website. For more information on Bakrie’s Esia products and services, point your browser here instead.

Apple Patents “iGlove” For Touchscreen Devices.

Love your touchscreen-enabled phone, live in a cold climate, and absolutely despise having to take off your gloves to do anything with your phone? Apple hears your cries for help according to a new patent that details a soft-cloth type of glove with thin wires hidden inside the glove. While we are thrilled Apple is thinking of their end users (especially considering they produce a ton of touchscreen-only devices), do they really need to enter the market and sell an overpriced pair of cloth gloves? Off the top of my head, I can think of the IsoToner SmartTouch gloves (reviewed here) and AGloves (reviewed here) — both of which whom have touchscreen compatible gloves, but approach the problem in two very different ways. The AGloves in particular retail for only $10, making them an awesome deal.

But hey, competition’s competition, right? Another slide of iGlove patent material after the jump…

Angry Birds 2 Screenshot Sneaks Out.

For those who can’t get enough of Angry Birds — a reported leaked screenshot of the upcoming Angry Birds 2 that is rumored to be debuting on consoles, not smartphones, first. While we can’t really tell much of anything from a single screenshot (aside from nicer graphics), we can gingerly remind you that the sequel will supposedly be told from the pigs’ point of view. We don’t really care who’s telling the story as long as we get some continued Angry Birds support. You with us?

[Updated] VZW iPhone Hotspot Costs $20/Month Extra. Capped At 2GB.

The big hype around Verizon’s iPhone wasn’t only focusing on the hardware itself, but the data plan and hotspot features. With AT&T losing exclusivity, competition enters the fray. With that said, Verizon announced their iPhone hotspot pricing and limitations today, and it is a little better than AT&T’s tethering/data plan options.

For starters, VZW’s hotspot plan will cost an additional $20/month — not so bad. However, the sticker is that hotspot devices will have a paltry 2GB pool of their to make use of. Go over the initial 2GB and it’s an extra $20/GB — not exactly what we’d call ” a good deal”. Granted, this separate pool of data is better than AT&T’s shared 2GB across all devices, iPhone included. Nevertheless, capping hotspot devices — which are likely to be bigger, more data hungry devices…hence the need to tether to a mobile WiFi hotspot — seems pretty stupid to us.

Now, let’s just sit back and wait to see how AT&T handles themselves, because if anything, this newfound iPhone competition should help keep AT&T light on their toes. What do you think?