High global prices for the Windows Phone 8 Nokia Lumia 920 are causing a stir for outlets reporting U.S. dollar equivalents ranging from $643 to $860 in Germany, Italy, Russia, and Sweden — but U.S. buyers considering the phone have little cause to worry. Although international price tags are said to be 10 percent to …

Apple ditched Google Maps over voice-guided turn-by-turn driving directions, according to reports. The two companies faced stalemate over the maps app as Apple refused to allow Google branding, while Google refused to give up spoken directions. AllThingsD reports Apple wanted verbal directions added to the Google Maps app on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch — after all, they’re included …

Last week it was priced at £400 — now it seems the HTC 8X costs £530. HTC’s first Windows Phone 8 device arrives later in the year, and we’ve seen wildly differing prices for it. The new price comes courtesy of Amazon, which is offering the phone for £530, with free delivery, at the time of writing. The bad news …

What would you say to an LTE hot spot that connects up to 10 Wi-Fi devices and comes with a 2.8-inch touch screen? The MiFi Liberate, made by Novatel Wireless, uses the screen to offer easy access to management menus directly from the device. Icons that smartphone and feature phone users are accustomed to pressing lead you to data usage, …

Just one look at the stylus in Samsung’s Save the Date invite we received today will tell you all you need to know: it’s time for the U.S. to get the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (II) “phablet.” Related stories: Samsung Galaxy Note 2 hands-on Quad-core Samsung Galaxy Note 2 launches with 5 carriers That’s my educated guess, anyway, considering that …

The Samsung Galaxy S3 4G will be in Telstra stores from 9 October and can be ordered online from today. Telstra’s S3 4G page. (Credit: Screenshot/CNET) When Virgin and Optus announced that they would be selling the 4G version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S3, Telstra was biding its time before discussing its own plans for availability. Telstra has now …

iPhone 5 owners are complaining that Apple’s new phone take photos with an annoying purple haze. The complaint appears to have surfaced in a forum thread at AnandTech, and sees an unsightly purple halo appearing when photos are taken with the new phone pointing toward bright light sources. One user has reportedly contacted Apple support and was told it was …

Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins has no shortage of confidence, boasting to investors that he believes BlackBerry 10 will take market share away from his rivals. The new platform will also attract consumers new to smartphones to, Heins said during the company’s quarterly conference call. RIM’s BlackBerry 10 smartphones will target mid-tier consumers and higher when they first launch, …

Bank of America is testing a new mobile-payment service that lets customers use their Apple or Google smartphones to scan pictures to pay for things. The bank is testing technology developed by a company called Paydiant. The solution uses Quick Response or QR codes. The way it works is that users use their smartphones to scan the QR code, which …

Apple’s App Store has always offered the most apps to users. But that could change. Google announced yesterday that its Google Play store now offers 675,000 applications. Apple announced earlier this month that its store had 700,000 applications available. Both Google and Apple’s apps stores launched in 2008. However, as Inside Mobile Apps pointed out yesterday, Apple’s option has historically …