U.S. authorities said on Wednesday they had filed suit against five online companies, charging they had illegally sold confidential phone records. The Federal Trade Commission said it is asking a court to bar the sale of the phone records and force the companies to give up the money they made with their operations. The FTC lawsuits come amid a wave of concerns about Web sites that offer to get consumers’ phone records. Investigations are also under way by the Federal Communications Commission and states’ attorneys general.

Microsoft and Qualcomm have detailed a new partnership through which they plan to integrate respective wireless technologies in the name of accelerating smartphone development. The two market leaders said they will specifically work on porting Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system onto Qualcomm’s Convergence Platform MSM (Mobile Station Modem) wireless chip sets. The companies contend that their efforts will allow device manufacturers to speed the introduction of cheaper, more powerful smart phones that support a variety of multimedia applications while offering improved battery life compared with today’s high-end devices.

Wireless mobility provider Trapeze Networks has teamed with DaVitas Networks, a new provider of mobility software and appliances, to deliver the ability for handset users to roam freely between Wi-Fi and cellular networks without interrupting a call. Together with the Trapeze Mobility System Software and the company’s new LAN Mobility Exchange switches, companies will be able to give users the ability to communicate using VoIP (voice over IP) over internal wireless data networks.

Belcarra Technologies announced the addition of the EEM (Ethernet Emulation Model) specification to its USBLAN driver suite. Belcarra’s USBLAN enables peer-to-peer Internet networking among smart peripherals and to the Windows desktop in the controlled and physically secure USB environment. USBLAN adds the new EEM sub-class to the older CDC-ECM (Ethernet Control Model) set out by the USB Implementers Forum, the group that developed the Universal Serial Bus specification. EEM simplifies the design and deployment of Internet-based file, data and printer sharing over USB for smart devices such as PDAs, MP3 Players, Cellular phones or Personal Data Storage devices. USBLAN allows these personal devices to participate in a peer-to-peer Personal Area Network that includes the Windows PC.

Korea has developed its own android, the EveR-1, capable of facial expressions on its humanoid face. According to reports, the 5-foot, 2-inch EveR-1 was designed to resemble a woman in her early 20s, and is capable of upper-body movement, can distinguish faces via its eye-mounted cameras, and can look into your eyes while conversing through perfectly synced lips. The bot’s face can register simulated emotions, including happiness, anger and sadness, and its skin is made from a silicon gel designed to feel like human skin.

The Associated Press has picked up on a “trend” of professors banning laptops in their classrooms. Unlike the Wi-Fi brouhaha, which revolved around fears that the wireless signals might be dangerous, keeping laptops out of the lecture hall is seen as a way of forcing students to pay attention. The AP article cites several law school professors who have enacted the ban, including one whose inspiration came while serving as an expert witness in a trial, when he realized the court stenographer wasn’t absorbing any of the content that he/she was transcribing.

Nokia has started deliveries of its E61 business phone with full keyboard, a model directly competing with RIM’s BlackBerry device. The E70 model, with a 2 megapixel camera, is expected to start shipping later in May. The first E-series phone, the E60, went on sale in April. The three E-series phones, aimed at business users, and three of Nokia’s flagship multimedia N-series handsets missed their original target shipping dates due to software- related problems.

A new resource kit by American Technology Corporation, provider of remote and mobile computing solutions, provides Afaria administrators with custom applications to enhance some of the functions of Afaria, the frontline management and security solution from iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase. The ATC Resource Kit for Afaria, Standard Edition 2.0, is a powerful tool developed by experts who clearly understand the implementation of frontline management systems in diverse environments. The ATC Resource Kit for Afaria, Standard Edition 2.0 contains more than fourteen components that vary in function, from the Afaria AutoConnect component, a connection automation utility that can be used in a large number of scenarios, to Afaria Graceful Shutdown, which allows users to complete their session before an Afaria server is shut down, rather than being immediately disconnected.

SanDisk announced it is working with Philips to embed its SmartMX chip into SanDisk TrustedFlash cards for secure NFC (Near Field Communication)-enabled mobile phone applications. NFC is an easy-to-use, short-range wireless technology that will allow consumers to use their phones as bus or train tickets and perform secure “contactless” payments and other contactless transactions by simply waving their phones near a contactless reader in a mass transit turnstile, checkout counters or drive-thru windows. For the millions of existing handsets in the market that are not NFC-enabled, SanDisk and Wireless Dynamics are partnering to offer NFC SDiD Adapters, plug-and-play SD and miniSD NFC adapters integrating SanDisk TrustedFlash cards with SmartMX. Once inserted into the mobile phone, the NFC SDiD Adapter allows users to interact with contactless devices and perform secure NFC transactions. They can also use the TrustedFlash card to provide storage for their personal content and applications.

Laplink has introduced a new simple, low-cost utility to its line of connectivity products. Laplink DoubleView is an invaluable software utility for anyone with a second PC, whether it’s a laptop or even an old desktop gathering dust. Laplink DoubleView transforms any spare PC into an extension of your primary computer’s native screen, effectively doubling your screen real estate. Now, you can get the extra visual space you need for enhanced productivity simply and inexpensively in a software-based solution. In minutes, the screen of the second PC will act as an extension of your primary PC screen, so that you can spread your work out over both monitors for maximum viewing efficiency and productivity.