Six of the world’s largest telecommunications companies have officially launched a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a common mobile Linux software platform. Founded by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone, the LiMo Foundation is inviting membership and participation from application and middleware developers.

IBM and Freescale Semiconductor are working together to research and develop 45-nanometer chip technology that will find its first practical applications in consumer devices, such as cell phones and other handheld devices. The two companies will develop this 45-nanometer manufacturing process with an eye toward chips that will have low power consumption but yield high performance.

Since the first combination cell phone-PDA device emerged from the primordial ooze, manufacturers have been trying to perfect the genetic code of the smartphone. This short slideshow from eWeek details the evolution of the smartphone.

Google and some of the world’s top publishers are collaborating on a system to allow book downloads onto PCs in a format that would make the books available to read on screen or on a mobile device, according to Dominic Rushe at the Times of London. While visions of Google eBooks may leap to mind, the article is scant on details. Google Book Search already allows PDF book downloads of past-copyrighted works.

The newest wireless LAN specification–802.11n–isn’t ratified yet, but that’s not stopping vendors from releasing products based on a draft version of it. Is this gear worth the gamble? Not if you expect your wireless experience to be easy, reliable or consistent, eWEEK Labs’ tests reveal. The 802.11n spec promises throughput well north of 100M bps–a tempting proposition for users whose performance thirst cannot be slaked. But products based on the draft version of the spec may not be compatible with the shipping spec, which means that users could be looking at significant upgrades or even total overhauls of the draft-based gear once “real” 802.11n products are released (sometime next year).

Robert Bohannon, a Durham, North Carolina molecular scientist, has developed caffeinated doughnuts. Bobby Boy, you’re a god, man, you’re a god!

Palm announced availability of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Update for Palm OS devices for the Palm Treo 680 and Treo 700p smartphones. Palm OS based Treo smartphones have long been able to use Exchange ActiveSync to access Microsoft Exchange Server information using Palm’s VersaMail email client. The new update enhances VersaMail by adding Microsoft’s Direct Push Technology, which gives users connected to an Exchange Server fast, automatic wireless updates of email, calendar and contact information.

Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has vowed to purify the Internet, state media reported on Wednesday, describing a top-level meeting that discussed ways to master the country’s sprawling, unruly online population. Hu made the comments as the ruling party’s Politburo

GoogHelper is a snappy utility that helps you quickly launch various Internet searches using mobile friendly sites such as Google, Yahoo!Finance, Amazon, Wikipedia and many more–and seeing the positive feedback GoogHelper for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone is receiving, Iambic decided to move forward and make it available for the Palm OS platform as well.

Apple released a fix for a serious security hole in its QuickTime media player software. The patch comes 23 days after details of the flaw, along with detailed attack code, were publicly released. The publication kicked off the “Month of the Apple Bugs” project, which has been publishing a new Apple software bug each day in January. The QuickTime vulnerability relates to how the media player software handles the Real Time Streaming Protocol.