We’ll admit it: The LG Doubleplay’s bizarre design just doesn’t work for us. But if you disregard the design, the LG Doubleplay is actually a remarkably solid Android smartphone. It ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and has plenty of great features like Wi-Fi calling, mobile hot-spot capability, and support for T-Mobile’s 4G/HSPA+ network. We’re also …

As new Android handsets like the HTC Rezound are announced in the wake of October’s Ice Cream Sandwich show, the question on everyone’s mind is whether they will see the 4.0 release. Of course, it’s a very fair question. I mean, who wants to buy a phone that’s not going to get the latest and greatest from Google? We know …

I am the first to admit when I am wrong. And indeed, I made a mistake a few weeks ago when I mentioned in this column a certain Web site as a place to sell an old iPhone without checking the reputation of the site mentioned. In the October 4 edition of Ask Maggie, headlined Where to unload your laptop …

Are you a gamer looking for a smartphone? Best Buy may be the spot for you. The electronics big-box retailer is giving away an HTC smartphone to anyone who buys Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which comes out Tuesday. The smartphone options are the Evo 4G for Sprint Nextel, the Incredible 2 for Verizon Wireless, and the Inspire 4G …

If you have an Android phone, this may worry you a little: Android owners tend to complain of hardware failure over software, and more so than users of any other operating system, according to a study. The study puts this down to Android’s massive popularity, as well as how many low-cost handsets are available — many cheap models use the …

Sometimes living in the UK really can get on our nerves. There’s the weather, the crowds, and then on top of everything else, companies like HTC go and do things like this. Last night it announced the HTC Rezound, the first US-bound handset using the Beats tech it invested in back in August. ‘So what?’ you may be thinking, ‘we’ve …

Gingerbread is now the most-used version of Android, with the gingery-flavoured version of Google’s mobile OS residing on 44 per cent of Android devices. Stats released on Android’s developer site show that versions 2.3, 2.3.2, 2.3.3 and 2.3.7, all of which fall under the Gingerbread banner, account for 44.4 per cent of all Android kit. That beats Android 2.2 Froyo, …

The regulatory scrutiny is starting to get to AT&T and its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA. AT&T disclosed in its quarterly regulatory filing that it now expects the deal to close in the first half of 2012, compared with its previous target of the first quarter. The Dow Jones Newswires was the first to report the change. The regulatory scrutiny …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash 1:46 AT&T’s newest Windows Phone Mango devices go on sale this Sunday, and the Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash are looking to be nice improvements over its predecessor. Building on last year’s Samsung Focus, the Samsung Focus S and Samsung Focus Flash feature a faster 1.4GHz processor, Windows Phone …

Siri is in a sorry state in the US: iPhone 4S owners attempting to chat with the voice-controlled personal assistant are finding it’s not in a talkative mood. Siri is the voice-activated assistant in the iPhone 4S, which usually greets questions and commands with a helpful web search, a cheery action or a pithy remark. But US users have found …