Mobile | featured news

You may have visualized cramming someone's cellphone down his or her throat out of sheer frustration on occasion, but odds are that you've never acted on such a violent thought — unlike one New York City patent attorney.

CNN offers a lot of mobile apps on a lot of devices. There is CNN for the iPhone, the iPad, Android, and even Nokia phones. There are even different apps for international news. All in all, CNN's mobile apps have been downloaded 10 million times, according to the company. The most popular app is CNN for iPhone, which has been out the longest—since September, 2009. And on Apple devices alone, CNN apps are the No.1 and No. 3 news apps on the iPhone, as well as the No. 1 news app on the iPad. CNN would not provide a breakdown between iOS, Android, and Nokia downloads.

Two Taliban spokesmen said their mobile phones, emails and a website had been hacked and messages issued on Wednesday falsely reporting the death of the movement's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The US Army is near finishing a largely successful test of smartphones on the battlefield. In an interview this week, project director Michael McCarthy told CNN the six-week trials in Fort Bliss, Texas and White Sands, New Mexico were 'encouraging' in gauging the effectiveness of Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone hardware for communicating information in the field. They had also been testing iPads as well as unspecified Dell and HP tablets.

Apple netted a victory in its legal dispute with HTC, as an International Trade Commission judge ruled the cellphone maker infringed two Apple patents.

With many wireless carriers feeling threatened by the growing prominence of Apple and Google, those companies’ success could provide the foundation of Research in Motion’s recovery.

A quarter of smartphone users rely mainly on their phones for internet access, according to a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, that also found that more than one-third of all American adults have taken the smartphone plunge. In the center’s first stand-alone examination of smartphone use, it found that 33 percent of users said their phones were smartphones and 39 percent said their phones operate a smartphone platform such as iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone or Palm.

In the past year, mobile payment systems have picked up steam and are now becoming mainstream. Could our wallets be replaced one day soon by our smartphones?

Adding more weight to speculations that Apple is launching two iPhones this fall, 9to5 Mac reported that the company is planning a low-end iPhone to compete with the ever-growing Android market.

Verizon Wireless plans to scrap its unlimited data plan for new smartphone subscribers beginning Thursday and replace it with monthly packages that range from $30 to $80.