European regulators said Thursday that they have set a new deadline of February 13 to decide the fate of Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Reuters reported. Regulators for the European Union originally said they’d make a decision on the merger by January 10. But in December, the EU Commission delayed the deadline stating that it …

Asus looks to be declaring war on the Transformer Prime’s GPS issues, launching an intercontinental ballistic update that upgrades the tablet’s GPS version. Since its release, owners of the quad-core Android tablet have been bemoaning the Transformer Prime’s general awfulness when it comes to GPS. The jury is still out on whether the new update, which can be downloaded from …

Rumors are a funny thing. In one instance they create a whole culture of fodder for bloggers and their readers. In another, they cause whole factories to produce cases for products that neither exist, nor have official specifications. Such was the story before the iPhone 4S release and has now returned as the rumored iPad 3 launch looms. This is …

Now playing: Watch this: HTC Explorer 1:42 It’s easy to get distracted by the glitzy phones we drool over on a daily basis here at CNET UK, but the HTC Explorer comes as a timely reminder that sometimes all you need is an easy-to-use phone that looks smart, is smart and can be bought SIM-free for only £130. Leaving the …

Sony Ericsson’s last financial results before the joint venture ends have shown massive losses, largely due to plummeting feature-phone sales. The London-based mobile device maker’s results for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the full year, released today, revealed a 20 percent year-on-year drop in overall shipments. Added to component shortages due to the Thai floods, and significant restructuring costs …

As the rumored release date for Apple’s next-generation iPad nears, clues as to what the iPad 3 will look like keep flowing from a variety of sources. A new rumor involves images found in iBooks 2, Apple’s latest iOS app, which hint at a 2x display, giving more weight to the rumors that a Retina Display will be included on …

The official iTunes U app announced at today’s Apple educational event is a coming out of the closet for iTunes U, in a more profound way than Apple’s Newsstand was for magazines and newspapers. Launch iTunes U, and you’re even greeted with a similar wooden bookshelf, albeit in a darker shade. That’s where the similarities end. I remember my college …

Nokia is rolling out a fix for the Lumia 800’s tragic battery problem, and it should be arriving on all devices in the next two weeks. Since the Lumia 800 came out last year, many owners have complained that the Windows Phone wasn’t pulling its weight in the battery department. We heard about a software update designed to knock the …

Good news if you’re planning to buy an Asus Transformer Prime: none of the Primes on sale in this country suffer from the Wi-Fi bug plaguing the transforming tablet. The Wi-Fi problem has delayed the Transformer Prime actually reaching customers, with limited stock coming to the UK also slowing things down. But more units are on the way, and Asus …

There are a couple of unique features that will help the announced, but not-quite-released, Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G stand out when it hits store shelves. First, and most importantly, there’s the 4G LTE compatibility for this Android smartphone. MetroPCS doesn’t have a 3G network to speak of, so the speed differences between the 2.5G network and the LTE are significant. …

It’s no surprise that China’s mobile market is highly coveted by any handset manufacturer. According to a new report from Wireless Intelligence, reported by GigaOm, China is approaching the 1 billion mark for mobile connections, largely due to the popularity of 3G, which accounts for nearly 25 percent of subscribers. China’s mobile connections grew almost 17 percent from 2010 to …

Casio, a name typically synonymous with rugged (read: ugly) handsets like the Ravine 2, may be ready to compete with the likes of Samsung and LG. A Droid Life tipster who claims to have spent time in a Casio focus group advises that the hardware maker is readying a number of new Android products. One model, an unnamed device referred …

You asked for it, now you got it. After a few delays I’ve updated the results from my ongoing long-term testing of five 2011 plasma TVs by adding a sixth and publishing a new round of numbers. One of the models tested has now accumulated nearly 3,000 hours of “on” time, equivalent to about a year and a half of …

CNET Reader LJM asks: Does the quality of the materials used to make a cable influence the picture or sound quality? Specifically, what about gold-plated connectors? Good question. For years, cable companies have touted gold-plated this and oxygen-free that. There are two different aspects to consider with these marketing-based claims. The first is the cable itself. All cables (with the …

Swapping out your SIM card on your iPhone 4S when you travel abroad is a good way to avoid expensive roaming charges. But whether you can do it, and on which carrier it’s allowed, can be confusing. In this edition of Ask Maggie I answer what should be a simple and straight-forward question about whether a Verizon Wireless iPhone 4S …