Verizon tipped its hand a bit last night by inadvertently outing its next Android smartphone. A 360-degree view of the HTC Merge landed on the carrier’s Web site only to be abruptly pulled. AndroidCentral was quick enough to see the phone and capture a video of the device. The Merge, which once carried the nickname …

Android fans assemble! The HTC Desire HD is taking a pasting at the hands of the Apple iMac in our Greatest Gadget of the 21st Century tournament. The competition is currently in its second week of voting, and we’ve already seen gadgets such as the Nokia N8, the Asus Eee PC and the Sony PSP unceremoniously dumped out of the …

The HTC Desire HD and the iPhone 4, like Mega Shark and Giant Octopus, are locked into a battle to the death for the crown of king of smart phones. They both boast HD video recording, but which one slaps the handycam in a virtual high-five of creativity? The iPhone 4 records 720p video up to 30 frames per second. …

Cable carrier Cox Communications is branching out with a new wireless service. The company today launched its Cox Wireless mobile phone and high-speed Internet service with the enticement of what it’s calling the “Unbelievably Fair” MoneyBack Minutes program. Mobile subscribers who use the service can get up to $20 per month back on any unused minutes. Banking on consumer dissatisfaction …

It’s not every day we see a prepaid phone at the AT&T R225’s rock-bottom $20 price. Even the simplest phone tends to cost more off-contract since they’re not receiving any subsidies the carriers hand out in exchange for your two-year service agreement. So if you’re in the market for an inexpensive phone just for making calls, feast your eyes on …

BlackBerry may have come a little late to the party in providing a centralised download store for useless fart apps, but the company’s official App World opened for business in 2009 and now has more than 10,000 apps to choose from. If you’re a BlackBerry owner and haven’t yet tucked in to all the downloadable deliciousness that’s on offer, the …

Nokia has admitted to a problem on its flagship N8 smart phone, with some users reporting that their device no longer turns on, or even charge up. It’s so serious that Nokia executive vice president Niklas Savander was moved to issue a public statement on the official Nokia Conversations blog. He admitted that “a limited number” of N8s are now …

Editors’ note: This post was updated at 7:28 a.m. PT with new information about data plan options. They’re baaaaack. Confirming earlier reports of their return, the Kin One and Kin Two are back on sale at Verizon with new names and new price points. Rebranded as the Kin Onem and Kin Twom, the two youth-oriented handsets are available for $19.99 …

Panasonic is roaring back into the mobile phone game with a new line of Android smart phones. Caught napping by the explosion of smart phones, Panny is adopting Google’s open-source operating system to hit the ground running. Panasonic hasn’t made a phone outside Japan since 2006. It’s currently working on a phone bearing the Lumix camera brand, a 13.2-megapixel monster …

If you have any interest in what’s underneath the hood of an Android device, you’ll know what Snapdragon is. Built by Qualcomm, it’s a family of processors that are the brains inside the latest and greatest Android smart phones, including the Google Nexus One and most recently the HTC Desire HD. Great news, processor fans — Qualcomm is working on …