Research In Motion Ltd, for months enveloped by a wave of negative sentiment, got a boost on Tuesday when one of its most influential critics raised his rating on the stock ahead of the launch of RIM's make-or-break new line of BlackBerry 10 devices.

The upgrade by Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek pushed RIM's share price into double digits for the first time in five months, with the stock up more than 3 percent at $10.04 in early trading on the Nasdaq.

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Huawei (Shenzhen, China) has announced the start of a major M2M push in Europe as it aims to become the dominant player in the nascent industry.

China’s largest networks vendor has spent the last few months signing distribution agreements for its embedded modules in Europe’s biggest markets.

It now counts m2m Germany, Simple Solutions (UK), Sagitron (Spain and Portugal), Matrix (Spain), BE Telecom (Belgium and Israel), Netcom (Poland) and Techship (Sweden) among its partners, and says further deals are in the pipeline this year.

Garmin Ltd (Olathe, USA) and TomTom NV (Amsterdam, Netherlands) are gearing up for battle as the world's two biggest navigation companies plan to lure customers back with new products offering extra features.

Satnav sales have been in decline since 2008 as rivals like Google (Mountain View, USA) and Nokia (Helsinki, Finland) gave away free navigation on smartphones.

Once the darlings of the stock market, TomTom and Garmin have seen the value of their shares drop by more than 90 percent since the end of 2007, when satnav's were the hottest Christmas gifts.

Europe’s premier vendor organization for machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and the world’s largest M2M event organizer have announced that their joint marketing agreement will expand into full-blown partnership. The M2M Alliance has been working with the M2M Zone in joint promotional activities since 2010, but now their cooperation will include the exchange of content, membership services, and strategic consultation for the first time, in addition to joint exhibition and conference activities.

Walmart Stores Inc (Bentonville, USA) is testing a "Scan & Go" system that would allow shoppers to scan items using their iPhones and then quickly pay at a self-checkout counter.

If the test by the world's largest retailer is successful, it has the potential to change the way people shop and pay, making the process more personal and potentially faster.

IT giant IBM (New York, USA) and telecoms operator Vodafone (Newbury, UK) have announced plans to combine their expertise in cloud computing and mobile communications as part of a ‘smarter home’ initiative.

The companies hope to spur the development of ‘smart home’ appliances that can be managed remotely.

Spanish telecoms operator Telefónica (Madrid, Spain) has teamed up with electronics specialist Arduino (London, UK) on the development of a new programmable electronic board with M2M capabilities.

Arduino boards are already used to connect sensors and control applications ranging from lighting to motors, but the new-look board developed with the Spanish operator incorporates remote monitoring capabilities, with a GPRS/GSM connection that links the hardware motherboard with Telefónica’s M2M service.

A leading analyst company has called into question the claims that AT&T’s shutdown of its 2G network could leave M2M customers stranded.

The US operator recently announced plans to gradually phase out its 2G network, shifting customers and spectrum over to 3G and 4G technologies, and that a full transition would be finalized by 2017.

The news was met with a chorus of criticism that M2M customers would be left out in the cold, forced to change providers or pay AT&T higher rates for 3G or 4G connections.

Australian telecoms operator Telstra has formed a partnership with Transaction Network Services (TNS), a data communications company, aimed at providing services to Australian organizations that operate wireless payment devices.

Under the agreement, TNS is to use Telstra’s M2M Wireless Control Center to improve its managed wireless service. The partnership should allow TNS to expand its network reach in Australia as well as streamline its operations through the use of a single web-based interface for SIM card ordering, provisioning, activation and management.