BARCELONA, Spain–Nokia has just thrown the curtains open on its new additions to the Windows Phone 8-packing Lumia range. The baby of the bunch — the Lumia 520 — starts at only 139 euros (around $185 or 120 pounds) making it the cheapest way into Windows Phone you’ll find But Nokia’s Vice President of Smart …
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Visa’s new partnership with Samsung to embed its PayWave technology directly into Samsung devices could help kick-start NFC-enabled payments around the world. But U.S. wireless subscribers may be left out of the frenzy. Bill Gadja, head of mobile for Visa, makes a payment with his Galaxy S III at the Olympics. Visa Samsung and Visa announced the partnership, which is …
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BARCELONA, Spain–Mobile network operators traditionally use Mobile World Congress to call for lower taxes and more wireless spectrum. This year, a new word has entered the wish list: harmonization. The mobile industry today must deal with a hodgepodge of electromagnetic frequencies that differ from carrier to carrier and country to country. Franco Bernabe, chief executive of Telecom Italia, wants to …
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India is now the latest country to get BlackBerry’s Z10 handset. The company today announced that it has launched the smartphone in India for 43,490 rupees ($800). The device is already available in the U.K. and Canada. According to BlackBerry, the handset will be offered in over 2,000 retail locations across 50 cities around India. The handset will support carriers …
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U.S. Cellular is about to kick off a phone that can reportedly resist water, dust, shock, and vibrations. Set to sell online this Wednesday and in stores on Thursday, the Kyocera DuraPro is designed for people who need a feature phone that can handle rugged conditions. The phone can survive in around three feet of water for up to 30 …
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WebOS gets another shot at life thanks to LG Electronics. LG is acquiring WebOS from Hewlett-Packard, with the intention to use the operating system not for its mobile phones, but in its smart televisions. With the deal, LG obtains the source code for WebOS, related documentation, engineering talent, and related WebOS Web sites. LG also gets HP licenses for use …
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Andy Rubin, who heads up Google’s enormously successful Android business, can read a company’s business strategy as well as anyone out there. So it’s hardly a thunderbolt when we hear that Rubin frets about the day when Samung becomes so dominant that it becomes a threat. In a Wall Street Journal post coinciding with the Mobile World Congress show in …
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BARCELONA, Spain–Think Verizon Wireless or AT&T’s 4G LTE network is fast? Check out Japan. NTT Docomo’s CEO, Kaoru Kato, said he plans to offer download speeds of 112.5Mbps to his company’s customers. The higher speeds should come shortly, he said. NTT Docomo is Japan’s largest wireless carrier by customer base. Related stories MWC 2022: How to Watch the Samsung Galaxy …
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Samsung will unveil its new Galaxy S4 smartphone at a launch event on March 14. The news was tweeted by Samsung this morning via an invitation announcing the event, dubbed “Samsung Unpacked 2013 Episode 1.” The tweet says Samsung wants people to “come and meet the next Galaxy,” and further teases the new device with the numeral 4 in the …
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When the iPad first came on the scene back in 2010, most people bought them without having much idea how they’d use them. It was more out of curiosity, to see if a tablet would indeed meld with modern life. Fast-forward three years. Now we all know exactly what tablets are good for and what they’re not. We buy different …
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BARCELONA, Spain–Verizon Wireless plans to have several international 4G LTE roaming partners lined up by 2014, CNET has learned. Executives from the wireless carrier, which boasts the world’s largest LTE network, are in town to discuss potential roaming agreements, according to a company representative. Related stories MWC 2022: How to Watch the Samsung Galaxy Book Reveal CES 2021: What to …
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Samsung’s Bada operating system might soon be folded into Tizen. According to Korea-based news outlet Yonhap News, Samsung Media Solutions Center head Hong Won-pyo said recently that his company plans to phase out the Bada operating system and focus its software efforts solely on the open-source Tizen OS. Samsung’s Bada operating system has captured a very slim piece of the …
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The first official day of Mobile World Congress was riddled with exciting launches and delivered press conferences from some of the big guns of the smartphone world. Without Samsung and HTC to stand in their way, the likes of Asus, LG and ZTE threw down the Android gauntlet, and Nokia revealed the latest handsets in its ever-expanding range of Windows …
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BARCELONA, Spain–Mozilla and a slew of allies debuted Firefox OS this week — but one powerful potential partner is passing. That company is Samsung, which like Apple is a dominant smartphone maker. A high-level Samsung executive said at the Mobile World Congress show here that Samsung isn’t interested in Mozilla’s browser-based operating system. Firefox OS makes its debut (pictures) +12 …
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The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Sarah Tew/CNET Mobile World Congress is generally all about phones, but this year there are a fair number of tablets out and about. Feeling like you’re losing track? Check out the roundup below, covering the biggest hits (HP Slate 7 and Samung Galaxy Note 8) and a few unknowns (ZTE, anyone?). The tablets of MWC …
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