In years of economic downturn, there are still a handful of sectors that manage to remain profitable, and the health and fitness industry is one of them. Mobile apps are also enjoying quite a bit of popularity at the moment, thanks in part to the fact that so many of them are affordable. Combine the …

Next year will likely see the release of a more powerful series of smart phones thanks to a new Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm. The Californian company, which already provides 1GHz processors for devices such as the Nexus One, HTC Desire, Dell Streak and Xperia X10, is now preparing to ship dual-core chips running at speeds of up to 1.5GHz, IDG …

It’s been a good half-year since we went hands-on with the Sagem Puma, a sportscat-branded smart phone with a quirky menu interface and a solar charger slapped on its behind. This purr-fect (we’re not apologising) mobile is finally headed to our fair shores, now that Sagem has signed a deal with Elite Mobile to distribute the Puma in Blighty. The …

Nokia X3 Nokia Nokia announced Tuesday that its X3 smartphone will hit the European consumer market sometime in the third quarter and sell for around 125 euros ($160). The Finnish mobile phone maker is touting the X3 as a “Touch and Type” model, offering users both a touch screen and traditional keypad. The 2.2-inch touch screen offers a resolution of …

The Indian government has sent letters to the country’s major wireless service providers informing them that if BlackBerry maker Research In Motion does not meet its demands to loosen security by August 31, then they must block e-mail and instant messaging services. The government informed RIM last week that if it was not given access to users’ e-mail, IM, and …

One of the oddest things I have encountered while using my new iPhone 4 running iOS 4 is the occasional blank e-mail message or lack of message preview in Mail. A few simple steps can help alleviate the issue and have you back to your normal message-reading sanity. After setting up a new account on your iOS 4 device, you …

Plantronics released its latest Bluetooth headset Tuesday, dubbed the Plantronics M100. It’s billed as a mid-tier headset, but that doesn’t mean it won’t do its job. Indeed, the M100 has what you would want out of a quality headset–dual microphones, DSP cancellation of background noise, wind noise reduction, echo cancellation, multipoint connectivity, and automatic volume adjustment. It also has a …

Puppet War:FPS is kind of like Duke Nukem meets “The Muppet Show.” The results ain’t pretty. Twindigo Admit it: Ernie was always lovable enough, but Bert? That guy had it coming. In Puppet War:FPS, you’re the janitor for a “Muppets”-style TV show. One day, for reasons unknown, the cute little critters run amok, apparently hell-bent on world domination. And because …

The Star Wars films are set to become more powerful than you can possibly imagine — by finally arriving on Blu-ray. A bonanza of extras will join the original trilogy Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi with prequels The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Galactic emperor …

UK broadcaster ITV has vowed to protect its brand amid strong rumours that Apple is to change the name of its Apple TV set-top box to iTV. JobsCo is expected to change Apple TV back to its working title of iTV to retain consistency with its other iProducts. It’s rumoured to be launching a new incarnation of the appliance this …

Mysterious Danish company Lumigon has released an official picture of a new smart phone running the Android 2.2 operating system. Called the T1, the smart phone has a sleek look and minimal Scandinavian aesthetic, and should be available on 20 October. It will likely carry a Freescale 1GHz 3D processor, a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen and up to 32GB of memory …

R2-D2 is the Droid you’re looking for. https://twitter.com/VZWOffers/ Tucked neatly at the end of last week’s Verizon Wireless announcement for the Droid 2 was a short paragraph promising a “Star Wars”-inspired R2-D2 version of the hot new smartphone. Without giving many special details, interested buyers were told to look for it online in September. Well, that’s just not good enough …

Calling all Symbian fans. Nokia has begun taking preorders for the N8, the first smartphone running the revamped Symbian 3 operating system. You can purchase the phone from Nokia’s online store for $549 unlocked, and the company expects to ship the devices by the end of September. The N8 not only ships running Symbian 3 but also features a 12-megapixel …

Make way for the foot-cycle! With London’s Cycle Hire scheme launching tomorrow, bikes will be swarming over the capital like wheely ants, and app developers haven’t been caught napping. There are already several Android apps available to help you find your trusty metal steed, and we’ve taken a look at each of them so you won’t have to waste your …

Microsoft developers have shown off the potential of Windows Phone 7 with a demo of an internally developed golf-scoring app. In a new video (embedded below), lead motion designer Jeff Arnold shows off an app they built focused around keeping score as you spoil a good walk. Current golfing apps for the iPhone tended to focus on shot data and …