Network access

The number of U.S. mobile phone subscribers switching from feature phones to smartphones is almost at the halfway mark, according to a new report from ComScore.

Roughly 110 million Americans owned a smartphone device as of April 2012, an increase of 44 percent from the previous year. Specifically, 47.5 percent of feature phone owners switched to a smartphone when buying a new device in April -- up from 38 percent at the same time in 2011.

At the same time, the number of American consumers who upgraded from an old feature phone to a feature phone decreased from … Read more

New features on Google's latest Android mobile OS -- Jelly Bean 4.1 -- beef up the system's security over all other past OS iterations. With Jelly Bean's design, Google has aimed to defend against hacks that install viruses and other malware on mobile devices using the system.

"Android has stepped its game up mitigation-wise in the new Jelly Bean release," security researcher Jon Oberheide wrote in an analysis published this week.

Oberheide notes that the central difference between Jelly Bean and other Android systems is that it incorporates Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), which … Read more

New York City smartphone users who ride MTA Metro-North trains may eventually be able to buy their tickets electronically.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Metro-North Railroad is testing a new system this summer for buying tickets via mobile devices. The Metro-North is, according to some, the busiest commuter train in the U.S. by monthly ridership.

Acting as railroad riders, the MTA's own employees will download a free app to their iPhone, BlackBerry phone, or Android device. The free app will let them electronically buy any kind of ticket for any type of trip by entering their credit or … Read more

T-Mobile experienced an hours-long disruption this evening that prevented many of its customers from accessing its data network.

The outage, which seemed to have begun around 6 p.m. PT, did not appear to affect the entire network and was resolved around 9:20 p.m. T-Mobile customers began complaining on Twitter a couple of hours ago about a lack of Internet access:

I had to check twitter...just to see what was up with T Mobile, since my phone Internet is down..,along with their customer service #

The wireless carrier confirmed the issue … Read more

Android is often considered king of the mobile world, but Apple's iOS actually accounts for the lion's share of the mobile Web traffic, at least according to the latest stats from Net Applications.

iOS continues to grow, capturing a global traffic tally of 65.3 percent in June, up from 52.4 percent a year ago. Though in second place, Android has also expanded and now holds a share of 19.7 percent as of last month, compared with 14.3 percent in June 2011.

Breaking down the results by device, the iPad was the leader in June … Read more

Users of the Splashtop app, which lets you control your PC from an iPad, will find a few enhancements in the latest version.

Released on Wednesday, Splashtop 2 throws in support for the new iPad's Retina Display, so users can take advantage of the higher resolution. You can also now set up a connection without having to enter an IP address or port numbers. Just install and launch the Splashtop streamer app on your computer and the Splashtop iPad app on your tablet, and your computer automatically pops up as an available connection.

Security has also been beefed up … Read more

Comcast has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle a Federal Communications Commission probe into the cable giant's broadband marketing practices after its merger with NBC Universal.

The settlement came after an FCC investigation found that Comcast representatives were not adequately marketing its standalone broadband service, a violation of a condition for the carrier's merger with NBC Universal that required Comcast to "visibly offer and actively market" the standalone Internet service for three years.

"Today's action demonstrates that compliance with commission orders is not optional," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. &… Read more

Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, and San Antonio will have access to Sprint's 4G LTE network on July 15, the company announced today.

This signals the beginning of what Sprint hopes will be an aggressive expansion of its 3G and 4G network. 4G LTE boasts faster data speeds for downloads and streaming, while an improved 3G network should mean better signal strength, fewer dropped calls, and faster data speeds as well.

Sprint was having a tough time earlier this year with buying the wireless spectrum it needed to continue building its network. Now that it has jumped into the … Read more

BlackBerry Curve 9310 owners will soon be able to IM as much as they want through a new plan offered by Boost Mobile.

Slated to kick off July 10, Boost Mobile's BBM Unlimited plan will provide worldwide and unlimited access to RIM's BlackBerry Messenger service. Unfortunately, most BlackBerry users will be out of luck as the offer is designed exclusively for the BlackBerry Curve 9310, RIM's new $99 smartphone set to debut the same day.

The BBM Unlimited plan throws in unlimited nationwide talking and texting for $45 a month. But customers who make their payments on … Read more