
India will effectively “kill” some twenty-five million Chinese cell phones beginning tomorrow, December 1st.
India’s Department of Telecommunications has given the order to operators to “block cellphones” without a valid IMEI number. The move leaves millions ofChinese using mobile phones without an IMEI number with only two options: buy a new phone with a valid IMEI number or get the number implanted in the current phone using available software through the Cellular Operators Association of India.
According to the Times of India:
It’s the end of days for those cheap Chinese mobile handsets which do not have a genuine International Mobile Equipment Identity number. From the midnight of November 30, all these will go dead.
Apple has begun introducing the iPhone to Asia with varying results. After a slow launch in China, the iPhone and App Store are now doing well, despite the lack of Wi-Fi and an active black market. In Korea, however, enthusiastic customers are snapping them up.
Some customers lined up as much as 26 hours in advance, and were rewarded with balloons and a live band once sales began. According to CNNMoney, carrier KT Corp. received approximately 65,000 pre-orders. Read more…

In a strange twist of events, the CrunchPad tablet ready for its unveiling on November 10th is now dead.
Michael Arrington describes the turn of events and a partnership gone bad…
Bizarrely, we were being notified that we were no longer involved with the project. Our project. Chandra said that based on pressure from his shareholders he had decided to move forward and sell the device directly through Fusion Garage, without our involvement.
Read more…

Qualcomm is talks with Apple for interest in future cooperation due to its concern about market share in the high end handset segment, reports DigiTimes.
Qualcomm is supplying handset chips to Korea-based Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics (LGE) and Taiwan-based High Tech Computer (HTC). However, none of the most popular smartphones – iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre –adopt Qualcomm’s 3G solutions. On the other hand, Motorola has a tight relationship with Freescale Semiconductor, while Nokia and Sony Ericsson are more likely to give ST-Ericsson priority on their supplier lists, the sources indicated.
Recently it was rumored that Apple will produce a new hybrid phone which will work will all global handset carriers whether UMTS or CDMA. Qualcomm has announced such a chip but its not likely to ship until 2011.
Via iclarified.com

(Image Via Gizmodo.com)
Two weeks ago, a shipment of from three to four thousand iPhones- valued at from €2 million to €3 million – was stolen from a warehouse in Belgium. Now, an unnamed black market dealer is selling off iPhones in Russia, raising concerns that these are indeed the snatched smartphones.
Read more…

(Not Real Picture Just A Mockup)
The developer of iBART, a public transportation guide for San Francisco, has spotted an iPhone3,1 user in their log files, according to MacRumors.
PinchMedia who provides the analytics for the application breaks down customer usage including what specific devices are being used. This list of devices is reported to developers using internal device identification numbers assigned by Apple. Read more…

AT&T is offering a refurbished iPhone 3GS for $49 with free shipping and no activation fee.
Requires purchase of a $30/mo data service. 2 year contract & new activation required.
Via iclarified.com