While the iPhone has been slowly making its way to carriers all over the world since its release in 2007, there are still a number of major operators that are yet to offer it. One of those is China Mobile, the world’s largest carrier with over 800 million subscribers; and another is DoCoMo, a Japanese carrier that serves almost half of the country’s mobile market.

But DoCoMo isn’t at all concerned, even though it’s losing customers to other carriers that do offer Apple’s device. A company executive has acknowledged that the iPhone is an “attractive” device, but points out that it also comes with some disadvantages, and insists that the latest Android-powered offerings are just as good.

With Best Buy and even Apple itself offering deep discounts on iPhones, it seems like everyone is getting into the act. AT&T just announced a plan to offer users a trade-in plan for up to fifty percent off online or in-store purchases of mobile devices like the iPhone 5, Galaxy S4, or HTC One when an older phone is traded in towards the purchase.

With all the brouhaha over PRISM and internet security lately, it might be time to seek out some instant messaging apps that can handle “off the record” messaging. Google’s chat does this transparently when using the web-based client via Gmail, and Mac and PC apps like Adium can handle the encryption as well.

Interestingly, Google’s own Hangouts app, at least on my iPhone, isn’t able to. You just get the raw encryption, which just looks like random text, which is what it’s supposed to be.

We got an email today, though, from Shape Services, the developers of IM+ and IM+ Pro, saying that there’s a in-app purchase that adds this encrypted chat to their apps, both on Google Play and iTunes.

Better yet? Starting tomorrow, the in-app purchase, regularly $4.99, will be free.

NEC became the world’s first and only smartphone manufacturer to launch a liquid-cooled handset back in May, but it may quickly lose that claim later this year. According to some sources, a number of high-profile smartphones makers, including Apple, Samsung, and HTC, will be launching their own liquid-cooled devices in the fourth quarter.

The HTC One Mini, a cheaper version of HTC’s flagship smartphone, will go on sale this August, according to sources for Bloomberg. The device will have a smaller display with a lower-resolution screen and a slower processor, but it will be priced less to compete with devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini.