Could Amazon be making a go at Apple and Samsung in the smartphone sector? According to Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist, it sure looks that way. According to the report, Amazon is in advanced talks with TI, looking to scoop up their chip business at a cost of billions of dollars. Texas Instruments has been quite vocal about wanting to get out of the smartphone market and has scaled back its support after losing most of its market share to Qualcomm and predicting an unattractive long-term opportunity for them in the smartphone market.

Monday is here… *sigh*. While you were busy trying to accomplish every “to-do” relax over the weekend, a few stories developed that you may have missed. I’ll briefly round-up a couple bits of information here for you to catch up on and then let you get back to enjoying your Blue Monday.

SoftBank will combine with Sprint to become one of the world’s largest carriers.

SoftBank, Japan’s third-largest carrier, has this morning announced that it will acquire Sprint in a deal worth $20.1 billion. The company will purchase $8 billion in newly-issues shares from Sprint, in addition to $12.1 billion in existing shares — giving it a 70% stake overall.

LG isn’t exactly my first… second… or third choice when it comes to favorite smartphone manufacturers but they’re really pushing the press these days — especially with the rumored Optimus G Nexus. Color me unimpressed so far, but one thing I will give LG credit for is their latest Optimus G product movie.

Motorola DROID Bionic owners don’t have much to be happy about these days but perhaps an Ice Cream Sandwich update will be enough of a refresh to get them through their contracts. Reports are coming in that Motorola has begun sending out emails to members of the Motorola Feedback Network, inviting them to take part in an upcoming soak test for the Bionic. While the invitation doesn’t specifically indicate that the software upgrade will be Android 4.0, there’s a high probability that it is.