Technology, Electronics | featured news

China has passed the U.S. in the third quarter to become the world's largest smartphone market by shipments, but may find it tough to hold the position in the next two quarters, according to a research firm. China's smartphone shipments reached 23.9 million units by the end of the third quarter, according to Strategy Analytics. This put the country just ahead of the U.S. where 23.3 million smartphones were shipped in the quarter.

Facebook is working with HTC to develop a phone that has a much deeper integration with the social network than any previous "Facebook phone." That's according to a report from All Things D, which says the phone is probably 12 to 18 months away from hitting store shelves.

The Windows Phone Marketplace continues to grow at a steady rate. In little over a year, the Marketplace now has over 40,000 published apps according to an estimate from All About Windows Phone. This number is not the total available to consumers, but the total number that has been submitted to the online store. An estimated 5,500 apps are no longer available to consumers because they were removed by Microsoft or the developer.

We’ve rounded up the best Black Friday deals of 2011, from TVs to laptops and tablets, with our comprehensive guide to Black Friday. While skiers flock to Aspen in January, and fly fisherman can’t wait to plant their waders in icy Montana rivers come April, it’s November and December that holds special significance for that special breed known as bargain hunters. Between manufacturers eager to bolster their numbers with strong holiday sales and retailers competing for your hard-earned dollars, the deals don’t get much better. And Black Friday represents the first day of open season and offers the best deals of the year.

Could the next big move from Amazon.com be a smartphone? analyst Mark Mahaney asserted in a research note this morning that the company could follow up its recent launch of the Kindle Fire tablet with a smartphone that would launch in time for the 2012 holiday season.

Two early studies of the innards of Amazon.com's new Kindle Fire point to what many people suspected already—the company isn't making much, if anything at all, on the $199 device's hardware.

Oops! Nokia will launch a Windows 8-based tablet in June 2012, according to Paul Amsellen, the company’s general manager in France. He disclosed the tidbit in an interview with Les Echos; The Verge picked up on the news.

If you're wondering if Amazon's Kindle Fire is up to snuff, well, it is. Turn it on and you know what to do, like with an Apple product. So much like an Apple product that Apple should be scared."

Beyond phenomenal products, Steve Jobs helped define what good design meant for the tech age. Here are his most enduring ideals.

Apple has released iOS 5.0.1, an update to its mobile OS that fixes a series of issues that drained the iPhone's battery.