Nokia and Trolltech today announced that they have entered into an agreement that Nokia will make a public voluntary tender offer to acquire Trolltech. Nokia will offer NOK 16 per share in cash (approximately $150 million USD). The board of directors of Trolltech have already recommended that its shareholders accept Nokia’s Offer.

According to the company, the acquisition of Trolltech will enable Nokia to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business. With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia’s device portfolio and on PCs. Nokia’s software strategy for devices is based on cross-platform development environments, layers of software that run across operating systems, enabling the development of applications across the Nokia device range. Examples of current cross-platform layers are Web runtime, Flash, Java and Open C.

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Gizmodo has posted a hands-on of the OpenMoko powered Neo Freerunner smartphone. The Neo Freerunner is FIC’s commercial version of the OpenMoko phone which is plans to offer for sale later this spring.

Maintaining the overall look and feel of the developers’ Neo 1973, the Neo FreeRunner features hardware improvements such as 2D/3D graphics and a faster 500MHz processor that boosts performance to enable video and audio processing, as well as a new generation of mobile applications emerging from the open source community. Designed for worldwide use, FreeRunner will come in two versions: a 850MHz tri-band and a 900Mhz tri-band. Neo FreeRunner will also integrate WiFi (802.11 b/g) for online access anywhere, and will include motion sensors that will cue functions based on detected user activity.

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Dell is extending sales of hardware preloaded with Ubuntu Linux in response to customer demand reports vnunet. Customers in the UK, Germany, France and Spain can purchase pre-loaded versions of Ubuntu Linux 7.10 with built-in DVD playback on the Dell XPS 1330n, in addition to the previously-released Inspiron 530n desktop system, according to an official Dell blog.

IBM has increased support for Linux with the introduction of versions of its Lotus Notes collaboration suite and Symphony productivity tools built to run on the open source OS — and it’s hoping the effort will help unseat Microsoft as the king of desktop software.

The company this week said it plans to ship what it calls its “Open Collaboration Client,” made up of Lotus Notes 8 and Symphony, for Canonical’s popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.

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Apologies for the long pause since the last posts. Between traveling and minor injuries, my own personal blogging time at MLI was a bit limited for the past couple of weeks. With that out of the way, I wanted to let our good readers know that regular updates will continue and expect to see more mobile linux coverage in the months and years to come!

On that note, I’d also like to remind folks that we are looking for associate writers at Mobile Linux Info. If you have a passion for mobile linux and a decent set of fingers to type with drop me a line at ryan[at]mobileinfocenter[d0t]com. We have both paid and volunteer positions open, depending on your level of involvement. So if you’re interested please drop me a line and let me know your level of interest in mobile linux and it would be helpful to include some writing samples and/or your CV.