Hardware > Earlier Phones
BlackBerry CEO: Our vibrating devices will satisfy most needs
BlackBerry CEO and President Thorsten Heins has declared the organisation he leads is “not a phone company” but a mobile computing company whose networks and operating system can be used to connect a wide range of devices.
Speaking in Sydney, Australia, at the formal local launch of the new Z10 handset, Heins bridled at …
Windows Phone 8 support to end in 2014
If you're shopping for a new mobe on a two year contract and like the look of a Windows Phone, chances are you'll be compelled to undergo an OS upgrade or face using a handset that's not supported by the end of your deal.
The Reg offers this advice with a tip of the hat to Italian site Plaffo, which pointed out a Microsoft …
Samsung's new co-CEO: 'Windows isn't selling very well'
Samsung says it will continue to produce Android phones even as it puts its weight behind the competing Tizen OS, but there's one software partner the South Korean mobile maker isn't so bullish on: Microsoft.
"Smartphones and tablets based on Microsoft's Windows operating system aren't selling very well," Samsung mobile chief J. …
Samsung Galaxy S 4: A slim stripper with palms hovering over its body
Modern smartphones are little more than promotional vehicles for manufacturer services, and the Galaxy S4 is a perfect example, arriving heavily laden with all the things Samsung thinks we should be doing with them.
Like a respectable lapdancer, the Galaxy S4 responds to a roving eye and fingertips hovering over its slim body. …
LG: Oi! Samsung's not the only one with eyeball-tracking smartphones
LG announced that its Optimus G Pro smartphone will pause video playback when it detects that its owner has stopped looking at it - just hours before Samsung unveiled the same feature for the Galaxy S4.
Eyeball tracking, using the mobile's built-in camera to scroll pages and notice when the user is no longer staring, is set to …
Samsung's new Galaxy S 4: iPhone assassin or Android also-ran?
After weeks of hypegasmic drum-beating at a level unusual for the South Korean consumer-electronics giant, Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S 4 at an embarassingly over-the-top, show-biz–infused gala on Thursday evening.
Held in New York City, the extravaganza overshadowed the fact that the Galaxy S 4 appears to be a fine Android …
Apple's marketing honcho Schiller attacks Android, Samsung
When a company says that it's not worried about a competitor, it's a safe bet that it's worried about a competitor. And when that company is the notoriously close-mouthed Apple and its competitor, Samsung, is about to release a new version of its successful Galaxy S smartphone, you can double-down on that bet.
"At Apple we know …
First Samsung Galaxy S4 review leak: Stop FONDLING, start FINGERING
Samsung's new Galaxy S4 smartphone isn't being launched until 2300 GMT today - but the first review is already online with technical specifications and videos of it in action.
And it suggests there's no need to touch the mobile's touchscreen to make it work.
A few journalists bagged early access to the new handset on condition …
Medicos hack iPhone into lab 'scope
Take an iPhone, a cheap camera lens, double-sided tape and lab slides and what do you get? In Tanzania, a device that helps diagnose intestinal worms.
While it may sound trivial, the medicos say that there are infections in around two billion people worldwide, mostly children, and they can cause malnutrition. It's easy to …
Enormo-display Apple iPhone prototype surfaces
For you iPhone users who drool over the large displays of such Android handsets as ZTE's 5.7-inch Grand Memo or Samsung's 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II, cast your eyes on what could have been:
Early iPhone prototype
The iPhone that could have kept RS-232 relevant for another decade (source: Ars Technica; click to enlarge)
The …
'Wireless charging' in Galaxy S4 will betray Samsung's best pal
Samsung will embrace Qi wireless charging for its highly anticipated Galaxy S4 flagship smartphone, due to emerge on Thursday, we're told.
By plumping for Qi, Sammy will betray Qualcomm: both companies are founding members of the Alliance for Wireless Power, which touts an over-the-air charging system called A4WP. This rivals …
World's 'smallest' mobe unveiled in Japan
At a time when smartphone screens are getting bigger and bigger, Japanese outfit Willcom has bucked the trend and announced what it claims is the world’s smallest and lightest mobile phone.
The little-known electronics vendor will launch the munchkin-sized “Strap Phone 2 WX06A” on 21 March. It features a tiny 96x64 resolution, …
Brit firm flogs bit-crushing app so you can throttle your OWN data
pic of toddler and baby with compression results
The networks - both mobile and fixed - have been squashing your data for years. But now a London company has launched a product allowing you to control it yourself.
The latest company to launch a consumer-side compression product is UK firm Millenoki, which allows users to …
Android 'splits' into the Good and the lovechild of Bad and Ugly
Android was everywhere at Mobile World Congress last week - there seems to be no stopping Google's mobile operating system that's now almost as ubiquitous as a colour display. But the success hides the platform's problems, insists one analyst.
Former Nomura analyst Richard Windsor paints a picture of increasing fragmentation …
ZTE to build smartphones with Intel's new 'Clover Trail+' Atom
Chinese handset-maker ZTE has announced a "strategic collaboration" with Intel with the goal of creating a phone built around Chipzilla's new Atom Z2580 processor.
"The collaboration with Intel is an important part of ZTE's strategy for product development," the company wrote in its announcement, "both in terms of time-to-market …
iPhone 5S and lower-cost sibling coming this summer?
The next iteration of the iPhone – likely called the iPhone 5S, according to rumor-mongers – will be released this summer and will include a fingerprint sensor, improved camera, and more-powerful processor. It will also be joined by a lower-cost, less spiffy sibling.
That's the take-away from a pair of reports on Tuesday, one …
Android 4.2.2 finally coming to Verizon's Galaxy Nexus
Owners of Verizon's 4G LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus handset may soon receive an update to the latest version of Android, weeks after other Galaxy Nexus devices received it and fully six months after the Verizon model got its last official update.
Twitter user @WinDroidGuy was the first to spot the update package on …
Samsung's next smartphone to scroll by watching your eyes
Samsung's next Next Big Thing, the Galaxy S IV smartphone, will scroll text by watching your eyeballs.
So says an unidentified Samsung employee tattling to The New York Times' Bits blog, a worthy who "spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media" – a time-honored custom of companies …
Global smartphones sales set to outpace standard handsets in 2013
While the lion's share of the world's six billion mobile phone users are still on plain-old feature phones, sales of those handsets' smarter successors will become the majority in 2013, according to the latest predictions from IDC.
The analyst house reports that for the first time, 50.1 per cent of all mobile sales are expected …
Apple: OK, we tracked your every move... but let's call it a caching bug, m'kay?
Apple's lawyers have asked a Californian judge to dismiss a case against the company on the basis that no harm was caused by Apple storing detailed maps of users' movements.
Apple has already redefined the case as a question of information storage rather than a privacy invasion.
The iPhone users who sued Apple can't prove that …
Sony: Can't beat Apple and Samsung, so let's be the Other Guy
Sony's head of mobile has said today that the company is aiming to be the third most loved smartphone maker over rivals like Huawei, ZTE and Motorola.
The Japanese firm has no illusions of being able to knock Apple or Samsung out of the top two spots, but it's hoping to at least get onto the podium for a bronze medal, Kunimasa …
BlackBerry Z10: Prices pruned despite eager iPunter interest
How well is the Z10 from BlackBerry - née RIM - faring? Reports on the handset’s retail success, on which BlackBerry’s recovery as a business is riding, are mixed.
Late last week, Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone separately pruned the price of the handset, not a good sign for a premium device that has been on sale for less than a …
New Japanese craze: Knickers for iPhones' nether regions
Ever worried that your smartphone is putting just a little bit too much of itself on show? Well worry no more, thanks to SmartPants, the latest eccentric invention from Japan.
Available in several different colours and designs, these iPhone “pants” are the brainchild of Japanese video game maker Bandai and are being marketed …
O2 pops out vital new feature: Making phone calls from phones
O2 has launched TU Go, the awaited VoIP service allowing customers to make and receive calls from five devices at the same time.
The move is no surprise: O2 has been promising TU Go for a while, but its now available to all contract customers who can sign up and download the apps for iOS, Android and Windows 7. Calls are routed …
Sergey Brin emasculated after HORROR smartphone disaster
Seething mass of testosterone and Google co-founder Sergey Brin has stated that smartphones are emasculating.
Speaking at the Technology, Education and Design TED conference series on the subject of Google Glasses and the future of Google, Brin let drop that he finds the fastest growing technology of the past decade to be " …
Now even MORE 'interns' make iPhones - Chinese labour watchdog
The number of students forced to "intern" on iPhone assembly lines has increased, says a new report from a China-based labour rights watchdog.
The report 'Apple Fails in its Responsibility to Monitor Suppliers', published on 26 February by Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) also says that Apple …
Ten smartphones with tablet ambitions...
Product Round-up How we all laughed when Samsung launched the Galaxy Note toward the end of 2011. Who could possibly want a phone with a 5.3-inch screen? It turned out rather a lot of people did, and the unqualified success of the 4.8-inch Galaxy S III and 5.6-inch Galaxy Note 2 proved that what many punters want is a phone with a really, really …
Four firms pitch hi-def DRM for Flash cards
Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba have begun licensing their new DRM technology for memory cards to anyone who feels the world needs yet another copy protection technology for HD content. They hope many content providers do indeed want a new DRM system, specifically one that secures content but doesn’t prevent content …
Nokia opens Maps to rivals, flogs uber-budget €15 phone
MWC 2013 A Linux phone running Mozilla OS can be found on Nokia’s stand at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week – but it’s not a "Plan B". It’s more a statement of intent from the Finnish handset company about its Maps platform, which Nokia is opening up and licensing more aggressively to non-Nokia mobile devices.
CEO Stephen …
Review: Britain's 4G smartphones
Product Round-up It’s been a good few months since the first 4G LTE network fired up in the UK, and wiser men than I have already tossed their orbs about the what and the how of EE’s monopoly 4G network. Time then to consider the 4G handsets now available for use in Blighty, and in the process cast a beady eye on speeds and coverage outside the …
Cheap iPhone mini 'makes sense' for world domination
After meeting with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, one well-placed analyst sees "several signs" that offering a lower-priced iPhone "makes sense."
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty's reasoning about the release of the long-rumored, downsized iPhone "mini" or "nano", says Forbes, is based on the success of the iPad mini in …
Blackberry Z10 sales fail to impress analysts
It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of BlackBerry, the renamed Research in Motion, is hanging on success of its new BlackBerry smartphones, the Q10 and, particularly, the Z10. Revised forecasts from a number of market watchers suggest the troubled company has not yet put its woes behind it.
Earlier this week, two …
WTF is... Miracast?
Less than six months ago, there were just a handful of Miracast-certified products listed in the Wi-Fi Alliance’s kit database. Now there are nearly 150. A spectacular improvement for a little known technology. So what is it?
Miracast was formally launched in September 2012, but it was Google’s announcement a month and a half …
Mobes with monster 72-core GPU to debut in China
Nvidia’s supercharged quad-core Tegra 4 SoC, which packs a mighty 72 GPU cores, has finally found a mobile home after handset maker ZTE announced new smartphones featuring the chip will debut in China in the first half of 2013.
The Tegra 4 was unveiled last month at CES but has so far been left to stand at the altar by the …
Samsung under fire over copy-paste bricking
Users of a variety of Android-based Samsung smartphones are becoming restive at the mobo’s apparent inability to fix a simple bug that has catastrophic consequences.
According to this Samsung forum thread, the copy-paste bug bricks the phone, requiring a factory reset or, if the owner has root access, to empty the contents of / …
Apple updates iOS, does not fix passcode-bypass hack
Apple released iOS 6.1.2 on Tuesday, an update that it says will fix the battery-draining Exchange bug — which it very well may do – but the update does not fix the finger-dancing hack that allows you to bypass an iPhone's passcode, launch the Phone app, and access all of its contacts, phone-history information, and the like. …
Kiwi cops to buy 6,500 iPhones, 3,900 iPads
New Zealand Police will acquire 6,500 smartphones and 3,900 fondleslabs to improve the force's efficiency.
The force says using the devices will mean each cop gains 30 minutes of time a day, which when will add up 520,000 hours of time savings or the equivalent of putting an extra 345 officers on the street.
The Police's …
iOS 6.x hack allows personal data export, free calls
Hackers can access iPhones running iOS 6.x without passcodes, and will then be able to access and export the address book, send emails and make phone calls.
Jailbreak Nation has discovered the method for doing so and The Reg can confirm the method works after a sequence of swipes and key presses. It worked for us on an iPhone 5 …
The official iPhone actually runs Android - in Brazil
Apple has lost the rights to the trademark "iPhone" in Brazil to a local manufacturer which makes an Android phone called the iPhone NEO. Yesterday the Brazilian Trademark and Patents Office rejected Apple's claims to the trademark "iPhone" in the category of telecoms and the category of electronic devices.
"Registration …
Nokia's Elopocalypse two years on: Has Microsoft kept its side of the bargain?
Analysis It's two years since the "Elopocalypse". This week in 2011 Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop set Europe's biggest technology company off in a radical new direction.
Nokia would license its flagship phone software from Microsoft, rather than develop its own, set fire to three of its own mobile platforms, and eventually shed thousands …
Android? Like Marvin the robot? Samsung eclipses Google OS - Gartner
Samsung's soaraway successful Galaxy smartphones are starting to overshadow their Google-built Android operating system. That's in the mind of the public at least, who can't tell the difference between an Android mobe and a Samsung Galaxy, according to Gartner.
Gartner Analyst Anshul Gupta explained in the report Mobile Phones, …
Perky smartphone figures can't stop droop of worldwide mobe sales
Worldwide mobile phone sales fell 1.7 per cent in 2012, a shrinkage of 30 million units from 2011. Increasing smartphone sales were not enough to compensate for the fall in feature phone sales, according to a Gartner report. Total global sales to end users for 2012 were down 30 million units to 1.75 billion from 1.78 billion in …
