Electronics, Gadgets | featured news

The BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY)/(TSE:BB) Z10 is finally available for U.S. pre-order—on T-Mobile, at least. AT&T’s debut is tomorrow; Verizon’s next month, probably. On the one hand, it could be a case of “too little, too late” for the Canadian smartphone maker (formerly Research In Motion).

Google says it's cutting an additional 1,200 jobs in its Motorola division as the unprofitable cellphone maker struggles to compete.

South Korean phone-maker Samsung loses another patent fight against rival Apple, in the UK High Court.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is set to unveil a tablet computer for public schools on Monday at the SXSWedu education technology conference in Austin, Texas, Bloomberg reports. The $299, 10-inch tablet is the brainchild of Amplify, News Corp.'s education division, which is fronted by former New York City schools chancellor (and current News Corp. executive vice president) Joel Klein. A 2-year subscription will cost $99 per year. A 4G model will also be available for $349, for students without Wi-Fi at home, at an annual cost of $179. The device will come loaded with curriculum materials and apps, including a graphing calculator, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Merriam-Webster's dictionary. Some content will be provided by other News Corp. units such as HarperCollins.

New features Samsung reportedly plans to include in its next-generation Galaxy S IV smartphone have been revealed in a series of leaked screenshots. The images show various pages within the settings on Samsung’s custom version of Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, and they detail some intriguing new functionality coming to the Galaxy S IV as well as an update due to hit Samsung’s current flagship phone, the Galaxy S III.

Hours after releasing its latest teaser video for the Galaxy S4 come rumors that the next big thing, as Samsung likes to bill it, will have eye-tracking software for scrolling through content.

The Obama administration said consumers should be allowed to unlock smartphones and tablet computers without risking criminal penalties, siding with critics of a ruling from the U.S. Library of Congress.

Samsung is trying to build excitement for its next Galaxy phone ahead of a big media event on March 14, releasing a teaser ad for the device on Monday. The ad stars a child, Jeremy Maxwell, who is, for whatever reason, chosen by Samsung to be the “secret messenger” charged with carrying the company’s next big release to the conference himself.

More than 20 percent of black and Hispanic teens say they have used their cellphones to send a "sext" message showing a nude or semi-nude photo or video of themselves to another person, and more than 30 percent say they have received such sext messages, according to a new study.

Google’s short-term goals for its Motorola smartphone division are two-fold: clear the rubble on the runway and build for the future.