Hasta La Gadget!

Dell has begun developing a pocket-sized, ARM-based device powered by the Android operating system, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The Journal article carefully avoided calling the device a smartphone, and positioned it in the context of the Apple iPod touch, a handheld music player and computing device that lacks the native ability to place and receive calls.

What the device is, what it does, what it will be priced: all questions that the Journal‘s source was unable to answer. The plan could also be scrapped entirely, the Journal reported, essentially offering the story with a somewhat large grain of salt.

What’s interesting, however, is that the Journal reports that Dell began work on the device last year. That’s certainly before AT&T Mobility’s chief executive reported in Feburary that Dell was working on a smartphone, which may or not be the same thing.

Rumors about Dell doing something with Android or smartphones have been swirling for over a year now, fed in part by similar unsourced stories in the Journal.

A story in the British magazine MarketingWeek had a Dell Android smartphone appearing in February 2008 – yes, 2008. We debunked that one right here on Gearlog.

The Wall Street Journal then claimed in January 2009 that Dell would “move into cellphones as early as next month,” which clearly didn’t happen. The next step in the Dell vaporware rumor chain came this April, when a market analyst said carriers had decided to pass on Dell’s invisible, chimerical smartphone.

Finally, this May, Dell showed off a Mini 10 netbook running Android–just to stoke the flames.

Google on Monday released a suite of text-based apps, dubbed Google SMS, intended to provide people in Africa with easier access to information on a variety of topics like health and agriculture, weather, sports, and more.

Africa has the world’s highest mobile phone growth rate, and the average citizen is more likely to have access to a cell phone than an Internet-connected PC. As a result, Google is focused on delivering information one might find on an average Google.com search via mobile phones.

The suite includes Google Trader, a text-based “marketplace” app that helps buyers and sellers find each other. Google SMS Tips, meanwhile, will answer questions that users pose via text. Need to know how to preserve crops or want basic sexual health information? Send a text.

“You enter a free form text query, and Google’s algorithms restructure the query to identify keywords, search a database to identify relevant answers, and return the most relevant answer,” Google wrote in a blog post.

The project was made possible through a Google partnership with the Grameen Foundation, MTN Uganda, and several local organizations.

“We worked closely together as part of Grameen Foundation’s Application Laboratory to understand information needs and gaps, develop locally relevant and actionable content, rapidly test prototypes, and conduct multi-month pilots with the people who will eventually use the applications have truly been a global effort, and created with Ugandans, for Ugandans,” Google said.

Google has more information about the effort available in this YouTube video.

Vodafone, the world’s biggest revenue-generating mobile service provider, is looking to get a bit larger. The company is reportedly looking at acquiring the UK wing of T-Mobile, which is currently valued at $4.2bn-$5.6bn.

Such a move would give Vodafone 40-percent of the UK’s mobile revenue, making it the largest mobile provider in that country, a position currently held by the Telefonica-owned O2, which has a 27-percent market share.The move would likely be subject to a good deal of scrutiny by regulators.

At two separate events today I got some hands-on time with the BlackBerry Tour 9630, the new flagship BlackBerry for Sprint and Verizon. There’s not much to report – and that’s actually a good thing.

The Tour feels like the best of all BlackBerry worlds so far: the smooth form and 3.2-megapixel camera of the 8900 combined with the Bold‘s keyboard and the 8830‘s global capabilities. Using the Tour felt lightning fast, and the 2.5″ screen was bright and tight. The Tour felt like it just works – it will be totally familiar to BlackBerry users, just faster, better, and higher-resolution. That’s what I mean by “not much to report.” The Tour is a refinement, not a revolution.

The Verizon version I used had V CAST Music with Rhapsody and Verizon’s visual voicemail client on it. The Sprint version was an early model that didn’t yet have Sprint TV or the other Sprint software which will come on final units.

Interestingly, the Verizon Tour runs BlackBerry software 4.7.1.38. The much-maligned Storm runs 4.7.0.148. Is 4.7.1 truly an upgrade to 4.7.0? If it is, then the Tour’s release could portend a further improvement for the Storm, as well.

I’m hoping to get both Tour models as soon as they come out later this summer.

Being viewed as an enabler of Iranian governmental spying is perhaps not exactly the sort of image any corporation is looking to project at the moment. So when The Wall Street Journal printed a story stating that the country was using “deep packet inspection” that may or may not have been provided by Nokia Siemens, in order to monitor its citizens, the company was quick to deny any involvement.

Nokia Siemens didn’t deny providing any monitoring capability, however–the company said that it provided the same sort of legal interception it gives to countries like the UK and US. That capability lets authorities listen in on cell and landline calls.