Alleged photos of the rumored BlackBerry 9720 phone have popped up online. A slew of photos hosted by Thai BlackBerry Club reveal a traditional phone equipped with the standard QWERTY keyboard. Outfitted with BlackBerry OS 7.1, the 9720 is apparently destined for emerging markets. And the specs so far would indicate a low-cost device. A …

Android 4.3 appears to be playing a game of “Where’s Waldo?” — seemingly popping up in one upcoming smartphone after another. The latest sighting comes courtesy of the Bluetooth SIG, which uncovered an application for Google’s version of the HTC One that listed Android 4.3 as the operating system. Revealing Bluetooth certification for the phone, the application was submitted on …

Android remains the top dog for U.S. smartphone sales, though Apple’s iOS is creeping up. Google’s mobile OS took home 52 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales from March through April, showing little gain from the same period last year, Kantar said on Monday. At the same time, iOS grabbed 41.9 percent of smartphone sales in the U.S., an increase …

Motorola’s upcoming Droid Ultra will be thin and still as “tough as steel.” At least, that’s how the company is teasing it. A page on Motorola’s Web site displays a small gray box with a tidbit of promotional copy for the Droid Ultra: “Available in a bunch of glossy colors, this high-grade DuPont Kevlar body proves you can be even …

Apple supplier Foxconn wants to branch out by grabbing a slice of Taiwan’s 4G spectrum. Foxconn, aka Hon Hai, said that it submitted an application on Tuesday to bid for 4G spectrum in Taiwan, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Taiwan’s National Communications Commission announced on Monday that it’s appraising the applications of seven companies. One of those is Hon …

Hewlett-Packard plans to jump back into the smartphone business. Yam Su Yin, HP’s senior director for consumer PC and media tablets for Asia Pacific, told the Press Trust of India that the company will focus on all segments of the market, including tablets, notebooks, and all-in-one PCs, the Indian Express reported Sunday. Asked specifically about a smartphone, Yin said: “The …

Google’s next version of Android may have taken its latest bow courtesy of a batch of leaked screenshots. Images obtained and posted by Sammobile purport to reveal an early Android 4.3 build running on the Google Play Edition Galaxy S4. The screenshots clearly display the Android version number as 4.3, while the model number of GT-i9505G refers to Google’s new …

India is now the third biggest smartphone market in the world. During the first quarter of 2013, smartphone sales in India jumped by 163 percent over the prior year’s quarter, Strategy Analytics said on Wednesday. In comparison, smartphone volume over the same period rose by 86 percent in China, 24 percent in Japan, and 19 percent in the United States. …

Looking for a smartphone with no data caps? Sprint has a couple of new candidates lined up. The HTC 8XT and Samsung Ativ S Neo, both Windows Phone 8 handsets, will be available sometime this summer through Sprint’s self-dubbed Truly Unlimited plan. Offered in select markets, the plan promises unlimited 4G LTE data use with no overage charges. The cost …

Verizon Wireless subscribers interested in the Galaxy S4 Developer Edition can now order one directly through Samsung. Selling for $650, the unlocked developer edition offers all the features of the standard S4. But as per its name, it’s geared toward developers and other people who want to tweak the phone without running into the obstacles posed by the locked version. …