A top brass RIM (Research in Motion) exec has said that the ailing BlackBerry manufacturer is going to release seven new smart phones running its new BlackBerry 7 OS, the Guardian reports. That’s the target anyway, as stated by co-CEO Jim Balsille at RIM’s annual shareholder meeting. He admitted that hitting that target was going …

Now playing: Watch this: Sony S1 1:24 Sony has taken some heat for being late to the tablet party, but we cut it some slack the minute we glimpsed the S1 and S2 tablet prototypes back in April 2011. Both tablets promise a unique spin on what has so far been a series of cookie-cutter 10-inch Android tablets. Sony may …

WALTHAM, Mass.–Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest wireless provider, is sprinting ahead of its competitors to get a leg up in the 4G wireless market. David Small, Verizon Wireless CTO Verizon Wireless Verizon has already spent millions of dollars building the 4G LTE network, and it has stopped investing in older 3G technologies to get the newer services rolled out. It …

PayPal on Wednesday showed off the ability to transfer money and pay by tapping two phones together as it looks to secure its role in the burgeoning mobile-payments area. PayPal’s senior director of mobile operations, Laura Chambers, demonstrated the tap-and-pay move at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco by placing together two Nexus S smartphones (see video below). The phones …

Editors’ note: Until July 22, 10 CNET personalities are showcasing their 10 personal favorite Android apps as part of the CNET 100. With each post, you can read why they hold the apps so dear and you’ll get the opportunity to vote for your own favorite title. Then after the series ends, we’ll collect the full list of 100 apps …

The Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal today to give consumers the ability to better identify and complain about unauthorized charges on their phone bill. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski FCC The actions are part of the FCC’s move to crack down on an illegal practice called “cramming,” in which third parties will sneak in charges on phone bills for services …

Sprint and T-Mobile USA customers may not have to wait that long for a shot at the next iPhone. Could the next iPhone work on all national carriers? Josh Miller/CNET That’s according to Piper Jaffray analyst Chris Larsen, the latest to weigh in on the mounting speculation that carriers beyond AT&T and Verizon Wireless will get the next iPhone. Last …

The software update being made available to the HTC Thunderbolt this week may be just the latest reminder that carriers not only giveth, but also taketh way. Hidden behind all of the benefits, bug fixes, and improvements, Verizon has quietly removed the unlimited and free access to the embedded hot-spot functionality, according to DSL Reports. In other words, instead of …

NEW YORK–AT&T held a special event today to showcase some of its current and upcoming products, including the HTC Status. Available starting July 17 for $49.99 with a two-year contract, the Status is the U.S. version of the HTC ChaCha, which was first introduced at Mobile World Congress. Designed in collaboration with Facebook, it’s the first handset optimized for the …

Marking its second Android software update in as many days, Verizon Wireless is now offering Gingerbread to owners of the Droid Incredible 2. Customers who have the HTC handset can manually search for and download the Android 2.3 update, which also addresses random reboots and freezing applications. As is the case with other recent updates, the Droid Incredible 2 will …