Intel and Nokia have decided to announce during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that they will be merging their not-yet-finished, Linux-based mobile OSs into one - and they have called it the MeeGo. While we don't know which parts of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo will be dropped or present in MeeGo, expect this to be (according to the press release anyways) a variety of devices, "including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle information systems".

"Through open innovation, MeeGo will create an ecosystem that is second to none, drawing in players from different industries. It will support a range of business models across the value chain, building on the experience and expertise of Nokia, Intel and all those who will join us. Simply put, MeeGo heralds a new era of mobile computing," CEO for Nokia Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a statement.

"This is a foundational step in our evolving relationship with Nokia. The merging of these two important assets into an open source platform is critical toward providing a terrific experience across a variety of devices and gaining cross- industry support," CEO and President of Intel Paul Otellini said.

Expect to see Nokia's Ovi store on phones; while the AppUpSM Center from Intel won't be disappearing - it will just be present on devices using Intel's Atom Processor. And, if you are still worried about this no longer going to be open sourced - it still will be.

Full PR is after the jump.

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Twenty-four telecom operators - including Vodafone, SingTel, China Unicom, China Telecom, Telenor, TeleSonera, Sprint, T-Mobile, Orange , AT&T and Verizon Wireless - have announced that they will form together a group known as the Wholesale Applications Community. The group will have the backing of the GSMA consortium and will be backed by LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

The group was founded on a goal to "establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world." According to the group, it will give them access to 3 billion customers to use the same marketplace, and will do so in allowing developers to build applications using one API for all devices - though that would be hard to believe.

Full press release below.

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Nokia has announced that it will make all GPS-enabled Nokia devices allowed to access for free its Ovi Maps service - including turn-by-turn navigation and city guides -to over 74 countries in 46 languages. Previously, Nokia has limited basic map navigation for those using it for free, and turn-by-turn navigation and city guides were additional extras.

By making this free, according to Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki, he hopes to make Nokia the largest manufacturer of GPS-enabled devices, like cameras, by making this feature for free.

"“By adding cameras at no extra cost to our phones we quickly became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world. The aim of the new Ovi Maps is to enable us to do the same for navigation," Vanjoki said.

This is seen as a move to better compete with rivals Apple and Google in the smartphone market. Both Apple and Google use Google Maps for their GPS navigation.

Starting today, only ten Nokia phones - including the Nokia N97 Mini, 5800 XpressMusic and E72 - will be able to download the new software; but that is set to be expanded eventually. In March, the company will ship the new Ovi Maps software pre-installed on new GPS-enabled Nokia devices, with the maps of the country and city guides from Lonely Planet and Michelin already present in the software.

Other devices that will be able to download the latest update immediately are the 5800 Navigation Edition, E52, E55, 5230, 6710 Navigator, 6730 Classic and the X6.

The 00’s – what a decade. Filled with ups and downs. Bubbles and bursts. Revolutions and extinctions. Moving into 2010, I thought it nice to start a little series called 2010 – Adolescence meets the Internet. This series will look at what we can expect from 2010 and beyond while reflected on the 00’s.

Today’s article looks at the cloud and it’s possibility of extending all mobile phones. To help us with this, we will look at an exciting new product called Lookout [previously known as flexilis].

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Remember in October when Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple for patent violations that relate to wireless handsets? Well, we are never going to hear the end of this since Apple has filed a countersuit against Nokia for basically the same thing, but this relates to a range of patents that include scaling and rotation on a touchscreen. Apple is also asking for monetary damages and legal fees.

According to Reuters, Nokia starting to focus on its patent portfolio after it lost a lawsuit to Motorola in 1989 for breaching its patents, with the Finnish phone maker – which was a newcomer to the market at that time – paying $10 million to settle.

As well, it is said that virtually all of the mobile manufacturers, with the exception of Apple, that have signed license arrangements with Nokia.

In the lawsuit filing, Apple also claimed that Nokia wanted unreasonable licensing terms for their patents, including a cross-license for Apple’s patents on various patents relating to the iPhone – something that Apple was not going to give; though, Engadget also points out that Nokia asks the court to make Apple pay the due license fees on its patents.

Full document is below.

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Nokia, the largest maker of phones in the entire world, has decided to sue Asian LCD panel makers – including LG, Sharp, Hitachi and Samsung – after alleging that all the parties colluded with each other to fix prices for their LCD displays, which are used almost anywhere today – including phones. Turns out, this is pretty common, with several LCD makers pleaded guilty in price fixing late last year in the US and were fined.

Nokia claims that it “suffered damages … and is entitled to treble damages and injunctive relief to remedy these injuries”, according to the Wall Street Journal. I’m guessing that Nokia is really looking to shore up its finances, especially when it launched a lawsuit with Apple over patents – though, the LCD one does make some sense, as you would obviously be angry if you were paying a higher price for the LCD screens than what it actually costs.

Samsung has announced that it will renew its contract with Qualcomm, extending the current contract to fifteen years, that will give the South Korean mobile maker access to the company’s US patents for 3G and the new 4G (fourth generation) technology.

Samsung will give the wireless technology company a down payment of US$1.3 billion, and will also pay running royalties, though Samsung has not gone into specifics of that portion of the deal. It will also allow Qualcomm access to Samsung’s 57 patents relating to mobile tech, though it will not need to pay Samsung a single cent because of, according to the Yonhap News Agency, the “higher value of Qualcomm’s licenses.”

Qualcomm was previously charged for violating anti-trust regulations by abusing its monopoly over the mobile handset chip market in July, and was fined US$208 million.

eBay has announced that it has settled a lawsuit with the co-founders of Skype around its sale of the VoIP service, allowing the deal signed by eBay with several investment firms to sell a majority stake in the company worth US$2 billion to go ahead as planned.

The founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, will take on a 14 percent stake of the company, while eBay will still hold a 30 percent stake. The investment firms will now take a 56 percent stake in the communications company, lower than the original 65 percent stake that was announced previously.

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