China Mobile has selected Azalea Networks, a provider of wireless network equipment and technology, to install a wireless LAN (local area network) in major metropolitan areas throughout China. Azalea’s access points will be part of a network to provide broadband Wi-fi services.

Azalea informed that its technology will provide a large part of the networks deployed throughout eight cities in China, all predominantly served by China Mobile.

The Azalea products used in the network include a new MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) 802.11n claiming to offer “unprecedented transmission speeds”. The new Azalea 802.11n product will be available next quarter, the company added.

Research In Motion (RIM) has announced the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone for customers in France.

The smartphone provides mobile access to e-mail, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking sites (including Facebook® and MySpace) and features a tactile full-Azerty keyboard for comfortable typing. It also features multimedia capabilities and access to music, games and other mobile apps for entertainment on the go.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a quad band phone, and is also Wi-fi-enabled.

Hyperoffice and Tata Communications are partnering to offer the Hyperoffice collaboration suite with the data and voice tools that Tata Communications delivers to business subscribers in India and other countries around the world.

Tata Communications offers internet services in India under the Tata Indicom brand name to business subscribers, including online backup, security, web conferencing, business e-mail, hosting, high speed broadband, dial-up internet, net telephony and Wi-fi.

Tata Communications plans to deploy a private-labeled version of Hyperoffice to its subscribers in the third quarter of 2009.

EMS, Telenor and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced the launch of the BlackBerry solution in Pakistan.

The BlackBerry solution brings together smartphones, software and services to allow wireless access to e-mail, messaging, phone, organiser, web and multimedia applications, as well as other business and lifestyle applications.

Telenor customers in Pakistan will now be able to enjoy the benefits of using BlackBerry smartphones to stay connected to people and information on the go.

At launch, Telenor Pakistan will offer the BlackBerry Curve 8320, BlackBerry Pearl 8120, and BlackBerry Bold smartphones.

In addition to a range of e-mail, messaging, phone, organiser, web and multimedia applications, all three smartphones come with RIM’s intuitive trackball navigation system, an easy-to-use keyboard, a high resolution colour display, digital camera, expandable memory storage, built-in Wi-fi and global roaming support, RIM said.

At launch Telenor will offer the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software for corporate customers and BlackBerry Internet Service for smaller businesses and individual users.

Vodafone Malta and Research In Motion (RIM) have launched the BlackBerry Curve 8900 in Malta.

In addition to the phone, e-mail, messaging, organiser, web browser and multimedia applications, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone features global connectivity support, built-in Wi-fi and GPS, a next generation 512MHz processor and a hi-resolution display.

The company informed that the smartphone incorporates a full-QWERTY keyboard and an intuitive trackball that allow easy typing and navigation. Other features include a 3.2 megapixel camera, with auto focus, digital zoom, flash and video recording; and a microSD/SDHC expandable memory card slot that supports up to 16GB per card.

Unidata has unveiled, what is claimed to be, the world’s first Wi-fi video conference phone ‘SQ-3000′ that supports high-resolution video telephony.

Adopting a 2.8-inch touch screen with 240×320 resolution, the SQ-3000 supports both 802.11a(5GHz) and 802.11bg(2.4GHz).

Other features included 30 fps video recording/playback, G.722.2 Wide-band audio codec, conference call, mp3/mp4 playback and XHTML browser.

Suitable for conference call between branches at home and abroad, it offers up to 3 hours of video calling and 6 hours of voice calling time, the company informed.

Sony is adding four new Blu-ray Disc devices to its line-up, including a stand-alone player with Wi-fi capability for easy BD-Live access and Blu-ray Disc home theatre systems with S-AIR wireless audio.

The BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 stand-alone players and BDV-E300 and BDV-E500W BD home theatre systems are aimed to deliver full HD 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema output, decode the latest advanced audio codecs and are BD-Live capable with the user’s broadband internet connection and purchase of external memory.

Offering built-in Wi-fi wireless network capabilities (802.11N/G/B/A), the BDP-S560 can connect to the internet through existing wireless home network to download and stream BD-Live content including additional scenes, short subjects, trailers, interactive games, and more. It also enables firmware updates to assist in keeping the player up-to-date with the latest Blu-ray Disc media and features.

While compatible with most wireless routers, the BDP-S560 also supports Wi-fi Protected Setup, for a quick connection to enabled wireless routers. Additionally, the player is Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) ready, allowing it to connect to other DLNA compliant devices to share digital photos.

The BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 incorporate Sony’s Precision Cinema HD Upscale technology that converts standard-definition signals (480i) to near HD quality, the company added.

The BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 models support 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding as well as bit-stream output via HDMI.

The models also offer an external port for local storage so users can add their USB flash storage device. The BDP-S560 features a front USB port for viewing photos from USB flash memory device or directly from a digital camera.

Shipping this summer, the BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 will retail for about $300 and $350, respectively.

Alcatel-Lucent, a player in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, and Novatel Wireless, a provider of wireless broadband solutions, have announced that the Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian enterprise security and management solution will be ported to operate on MiFi 2352, an HSPA version of Novatel Wireless’ Intelligent Mobile Hotspot product.

MiFi 2352 is a mobile wireless broadband device that enables high-speed internet connectivity that can be shared between multiple users and Wi-fi devices such as laptops, cameras, gaming devices and multimedia players.

The company informed that the MiFi product line makes it possible for large and small enterprises and home office workers to secure, control and manage wireless connections.

Alcatel-Lucent said that its OmniAccess 3500 NLG consists of a ‘secure, always-on’ computing system that helps enterprises overcome the mobile blindspot – where enterprises have no visibility or control over the location, use or configuration of employee laptops. With this technology, enterprises have 24/7 access to employee laptops – enabling them to protect the data and manage the laptop even if the laptop is turned off.

The Nonstop Laptop Guardian solution includes remote troubleshooting, management, protection and data ‘remote kill’ functionalities that eliminate all data from a lost or stolen laptop and, therefore, protect corporate information.

Avea and Research In Motion (RIM) recently launched the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone in Turkey.

The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 has a feature set aimed at keeping users connected to family, friends and colleagues.

In addition to its e-mail, messaging, organiser, web browser and multimedia applications, the smartphone features global connectivity support, built-in Wi-fi and GPS, a 512MHz processor and a hi-resolution display.

The phone incorporates a full-QWERTY keyboard and an intuitive trackball for easy typing and navigation. A microSD/SDHC expandable memory card slot supports up to 16GB per card.

Research In Motion (RIM) and Docomo have announced that the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is now available at Docomo corporate and retail channels nationwide in Japan.

Designed for business professionals, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone will leverage Docomo’s 3G network and offer a mobile experience with support for global roaming.

The features of the phone include e-mail and messaging capabilities, a full-featured organiser, web browsing and multimedia capabilities, as well as access to a range of other mobile business and lifestyle applications.

The phone also features a newly designed QWERTY keyboard with Japanese text input support, built-in GPS and Wi-fi.

Among the set of multimedia capabilities is an optional 2 megapixel camera with video recording – Docomo will also offer a model with no camera – and an advanced media player for music, videos and pictures. In addition, it includes the new BlackBerry Media Sync application, allowing customers to synchronise their iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone.