AT&T is hoping to set off its own fireworks this Independence Day with the sale of its version of the Samsung Galaxy S III (S3), which goes on sale Friday for $199.99 after a new two-year contract. Samsung’s latest superphone earned a CNET Editors’ Choice Award for its 4G LTE speeds, 4.8-inch screen, silky smooth …

Samsung and Verizon continue their line of QWERTY keyboard phones in the Samsung Intensity III, a horizontal slider that this time has an edge of the rugged. The durable Intensity III passes military specification (8010F) for withstanding the elements, like heat and cold, fog, humidity, dust, and solar radiation. On the features front, the Intensity III is a feature phone …

Google’s Vic Gundotra wasn’t kidding when promised he’d send 6,000 party invites using the just-launched invitations feature in Google+. Google+ Events puts your RSVPs in your calendar. Jessica Dolcourt/CNET Not long ago the invitation from Google’s senior vice president of engineering popped up in my inbox, looking suspiciously like a Google+ comment, but with a map you can hide or …

If your decision to buy Samsung’s Galaxy S III (S3) on T-Mobile comes down to the LTE radio within, prepare yourself for disappointment. A T-Mobile spokesperson confirmed to CNET today that despite the same LTE radio in every GS3 model coming to the U.S., Samsung’s new flagship Android 4.0 phone will not ride T-Mobile’s forthcoming LTE network: The Samsung Galaxy …

Starting tomorrow, the Samsung Galaxy S III won’t be the only member of its family to use Google’s Android 4.0 operating system on AT&T. The network will begin to roll out Ice Cream Sandwich updates to the Samsung Galaxy S II as well. Unfortunately for AT&T customers, making the leap from Gingerbread to ICS will take a little more legwork …

Back in January there was no question which carrier had built the best portfolio, and I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t AT&T. By December, Verizon already had an embarrassment of riches, and the toughest high-end Android decision for holiday shoppers was which Big Red phone to get: the angular Motorola Droid Razr, the HTC Rezound audio genius, or the …

When it comes to Windows Phone 8, “ascend” is exactly what Microsoft needs to raise up its smartphone share. That’s why Huawei’s commitment to produce a Huawei Ascend handset running Microsoft’s freshly announced Windows Phone 8 OS is so key. Although the Chinese company isn’t well known in the top-tier U.S. carriers, the company has a strong partnership with no-contract …

Editors’ note, September 14, 2012: On September 12, Apple announced the iPhone 5. CNET compared the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3, and Nokia Lumia 920 spec to spec, and threw in some of our own predictions and analysis. We’ll have more when we review the phones in full. “The Samsung Galaxy S III (S3) is a great phone, but should …

Support for multi-core processors was one of the biggest pieces of news to come from Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 unveiling today. Qualcomm has just confirmed that it will supply its dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset to power future Windows phones. The Snapdragon S4 is Qualcomm’s fastest chip to date and goes up to clock speeds of 1.7GHz per core. It …

Windows Phone 8, the successor to its Windows Phone 7.5 Mango mobile operating system, will ship on handsets starting this fall, according to Microsoft. Windows Phone 8, code-named Apollo, will feature support for multicore processors, NFC with a mobile payments wallet, and support for three screen resolutions and microSD card slots. Furthermore, the next Windows Phone OS will share a …