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Motorola Inc. said Thursday it has acquired a company that develops location-based software for smartphone devices.
Terms of the deal with Aloqa GmbH, which has offices in Munich, Germany and Palo Alto, Calif., were not disclosed. Aloqa makes a mobile phone application that delivers content to a device based on where its owner is located. A person might receive discounts on local businesses or information about nearby events, Motorola said. Get the full story »
Smartphone maker HTC Corp. unveiled details Wednesday of its push into the increasingly important mobile services sector and introduced two new handsets using Google’s Android operating software.
The launch came a day after Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker, launched three new smartphones at its annual showcase conference in London. Get the full story »
Rapid demand for smartphones and tablet computers this year is expected to cause the global market for small and midsize liquid crystal displays to expand at its fastest pace in three years, according to iSuppli.
The research firm said global shipments of thin-film transistor panels, advanced types of displays used in sophisticated mobile devices including smartphones and tablet PCs, are set to rise 28 percent. That would be the highest level of growth for the market since 2007, when shipments jumped 50 percent. Get the full story »
To see more photos of the Motorola Defy, click here.
Motorola Inc. unveiled a new Android mobile phone on Monday’s season premiere of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
The device, called the Motorola Defy, will be available through T-Mobile in time for the holidays, the Schaumburg-based communications equipment company said in a press release without releasing further details on pricing and dates. The phone uses Google’s Android operating system, which is the basis for almost all of the smartphones in Motorola’s portfolio.
The Defy has a 3.7-inch touch screen and is built to be scratch-resistant, water-resistant and dust-proof, Motorola said. Get the full story »
A customer looks at items for an HTC EVO smart phone at a Sprint store in Los Angeles, June 16, 2010. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
A hot new smart phone can be Incredible, Vibrant, Epic or just “eh,“ but no matter how it stacks up, it’s a safe bet that it will start selling at $199. And what’s so special about $199?
“The obvious answer is that $199 is a magic price point for smart phone volume,“ said George Appling, partner at consulting firm Booz & Co. “The not-so-obvious reason is that carriers are not charging customers what they pay.“ Get the full story »
Paying for a shopping spree by waving a smart phone may be more exciting than swiping a credit card, but according to Consumers Union, it might not be as safe.
The nonprofit testing and information organization, which publishes Consumer Reports, called on regulators Tuesday to implement protective standards on mobile payments.
The seemingly recession-proof smart phone is suffering from a side effect of the rough economy: Manufacturers simply can’t build enough of the gadgets because chip-makers that rolled back production last year are now scrambling to play catch-up.
The chip shortage means Apple Inc.’s rivals are having trouble making enough phones to compete with the iPhone, a problem expected to persist through the holidays. It’s also affecting wireless carriers, some of which are seeing delays in improving their networks, and it could even raise computer prices.
News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is embarking on an ambitious plan for a new national digital newspaper to be distributed exclusively as paid content for tablet computers such as Apple Inc.’s iPad and mobile phones.
The initiative, which would directly compete with the New York Times, USA Today and other national publications, is the latest attempt by a major media organization to harness sexy new devices to reach readers who increasingly consume their news on the go. The development underscores how the iPad is transforming reading habits much like the iPod changed how people listen to music.
The company behind the Internet phone gadget magicJack has another trick up its sleeve: free phone calls from computers, smartphones and iPads.
The cost of phone calls routed over the Internet has been on a long slide. Many programs allow free calling between computers, and some allow free, but short, calls to regular phone numbers. Get the full story »
PayPal reportedly is in talks with Google to add is payment service to Android phones. Users of phones such as Motorola’s Droid X and HTC’s Droid Incredible may be able to buy apps with PayPal by the end of this year.
Research In Motion pledged to satisfy the security needs of customers and governments, a day after the United Arab Emirates threatened to cut off some BlackBerry services because authorities could not access encrypted messaging data.
In the latest of several disputes over BlackBerry security, the UAE said over the weekend that it would suspend BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browser services from Oct. 11 until it could access encrypted messages. Get the full story »
Two security experts said on Friday they released a tool for attacking smartphones that use Google Inc’s Android operating system to persuade manufacturers to fix a bug that lets hackers read a victim’s email and text messages.
“It wasn’t difficult to build,” said Nicholas Percoco, head of Spider Labs, who along with a colleague, released the tool at the Defcon hacker’s conference in Las Vegas on Friday.
Percoco said it took about two weeks to build the malicious software that could allow criminals to steal precious information from Android smartphones. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp. has pulled the plug on a new generation of smartphones less than three months after unveiling the devices that were part of its efforts to catch-up with Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the fast-growing mobile market. Get the full story »
Sprint Nextel Corp. has been seeing shortages of its EVO high-speed phone from HTC Corp. in some places due to better-than-expected demand, Chief Executive Dan Hesse said Tuesday.
Hesse said he wished he had more EVOs, which launched June 4, after his keynote presentation at a Forrester Customer Experience conference. Get the full story »
