Rumored for an October release, the HTC Desire HD made an appearance over the weekend. The smartphone, which also carries a code name of “Ace,” is expected to run Android 2.2 and feature a 4.3-inch touch screen, a 1GHz processor, and an 8-megapixel camera. Other details include 4GB internal memory, HD video playback, XviD video …

The Apple engineering executive who oversaw the development of the iPhone 4 has left the company just weeks after it was forced into a humiliating climbdown over problems with the phone’s antenna. The exit of Mark Papermaster, who joined JobsCo from IBM just over a year ago, was confirmed by Apple. It didn’t provide any more details. The latest development …

If you’re in the mood for a slider phone, then LG has one for you in the form of the GU295. This sleek handset is available from AT&T and has features like a 1.3-megapixel camera and camcorder, a music player with access to AT&T Mobile Music, text and multimedia messaging, and 3G support. The LG GU295 is very affordable at …

Absent-minded staff of the BBC and its subsidiaries lost 146 laptops, 65 mobile phones and 17 BlackBerrys in the last two years. The losses were revealed in a Freedom of Information request by the curious Georges at IT security firm Absolute Software. The Beeb’s bean-counters valued the laptops at £219,000 (that’s £1,500 each, amazingly), the mobile phones at £12,913 and …

Yoko Ono and the surviving Beatles have yet again ruled out the band’s arrival on iTunes. In better news, Apple has introduced a section of the iTunes App Store that kind of, sort of, lets you try out apps for free before you buy them. It collects together ‘lite’ versions of apps — that is, free sample versions of paid-for …

The OtterBox Defender for iPhone 4 costs $49.95. OtterBox OtterBox claims you won’t find a tougher case than the OtterBox Defender Series for iPhone 4. But a company called Ballistic is saying its HC case–the HC stands for Hard Core–is “better” than OtterBox’s, offering four layers of protection instead of OtterBox’s two. Yes, never mind all this talk of free …

Want to ensure you have complete control of what Facebook friends can see on your smart phone? Good news: the social network has put in privacy controls for mobile users. Facebook has announced that all the privacy controls it recently introduced to desktop users are now available to anyone using a browser-enabled mobile device. To change your privacy settings on …

Rumor has it that Apple is buying millions of CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone launch, according to TechCrunch. The tech blog published a story Sunday citing unnamed sources that said Apple ordered millions of CDMA chips from Qualcomm in what looks like preparation for a Verizon Wireless iPhone. TechCrunch said that the chipset order is due for December, which …

Internet telephony giant Skype plans to raise as much as $100 million in an initial public offering. The company said Monday that it has filed an S-1 statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the IPO, Skype will trade on the Nasdaq Global Market. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are among the banks handling the IPO. Neither …

Motoblur on the Motorola Cliq XT Sarah Tew/CNET Today’s smartphone market is overflowing with devices and their hardware specs (processors, screens, and so on) are becoming increasingly similar among the brands, so it’s understandable that a company would turn to software to add its own unique spin to the devices. For Motorola, its solution for Android was Motoblur. Introduced and …