Amazon mulls smartphone release

Amazon is reportedly looking to develop a smartphone for release in 2012, according to V3.co.uk.

Analysts with Citigroup have cited sources in Asia in reporting that the online retail giant is working with manufacturing firm Foxconn to produce handsets, which would reach the market next year.

Foxconn has worked with electronics firms to manufacture a number of devices, including the Apple iPhone. Texas Instruments and Qualcomm are also said to be developing components for the Amazon handset.

Motorola Mobility Holdings says its shareholders yesterday overwhelmingly voted to accept the cellphone maker's proposed sale to Google for $12.5 billion, notes the Associated Press.

About 99% of the shares that voted at a special meeting favoured the deal. That represents about 74% of Motorola Mobility's outstanding shares as of 11 October, the company said.

The board had already accepted the offer when it was announced in August. The deal is expected to close early next year, although it must still be approved by government regulators.

Data from Norway's oil and defence industries may have been stolen in what is feared to be one of the most extensive data espionage cases in the country's history, security officials said yesterday, reports the Associated Press.

Industrial secrets from companies were stolen and “sent out digitally from the country”, the Norwegian National Security Authority said, though it did not name any companies or institutions that were targeted.

At least 10 different attacks, mostly aimed at the oil, gas, energy and defence industries, were discovered in the past year, but the agency said it has to assume the number is much higher, because many victims have yet to realise that their computers have been hacked.

Associated Press (AP) has reprimanded some of its journalists for breaking news on Twitter before posting it on the wires, writes the BBC.

The news agency issued the warning after some staff members tweeted that AP journalists had been arrested at the Occupy Wall Street camp in Manhattan.

An e-mail from bosses followed reminding staff about AP's social media policies. The incident has reopened a debate about how traditional media deal with the disruptive nature of social networks.