Gadgets, Cell Phone | featured news

Research in Motion announced last week that cost cutting efforts will include layoffs following a sluggish start to the year and continued new product delays. Shares sold off sharply as investors bailed on lowered guidance and delayed new Blackberry launch.

Apple Inc plans to launch a new iPhone with a faster chip for data processing and a more advanced camera in September, Bloomberg said in a report late Tuesday.

An out-of-left-field post from Boy Genius Report is threatening to shake up the consensus about what’s next for the iPhone. Citing anonymous “reliable” sources, the report says that the next iPhone will hit in August with a “radical new case design.” BGR has a fairly solid — but not flawless — record when it comes to leaks from Apple.

Nokia’s new all-screen N9 phone, the product of its ill-fated collaboration with Intel on the open sourced Meego operating system, is here.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion saw investors abandon the company in droves amid fresh concerns about its future.

A number of Android smartphone makers who have turned their hand to Android tablets to try cash in on the tablet PC category dominated by the iPad are said to giving up. Instead, their focus has switched back from tablets to the development of larger, high-end smartphones with 4- to 5-inch displays. According to Digitimes, only Samsung has made any significant inroads into the segment, claiming a 10% share.

Nokia Oyj won an almost two-year patent dispute with Apple Inc., in a settlement that awards a one-time payment and royalties to the Finnish handset maker. Nokia rose as much as 4.1 percent in Helsinki trading. The agreement will bolster the Devices & Services unit’s second- quarter profitability, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said in a statement today. The details of the contract, under which Apple will pay an undisclosed sum and royalties for the term of the agreement, are confidential, Nokia said.

It's great news for many that Apple is offering free email, contacts and calendars, but it irks those people who have recently paid the $99 annual fee for the MobileMe service. Here's what they need to know, and what Apple hasn't yet explained.

AT&T has announced the first cities that will get its 4G LTE service. These cities, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio, will see AT&T's version of LTE this summer. Verizon's LTE service, which launched in real (non-beta testing) form late last year, though sans handsets, has vowed to get its LTE service into 175 markets...

The first numbers are in, and it looks like the Galaxy S II is a sales success. Sammy has sold nothing less than 120,000 units the first three days!