Apple has won the latest round of legal shenanigans with rival phone makers. US trade regulators have cleared Apple of naughtiness, messing up HTC’s carefully laid plans. HTC’s plan was to challenge Apple by buying a company called S3 graphics, then challenge Apple for infringing patents owned by S3. But the US International Trade Commission …

A mirage no more, the Samsung Illusion is now officially on the records. Whispers of Verizon’s more midlevel Illusion first reached our ears in September, when a spoiler image briefly appeared on Flickr. Back then, we knew few details, other than its Android character. Now we know that it runs on a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, has a 3-megapixel camera, …

A steady stream of Kindle Fire cases have headed to stores and Case-Mate has three new ones: the Venture, Tuxedo, and Hampton. Here’s a quick skinny on all of them, ordered by size, least to most expensive. The slim Tuxedo comes in brown or black and retails for $40 (click to enlarge). Case-Mate The Tuxedo ($40) is a slim folio …

According to a keen eye from MacRumors, the iPhone 4S, in just over a month after its release, has become the second most popular camera phone on Flickr, trailing only the iPhone 4. Flickr provides data on the most popular cameras used to post photos on its popular image-sharing site. The data is collected by automatically detecting the camera type …

According to a new analysis from Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty, Apple has yet to explore nearly 67 percent of the potential iPhone market in Asia. The analysis, presented in a note to investors, suggests that only 22 percent of Asian carriers are selling Apple’s iPhone. Asian carriers represent nearly 10 percent of world’s highest smartphone penetration demographic (25- to 34-year-olds), …

LG has scheduled a press event for December 1 in New York where it is expected the handset maker will announce its first smartphone to feature an HD display. Rumored to carry the name of LG Nitro HD, the phone should boast a 4.5-inch 1,280×720-pixel resolution screen, much like the one on Verizon’s recently announced HTC Rezound. The first sign …

It will be a white Christmas for T-Mobile USA subscribers looking to buy the Samsung Galaxy S II. Samsung Galaxy S II for T-Mobile USA in white. T-Mobile USA On Tuesday, the carrier announced that it will soon offer the smartphone in a second color: white. It started selling the black version of the slick smartphone in October. T-Mobile said …

AT&T’s chances of closing its $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA are looking pretty slim as the FCC chairman officially expresses opposition to the deal. But how long will AT&T fight to keep the merger alive? On Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski began circulating a draft order recommending to the other four FCC commissioners that the agency …

commentary OK, so Facebook is reportedly working on a smartphone with HTC. My initial reaction: who cares? The latest rumor that such a smartphone may be on the drawing boards comes from All Things Digital. The process is in the early stages, and it’s unclear whether the phone would ever advance past that stage. If Facebook is smart, it’ll put …

Like Christmas decorations, invitations for CES events seem to come earlier and earlier every year, and Sprint is among to first to get its invite out the door. The carrier just sent out save-the-dates for an “exclusive event” on January 10. It will follow Tuesday’s keynote address by Intel’s President and CEO Paul Otellini, but it’s unclear whether that’s on …

Smartphones with great cameras are mushrooming up all over the market, delighting phone owners everywhere. Who doesn’t want a fantastic smartphone camera that could replace a point-and-shoot? Easier said than done. Megapixel math is incomplete if you’re not accounting for variables like light sensors, auto-focus, flash, and the camera’s own rendering software. Plus, photos are more likely to look terrific …

Buying a cell phone as a holiday gift is a bit more complicated than buying a television or a camera. It’s not that shopping for those products is easy–indeed, one TV can present you with a mind-boggling array of specs–but a cell phone also requires you to select a carrier and choose a service plan. (Also see my colleague Jessica …

Allphones has partnered with Chinese manufacturer Huawei to exclusively launch the new Vision handset in Australia, pricing the smartphone at AU$279 outright or AU$0 upfront on a AU$19-per-month contract over 24 months. The new Huawei Vision features curved glass over its 3.7-inch display. (Credit: Huawei) The Huawei Vision is described by the company as its “most stylish and advanced Android …

According to reports from tech industry site DigiTimes, smartphone makers are convinced that Apple will be adding near field communications, or NFC, to the next-generation iPhone, widely expected to be released in 2012. The current smartphone market only has about 10 percent adoption of NFC technology, but according to Taiwan-based phone manufacturers, that number could rise to 50 percent by …

Fancy having a chat with Siri but don’t want to splash out on an iPhone 4S? Some cunning app experts have figured out a way to try out the voice-controlled assistant on any phone or tablet that run an app. Siri is a new feature in Apple’s latest iPhone. Ask Siri a question, and it will perform a task, search …