Is Google ready to go big with next Nexus? CNET Google’s upcoming Nexus device may well be a phablet, according to a report. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, multiple sources said the Android maker is developing a 5.9-inch “phablet,” designed to fit squarely between the size of a typical smartphone and a …

iPhone 5S’ fingerprint reader, dubbed “Touch ID.” Apple Apple has unveiled its smartphone’s latest weapon: a fingerprint reader it’s calling Touch ID. With its move, Apple could end up making the technology commonplace, as rivals might feel compelled to follow suit. It could be only a matter of time before passwords and passcodes are relegated to yesteryear. In making the …

Huawei would consider snapping up Nokia, which could help it boost its smartphone gains in Europe and the U.S., a company executive said on Tuesday. According to the Financial Times of London (paywall), Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, said at the launch of its latest smartphone offering, the Ascend P6, in London: “We are considering these sorts …

Nokia reported its latest first-quarter earnings on Thursday, sending a clear signal to partner Microsoft that it continues to struggle to get back on the track. This comes only a few days after Microsoft — Nokia’s partner in the smartphones — said that it believes the Finnish phone maker is a “great” company and partner and that Microsoft has no …

Nokia confirmed today it has been slapped with a demand for back taxes by Indian tax authorities. According to Reuters, the Finnish phone maker was hit with a demand for income taxes 20.8 billion rupees ($383 million) going back five fiscal years. It comes only a month after one of Nokia’s factories in India was raided by the country’s tax …

FaceTime FaceOff: VirnetX v. Apple’s patent battle grinds almost to a halt after both companies are denied injunctions or new judgments. A U.S. District Court has upheld an earlier decision by a federal jury last year to award intellectual property and patent holding firm VirnetX more than $368.2 million, after Apple was found to have infringed patents related to the …

Now playing: Watch this: Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Grand 1:52 Samsung today unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Grand smartphone, which runs the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean mobile operating system and sports a 5-inch WVGA display. The smartphone also features a powerful dual-core 1.2GHz processor, along with 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera offering 1080p video recording and a 2-megapixel …

Correction, 2:55 p.m. and 6:55 PT: CNET incorrectly stated that the Justice Department had sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission today and implied there was additional concern about the national security implications of that deal. There have been no additional concerns raised, and the review is part of a standard process when a foreign company is involved in …

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Federal Communications Commission to defer a proposed deal in which Japan-based Softbank would acquire a 70 percent stake in Sprint. In a letter sent to the FCC and dated yesterday, attorney advisor Jennifer Rockoff, with the Justice Department’s National Security Division, asked that the deal be put on ice for now. The DOJ, the Department …

PC manufacturing giant Lenovo may be mulling a bid for Research In Motion as part of efforts to bolster its own smartphone unit.  At a CES press event this month, Lenovo had some of its smartphones on display. The K800, which the company announced last year at CES, has a 32nm “Medfield” Atom processor. Kent German/CNET According to a report by …