After months and months of waiting for the Microsoft-Nokia partnership to bear smartphone fruit here in the U.S., the Nokia Lumia 900 is finally here! I won’t say that I couldn’t be happier, because I could, but let’s just say that I’m very happy with this phone as a mainstream offering that makes Microsoft’s Windows …

Samsung Galaxy S2 owners who bought their device SIM-free are at the back of the UK Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade queue, Samsung has confirmed to CNET UK. And the reason you’ve been kept waiting? It’s because Samsung is waiting for some mobile networks to finish testing the update, so it can be sure the software will work whatever network you’re …

Justin, Jaymar, Antuan & Stephen predict the future of the Android Operating System all the way in the year 2020. All that and more on this week’s edition of Android Atlas Weekly Now playing: Watch this: Android Atlas Ep. 92: Farewell, until 2020 33:30 Listen now Your browser does not support the audio element. Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320×180) | iTunes (640×360) …

commentary Since Instagram became available for Android users yesterday, a lobby of “but that was OUR app!” tweets are starkly highlighting the rift between iPhoners and Androiders. Vocal iOS fans are unhappy that Instagram is no longer exclusive to them. Suddenly, their club is letting Android users in! How could it be? The allure of exclusivity is understandable. As a …

This isn’t the kind of story we’d normally cover, but as some members of our team were present, we thought we’d bring you the news that a man has been left in a serious condition after reportedly being stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle at a BlackBerry event in London. An argument broke out as guests were queuing …

Slowly but surely, wireless carriers are admitting that data throttling is unavoidable. First it was the national providers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and now even the smaller prepaid carriers are following the crowd. Today, just as it increased the monthly cost of its unlimited plan by $10, MetroPCS also announced that it would begin throttling the data speeds of …

We all know that Bill Gates is one of the founders of Microsoft, but who’s the other half? If you answered Paul Allen then congrats to you — your reward is another illuminating episode of Tech Time Machine, where we discuss why, when and how Microsoft was founded.

To longtime Android users such as myself, the name Instagram might not mean much. Sure, we see the vignetted photos invading our Facebook and Twitter streams, and we notice the instagr.am links all over the place, but other than that, we don’t really get it. I mean, what is it, exactly? Is it just a bunch of camera filters? Is …

HTC’s new One series, including the monstrous One X, runs a spangly new version of its Android interface: Sense 4.0. HTC claims Sense 4.0 is leaner and meaner than previous versions of the software — so how does it shape up to Sense 3.5? Read on to find out what’s changed in Sense 4.0. Controls HTC has simplified the front-facing …

Screenshot by Joe Aimonetti/CNET If this sounds familiar, one only needs to go back to the Netbook craze that was sweeping the “Apple is doomed”-style headlines just a few years ago. Those tiny little notebook computers, according to every other expert, were going to displace Apple’s growing notebook share and squash any idea of a touch-screen tablet. Fast-forward to the …

Samsung wants to make it easier and more lucrative for app developers to offer advertising to Samsung mobile phone subscribers. Samsung The company announced Tuesday that it has formed a partnership with OpenX Technologies, a leading provider of digital advertising technologies. Through the partnership Samsung and OpenX will create an exchange that will allow advertisers to purchase mobile ad space …

The HTC One X and One S are mere hours away from launching in the UK — read on for a round-up of the network prices and release dates we know for sure. Orange and T-Mobile The HTC One X can be yours for free on Orange or T-Mobile when you sign yourself up to a £41 per month, 24-month …

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is turning to developers to help it keep its business alive as sales of the once popular smartphone drop sharply. On Tuesday the company reported that it’s been making significant progress in attracting developers to create applications for its BlackBerry Playbook tablet and its upcoming handsets using the BlackBerry 10 software. In the fiscal fourth …

When it comes to making money in the smartphone business, Apple and Samsung have a license to print money, while everyone else is holding a hat out for handouts. Apple and Samsung accounted for 95 percent of the industry’s profits in the fourth quarter — with Apple generating 80 percent by itself — as the rest of the players struggle …

Nokia has hyped the Nokia Lumia 900‘s 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and you know what that means: it’s time for a camera shoot-out. I traipsed around San Francisco with four smartphones with 8-megapixel cameras: the Lumia 900 and the iPhone 4S to see just how well they captured the moment. I took close to 20 comparison shots, but …