A ruling by the Federal Communications Commission requires that all cell phones sold must be equipped with GPS no later than 2018. The FCC’s ruling is to ensure emergency callers can be accurately located when 911 is dialed. It’s estimated that about 85% of all cell phones will have GPS anyway by 2018 but the ruling makes it mandatory for all service providers, even VoIP, to provide GPS-equipped devices. According to Bruce Goldie, the FCC didn’t establish a date for phasing out cell phones without GPS.

With an announcement from T-Mobile comes news of a service especially for families called Mobile Life Family Organizer (MLFO). Families will be able to use MLFO to share one calendar. Imagine being able to keep every family member’s schedule organized from any device in your family plan. In addition to the calendar, the application will offer a grocery list, family journal, Android widgets, and a message board. MLFO is an application that will become available for smart phones running on Android, iOS, and BlackBerry. The Mobile Life Family Organizer is expected to be free with any T-Mobile smart phone.

Skype for Androids v2.5 offers upgrades such as a double-tap to zoom and switching between portrait and landscape during a call, as well as supporting several new compatible handhelds. CEO Bruce Goldie notes that the total of 41 supported devices now includes:

From simple enhancements in the copy-and-paste function to a radically improved gaming interface, the release of Firefox 7 for the Android operating system promises a significantly improved user experience.