•Tata Indicom Blackberry Bold 9650, the first

combined CDMA-GSM smartphone.

•The smartphone offers global roaming, an optical

trackpad and enhanced wi-fi and GPS capabilities.

•For the first two months customers willreceive a free data pack worth Rs.900 permonth, as well as 500 MB of tethered modemdata usage per month.

•Apple has for the first time outpaced Blackberry-maker Research in Motion in global smartphone sales.

•Apple sold 14.1 million iPhone units in the third quarter while Canada's Research in Motion shipped 12.4 million Blackberry devices.

•Apple ranked as the fourth largest mobile phonevendor in the third quarter with Research inMotion one place behind the US giant.

Google bans phone apps used in

spying

A controversial mobile phone application, which helps a cell phone user read the text messages of others secretly, has been removed from sale by internet search engine Google.

Once installed on a mobile phone, the Android phone application automatically creates carbon copies of incoming text messages and forwards them to a selected number - prompting fears it could be used by jealous lovers and even work colleagues to snoop on private messages.

Wal-Mart urges India to open retail

sector The world's number one retailer Wal-Mart said on Thursday it

could open "hundreds of stores" in India if the government

opened up the country's giant retail sector to foreign investors.

Foreign groups such as Wal-Mart can currently only be

wholesalers and must partner with domestic firms to sell in

India.

India has recently kicked off a public debate on allowing

foreign supermarkets to open stores in India, a key reform

pushed for by economists seeking greater liberalisation in the

economy