Google Voice users can now tweak their settings to screen unwanted callers in favor of family and friends. Users of the call-forwarding service have apparently been asking for a way to handle callers not in their address book. And Google has answered that request, as detailed in a new blog. Two new groups of callers …

Some LG smartphone owners will be receiving the latest version of Android early next month. An LG Korean news item (English translation) points to the Optimus LTE Tag and the Optimus Vu as getting a dollop of Ice Cream Sandwich — aka Android 4.0 — starting on June 4. As Engadget points out, it’s a bit tough to decipher the …

Will the next iPhone actually sport a larger screen? A new report from the Wall Street Journal suggests it will. Citing “people familiar with the situation,” the Journal said today that Apple has been tapping into its suppliers for screens larger than the ones used in the current iPhone. The new screens are at least 4 inches, compared with the …

Nokia has cooked up deals with a host of developers to lure more apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace for Lumia smartphone owners. Announced at CTIA Wireless 2012 today, the new partnerships with several leading app developers are aimed at offering more relevant apps for Lumia users. Games are hot on the list, with Angry Birds Space soaring onto Lumia …

AT&T is testing a new program designed to reward and retain customers through a series of potentially tempting perks. Known as AT&T Plus, the program would offer a “preferential” customer support number, waived upgrade fees, waived activation fees on a second line, and 25 percent off non-Apple accessories, according to a report from The Verge. Citing AT&T documentation from an …

A record number of smartphones will jump on the LTE bandwagon before the year is over. Eyeing a “breakout year” for 4G technology, Strategy Analytics expects LTE phone shipments to grow 10-fold in 2012, rising to 67 million units from just 6.8 million last year. The push is being driven across the entire industry. “Multiple operators and multiple phone vendors …

4G handsets grabbed 35 percent of the smartphone market in the fourth quarter, up from just 6 percent a year earlier, NPD said yesterday. Among the various 4G flavors, HSPA+ was the most prevalent, representing 22 percent of all smartphone sales. Deployed by AT&T and T-Mobile, HSPA+ got a huge boost in the fourth quarter from the iPhone 4S, which …

New Orleans, St. Louis, and Cleveland are just a few of the cities on AT&T’s upcoming LTE deployment list. The company revealed today that it will bring 4G access to a dozen markets in April and May and on into the early summer. Locations slated for the high-speed upgrade include Cleveland, Akron, and Canton, Ohio; Naples, Fla; Bloomington, Lafayette, and …

LG Electronics was hit by a drop in revenue and a net loss for its fourth quarter, but that loss was lower than a year ago thanks to strong demand for smartphones and TVs. For the quarter ended in December, sales dipped 6 percent, while the net loss narrowed to 111.6 billion won ($99 million), compared with a loss of …

Streaming high-definition video wirelessly throughout your home will be a major benefit of Wi-Fi 802.11ac in the next few years, says NPD In-Stat. Expected to receive final approval by the IEEE toward the end of this year, 802.11ac will boast several improvements over 802.11n. The new wireless flavor will offer speeds surpassing 1 gigabit per second, almost three times that …