Mobile, Smartphone | featured news

The slump in Apple Inc's share price from its September high has badly dented the returns of hundreds of mutual funds that had maintained outsized holdings of the stock. But some went sour on the iPhone-maker just in time.

After lengthy delays, Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled its first two phones with the new BlackBerry 10 system. The Q10 will have a physical keyboard, while the Z10 has only a touch-screen keyboard. RIM also announced a company name change to BlackBerry to maintain a single brand.

The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company....

Google is trying to create an experimental wireless network covering its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, a move that some analysts say could portend the creation of dense and superfast Google wireless networks in other locations that would allow people to connect to the Web using their mobile devices.

The clock to unlock a new mobile phone is running out.
In October 2012, the Librarian of Congress, who determines exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided that unlocking mobile phones would no longer be allowed. But the librarian provided a 90-day window during which people could still buy a phone and unlock it. That window closes on January 26.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Global Marketing, said in an interview to a Chinese newspaper that “cheap smart phones will not be developed in order to grab market share away”. There have been a number of analysts, especially over the past few days, and the Wall Street Journal who have speculated that Apple will come out with a lower priced iPhone in potentially a smaller format.

Samsung went for commercial flash at the international Consumer Electronics Show this week with bendable screens, kitchen appliances controlled by smartphones and razor-thin televisions. But just as important was a less-glamorous announcement that the world’s largest smartphone maker is turning its attention to a new pocket of lucrative potential customers: corporations and government agencies.

Although smartphone ownership percentages continue to climb, western markets are clearly approaching saturation. At the same time, there are markets within those markets which do not so much resist the incursion of smartness as simply have little interest or opportunity to enjoy it.

The Linux-based Ubuntu operating system is to work on smartphones, allowing users to run full-scale programs on handsets designed for Android.

Developers told the Next Web that they’re seeing some activity on their user logs that indicate Apple may be testing its next-generation smartphone and mobile operating system. According to a Monday report, some app developers have logged activity from a device called the “iPhone 6,1” that also appears to be running a new mobile operating system.