The ambitious Firefox phone may face a long, uphill road to success, but the first batch of phones up for grabs in the U.S. and U.K. has sold out after its first weekend of availability. Less than 1,000 units of the low-powered ZTE Open were sold in each locale, with the American eBay tapped out …

Can a browser transform into a phone? Firefox maker Mozilla certainly hopes so, but skepticism among analysts has been the backdrop to Mozilla’s claims of growing customer interest in its small, plasticky, and brightly colored Firefox phones. Those phones have seen rapid expansion of availability in their first month on the market, from initial sales only in Spain, to now …

commentary How do you feel about Firefox as an operating system? Or Ubuntu on your phone or tablet? Is Windows Phone 8 worth switching to? BlackBerry 10 means that the company formerly known as RIM isn’t dead yet, right? And what the heck’s a Tizen, anyway? Depending on the OS, these questions and more will begin to plague mobile phone …

The AME 2000, one of the world’s most secure phones (pictures) +4 more See all photos SAN FRANCISCO–Of all the multitudes of phones launching amid the grandeur of Barcelona this week, Motorola Solutions quietly broke champagne over one device from the back corner of a convention center here. The Motorola AME 2000, originally announced a few weeks back, is not …

The original Droid Razr and Droid Razr Maxx have begun receiving their over-the-air update to Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, according to a report at Android Central. Related stories: As Worries Grow Around Russian Cyberattacks, Update Your Operating Systems Bill Gates’s top mistake? Letting Google’s Android rule the world (The 3:59, Ep. 576) All the different Android versions through the years …

NEW ORLEANS–Security suite maker AVG has teamed with independent Android marketplace and mobile content provider Livewire to scan all the apps it hosts for malware before they are made available to the public, the companies announced today at CTIA. The deal will also install AVG’s free Android security app Mobilation (download) on devices to scan apps after they update. Jon …

Now playing: Watch this: Hands-on Mozilla’s Firefox OS – Boot to Gecko 1:23 NEW ORLEANS–Mozilla may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to mobile technology, but that may change early next year. Its mobile operating system code-named Boot to Gecko is developing rapidly, but it will face challenges both technical and tech cultural. Judging from …

Now playing: Watch this: Windows 8 beta unifies desktop and tablet–but will people… 5:24 Microsoft pulled back much of the scaffolding and secrecy surrounding Windows 8 today at Mobile World Congress. I’ve been using the Windows 8 beta (download), officially known as the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, for the past week, and it’s by far the most integrated and capable …

Mozilla changed the Internet once. Will lightning strike twice for the Firefox developer? That’s what the company hopes will happen at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona next week when it unveils the Mozilla Web Apps platform, a tripartite approach to app building that will level the playing field for building apps, the company said in a statement today. The …

Not only is the Android OS customizable, but now you can customize the hardware that Android runs on thanks to Google’s new Android Device Kit. Check out this slideshow showcasing several examples from Google I/O 2011 of what the ADK can do. ADK robots at Google I/O 2011 (photos) +6 more See all photos