ZTE Pays Microsoft Around $27 for Each Windows Phone, TELUS HTC Desire HD Upgrade Available & Samsung Galaxy S II Sales Surpass 5 Million Units

ZTE Pays Microsoft Around $27 for Each Windows Phone Made
Pegged at $27 per ZTE smartphone, TrustedReviews managed to get those licensing beans spilled at the glitzy London launch of the company’s first Windows Phone, the ZTE Tania. The fee flies in the face of open-source Android, which requires no price to install on handsets.
Engadget

TELUS HTC Desire HD Upgrade to OS 2.3.5 Gingerbread Now Available to Download
TELUS HTC Desire HD users have been reporting in to us all day that an upgrade to OS 2.3.5 Gingerbread is now available to download. All the details are listed on the TELUS site.
MobileSyrup

250 Million Android Devices Activated, 11 Billion Apps Downloaded
During its Q4 earnings call today, Google announced some pretty impressive figures in terms of its reach in the mobile space. In addition to announcing the $10 billion that his company brought in last quarter, CEO Larry Page announced that there are now 250 million Android devices in the world and those users have downloaded a mind-boggling 11 billion applications from the Android Market.
GottaBeMobile

Samsung Galaxy S II Sales Surpass 5 Million Units in South Korea
Samsung has sold more than 5 million units of its popular Galaxy S II smartphone in South Korea. The milestone was hit just five months after the phone’s launch. In October, Samsung announced that it had sold more than 30 million Galaxy S and Galaxy S II devices.
BGR

Google Introduces Android Design, CyanogenMod Passes 1 Million Downloads & 80% Say Social Networks Had No Influence On Holiday Shopping Decisions

80% Say Social Networks Had No Influence On Holiday Shopping Decisions
Social networks could one day revolutionize how we get shopping recommendations, but not yet. Instead, tablets are causing the biggest shakeup in ecommerce. 80.2% of 1000 holiday shoppers said no, personal connections on Facebook or another social networking site did not influence their shopping decisions.
TechCrunch

Google Introduces Android Design to Help Developers Make the Best-looking Android 4.0 Apps
It’s no secret that Android developers have a harder time adapting their apps to work ably on the myriad screen sizes and resolutions presented by the various manufacturers. Google is trying to alleviate some of the pain by introducing Android Design, a simply-yet-comprehensive walkthrough for prospective designers, giving tips on the best aesthetic decisions when creating apps for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
MobileSyrup

Sisvel International Acquires Over 450 Nokia Patents, Most of Which Relate to Wireless
Remember Sisvel International? You know, that company that linked up with Apple and Siemens in order to engage on a full-on patent assault during CeBIT 2010? It’s back, and it’s snapping up 47 patent families comprised of more than 450 patents and applications originally filed by Nokia.
Engadget

CyanogenMod Passes 1 Million Downloads, Banned App Store Coming Soon?
One of the advantages of owning an Android device is the ability to install a custom ROM and making your device perfect for your tastes. You can’t talk about custom ROMs without mentioning the king of them all, CyanogenMod, which has just surpassed 1 million downloads.
BGR

CES 2012: What to Expect, Motorola Announces MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI Android Phones & BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 to Be Shown at Official CES

CES 2012: What to Expect
It’s turning out to be an odd year for the 40-plus-year-old trade show. Microsoft announced just weeks before the big event in Las Vegas that 2012 would be, essentially, its last CES.
Mashable

Motorola Announces MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI Android Phones
Motorola Mobility on Thursday announced two new smartphones to launch this spring, the MOTOLUXE and DEFY MINI. The MOTOLUXE features a 4-inch display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1,400 mAh battery and a VGA front-facing camera. The “life proof” DEFY MINI is water resistant, and dust and shock proof.
BGR

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 to Be Shown at Official CES 2012 Event, BB 10 OS Coming at MWC
PlayBook OS 2.0 will be on-hand, and given that we’d heard it was delayed until February, one can only hope that it’s launch has been accelerated. There’s also BlackBerry 7 OS, which we suspect will generate roughly as many snores as it has the past eight months.
Engadget

While We Wait, Three Android Alternatives to Instagram
Android users are no strangers to iOS-only app envy. Instagram is among the top of that list, though a port is planned for this year. In the meantime, there are plenty of filter-friend alternatives to choose from.
MobileSyrup

Financial Times Acquires London-Based Developer Of Its HTML5 Web App

The Financial Times has acquired London-based application development firm Assanka, which built a nifty HTML5 web app – and other applications – for the publisher.

(Hat tip to Benedict Evans)

FT staffers such as Katie Morley and Jonathan Wheatley started spreading the news on Twitter, garnering retweets from FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw and PR rep Tom Glover, who confirmed the acquisition to me but declined to share more details.

The FT has good reasons for purchasing an application developer that focuses squarely on developing for the Web rather than building native mobile applications. As I wrote in a previous post, when the publisher’s HTML5 web app was unveiled:

“The Financial Times would rather not have Apple take a 30 percent cut of in-app subscriptions for its iOS publications, and has launched a HTML5 Web app that enables readers to access content across tablets and smartphones.”

Assanka has expressed its love for Web apps in the past:

“Assanka firmly believes that the craze for native apps is a short one and we are already seeing it on the wane. Native apps, which need to be distributed via a proprietary app store controlled by an operator or device manufacturer, also suffer from being restricted to the platform for which they are built, necessitating an almost complete rewrite for each different platform. Maintaining separate, functionally equivalent apps for Android, iOS, Blackberry OS6, Playbook, WebOS AND Windows Phone is an expensive and time consuming business, something that major publishers realise only too well.

Native apps have other limitations too. Web technology has matured over 15 years to provide a rich set of tools for making web applications that are open, accessible and linkable. The very ethos of web development is that it is fundamentally an open platform, inviting integration, connecting, linking and sharing of information. Native apps construct a silo around themselves and operate in their own artificially constructed world. Everything in that world may be beautiful and the user experience may be dazzling, but the value is locked into that container.

Native apps will always have a place on mobile devices, particularly for applications such as gaming where the performance demands are high and graphics requirements are intensive. Games often also take advantage of features such as accelerometers which are not (yet) available to access from web applications. For apps that need to take advantage of bleeding edge technology and offer exceptional performance, native code is still a good option. But for news and magazine publishers, the tide is turning.”