Android 4.4 KitKat: What’s the point of co

Sorry fanboys and girls, you’re not getting Key Lime Pie after all. In a surprise twist, Google announced that the next version of Google’s operating system will be named KitKat in honor of the Hershey’s (or Nestle) chocolate bar, instead of Key Lime Pie, which previous code numbers and images had led us to believe. …

Read More »

4 things Microsoft’s Surface 2 can learn from Nokia

With Microsoft soon to be — barring any regulatory rejections — in control of Nokia’s smartphone business, the software giant has an opportunity to apply Nokia’s wealth of experience to its own mobile hardware endeavors. In particular, the next version of its Surface RT tablet, rumored to be called Surface 2. Microsoft has three generations of experience making hardware with …

Read More »

Nokia Lumia 1520 Bandit screenshot leaks, so many tiles

Nokia may have just been absorbed into Steve Ballmer’s belly, but its devices will continue under the Nokia name. Here’s another leak of the biggest one on the horizon, the Lumia 1520 Bandit, aka Nokia’s first 6-inch Windows Phone 8 device. Chronic leaker @evleaks has got its mitts on the screenshot. That 6-inch display will have plenty of space for …

Read More »

Nokia’s business in 2014: Patents, mapping, network gear

Under Nokia’s plan to sell its mobile-phone business to Microsoft for $7.2 billion, the company will lose its biggest tie with consumers. So what would the new Nokia look like? Very different. It’ll have three businesses, and only the smallest, the Nokia Here mapping service, will be something the average person might see when using a smartphone app or in-dash …

Read More »

Amazon offically announces all

Amazon has officially announced its second-generation Paperwhite after the company mistakenly released details earlier today. Eagle-eyed spotters over at a Croatia-based forum noticed that Amazon had posted an image to its site on Tuesday promoting a new Kindle Paperwhite. That image included a picture of the device, along with a laundry list of improvements customers can expect when the device …

Read More »

New images, video leak of Sony’s snap

New images have emerged of Sony’s snap-on smartphone lenses, the DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100, which each pack an entire camera inside. The DSC-QX100. (Credit: PhotoRumors) With Sony due to hold its IFA press conference tonight, one rumoured product (or, rather, two) has us tremendously excited: the DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100, a pair of lenses that you snap on to your smartphone, each …

Read More »

Uber hires former Google, Facebook, Klout executives

Uber has hired three executives from Google, Facebook, and Klout to help manage the business, and rapid growth, of the car service company. In a blog post Tuesday, CEO Travis Kalanick announced the new hires: former Google Treasurer and Chief Accountant Brent Callinicos, former Klout COO Emil Michael, and Ed Baker, Facebook’s head of international growth. This infusion of Silicon …

Read More »

Huawei officially unveils the Valiant budget Android

If you’re looking to score a true Android smartphone on the cheap, and with no contract, the new $79 Huawei Valiant for MetroPCS just may be the ticket. Judging from specs alone, the Valiant doesn’t pack much of a component punch. While the phone’s screen measures a sizable 4 inches across, it’s powered by a relatively slow 1GHz dual-core processor. …

Read More »

Voila! Ballmer says Elop a candidate for Microsoft CEO

In a comment that should surprise no one, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Tuesday that Nokia’s Stephen Elop is a candidate to replace him. “Stephen will go from external [candidate] to internal,” Ballmer told the Seattle Times, though he also said the Microsoft board will evaluate all candidates. Elop led Microsoft’s Microsoft Office division until he left to become …

Read More »

Sony Xperia Z1 ‘Honami’ full specs leaked

Xperia Blog has got its hands on the press release for Sony’s upcoming “Honami” IFA announcement, revealing the phone’s full spec list. (Credit: Xperia Blog) Sony is leakier than a barbed-wire boat right now, with press images and the full press release for the Xperia Z1 arriving ahead of the Japanese tech company’s announcements tonight at IFA in Berlin, courtesy …

Read More »

Nokia Lumia 1020 hits Australia 17 September

After giving the Lumia 925 a short stint at the top of the pack, Nokia has announced that the pixel-packing Lumia 1020 will launch in Australia on 17 September. Nokia’s Lumia 1020 in white, yellow and black. (Credit: Nokia) The Lumia 1020 delivers everything you’ll find in the Lumia 925, with one dazzling extra feature: the PureView 41-megapixel camera. This …

Read More »

Next version of Android has a name: KitKat

Google has announced that Android 4.4, the next version of the mobile operating system, will be named after the Nestlé snack KitKat. Although Google had never said anything even vaguely confirming it, everyone expected the next version of Android, following in the dessert naming tradition of the operating system, to be called Key Lime Pie. Overnight, the web giant surprised …

Read More »

Smartphone Spy Lens turns your phone into a periscope

Want to take photos around corners like a real spy? Scope out the Smartphone Spy Lens. (Credit: Photojojo) We love the idea of a smartphone periscope letting you use your camera as a way of peeking sneakily around corners and even snapping photos from a different angle. (We don’t recommend you do this without the subject’s permission, though, because that’s …

Read More »

Samsung Unpacked 2: Are we in for a train wreck or a triumph?

When Samsung kicks off its big, splashy Unpacked event Wednesday, millions of people will be waiting for its next play in mobile. A whole other crowd will be watching to see if the event’s a fiasco like the Galaxy S4 launch. Samsung has become a marketing machine, something that has helped it overtake rivals as the world’s biggest and most …

Read More »

Microsoft buys Nokia’s smart phone business, for £4.6bn

Microsoft is buying Nokia’s mobile phone business, in a surprise acquisition that will see the Finnish firm building smart phones exclusively for the company. The Xbox-maker has snapped up Nokia for a whopping 5.4bn Euros, or roughly £4.6bn, Nokia has confirmed. The deal is expected to become final in the first few months of 2014. According to soon-to-depart CEO Steve …

Read More »