CNET LG Electronics said Thursday that its second-quarter operating profit rose 26.5 percent on strong performance by the company’s TV and mobile communications divisions. The South Korean electronics maker reported an operating profit of 606 billion won ($588.5 million) for the three-month period ended June 30, beating analyst estimates for 534.8 billion won. The company …

Stephen Shankland/CNET Qualcomm said its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 42 percent, as the company’s chipset sales showed considerable strength. However, shares fell because of weak guidance projections, dropping 3.3 percent to $78.90 in after-hours trading. The chipmaker, whose technology is part of the iPhone and of Samsung’s Galaxy gadgets, warned that it believes some licensees in China are underreporting their …

It’s taken a while, but it’s finally getting easier and more affordable to use your cell phone almost anywhere in the world. Network and device technologies have evolved, making it simple and cost-effective to pop a SIM card into almost any unlocked phone and get service, whether you’re an American traveling abroad or a foreigner visiting the States. In Europe, …

Marguerite Reardon/CNET AT&T’s customer growth continued to surge — particularly with a rebound in smartphones — even as it missed Wall Street’s earnings and sales expectations for the second quarter. The Dallas telecommunications giant posted a second-quarter profit of$3.55 billion, or 68 cents a share, compared with a year-ago profit of $3.8 billion, or 71 cents a share. On an …

You can play LG’s new Puppy Pop game without even opening the case. Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET LG G3 smartphone owners can now play a new game without having to open up the phone’s special case. The first mobile game designed for the QuickCircle case for the G3, Puppy Pop pops up in the case’s small circular window. Users can …

Apple CEO Tim Cook James Martin/CNET With the next iPhone still a few months away, it’s easy to ignore Apple’s fiscal third-quarter results. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t yield some interesting insights. The Cupertino, Calif., company sure wasn’t going to talk about new products — besides CEO Tim Cook saying Apple has “an incredible pipeline of new products and …

CNET Okay, Android users. It’s time to reach across the aisle, to engage in a little friendly bipartisanship. Because we, the “Apple fanboys,” the “iSheep,” need your help. According to a Wall Street Journal report earlier this week, Apple will announce two new iPhone models this September: a 4.7-inch version and a 5.5-inch version. For those of us who have …

Blind people can now dial thanks to Braille. OwnFone While millions of Australians take touchscreens for granted, they present a problem for blind people. Now visually-impaired Australians will be able to easily make mobile calls with the launch of a new mobile phone featuring customisable Braille buttons. Developed by British company OwnFone and unveiled in the UK in May, the …

TextNow Regular Cheapskate readers know that when it comes to no-contract smartphones, the deal to beat is the Republic Wireless Moto X, which costs $299 and has voice/high-speed data plans starting at $25. Watch your back, Republic. TextNow now offers a very similar option, with specially coded Android phones that tap Wi-Fi networks for voice calls and texting, switching to …

The nickel-sized sticker with circuitry lets you unlock your phone by touching the handset to it. Motorola Motorola is offering a unusual approach to unlocking your smartphone: a piece of circuitry that adheres to your wrist. The so-dubbed “digital tattoo” for the Moto X smartphone was launched Tuesday. It was first mentioned last year at the D: All Things Digital …

Lynn La/CNET Sprint hopes its partnership with Google will help mean inroads to new business customers. The nation’s third-largest wireless carrier by subscriber said on Wednesday that it plans to resell Google Apps, which include Gmail, Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and others, to businesses starting Aug. 18. In addition to the apps, Sprint is offering additional customer support, training tools, and …

Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra posing for a picture at his office at the Xiaomi HQ. Aloysius Low/CNET BEIJING — In the wake of accusations of Xiaomi’s “copying” Apple’s designs, Xiaomi’s Global VP and former Android VP Hugo Barra vigorously defended the Chinese company, calling the statements “sensational and sweeping“. He said as much at a group interview at the Xiaomi HQ …

Josh Miller/CNET For the first time, smartphone shipments have reached 1 billion. That probably means a lot of calling, texting, and app use. It also means a lot of phones being plugged into the grid and charging. A new study by analyst Juniper Research found that smartphone charging could soon be a massive generator of carbon dioxide, which is one …

The Note 3. Yeah it’s big, but that’s the point. Sarah Tew/CNET Not long ago, I wrote about some trepidation I was having about giving up my iPhone and switching to an Android device for the first time. That hesitation largely disintegrated once I held my new phone in my hand. It was the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and it …

Steve Guttenberg/CNET Sound waves are analog in nature, as they are continuous variations in air pressure. An LP’s grooves directly correspond to sound waves, a digital recording does not. It converts the original sounds into a sequence of numbers, and digital recording and playback requires conversions, first from analog to digital, and then digital to analog. The quality of those …