Google 700MHz bid; Zander out at Moto; analyst on next iPhone

Google pledges bid in FCC auction

An extra piece was put into place for Google's mobile puzzle on Friday when the company said it would place at least a $4.6 billion bid for a portion of the 700MHz wireless spectrum up for grabs in a Federal Communications Commission auction to take place in January.

The move has been predicted since July, when the company pushed the FCC to institute an open access rule for the winning bidder: any company that owns key parts of the spectrum must allow any device and any software to run on its airspace to prevent the "walled garden" of most US cellphone carriers, which tightly control their services.

Soon to be discarded by analog over-the-air TV broadcasters, the frequency is prized by Google and major telecom firms like AT&T for its suitability to long-range wireless Internet access.

Google has shifted much of its attention to cellphones in recent months, having introduced its Android operating system early this month and increasing its development of Google programs just for handsets, such as the iPhone's Google Maps utility. Company chief Eric Schmidt is a member of Apple's Board of Directors.

Motorola's Ed Zander resigns from top spot

The chief executive at Motorola, Ed Zander, resigned from his post on Friday to change pace and spend more time with family, according to his company. He will officially leave the CEO role on January 1st but will stay on as chairman until May.

The shift is said in some reports to be triggered by Motorola's slowly eroding marketshare. Zander led the company during its resurgence with the RAZR flip phone but lost ground after competitors caught up to or eclipsed the device and its successors.

Senior official Greg Brown, who has headed four company divisions in the past, will take over from Zander in the new year.

Analyst claims next iPhone delayed

The release of a second-generation iPhone that was allegedly planned for Spring has been pushed back to summer due to supply issues with the NAND flash memory needed for the device, claims Friedman Billings Ramsey researcher Mehdi Hosseini.

In a new report, the analyst points to a predicted drop in demand for the storage at Samsung's factories during the first half of 2008 that he argues are due to an unexplained delay in the launch of a new iPhone model. This and new iPods could turn the market around in the second half, he says.

Apple has not announced plans for its first iPhone refresh other than a comment by Steve Jobs that 3G may arrive late in 2008.

Findings suggest basic recognition of Windows apps in Leopard

A flaw in a test application is leading WINE project contributor Steven Edwards to suggest that Mac OS X Leopard has at least basic recognition for Windows' Portable Executable format, which forms the backbone of programs in the Microsoft operating system.

When told to run at least one Windows .exe file, the OS tries to call the DLL (Dynamic Link Library) files Windows needs to load the program — none of which are present, but also have never been called in the past.

The reason for the activity is uncertain and may be a trace of Intel Macs' EFI firmware, which uses a Portable Executable system to manage hardware outside of the OS, Edwards says.