France Telecom’s Orange announced on Monday that it will start selling the iPhone in the UK later this along with Telefonica’s O2. O2 has previously had exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in Britain however the contract is set to expire.

Orange announced that both the 3G and the 3GS versions will be available to UK customers later in the year, but gave no more details of exact dates or expecting pricing for the handset or plans.

Getting ready for its global launch, China’s In Technology Group (ITG) just launched a redesigned English website and is now accepting unpriced preorders for the xpPhone. Touted as the “world’s first mobile phone that runs Windows XP,” the AMD-powered slider hasn’t undergone any noticeable changes since we last saw it.

According to ITG the device supports both SSD and HDD drives at the same time (the SSD to “help save power” and the HDD for the “full internet experience”). They can also be used as a portable hard disk when the system shuts down.

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.

Reports are surfacing out of the UK that Orange and Apple are in the final stages of negotiations for a deal where Orange would be offering subsidized MacBooks to those willing to sign a two-year mobile broadband contract. The MacBooks wouldn’t be free, but there is speculation that they could be as little as $560. Currently Orange is asking for £350 for a Toshiba laptop on a similar deal, so it is possible.

According to Mobile Today, both parties have been testing Orange’s mobile broadband dongles with the MacBooks, and supposedly Orange has already made a “volume commitment” with Apple.

The Heatsheets Survival Blanket is for emergency situations, not for those who have a weird cocoon fetish. Anyway, I’m pretty sure you can’t eat your way out of it after metamorphosis. It fits two people and conveniently has survival and first-aid instructions printed directly on the blanket.

The bright orange color makes it easier for rescuers to spot, though with both people in it and moving around it would probably look like the blob from a helicopter. Hopefully they will want to investigate rather then call for an airstrike. Apparently it reflects up to 90% of radiated body heat so don’t be afraid to get a little frisky while waiting for help. Say, did it occur to anyone that you might have to leave the safety of the blanket to read some of those fancy first-aid instructions? That’s not good if you are in freezing conditions.

Another day, another leaked image of some company’s newest mobile. Today’s unlucky company is Motorola and the device in question is the MOTO ROKR W5. With its orange on black fashion statement it certainly stands out, and as Gizmodo said in its headline (and we agree), it looks like Darth Maul’s cell phone. Can you say “Hello Moto” to a Sith Lord without getting chopped up by the guy’s lightsaber?

The specs for the ROKR W5 also got dumped to the internets. This baby is going to have 20 MB of memory, have Bluetooth connectivity, will have a microSD memory card slot and a 96×85 65K color display for you to text “Sith Lord ownz u” to those annoying Jedi Knights. The device runs off of a 880 mAh Li-Ion battery.