Google may have had its issues with China over the question of Internet censorship, but there’s been no spillover in how the locals treat the company’s mobile operating system. A new report by Canalys finds that during the second quarter, Android was the operating system on 81 percent of smartphone shipments in China — which …

Snaps showing the upcoming Xperia SL in the wild have surfaced, giving us a glimpse of the follow-up to this year’s Xperia S smart phone. GSMArena was sent the images by an anonymous tipster, who seems to have confirmed the specifications of the Xperia SL as well, which look to match those we reported just yesterday. Don’t get too excited …

My gaming addiction tends to go in phases. Sometimes I like puzzle games, then I’ll move on to shooting games. After that, I might switch to racing games or go on to classic arcade. Whatever the flavor of the week is, I like to really get into it to see what the App Store has to offer. The recent release …

Some major changes are afoot in AT&T stores across the U.S., a new report claims. AT&T is currently readying plans to dump its in-store computer systems and counters and rely solely on Apple products to handle transactions, Apple blog 9to5 Mac is reporting, citing discussions with AT&T spokespeople. The blog claims that current AT&T stores are hampered by “outdated computers” …

The iPhone 5 is on track for a September launch, according to one ‘insider’, despite whispers of component shortages. A ‘trusted industry insider’ said that Apple’s fabled iPhone 5 — which will actually be the sixth iPhone from the iPad-spawning company — is on track to debut next month, Apple Insider reports. The source mentions, however, that there could be …

AT&T is preparing to pull the plug on its 2G wireless network, but it will be a long goodbye. The Dallas telecommunications company said it plans to discontinue its 2G network, also known as EDGE or GSM, by Jan. 1, 2017. It plans to take that 2G spectrum and re-use it to augment its 3G and 4G wireless services. The …

Screenshot by Sharon Vaknin/CNET Although the mobile Outlook.com Web site is gorgeous, it’s hardly efficient to access the browser each time you want to check your mail, especially if you have other accounts already synced with your iOS device. But more than that, getting your Outlook.com e-mail in the official Mail app gives you access to a very coveted feature: …

Sony has been quietly readying a new Android-powered tablet that should supplant the company’s Tablet S. According to a host of leaked images, the new tablet will feature Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor and come with three storage options. Bearing the distinctive folded magazine wedge design, the Xperia tablet is an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device with a 9.4-inch …

Update: Samsung appears to have confirmed that we will in fact see the Note 2 unveiled on 29 August. A cryptic event invite points — quite literally — to Samsung lifting the lid on a sequel to the Galaxy Note on 29 August. Details of the ‘Mobile Unpacked’ event in Germany winged their way to journalists’ inboxes with an intriguing …

Earlier this year, Google’s Play store for Android apps was described as a “chaotic cesspool” by rival mobile OS purveyor BlackBerry. Harsh words — yet words that seem to have found their way to Mountain View because Google is tightening the screw on rogue developers in a bid to clean up the malware-harbouring streets of its Play store. As of …

HTC’s planned turnaround is going to take a lot longer than expected. The struggling smartphone company posted a second-quarter profit of NT$7.4 billion, or US$247 million, nearly a 60 percent decline from its year-earlier profit of NT$17.5 billion, or US$584.3 million. Revenue for the Taiwanese company fell by more than a quarter to NT$91.04 billion, or US$3.04 billion. Related stories …

Virgin Mobile and Samsung unveiled today two new wallet-friendly handsets for its PayLo portfolio. The Samsung Montage, the more advanced of the two, is a feature phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 2-megapixel camera, e-mail and Web access, and threaded text messaging. It also supports Bluetooth and up to 32GB of external storage. The aptly named Entro is a …

After just one week on the market, Google Fiber is taking off in Kansas City (in both Kansas and Missouri), where 46 of the designated neighborhoods — or “fiberhoods” — have qualified for the service, the company reports on its Google Fiber site. Google announced its fiber-to-the-home network last week, which offers speeds of up to one gigabit per second …

Samsung is finally bringing the delights of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to its range of Galaxy Tabs, just in time for us to immediately start asking when they’re going to get the more recent version, Jelly Bean. The slates that will see the update include the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Tab 7.7 and the Tab 8.9, Pocket-lint reports, with …

Nobody looking at the long antenna sprouting from MetroPCS’ new Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G would suggest that Samsung’s bringing sexy back, but for TV lovers, the throwback has a purpose. The prepaid carrier and Samsung teamed up to introduce the Dyle Mobile TV service, which delivers live, local broadcast TV over Metro’s 4G LTE network. The service is free …