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Sony completed its buyout of the Sony Ericsson brand today and renamed the venture Sony Mobile Communications.

The new effort aims to "integrate the mobile phone business as a vital element of its electronics business, with the aim of accelerating convergence between Sony's lineup of network enabled consumer electronics products, including smart phones, tablets, TVs and PCs," the company said in a statement announcing the deal's closure.

The last major stumbling block to the acquisition was removed late last month when the European Commission gave its approval to the $1.47 billion deal, which was announced last October. … Read more

Google has patched a hole in Google Wallet that could've allowed someone to access a user's funds simply by resetting the PIN and using a prepaid card.

The company said yesterday it has issued a fix that now prevents a prepaid card from being re-provisioned to another person. It has also restored the ability to issue new prepaid cards following a move on Monday to disable the use of such cards.

Osama Bedier, vice president of Google Wallet and Payments, said that he wasn't aware of any actual incidents of people abusing the prepaid cards or Wallet … Read more

OneShar.es can make anyone feel like a spy.

Using the Web site, you can send-self destructing messages to friends, colleagues, or anyone else you may be sending personal information to. The messages are only accessible through a unique URL, and as soon as the URL is viewed once, it is no longer valid.

Using a service like this may seem a bit gimmicky at first, and it is to an extent, but it can come in extremely handy when you want to send personal information and don't like the thought of that information sitting in some e-mail account … Read more

A growing number of Congressional leaders and state officials are urging the Federal Communications Commission to move forward with its review of LightSquared, the controversial startup that plans to build a national wireless broadband network using satellite spectrum.

Last week, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) sent a letter to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in support of the company and its plans.

"I write to express concern about delays in the approval process involving LightSquared's proposed 4G-LTE wireless broadband network," Conyers wrote in a letter sent last week. "I strongly urge the Commission to move with urgency to … Read more

Google has put the brakes on the use of its prepaid cards for Google Wallet after two hacks were discovered that could steal money from a user's account.

Osama Bedier, vice president for Google Wallet and Payments, wrote in a blog on Saturday that the company is taking this action temporarily until it can make a more long-term correction.

"To address an issue that could have allowed unauthorized use of an existing prepaid card balance if someone recovered a lost phone without a screen lock, tonight we temporarily disabled provisioning of prepaid cards," Bedier explained. "We … Read more

Apple has finally scored a win in its never-ending patent battles with Motorola Mobility.

A German judge today found that the iPhone maker did not infringe on a Motorola patent related to wireless technology, according to Florian Mueller's Foss Patents legal blog.

The patent in question covers 3G/UMTS wireless communications and in tech jargon refers to a "method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access [CDMA] signal."

Motorola had argued that any use of 3G/UMTS by Apple would violate the patent. But Judge Andreas Voss was unconvinced, … Read more

LightSquared, the hedge fund-backed company planning to build a nationwide wireless broadband network to compete with AT&T and Verizon Wireless, is asking the Federal Communications Commission to set stricter technical rules for GPS devices.

Today, the company, which has invested billions of dollars to build a wireless broadband network that will blanket the U.S., filed a document with the FCC asking the agency to begin a rule-making process that will enforce strict standards on GPS devices, so that these devices will not inadvertently receive signals that are coming from adjacent spectrum bands.

For more than a year, … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to bring its subsidy programs for low income families into the 21st century by offering funds for basic broadband service for financially disadvantaged Americans.

In its January open meeting Tuesday, the FCC adopted an order that will eliminate the FCC's Link Up program, which offers a one-time $30 credit for the installation of landlines or activation fee for cell phones. And it announced a new pilot program that will direct universal service funds collected for these subsidy programs to offer subsidies for basic broadband service.

The commission also pledged to root out waste, … Read more

AT&T appears to be laying groundwork for a potential deal with Dish Network to get its hands on the satellite provider's newly acquired wireless spectrum.

Last week, AT&T flexed some muscle with the federal government in an attempt to make Dish's wireless spectrum--which it acquired last year for $2.8 billion via deals with two failed wireless companies, DBSD North America and TerreStar Networks--harder for Dish to use and easier for some other company to acquire.

Specifically, AT&T asked the FCC not to place any "restrictions on the transfer and/… Read more