Time to take a leak. The latest HTC phone to appear ahead of its official release is the mid-range HTC Zara. The Zara appears in some pretty legit-looking images of the phone, leaked courtesy of the usually-trustworthy EVleaks, revealing a black plastic smart phone. Although nothing’s official yet, the Zara is rumoured to be an …

If you’re a Kogan Mobile customer, you have no time to waste if you want to make a clean transition to a new network provider before your current account shuts down. (Credit: Kogan) With the news of Kogan Mobile being shuttered after wholesaler ISPOne entered administration, customers are left wondering exactly what they need to do to stay connected. The …

Days after BlackBerry announced it was for sale, some people suggested that the beleaguered phone maker sell its patent portfolio to avoid going into the red. While BlackBerry’s smartphones sales have been tepid at best, the company still has a healthy portfolio of 130 encryption patents. In fact, MIT Technology Review suggested these patents could be the company’s biggest asset. …

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 at 985 phones for $80 …

From left to right: Verizon’s Motorola Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini. Roger Cheng/CNET Motorola delivered a punch with its new Droid smartphones. Partnering with Verizon Wireless, the company announced the Droid Mini, Droid Ultra, and Droid Maxx at a press event in New York City last month. All three handsets are equipped with Motorola’s custom X8 Mobile Computing System, 720p …

New details and early photos of the HTC Zara have apparently surfaced, painting a clearer picture of the rumored midrange Android smartphone. The photos and specs, obtained by frequent tipster @evleaks, tell of a moderately designed midtier Android handset with cutting-edge software. Related stories Android rumor roundup AT&T to offer HTC Mini on August 23 Verizon: HTC One Arrives on …

LG Display might have just made that full HD screen on your smartphone look not so sharp. The South Korean LCD panel maker on Tuesday unveiled what it calls the world’s first Quad HD (2,560×1,440-pixel resolution) smartphone display. Measuring 5.5 inches long and 1.21 millimeters thick, the panel sports 538 pixels per inch, LG Display said. LG Display claims the …

More people are ditching Samsung for the Apple iPhone than the other way round, according to new figures from the US. The figures suggest Apple has poached three times as many new phone buyers from Samsung in the past year as Samsung has pinched from Apple. A survey of US customers by the numbercrunchers at Consumer Intelligence Research Partners checked …

Motorola has temporarily put the brakes on a custom engraving feature it planned to offer for the Moto X, according to multiple reports. The upcoming Moto Maker experience lets phone owners (starting with AT&T subscribers) build a custom Moto X smartphone that includes hand-picking colors, wallpaper, and accessories. Unfortunately one of the key features, custom engraving, will not be present …

Samsung’s 4K TVs have just become a bit more affordable — though you’ll still need to sell off several key organs to own one. The 65-inch F9000 went on sale in the UK just last month with a wince-inducing £5,999 price tag. A whole grand has been sliced off that price, Trusted Reviews spied, with the pixel-packing gadget wall-occupier now …

At the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, today, Sony announced that its PlayStation 4 game console would be arriving November 15 in North America, followed by a European launch date of November 29. The company said the console would launch in 32 countries overall in time for the holiday season, but didn’t specify any other dates worldwide. Sony also mentioned …

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET The old adage in TV retail is that the brightest TV sells. This, in a historical context, makes a lot of sense: the brightest TV caught your eye, seemed “better,” and got your hard-earned ducats. But these days all TVs are bright. And just because one TV is brighter than another, it doesn’t mean it’s “better.” Heresy, this …

A blue mat, a fine-tipped screwdriver, and a dozen itty bitty screws. This is Titus Green’s workspace, set within a warehouse that processes 2 million pounds of unwanted electronic waste each year. Green, 22, and his team at San Francisco Bay Area e-waste collection center Green Citizen, refurbish 30 cell phones a day to put back into customers’ hands. If …

Yesterday was the first day of the footie season, and all over the country excited fans got ready to watch the opening game. Well if they were using the new BT Sport app to watch on their mobile device, they will have had a nasty surprise, as it suffered from technical issues, the BBC reports. BT said the issue only …

Gold! Always believe in your phone — you’ve got the power to um, er, call?… Ahem. Apple has once more been strongly tipped to be cooking up a golden-hued version of its next iPhone. The next iPhone — reckoned to be called the iPhone 5S — will come in a subtle golden shade, TechCrunch reports, citing ‘multiple sources’ that have …