BlackBerry offered no real surprises as it posted a fiscal second-quarter loss of nearly $1 billion amid the continuing struggles of its smartphones in the marketplace. The Canadian company said Friday that it lost $965 million, or $1.84, compared with a year-earlier loss of $235 million, or 45 cents a share. Revenue fell 45 percent …

Microsoft will create the ‘next big thing’, outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer has said, in a reportedly emotional farewell speech to employees. The eccentric boss, known for his eccentric style and fondness for jumpers, was speaking at his last ever company meeting as chief, the Verge reports, citing sources ‘familiar with the meeting’. The impassioned delivery apparently saw Ballmer say that …

One and two and three and lift and one and — oh hello, didn’t see you come in there. Microsoft has announced Xbox Fitness to help gamers shed the pounds, without costing any. Xbox Fitness is a library of videos in which unnecessarily skinny people bark at you to leap around your living room in the quest for that bikini …

BlackBerry says it isn’t withdrawing from the UK high street, despite the ailing corporation’s decision to shift focus to the world of business-related tech. Johnathan Young, BlackBerry’s UK senior retail director, told CNET that the firm’s consumer efforts (i.e, selling phones to ordinary shoppers, rather than big companies) would be “business as usual”. “The majority of our business, particularly in …

DIYers, listen up: if you want to fix your smartphone, consider picking up an Android-based handset. iFixit on Thursday released a list of the most repairable smartphones after tearing each of the devices down and putting them back together again. According to the company, the Motorola Droid Bionic is the most repair friendly, scoring a 9 out of a possible …

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 for 2014, introduced at the IFA show, is shown here with its white exterior trim. Josh Miller/CNET The rebooted Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 may be called the 2014 edition, but expect it to hit stores a few months before the new year rings in. The 10.1-inch tablet will be available on October 10 with preorders starting …

Nokia has two Lumia devices in the works that will make their debut at an event next month, according to a fresh report concerning the Finnish firm’s phone plans. Nokia has a total of six new devices — including the two Lumia mobiles — lined up for a 22 October reveal in Abu Dhabi, the Verge reports. The brace of …

The US is on the cusp of major change when it comes to flying in airplanes: no more turning off devices during takeoff and landing. The Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee said Thursday that it was recommending dropping this age-old rule, according to the Associated Press. The committee said that personal electronic devices, like smartphones, tablets, and e-readers, shouldn’t have …

Google’s next Nexus has just blithely strolled onto benchmarking site GFXBench and — whistling jauntily, no doubt — raised the bar for Android smart phones. The specs section of the benchmark also sheds light on the Nexus 5’s hardware, and it doesn’t disappoint. Its max CPU frequency of 2.3GHz hints that the rumoured inclusion of a turbo-charged Snapdragon 800 chip …

Boost Mobile added a new no-contract Android phone to its lineup on Thursday, the Android-powered Boost Warp 4G. Priced at $199, it’s a refreshed take on last year’s midranger, the Boost Warp, this time adding a faster LTE data connection backed by Sprint’s network. Related stories Can Sprint put the ‘pedal to metal’ on its comeback plans? AT&T’s no-contract Aio …

Microsoft is cooking up a tiny version of its Surface device that will be on sale next year, according to fresh claims concerning Ballmer and pals’ tablet plans. The so-called Surface Mini will make its debut in early 2014, ZDNet reports, citing sources who are au fait with Microsoft’s schemes. The tablet is tipped to arrive in conjunction with a …

Setting up an Apple TV isn’t especially complicated, though it can be a hassle. The combination of an onscreen keyboard and Apple’s remote makes for painfully slow input of your Apple ID, Wi-Fi password, and the like. But if you have a third-gen Apple TV and an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad running iOS 7, you can transfer nearly all …

Vodafone is quickly expanding its 4G service beyond London, with five cities in the heart of England set to be blanketed in warm, loving waves of high-speed data this weekend. Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield will all have LTE from Vodafone turned on this Saturday, the bright-red network has announced — and Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester will have 4G …

Now playing: Watch this: Meet the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2:40 Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch needs some improvement, one of the company’s executives said in a recent interview. Speaking to Korea Times in an interview published on Wednesday, an unidentified Samsung official said that the company has “acknowledged that our [Galaxy] Gear [smartwatch] lacks something special.” The executive said that Samsung …

You could say iOS 7 is revolutionary — in the world of Apple. For several iterations now, Android users have had access to some of iOS 7’s most heralded features, leaving some avid fanboys going pfffftttttt. But maybe you’ve taken Android’s offerings for granted. Maybe you overlooked these now-glorified features. Maybe it took the release of iOS 7 to appreciate …