Apple Inc. is negotiating with Japan’s top mobile phone carrier to launch the iPhone in Japan, though the cut of subscriber revenue that Apple wants has been a sticking point, according to a report published Tuesday. NTT DoCoMo spokesman Shuichiro Ichikoshi said company President Masao Nakamura met recently with Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs. Shuichiro declined to comment further. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, reported Tuesday that Jobs and Nakamura discussed launching the iPhone in Japan. Apple has said it plans to launch the device in Asia in 2008 but has not provided details.

NTT DoCoMo had nearly 53 million subscribers and commanded more than half of Japan’s mobile phone market at the end of September, but has struggled to add new users in recent months amid fierce competition from KDDI Corp. and Softbank Corp., which have slashed rates and launched aggressive sales promotions. Apple and NTT DoCoMo are still negotiating the terms of a deal, with one stumbling block being Apple’s demands to receive the same percentage of subscriber revenue from NTT DoCoMo that it receives from other carriers, according to the Journal.

If a deal with NTT DoCoMo falls through, Apple is also talking with Softbank, according to the report. Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock declined to comment. The introduction of the combination iPod-cell phone-Internet surfing device to the world’s second-largest economy would be a tremendous boon for Cupertino-based Apple, which hopes to sell about 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

Talks between China Mobile Ltd. and Apple Inc. over the launch of iPhone handsets in China have been called off, officials at the Chinese company said Monday.”We can only say that negotiations have ended for now. We have no other news to report,” said Li Honghui, a spokeswoman for China Mobile Communications Corp., the parent of cell phone carrier China Mobile. She declined to comment further. Rainie Lei, a spokeswoman for China Mobile, earlier Monday also declined to say why the talks ended.”We have held talks with Apple to launch the iPhone device in China.

However, those talks have ended,” she said. Calls to Cupertino, California-based Apple were not answered Monday. Citing an unnamed official at China Mobile’s data services department, Chinese Internet portal Sina.com reported Monday that China Mobile and Apple could not agree on revenue-sharing terms in their preliminary discussions, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The official said China Mobile was unwilling to accept Apple’s request for a 20 percent to 30 percent share of China Mobile’s user fees from future iPhone users, according to the report.

Market watchers and analysts have said a breakdown in talks between Apple and China Mobile could open the way for rival China Unicom Ltd. to offer the iPhone exclusively in mainland China. China Unicom spokeswoman Sophia Tso declined to comment. Eric Wen, an analyst at BNP Paribas, said the lack of an agreement would have little impact on China Mobile. But he said the failed negotiations could be a significant positive for China Unicom, which could start talks on an exclusive deal to supply the iPhone.

One of the numerous Apple iPhone hacking groups claims to have beaten the latest update from Apple, which rendered many iPhones useless. The guys behind iPhoneSimFree have released an updated hack, which they claim now works with any versions of the iPhone firmware, including 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.1.This means owners of hacked iPhones can now update to the latest version of the device firmware.

Previously doing so would have turned the device into a brick.In fact, the hackers claim that the latest version of their unlock software will also allow bricked iPhone owners to bring their devices back from the dead. The unlocking tool will also allow users to install third party applications on the device natively.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has offered compensation to customers who have already bought an iPhone - after the firm cut $200 (£99) off the price. The company slashed the cost of the eight-gigabyte version of the phone - only available in the US - to $399.But this earned the wrath of some customers who have paid full price since its launch two months ago.

Mr Jobs said the price cut was the right move - but offered those who had already bought it a $100 voucher. “We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologise for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations,” Mr Jobs said. For many the price cut slipped by unnoticed as the company unveiled a slew of new gadgets, including adding a touch-screen iPod to Apple’s popular line of portable music players. At the news conference, the firm also revealed that the four-gigabyte model of the iPhone was being dropped.

It was announced today that Apple and Cisco have resolved their differences about the use of the name iPhone.

The problems arose when Steve Jobs announced the release of the Apple iPhone at the MacWorld convention. Cisco immediately came forward and claimed that they owned the trademark for the iPhone. They intended to distribute and Internet phone with that name.

While many of the terms of their agreement have been kept confidential, they have publicly stated that they can both use the name iPhone to market separate products.

Samsung and Giorgio Armani are teaming up to put more ‘fashion’ phones on the market.The first handset will be unveiled at Milan Fashion Week and will be a touch-screen phone similar to Apple’s iPhone.The tri-band, 2.6in-screen phone comes with a leather Armani carry-case and a wireless Bluetooth headset.”We make as much of a personal statement with the mobile phones that we carry or the televisions that we have in our living rooms as we do with the shoes and bags we wear or the furnishings we choose,” Armani said in a statement.

The phone is the first of a range of goods to be designed and built by the partnership. A new LCD television will be launched next year, and other products will receive a design makeover.This is not the first time Samsung has partnered with a separate design house. The firm has already tried a development deal with Bang & Olufsen which produced a clamshell phone with a novel numeric keyboard.Link-ups between fashion houses and mobile phone manufacturers are becoming increasingly common these days as the market matures and companies look to the ‘next big thing’.