BlackBerry Music is live and amplified today. The unique twist is that you can also listen to your friends’ tracks, so more chums means more choons. The cloud-based music service, powered by Omnifone, has a catalogue of over 45 million tracks. You create your own profile of 50 songs, which you can stream online or …

Samsung has decided not to block the iPhone 4S on its home ground of South Korea. The South Korean company has chosen not to launch a legal challenge to Apple’s new phone, which went on sale in the country last week. Apple and Samsung are currently locked in a knock-down-drag-out legal fight over phone and tablet design, with the two …

Less than half of app users have ever actually paid money for an app, according to research. New figures reveal 46 per cent of phone and tablet users who have downloaded apps have stuck with free apps rather than forking out. US researchers at Pew Research say that means just 13 per cent of all adult US mobile phone users …

Amazon is planning to take on Siri with a rival voice service. The bookseller and maker of the Kindle ebook reader has bought voice assistant Yap, potentially helping the Kindle Fire Android tablet challenge the iPhone 4S and iPad. Siri is the personal assistant in Apple’s new iPhone 4S, answering questions you pose by speaking into the phone. Yap, on …

Crack open the bubbly: Nokia is planning a new Windows Phone codenamed Champagne. The fizzy phone will join the Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710. Champagne is likely to be a code name; Nokia’s first Windows Phones were known as the Sea Ray and Sabre while in development, but became the Lumia 800 and 710 when announced. Expect a …

The Nokia Lumia 800 has people “looking at Nokia with fresh eyes again”, according to a new video showing how the new Windows Phone was designed. The video goes behind the scenes at Nokia’s London design studio — not a million miles from CNET Towers, as it happens — where a “SWAT team” of industrial design and user experience bods …

A quarter of iPad owners only use their iPad once a week — and some don’t use it at all. According to new figures, 26 per cent of iPad users only use their Apple slate once a week, and 1 in 10 say they may not pick it up at all. Less than half of owners, 42 per cent, say …

Beleaguered BlackBerry has had another black day as users found their messages delayed yesterday. And in a move that may be unpopular with fans, BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion has hinted that forthcoming BBX phones will abandon the traditional BlackBerry design. It seems messages sent via the popular BlackBerry Messenger app were delayed in reaching their destination. Research in Motion …

The great Flash war is over — and Apple has won. Adobe is pulling the plug on Flash for mobile phones and tablets, to focus on HTML5 for playing videos and animations. Just like Steve Jobs wanted. A source close to Adobe revealed to our friends at ZDNet that the company will now “focus on enabling Flash developers to package …

HTC and LG have joined forces to repel legal attacks on Android. The two companies have joined a collective of companies, including Google, Facebook and Sony, that share patents against external threats — handy as Apple battles Android in court. HTC and LG have joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), a coalition dedicated to protecting Linux by sharing patents. Members …