• Telecom equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled a deal to pay $1.2 billion for the majority of U.S.-based Motorola Inc.'s network equipment business, moving to gain a stronger foothold in the important North American and Japanese markets. The deal will also provide economies of scale and synergies in areas such as mobile broadband, Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said in an interview Monday. Nokia Siemens, a joint venture between Finland's Nokia Corp. and Germany's Siemens AG, said it expects the transaction to strengthen its business relationships with a number of telecom operators including China Mobile Ltd. Sprint Nextel Corp. and Vodafone Group PLC. The stronger relationships are necessary as it finds itself squeezed by market leader Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and rising upstart Huawei Technologies Co.
• The problem with the antenna -- a software glitch that overstated network signal strength in the iPhone 4 -- hurt the U.S. technology giant's image as well as its stock, which is down 7 percent since June 28. At a rare Apple press conference on Friday, Jobs rejected any suggestion the iPhone 4's design was flawed, but offered consumers free phone cases to address reception complaints. "We believe Apple accomplished its objective of addressing the iPhone 4 antenna issues to its customers and, more importantly, relieving the excitement levels and tension with the press," BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman wrote in a research report.
• Drug abusers have found a new way to get high and they can do it using the internet. The new buzzword is i-dosing. Users go to a website that plays i-dosing music and they are treated to a series of high pitched squeals and whines that get the user high when the volume is turned up all the way using headphones. Officials are starting to take notice and take it seriously.
• We knew it would happen sooner or later, the utility industry i.e. electric and water companies, are being targeted for attack by a new Trojan type of virus. So far the attack has not been very effective, but they will try again. After all, the code for the new smart meters was done by China and other Asian countries because it was cheaper to outsource it that way. The code is delivered via USB thumb drives, and they somehow got a hold of the security encryption code for Real Networks which was able to fool Windows security by saying it was a trusted source of that company.
• The new Droid X phone has already sold out when it debuted last Thursday. Its possibly due to Apple’s iPhone 4 antenna flaws and the way the initially handled the problem. Steve Jobs offered a free case to alleviate the antenna issues, but the entire debacle has called one Microsoft exec to say this is Apple’s “Vista”.
• Facebook has signed up its 500 millionth user. It will celebrate the achievement by posting Facebook Stories where people can tell their story on how Facebook changed their lives. Facebook stories is likely to leave the out millions of wasted man hours on Farmville, the thousands of people who have been fired for posting drunken photo updates at work, or the untold multitude of people who had their identity sold or stolen. But congratulations anyway.
• Several hardware makers on Monday released prototypes of smartphones based on Windows Phone 7, a new operating system on which Microsoft is betting its future in the increasingly important mobile device market. Asus, LG, and Samsung are now shipping their versions of Windows Phone 7 smartphones to software developers to allow the latter group to start building applications for the devices. Microsoft plans to launch an Apple-style app store for Windows Phone 7, and it's crucial that a rich selection of software is available for the platform at launch if Microsoft and its partners are to keep up with the latest offerings from Apple and Google.
• Casual game developers PopCap Games ( Bejeweled, Peggle) will bring tower defense title Plants vs. Zombies to Xbox Live this fall. The game's console debut will feature seven game modes, including a multiplayer component for the first time in the series, says PopCap in a statement. For those new to Plants vs. Zombies, players must defend their house from a zombie invasion by planting special items such as Pea Shooters and Potato Mines. Collecting sunshine allows players to stock up on points used toward purchasing new and stronger plants.
• It's now time to die for the Nexus One, Google's ambitious attempt to revolutionize the smart phone market by selling directly to customers. In a blog post blandly titled "Update: Nexus One changes in availability" -- and published with traditional bad-news-dump Friday-afternoon timing -- Google announced that it had received its last shipment of Nexus One phones and would stop selling the phone online once that allotment ran out.

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