In opening up its Android operating system, Google ensured one thing: that handset-makers would have the room they needed to dress up Google’s little green OS however they please. With S Beam on the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung took a good feature, Android Beam, and made it great. For the uninitiated, Android Beam uses …
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Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, speaking at Google I/O in May 2011. Stephen Shankland/CNET Google’s senior vice president of Chrome and Apps, Sundar Pichai, gave Microsoft some credit for innovating with its new Surface platform. “I think form factors need a lot of innovation,” he said in reference to Surface. “It looks like they put serious effort into …
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Acer is hoping to sprint back into the tablet race with a special edition of the quad-core Acer Iconia A510. Like the Samsung Galaxy S3, which is the official Olympic phone, the Iconia A510 is themed around the London 2012 Olympic games. Decked out in black or silver, the A510 sports an Olympic logo and lets you watch the games …
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The Samsung Galaxy S III comes with a huge number of new features. Packed with services like S Voice and S Beam, the guys over at Samsung made sure its most recent flagship phone will keep users interested for a long time. (We should know, they sent us a 50-page print-out guide for us detailing everything). One of its most …
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Google is accelerating its efforts to beat Apple’s voice-controlled butler Siri, according to the Wall Street Journal. Citing “people familiar with the matter”, the Journal reckons Google is speeding up plans to launch an Android-based Siri competitor, rumoured to be called Google Assistant. Android has featured voice-control tech for ages, letting phone owners bark orders into their mobiles using Voice …
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If you’re a loyal AT&T subscriber, love Android, and need a new phone badly, you’ve got a tough choice ahead. Both of today’s hottest handsets, the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X, are yours for the taking. The problem is figuring out which one is a better option. These two superphones are each winners in their own right, …
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Smith Micro Software, a company that normally stays behind the scenes of mobile service carriers, has released an iOS product that aims to let consumers connect to Wi-Fi in lieu of clogged networks. The company today announced its NetWise SmartSpot tool, which switches users to Wi-Fi when it’s available and switches back to networks when the Wi-Fi is out of …
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commentary Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 operating system looks great. Too bad anyone who actually cared enough to buy a Windows Phone over the past two years will be left out in the cold. Microsoft today unveiled Windows Phone 8 and confirmed old phones wouldn’t be able to upgrade to the new version. Chalk it up to another brilliant move by …
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Support for multi-core processors was one of the biggest pieces of news to come from Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 unveiling today. Qualcomm has just confirmed that it will supply its dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset to power future Windows phones. The Snapdragon S4 is Qualcomm’s fastest chip to date and goes up to clock speeds of 1.7GHz per core. It …
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Microsoft took the wraps off Windows Phone 8, the next iteration of its mobile software for smartphones, during the Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco today. Windows Phone 8 promises to get people talking with its hardware implications, mobile payments, and tighter relations to the Windows platform. But if you weren’t one of the few in attendance or just want …
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Sony Mobile announced the availability of two new Xperia-branded handsets in Sydney today, partnering with Telstra for the launch of the Xperia P, and with Crazy John’s for the youth-focused Xperia U. The Xperia P (left) and Xperia U (right) (Credit: Sony) Telstra will range the Xperia P on plans starting from AU$49 per month on a two-year contract, while …
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Windows Phone 8, the successor to its Windows Phone 7.5 Mango mobile operating system, will ship on handsets starting this fall, according to Microsoft. Windows Phone 8, code-named Apollo, will feature support for multicore processors, NFC with a mobile payments wallet, and support for three screen resolutions and microSD card slots. Furthermore, the next Windows Phone OS will share a …
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Now playing: Watch this: Phone News: Microsoft Surface unveiled 3:34 Here at Phone News we’re all about being inclusive — so when Microsoft announced it was planning on getting into the tablet-making business we sat up and took note. Sure, tablets aren’t phones but they’re more than gadgety enough to get our juices flowing. If you missed this week’s massive …
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A few weeks back, I wrote about how Mophie was coming out with the Juice Pack Pro, a rugged version of its extended-battery case for the iPhone 4/4S. Now iBattz has unveiled the Mojo Armor, its spin on a ultraprotective extended-battery case. Compared with theJuice Pack Pro’s integrated 2,500 mAh battery (that more than doubles the battery life of your …
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Chinese handset maker ZTE plans to build LTE devices with a standard used in China and elsewhere around the world, according to Reuters. ZTE CEO Shi Lirong during his keynote address at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Roger Cheng/CNET The news service reported today that Japan’s Softbank may be among its first customers. ZTE is supposedly talking to Softbank …
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