U.S. Cellular is about to kick off a phone that can reportedly resist water, dust, shock, and vibrations. Set to sell online this Wednesday and in stores on Thursday, the Kyocera DuraPro is designed for people who need a feature phone that can handle rugged conditions. The phone can survive in around three feet of …

A hefty chunk of taxpayer dollars spent by the government on mobile phone service for low-income Americans may have been wasted. A federal program called Lifeline provides hefty discounts on mobile phone service to qualifying low-income households. The goal is to ensure that they can connect with families, employers, and emergency services. How many of those households should actually have …

The iPhone 5 trailed four Android phones for user satisfaction, according to a new report out today. Conducted by mobile research firm OnDevice Research, the poll asked 320,000 smartphone and tablet users in six countries how satisfied they were with their devices. Among the 93,825 people surveyed in the U.S., Motorola’s Atrix HD came out on top, followed by Motorola’s …

Owners of Sony’s Xperia T and Xperia V can expect a dose of Android 4.1 sometime soon. Sony said yesterday that it’s begun deploying Jelly Bean to its initial batch of Xperia smartphones. The Xperia T and Xperia V are first on the list, while the Xperia TX is due sometime in March. The rollout will continue to ramp up …

Is Nokia getting ready to launch Lumia 520 and 720 smartphones? A regulatory filing seems to point in that direction. The Lumia 520 and 720 were both on the list of a regulatory filing in Indonesia picked up by blog site PhoneArena.com. The 520 would be the likely successor to the current Lumia 510, while the 720 would take over …

Owners of Nokia’s Lumia 710 who expected an update to Windows Phone 7.8 are out of luck. The phone’s sole U.S. carrier, T-Mobile, confirmed the news in a statement sent to CNET today: At this time, the Nokia Lumia 710 will not receive the Windows Phone 7.8 software update. T-Mobile is committed to enhancing customers’ experience with our devices, including …

BlackBerry customers in the U.S. awaiting the new Q10 smartphone may have a long wait ahead of them. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins told the Associated Press this week that the Q10 phone, which offers a traditional physical keyboard, will probably launch eight to 10 weeks after the debut of the virtual keyboard Z10 model. The Z10 is already available in …

BlackBerry is counting on Trend Micro to help ensure the security of its third-party apps. Like other app store owners, BlackBerry already scans apps for malware to protect BlackBerry World customers. But the company will add Trend Micro’s Mobile Application Reputation Service to take that protection a few steps further. Both current and new apps submitted to BlackBerry World will …

A couple of Android apps masquerading as cleanup tools actually had a sneakier mission in mind. Uncovered last month by Kaspersky, two apps named Superclean and DroidCleaner posed as software that claimed to clean up your Android smartphone or tablet. Instead, these two were actually pieces of malware designed to snoop on your conversations by infecting your computer. The programs …

Nokia could tiptoe into the tablet market as the next step beyond its Windows Phone-based Lumia lineup. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told reporters in Sydney, Australia, yesterday that the company is looking “very closely” at tablets but has yet to announce anything official, according to the Australian Financial Review. “We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft …