Google+ on iOS and Android has been updated. The search giant yesterday offered up an update to Android-based devices, adding, most notably, support for joining Hangouts on Air from handsets. Unveiled last September, Hangouts on Air allows users to stream video chats with people around the world. It’s differentiated from Google+’s standard Hangouts feature, which …

Watch out, Google Wallet. There’s a new mobile-payment service in the works. A consortium of of retailers today announced that they have launched a mobile-commerce company, called Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX). Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, and Lowe’s are among the many companies that have signed up for the initiative. The companies combine to generate a whopping $1 trillion in sales …

The bad news just keeps coming for Nokia. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today announced that it has downgraded Nokia’s long-term corporate credit rating from BB+ to BB-. Although both ratings are considered “junk status,” BB- is a lower rating, indicating that the company “faces major ongoing uncertainties to adverse business, financial, and economic conditions.” S&P has affirmed an even …

Research In Motion is trying to find suitors for a cloud-services provider it bought back in October, according to a report. According to Reuters, citing sources, RIM is trying to find buyers that would take NewBay off of its hands. NewBay, which RIM acquired back in October for a reported $100 million, offers cloud services to operators and device makers …

Nokia Nokia has finally gotten Qt off its hands. The company announced today that it has sold Qt, its cross-platform development framework business, to Finland-based software services company, Digia. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal or a sales price. Digia acquired a portion of Qt from Nokia last year. This transaction completes the changeover. Qt allows …

Research In Motion has succeeded in getting overturned a verdict that would have forced it to pay $147.2 million in patent-infringement damages to mobile device management company Mformation. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has overturned a trial verdict and granted RIM’s “motion for judgment as a matter of law.” According to RIM, the court found …

Google’s Android operating system dominated the mobile arena last quarter, according to new data from research firm IDC. IDC reported that 104.8 million Android-based smartphones shipped worldwide during the second quarter, representing a 106.5 percent gain over the 50.8 million handsets that launched in the same period last year. Android nabbed 68.1 percent of the smartphone market last quarter. Android’s …

Research In Motion could be attempting to hold discussions with Samsung over the prospect of the handset maker licensing its BlackBerry 10 operating system. In a note to investors today, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said he believes that “RIM is attempting to revive discussions with Samsung regarding a BB10 licensing deal,” according to All Things Digital, which obtained a copy …

Nuance, a company that plays a part in some of the most well-known speech-recognition services on the market, has unveiled its own intra-app service, called Nina. With Nina’s help, iOS and Android developers can bring speech recognition, text-to-speech, and voice biometrics to their individual applications. Nina works much in the same way as Siri, allowing users to provide voice commands …

After a long wait, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 is finally launching. The device, which was first unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, comes with a 1.4GHz quad-core processor and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The most notable advancement over its predecessor, however, is the device’s screen, which measures 10.1 inches. The original Samsung Galaxy Note comes …