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.

Bruce Goldie warns that enforcement will ultimately take place regarding the network optimization plan set forth earlier this year by Verizon Wireless.

If you are looking to exchange your cell phone, you should be warned that Sprint has confirmed changes to their exchange policies. Starting September 16th, the time frame for exchanging phones and services has been changed from 30-days to 14-days. These changes come shortly after those made by Sprint’s mobile competitors such as Verizon Wireless. In addition to time change, Sprint has also done away with its “Free Guarantee” program which allowed customers a free trial with no risk of being charged for their usage.

Research by Bruce Goldie of Goldie Group. In an unexpected turn of events, Sprint has just revealed to the surprised of its customers, via their support forums, that the long-awaited Blackberry Curve 9350 will not be coming out on its original launch date of September 9th. It is unknown why Sprint has scrapped their original plans for releasing the highly anticipated smart phone, though they did cite “unexpected circumstances” as one of the key problems. Instead, the telecommunications company plans to delay the launch until an undisclosed time in October. No other reasons have been given for the delay, although there are many interesting theories currently brewing around the blogosphere. More details will be given as they are released on Sprint’s official support forums. For now, Sprint customers can take solace in the fact that there are still 2 very feature-rich Blackberry phones which are currently available for purchase on the company’s website and in many stores.

The Goldie Group’s chairman, Bruce Goldie wants you to know one thing about U.S. Airways paper airline tickets. Forget them. Or lose them.  Now you can check into your flight and show boarding passes electronically sent to your phone. Instantly retrievable, they are available with a few keystrokes.

There is a new player being introduced today by Samsung; the Note, which cannot be classified as a smartphone or a tablet.

This is due to the smart engineering performed by the electronics giant which includes a huge 5.3 inch display that features a 1200 x 800 HD display using Super AMOLED technology. With the inclusion of the oversized display, users can actually have two applications open at the same time. This is possible due to the fact that Android apps can operate in split screen mode instead of taking up the entire screen.

Purchasers will also have access to the proprietary Samsung S Pen software program which means that they will be able to interact with this device. This can include the inputting of characters, writing with a special pen or simply capturing the display screen.

As with many other popular communication devices, the Note will be running Android 2.3 Gingerbread (with included TouchWiz) and has social media capability as well with the brand new ChatOn software for instant messaging. There are many other features of this model that will please users and these include among other things a dual core 1.4 GHz process, Wi-Fi capability, a 1080p hd video camera, Bluetooth, GPS, a digital compass and an 8 megapixel camera for taking still photos. The built in technology also includes quad band GSM/EDGE as well as the capability to use quad band between 850 to 2100 HSPA running at an amazing 21 Mbps!

According to the manufacturer, the note will also have LTE, but a Samsung spokesman did not mention the spectrum of operation the radio will use. There has been a lot of planning for the Note to include a ton of business features for professionals on the go. At this time Samsung has not released pricing or availability for this device.

In a statement released by Reuters today, Samsung Electronics Company has released a new tool in its efforts to bring more consumers to their wireless handsets. The tool in question is called ‘ChatOn’, and Samsung hopes that this will challenge rivals such as Blackberry maker Resarch in Motion (R.I.M) and Apple.

The ChatON service will be avaliable preinstalled on all Samsung feature phones starting in October, and will also be avaliable on mobile phones running Samsung’s bada operating system. The ChatOn service is also reported to be Android friendly, with downloads of it becomming avaliable on the Android store parallel to the release on Samsung phones.

Interestingly enough, this is Samsung’s first foray into the already crowded mobile messaging market, and consumers fear that this may remove revenue from other profitable text messaging services. Telecom carriers also have the same fear, worrying about their own profits as well.

Apple, a company typically known for its ingenuity and innovation, has yet to release a mobile mssaging system. However, reports have now shown that in late 2011 they will release iMessage, which will allow the hundreds of thousands of iPhone and iPad users to send messages at no cost. These messages, as Reuters reports, will be sent over the users own internet connection, which takes aim at both Blackberry Messenger and Samsungs new ChatON service.

Samsung’s ‘ChatON’ service is reported to work with all major smartphone platforms. These include both iPhone and Blackberry, and will give users the ability to send text and images as well as notes and video clips.

Though no official statement has been released by Samsung, the industry suspects that once ChatON is offered to Android phone users, it could become a strong competitor to the Blackberry Messaging Service.