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Samsung announced a barrage of new features for its Galaxy S4 smartphone on Thursday meant to dazzle smartphone buyers: everything from touchless controls to new implementations of face-recognition technology. Read full article >>

When is a touchscreen not a touchscreen? Increasingly, it's when your smartphone reads your eyes, gestures and movements to perform basic functions without tapping the screen at all. That was Samsung's point Thursday with the rollout of the new Galaxy S IV, the latest from the company's flagship line and the first Android-based phone to seriously challenge Apple's iPhone for dominance in the mobile market. The phone will be available on all major U.S. carriers by the end of April.

Scientists in Tanzania turned an iPhone into an amateur microscope to check schoolchildren for intestinal worms.

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).

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

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.

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.

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

A federal judge on Friday slashed nearly half of the $1 billion damage award a jury ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple Inc. after a high-profile trial over the rights to the design and technology running some of the world's most popular smartphones and tablet computers. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh lowered the damages awarded to Apple Inc. by $450.5 million for 14 Samsung products including some products in its hot-selling Galaxy lineup, saying jurors had not properly followed her instruction in calculating some of the damages.

Apple Inc lost a major ruling in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung Electronics on Friday, as a federal judge threw out part of a jury's $1.05 billion damages award against Samsung over a variety of phone products.