A white plastic “cube”* that is slightly bigger than a thumb tip protrudes from the top of an Android phone. A thin slit runs through it; peek inside and you can make out the interior metal nub capable of reading any credit card that swoops through it. This is Square, an accessory to the recently …

Editors’ note: This is a guest column. See Lawrence Spiwak’s bio below. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is about to reverse a 25-year bipartisan tradition of removing heavy-handed public-utility-type regulations over new technologies and services. Although Genachowski maintains that such regulatory interventions will be “modest,” Genachowski’s proposed approach is entirely disingenuous. Instead, for …

For the next two days, Google geekdom will gather at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, bringing with them an opportunity for publishers to spread their products’ influence by getting developers on board–and maybe line their own corporate pockets in the process. Take PayPal, for instance. At the conference opening on Wednesday, the online payment giant announced a …

Vodafone will revamp its data-roaming charges next month, in what is good news for light users but not so great for the rest of us. Also, Vodafone has yet to clear up the controversy surrounding the scrapping of its UK data fair-use policy and introduction of heinous new charges. From 15 June, customers will be charged for each MB of …

Mobile phone and smartphone sales are on a roll, according to figures released Wednesday by market researcher Gartner. In the first quarter, customers worldwide bought 314.7 million mobile phones, a 17 percent increase year over year. Smartphones sales specifically jumped 48.7 percent from the year-ago quarter, as 54.3 million units flew off the shelves. Demand within mature markets and lower …

The Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are heading to the United Kingdom. Palm Pre Plus Palm On Wednesday, Palm announced that U.K.-based O2 will offer the WebOS smartphones starting May 28. O2 already offers the original Palm Pre, so it’s no surprise that the carrier would offer the upgraded version as well as the new version of the Pixi. …

The price of owning a smartphone is getting a lot cheaper thanks to some new aggressive plans from prepaid wireless companies. Boost Mobile and MetroPCS have already been offering smartphones as part of their prepaid wireless plans. And over the next several months, other competitors, such as Leap Wireless’ Cricket brand and Virgin Mobile will be adding smartphones to their …

At long last, it appears 2010 is the year of 4G. Or at least that’s what Sprint is hoping for, as it begins on June 4 to roll out the country’s first ever 4G phone, the HTC Evo 4G. By most accounts, the phone looks amazing. It promises a 4.3-inch TFT display, a front-facing camera, an 8-megapixel camera on the …

If you’ve been following the development of Mozilla’s Firefox browser for Android phones, you might be interested to know that Mozilla has just begun releasing nightly updates of Firefox Mobile (code-name Fennec) for Android. The nightly builds still reflect the early-days pre-alpha version of Fennec like the one we test-drove in April. Needless to say, these builds are targeting dedicated …

If you hate football, then you’re almost certainly dreading the World Cup in June. If you love football, then you’re probably more excited than a dog with a large stick and delicious bone to go home to. Love it or hate it, the World Cup will be watched by more than 700m people worldwide, and it’s likely to be a showcase …

Sony and FIFA have teamed up to offer a taste of the World Cup streamed to your Web-enabled Bravia telly. The 2010 World Cup kicks off in less than a month in South Africa, and to get you in the mood you’ll be able to watch exclusive FIFA short films, player profiles and highlights from World Cups gone by. The …

HTC has unveiled what it is claiming is a new type of smart phone, focusing on ease of use rather than advanced features. The HTC Smart will run on a platform from Qualcomm called Brew. It’s a pretty little touchscreen phone, and it runs the same ‘Sense’ user interface as seen on other HTC phones, including the Hero — a …

HTC unveiled its latest Android smartphone, the Wildfire, and tapped it with a Q3 release in European and Asian markets. Like many of the handset manufacturer’s recent offerings, the phone runs Android 2.1 and HTC’s customized Sense UI, aimed at keeping contacts closer. The device isn’t the hardware powerhouse that is a Droid Incredible or Evo 4G but that doesn’t …

Magic Window turns your iPad into, well, a magic window, allowing you to look out on over a dozen dazzling animated scenes. Jetson Creative LLC Does your iPad pull a lot of desk duty? Does it adorn your kitchen counter or even your nightstand? Do you routinely leave it on a dock or charger? If so, you should put that …

in brief Australian telco, Optus, has today announced the third Android-powered Motorola-branded smartphone in its range, the Motorola Quench, and its intention of selling the phone at its lowest per month pricing tier. The Motorola Quench (Credit: Motorola) The Moto Quench is available exclusively through Optus for $0 upfront on an AU$19 per month Optus Social cap, over a 24-month …