WRAL Tech Wire

 App wars: Service providers target phone makers; Intel, Nokia join forces

Mobile World Congress 2010: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, others join forces for application development. Plus: 'MeeGo' unites Intel, Nokia mobile software; Samsung unveils smart phone software.

 Hot Off the Wire – Exec shakeup continues at SAP; Google buys ask-your-friends site; Sprint picks Real Networks for ringtones, music; “mobi” domain gets a new owner.

 AT&T picks Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent for 4G network

The fourth-generation of wireless technology offers 10 times the speed of current 3G networks.

 Read all about it – Sprint to offer Skiff’s e-reader

Sprint and Skiff tout the device as the thinnest to date at just over a quarter of an inch thick. The reader's entire page will be a touch screen, unlike Amazon’s Kindle, which uses physical buttons for navigation, or Barnes & Noble’s Nook, which has a small built-in touch screen separate from the book page.

The Skiff reader

 Sprint, Clearwire plan November 4G wireless rollout for Triangle, Triad, Charlotte

N.C. will be a battleground for emerging mobile broadband services. Time Warner and AT&T also are targeting Tar Heel state markets.

 FCC chairman formally backs Internet neutrality rules

The proposals uphold a pledge Barack Obama made during the presidential campaign to support Internet neutrality and would bar companies like Verizon, Comcast or AT&T from slowing or blocking certain services or content flowing through their vast networks.

 Your mobile Hero? Sprint to offer Google-driven smart phone

Sales of smart phones are growing while the general phone market has contracted, and Android is getting some momentum as the leading open source software choice. It's free to use for manufacturers.