Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Telcom’s Orange have announced Tuesday that they plan to merge the two mobile phone carriers, making them the largest carrier in the U.K. once combined. Currently T-Mobile and Orange are the 3rd and 4th largest mobile operations in Britain behind O2 and Vodafone. The merger would launch the combined companies into the number one spot with 28.4 million mobile phone users and a 37 percent market share, leaving O2 trailing with 27 percent and Vodafone 3rd with 25 percent of the mobile market in Britain.

The merger involves plans to maintain their own distinct brands for the first year and a half and then agree on one common brand which could be one of the two existing or something completely new. The two companies will also start streamlining their operations by eliminating overlapping administration, retail stores and base stations with lay-offs likely in the near future.

The Apple tablet saga continues. Here is the latest. Brian Lam of Gizmodo received a mysterious call from someone who claims to be an Apple insider. Their discussion lasted for awhile. Over an hour. The bottom line here is that Brian believes to “a high level of certainty” that the information is the real deal.

Here are some juicy details: The Tablet is basically a 10″ iPod Touch that comes with or without webcam (education version), it can be used as a touchpad for Macs, chances are that it will be launched for the holiday season and the price will be a staggering $700 to $900.

A U.S. district court judge in Texas ruled against Microsoft on Wednesday in a law suit over a patent infringement in the companies software product Word. The ruling takes affect in 60 days and would ban sales of Microsoft Word versions 2003 and 2007. It also hits the software giant with a $290 million fine in damages.

These versions of the Word product contain particular use of XML which infringes on a patent filed by i4i Ltd, a small firm in Canada. Microsoft states that they plan to appeal the patent citing that they “do not infringe” and that the i4i patent is not valid. Microsoft also has a new version of Word coming out next year as part of their Office 2010 suite, which does not contain the infringing XML component. Microsoft could also simply remove the particular XML portion of the existing Word applications to comply with the court ruling for future sales.

On Monday Google unveiled what they are calling a “next-generation infrastructure” for their web search, and they are asking the public to give it a try. The “secret” project has been underway for months according to a recent post on the Google Indexing blog, and is almost complete. According to the post, the new system “…will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions”.

Google has codenamed the new underlying search indexing “caffeine”, and is looking for the general public to give it a try and provide feedback in the way of differences between the new and old. The new indexing can be tried out at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/, where you can do a search and see if you can tell any difference in the results. According to the blog post from Google, they are only looking for feedback in differences at this time.

Vending Machine from Ellie Harrison on Vimeo.
So the other day we saw a vending machine that quenches your thirst during an emergency. The British now have their own vending machine that does one better. It dispenses snacks when the BBC reports bad news about the economy.

Why, we would be fed all day here in the US. I can get behind this kind of machine. The whole deal is actually an art project designed and created by Ellie Harrison as part of her residency at the Plymouth College of Art. The monitor on the right tracks the BBC’s RSS feed, and whenever doom and gloom news stories hit, you get a snack.

Looks like we may soon be getting another network’s content on Hulu sometime very soon. Supposedly Disney is discussing the possibility of sharing their ABC TV shows on the website. Some other Disney-owned shows might make it over as well. What this means is that you’ll be able to catch up on everything you missed on LOST and maybe also check out all your favorite High School Musical type programs. Yeah, sure you don’t watch them.

There’s no word on how close Disney and Hulu might be to making a deal, but the company is getting more interested, now that Hulu is more popular. If the deal goes through, Hulu would then have three of the four major networks on their web video service, which would be pretty awesome.

Here’s some exciting news for gamers. Microsoft is apparently deep into the development process for the successor to the Xbox 360 console. Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has confirmed that his company has taken part in talks with Microsoft about this next console.

We all knew they would launch another console eventually, but the news suggests the company plans to replace its current 4-year-old system very soon. Pardo didn’t provide any hardware details, just that Blizzard is “actively in discussions with Microsoft” about the new gaming hardware.

When you think about the homeless, you likely think about wool blankets, shopping carts and cardboard box shelters. Add the cell phone to that list. According to advocates who work with the district’s homeless, the proportion of homeless people who own and use a cellphone is 30% to 40%.

It seems bizarre, but the gadget once considered a luxury, is now being used by the homeless to keep up with food stamp programs, housing applications and checking emails. There’s also the obvious need for the 911 feature. It makes sense, as a pay as you go phone with 200 minutes can cost about $20 or $30. It’s a lifeline.

We can haz app storez too? Acer is next in line to open their own app store. Their senior corporate vice president, Mr. Aymar de Lencquesaing, mentioned that the Taiwanese company “is examining the viability of an app store” during a press event held in London.

There’s no confirmation of whether they will go for it or not, but we are guessing yes. Everyone wants to get in on the App store craze. It also makes sense since they just announced a whole bunch of Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5-powered smartphones not too long ago.

If you liked the idea of being able to use your new kindle to listen to the books you buy, too bad. Even though you paid for the ‘text-to-speech’ feature, Amazon has caved in to the Authors Guild and authors, who will now have the right to block the audio feature being used on their books. Amazon has bowed to pressure from the Authors Guild and will allow authors and publishers to disable the controversial text-to-speech feature on its Kindle e-reader.

Insiders say the move by Amazon was intended to smooth relations with authors, not avoid any lawsuits.

Sirius XM is preparing to file for bankruptcy and it could happen within days, according to the New York Times. A bankruptcy would make Sirius XM one of the largest casualties of the economy. It would be the second-largest Chapter 11 filing so far this year.

The article speculates that the move might be designed to pressure Dish Network and EchoStar owner Charles Ergen into making an offer. According to the Wall Street Journal, he offered to purchase the satellite radio group last year, but was brushed off. Anyway, he apparently wants to try again.

Once thought to be building Flash for the iPhone mostly on its own, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has revealed that Apple and Adobe are working together on making Flash a reality on the iPhone. It seems like they’re not going for the watered-down Flash Lite, but it’s also uncertain if we’ll get a full on Hulu-friendly version. No word on when it will be ready.

They’re calling it a “hard technical challenge” and explain that that’s why they are collaborating. Not sure what hurdles they have to overcome, but Narayen is pleased with the progress.

New York Representative Pete King wants the US to have a law that requires all cameraphones make noise when they take a picture. It’s not unheard of. Japan and South Korea already have similar laws. In his quest for cameraphone sound King has re-introduced the “Camera Phone Predator Alert Act,” , which sounds very urgent and dramatic.

They tried it first in 2007, but it died. The idea behind the bill is to prevent people from taking cameraphone pictures without other people knowing. That’s what the sound is all about. It would sound off and be “audible within a reasonable radius” and you would not be able to disable it.

Sadly, we kinda saw this one coming. Apple has issued a statement saying that Steve Jobs will be taking a leave of absence due to health reasons. Jobs sent out a letter to Apple employees today that stated that his previously-explained health problems are “more complex” than he first thought, and that he also plans to return in June.

Not to worry, he will still be around for major strategy decisions and the like, and Tim Cook will take over the day-to-day stuff while he’s away. Whether an Apple fan or not, most of us admire the man and what he has accomplished. Here’s to hoping he makes a complete recovery and things get back to normal. Check out the letter below.

According to Sidecut Reports, Clearwire will soon unveil a portable WiMAX / WiFi router built by Cradlepoint. The prototype is pictured above. It will use a Motorola WiMAX USB stick to enable WiFi-capable devices to surf on the ultra fast WiMAX.

What this means is that non-WiMAX handsets that have WiFi modules can get into the WiMAX network using this pocket sized device. There’s no word yet on when it will ship. Also no word on price. This might be the way to go to replace that expensive cable modem at home.