Electronic Arts, best known in the mobile world for its stable of premium franchises such as “Madden NFL” or “Need For Speed,” is increasingly trying its hand at free games. The company is offering four games for free in the Apple App Store right now, but plans to expand that number to between 10 and …

Rumors of a “Facebook phone” are back in the news with a story from the technology Web site AllThingsD, which reports that the social-networking company is working with a cell phone manufacturer to build it. The rumor of a Facebook phone, or a smartphone with deeply integrated Facebook social-networking tools in it, first emerged a little more than a year …

Shopkick, a mobile check-in and rewards app, and Visa are hoping consumers are in a holiday-shopping mood. Shopkick The two companies announced a partnership today to offer a faster way for consumers to earn “kicks”–Shopkick’s version of rewards–which can be redeemed for gift cards, gadgets, and other goodies. Shopkick works when a user walks into a retail partner: enter the …

When 2011 is wrapped up, the consumer electronics industry, despite all the marketing and highly-touted gadgets, will have had a disappointing year. That’s according to market research firm IHS iSuppli, which estimates that revenue this year will total $357.3 billion, up only 1.5 percent from a year ago, and well off of the 6.4 percent growth the firm had previously …

Now playing: Watch this: Dialed In #200: Mimosas, battery revolutions, and the… 45:03 Dialed In has reached another milestone–its 200th episode!–and that calls for a celebration, don’tcha think? We do, which is why we broke out the champagne, party hats, and noise makers. Of course, the talk of everything cell phones takes center stage with special host Bonnie Cha (remember …

Smart phones never look so good as when they’re nestled in the pockets of a fancy suit, of the kind worn by the wealth-ridden business elite. So it’s a good thing Samsung has seen fit to construct a Hugo Boss-themed version of its hugely popular Samsung Galaxy Ace. Update: Samsung has told us that there are no plans to release …

Next week brings the unveiling of a new rating system for mobile applications, akin to what the video game industry has used for the past 17 years. The CTIA-The Wireless Association today said that it’s taking the wraps off a new mobile application rating system early next week with with the help of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). That’s …

The HTC Wildfire S is quickly becoming HTC’s go-to budget and off-contract Android device. Already available on T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular, the petite Android 2.3 Gingerbread handset is now headed to MetroPCS this week, where it will cost $179 for the off-contract smartphone, and come in white. The Wildfire S has a 3.2-inch HVGA touch screen, a 5-megapixel camera with …

The Samsung Galaxy S3 could arrive sporting a quad-core processor, made by the South Korean tech giant itself. Specifically, that chip could be a new Exynos processor called the Exynos 4412, evidence of which has been spotted in the Linux Kernel archive, indicating that the chip is an ARM Cortex A9-based quad-core affair. Androidandme meanwhile claims to have received a …

Amazon is getting a jump on Black Friday with a smartphone sale. The Internet retailer has dropped prices on all its smartphones from Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T to 1 cent during its Penny Pincher sale. Shoppers can pick up the Motorola Droid Razr, which Verizon Wireless sells for $299 with a two-year contract, for a single penny (and the same …

An Android engineer took to Reddit last week to address concerns spurred by the discovery that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus did not offer USB mass storage (UMS). As it turns out, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich does support the feature, but the device itself does not. According to Google’s Dan Morrill, UMS is available at a platform level, just so …

The Kindle Fire is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Amazon’s mobile device ambitions. We reported last week that the Internet giant is currently thought to be developing a Kindle Fire smart phone, and now one analyst has now said that the company working on the phone expects it to be launched in the fourth quarter …

The HTC Wildfire S for U.S. Cellular certainly packs a punch for such a small device. But it’s not for everyone. The Wildfire S has a 3.2-inch touch screen, a 5-megapixel camera, and it runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with HTC’s Sense interface. As with other entry-level smartphones, it doesn’t break any new ground, and its specs are far from top …

A survey conducted by Macquarie University has found that 46 per cent of all Australians who own a mobile phone are seriously considering switching telcos within the next 12 months. A further 16 per cent of respondents had already switched telcos this year, with the group citing poor reception, poor customer service and overspending or under-spending on their plans as …

Last week, German tech site macerkopf.de stated that sources close to the development of iOS 5.0.2 claimed the update was coming this week to address battery performance issues that have been plaguing several iPhone 4S users since its release. Today, the site claims that the update will be delayed because of memory leaks in the code. The most scandalous reports …