Rumor: Amazon Phone In The Works At Foxconn
Amazon may be building a phone with Foxconn (Apple's most famous manufacturer partner). Bloomberg reports hearing from unnamed sources that that a smartphone is next up the Kindle-maker’s sleeve. Amazon is supposedly taking first steps in that direction by buying wireless tech patents that would protect it against patent infringement suits. Other than that though, there’re not many other details Bloomberg’s tipsters reveal to back up the claim at this time.

Rumors of an Amazon phone go back to November 2011, when Citigroup had a look at supply chain goings-on in Asia, and concluded that an Amazon smartphone was in the works at Foxconn. They even suggested a price for the device: $150-$170.

Supporting the newest rumor, Amazon recently bought 3D mapping startup UpNext, whose navigation software could fit more snugly in a phone than a Kindle.

British Airways Customer Research Policy Questioned As Privacy Invasion

British Airways has a new proactive customer service policy that's putting the company through the media wringer because it takes its name, Know Me, a little too literally. BA's system involves archiving data about its customers, to be aware if they've suffered delays or cancellations in the past, in order to better direct customer service reps in how to approach them...but it extends to Googling for images of the customer so staff know who to approach. BA is facing allegations that it's proactively invading customer privacy and building up passenger "dossiers" in an attempt to bump up its public image. The London Evening Standard, repoting on the matter, notes that BA is merely the latest airline to get into trouble over customer privacy issues, although arguably BA is only using publicly available data and its own pre-existing information.

HTC Profits Fall Nearly 58% On U.S. Customs Ban, Weak Sales
HTC has just reported its second quarter finances, and they're terrible: Profits slipped 57.8% on the same period last year. In fact HTC reported that consolidated sales for June were down $30 billion on the same period last year, 33.4%, and flat from May. The poor performance that lead to an equivalent quarterly profit of just $248 million is being blamed not only on the U.S. customs hold on HTC smartphone imports--a case HTC lost against Apple--but also on weak smartphone sales in Europe, which is a far trickier problem for the Taiwanese firm. HTC has been consolidating its product releases to concentrate on fewer, better-branded handsets and there have been recent rumors it's interested in making its own smartphone processors with ST-Ericsson in a further attempt to emulate Apple strategy.