Dig it: this is the JCB limited edition version of the Motorola Defy+ rugged Android smart phone, with built-in apps for builders. The Defy+, follow-up to the Motorola Defy, is water-resistant, scratch-resistant and dust-proof, sporting a 3.7-inch scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass screen. The limited-edition digger-branded JCB Defy+ is aimed at builders and engineers, or anyone …

Leaked shots of three new Sony phones reveal something interesting: one of the phones, pictured above, appears to have Windows Phone buttons. Is Sony — formerly Sony Ericsson — preparing a Windows Phone to join its current Android line-up and rival the Nokia Lumia 800? Mobile blog NokiaWP.net shows off photos of handsets labelled as prototypes. Two are Android devices, …

BBC iPlayer had a record year in 2011, with shows such as Top Gear and Sherlock fuelling demand. Auntie Beeb’s regular BBC iStats reveal we watch and listen to more and more TV and radio on our phones, smart TVs and games consoles — and iPad iPlaying has skyrocketed by 600 per cent. We watched and listened to 1.94bn programmes …

Now playing: Watch this: Lenovo IdeaPad S2110 tablet hands-on 0:55 Fancy a look at the latest transforming tablet that thinks it’s a laptop that thinks it’s a tablet? Press play on our video to meet the Lenovo IdeaPad S2110, all the way from CES 2012 in Las Vegas. The IdeaPad S2110 appears at first glance to be a laptop, until, …

We’ve all been there: you’re walking down the street when a text arrives, which you read, and just as you’re giggling over that hilarious autocorrect from your friend — bam! You’ve fallen down a well. Fortunately, the link between mobile phone distraction and accidents is being investigated, using science. New Scientist reports a study in the Accident Analysis and Prevention …

Keen to splash out on a Samsung Galaxy S2 smart phone but just not digging all that boring black? It’s your lucky day, because the S2 is now available in pink — and it’s time to drop hints to your current squeeze, because if they order fast it arrives the day before Valentine’s Day. We wish that when it comes …

Android is so popular, its rivals are ganging up. Samsung wants to improve its non-Android phones by bringing together its own low-end operating system Bada with the successor to MeeGo, Tizen. Although most of Samsung’s phones, like the wildly successful Samsung Galaxy S2, oversized Samsung Galaxy Note and Ice Cream Sandwich-sporting Samsung Galaxy Nexus, are powered by Android, Forbes reports …

Samsung is downplaying Samsung Galaxy Nexus battery issues after CNET UK readers ran into problems charging their new phones. “The number of official repair and complaint cases in the UK relating to problems with the battery power and charging of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus are extremely low, therefore any reported cases are isolated,” Samsung told us. “Any customers having problems …

The Nokia Lumia 710 is joining the Nokia Lumia 800 in Britain, thanks to Three. The 3G network is the first to confirm it’ll sell the budget entry to the new Lumia range of Nokia Windows phones. The Lumia 710 stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Nokia Lumia 800, launched last year, in Nokia’s big push to recapture some of the ground …

Ofcom is rethinking its plans for a next-generation 4G mobile phone network. The UK’s telecoms regulator wants to cover at least 98 per cent of the population and make space for smaller local 4G networks. It wants to promote competition between the phone networks to provide 4G to customers, to try and clear the current stumbling block of legal squabbling …