TCL Communication, which is the company behind the Alcatel OneTouch brand, has confirmed it is taking control of the Palm brand. It says it’ll create a new US-based Palm Inc. company.

However, the exact timing of the Palm project hasn’t been confirmed.

Qualcomm Incorporated has acquired a collection of patents from three HP companies: Hewlett-Packard Company, Hewlett-Packard Development Co LP and Palm Inc.

The patent portfolio comprises approximately 1,400 granted patents and patent applications from the USA plus approximately 1,000 patents and applications from other countries.

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple is rumoured to be planning a wearable mobile device: the iWatch. Whether it’s an iPhone accessory or a stand-alone mobile phone… or a figment of overactive imaginations… remains to be seen, although press reports suggest it could be launched by the end of 2013.

With less than two weeks until Christmas, the mobile phone industry still keeps delivering major news stories.

As usual, you can listen to this week’s edition of The Fonecast on our website’s audio player, via iTunes, by subscribing to our RSS feed or by downloading the MP3.

Iain, James and Mark discuss the week's mobile industry headlines... starting with HP and webOS, then mentioning Samsung, Panasonic, Ofcom, Jawbone, Everything Everywhere, RIM and Google, before ending with a new retail scheme from O2.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

This is part 2 of Mobile, Maps & Geolocation - so much more than "Where am I?"

It's a Mobile Monday London panel discussion with Gary Gale, Christopher Osborne, Jeni Tennison, Ian Holt and Harry Wood. Part 1 is available as a separate podcast.

This week's Mobile Monday London event featured a panel discussion about the opportunities for mobile-based geolocation and mapping. The event was supported by UK mapping agency Ordnance Survey.

In this podcast you'll hear the first part of the evening's discussion plus interviews with Nokia's Gary Gale, who chaired the panel, and Ian Holt from Ordnance Survey. Part 2 is available as a separate podcast.

This week's podcast starts with the world's slimmest smartphone (at least for the moment) before introducing a new smartphone company and even more new products from Samsung.

We're also talking about the battle of Instagram vs Vine, the sale of O2 Ireland, mobile retail web usage, the new CEO of BT and a new report about an unexpected health threat to mobile phone users.

Samsung has put a 10x optical zoom lens on a smartphone, Google is acquiring navigation app Waze and the European Commission is getting ready to equip cars with an emergency call system.

We're also talking about a strike threat at O2, the risk of 'showrooming' to high-street retailers, the end of Symbian smartphones and plenty more as well.

We start this week's podcast with Apple's announcement about the new version of its iOS platform - and follow this with a look at the privacy concerns surrounding the US government's PRISM operation.

Next come Samsung's new phones, Ericsson's new contract, a potential end to European roaming charges, some sophisticated mobile malware and plenty of other news stories as well.