I’m not sure I follow this story, but if it’s true it could be important for the burgeoning Android device market. The blog Paris Lemon points to a story that’s been buried under today’s spate of Kindle news: Microsoft just issued a press release concerning a patent portfolio cross-licensing partnership it just signed with Samsung. Included in the press release is the sentence, “Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will receive royalties for Samsung’s mobile phones and tablets running the Android mobile platform.” Paris Lemon points out that this means that of the three major Android OEMs,...

We don't hear much about Nokia phones here in the US as Nokia is just a fringe player in the market. In the worldwide market, however, Nokia, with its Symbian operating system, is the world leader in phones. Thus it's nice to see recognized software, like eReader, finally catching up to Nokia. Ewan Spence of All About Symbian has a review of the latest 4.0 version of eReader for Symbian. Here's the result of the review. You an read the full text here. While eReader has some flaws, none of them are show stoppers; and the service behind...

UPDATE: Since this story was posted, a couple more items have come to light regarding the TechCrunch vs. Fusion Garage situation. I have placed them below the jump and updated the timestamp. The handheld-related lawsuits are flying today. First, the latest salvo in the sordid story of TechCrunch vs. Fusion Garage. Michael Arrington posts that the lawsuit has been filed, and includes a link to the 41-page filing (PDF). Arrington makes a number of allegations, some stranger than others. One is that he believes Fusion Garage’s financial status is very insecure, and it is his opinion that the...

This is one exciting piece of tech and could turn into a fantastic ereader. The phone is available on pre-order from Amazon at $559. It's GSM, so it's a world phone, has a 3.5 inch display, qwerty keyboard, 5-megapixel camera, gps, wifi, bluetooth etc. This is the replacement for Nokia's various internet tablets. It uses the new Maemo 5 operating system that Nokia may use to replace Symbian in its high end devices. Along with hardware accelerated graphics the machine has a 1 GHz processor, 32GB of internal storage, 1GB of internal memory and up to 16GB of...

Here is an article that describes the various ereading options avaialble on the Nokia N97, but they should work on many other Nokia phones as well. Nice to see this, as Nokia is often left out in discussions of ereading platforms. Many of the Nokia smartphones have wonderful, large and crisp screens. We're just not used to seeing them in the US. I find the screen on my Nokia E71 to be wonderful and it runs Mobipocket just fine. The Nokia N97 is one of the most versatile handsets in the Nokia armoury. The 3.5-inch touchscreen is...

Nokia Beta Labs has released a Braille reader for SMS messages. The application has been developed in a joint project between Nokia, Tampere University and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired. It runs on Nokia devices based on S60 5th Edition, including Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic and the newly released N97 mini, 5530, 5230 and X6. Details: We here at Nokia, and our partners as well, have been thinking of how to do something concrete about accessibility for quite some while. And now, our new Nokia Braille Reader...

This is a big deal for all us Nokia fans. For those who don't know (mostly here in the US) Nokia has opened its own app store under the "Ovi" moniker. As Nokia is the largest phone seller in the world this means lots of people will be looking there for an ereader. This is from the Wattpad press release: Wattpad, the world’s most popular ebook community, today announced the availability of its popular mobile application on Nokia Ovi Store. “Nokia devices have always been the most popular among Wattpad users,” said Eva Lau, COO of Wattpad. ...

Nokia is the largest phone manufacturer in the world with a market share of 38% worldwide. That's a lot of phones. The 5800 is one of Nokia's new touch screens, and All About Symbian has an article about using Mobipocket on it, as well as on the N97, Nokia's newest top end phone, pictured above. I have a couple of Nokias, and even though I love my iPhone, there is no question that the Nokias are far better phones qua phones. Mobipocket runs fine on my E71, but the screen is so small compared to my iPhone that...

 Too bad! But the Symbian OS, offered in Nokia phones and others, is big, big, big outside the U.S. If Nokia did do Android, of course, that would make it much easier for some e-book app developers. Image is of a typical Nokia S60 interface under Symbian. Not exactly Android-snazzy. Related: Nokia/Android reports in the Guardian and elsewhere....

TigerDirect is selling the Nokia 810 internet tablet (the one with the keyboard) for only $224.99. This is a great price and the 810 makes an excellent ebook machine, as FBReader runs perfectly on it. I have the two earlier Nokia tablets and they work wonderfully. Their WIFI connectivity is easy to use and is quite sensitive. I recommend the Tablets to anyone who is looking for a portable connectivity solution along with an ebook reader....

Nokia says it might enter the laptop biz. And why not? Cellphones and laptops are converging. And Nokia's Internet tablets, like the N810, shown here, pack the wallop of the laptops of yore. Perhaps Nokia could also think about putting out an app-rich tablet---with a  screen six inches or bigger---if Apple keeps ignoring this niche. Related: New screens, $200 prices could boost netbooks as e-readers. Plus, tablet capabilities from Asus in March....

Editor's Note: The following was originally published in a slightly different form yesterday on PalmAddicts, another site that I write for. I thought our readers might be interested, especially if they are considering buying an iPhone for e-book reading. Since (inadvertently!) taking over TeleRead's management my phone usage has changed quite a bit. First, I have much more need for email than I did before. I need to be in touch with our writers and the other editors constantly. The iPhone just doesn't cut the mustard for this. It is just impossible, for...