wireless

Verizon bounced back from a tough fourth quarter and started the year off strongly.

The telecommunications provider today posted a first-quarter profit of $1.95 billion, or 68 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $1.67 billion, or 59 cents a share. Revenue rose 4.2 percent to $29.42 billion from a year ago.

Analysts, on average, projected per-share earnings of 66 cents and revenue of $29.55 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Growth, as usual, was driven by the Verizon Wireless unit, which generated $19.5 billion in revenue, up 6.8 percent from a … Read more

The Wi-Fi router you use to broadcast a private wireless Internet signal in your home or office is not only easy to hack, says a report released today, but the best way to protect yourself is out of your hands.

The report, written by research firm Independent Security Evaluators of Baltimore, found that 13 of the most popular off-the-shelf wireless routers could be exploited by a "moderately skilled adversary with LAN or WLAN access." It also concludes that your best bet for safer Wi-Fi depends on router vendors upping their game. All 13 routers evaluated can be taken … Read more

NEW YORK--Hyper-targeted advertising based on your location is coming to mobile phones and could finally bring money into the mobile advertising market, say experts at the All Things D mobile conference here Monday.

In two separate interviews, the CEO of the mapping app Waze and ad executives Jason Spero from Google and Mollie Spilman of Millennial Media talked up the importance of users' GPS location information to help tailor advertising.

Spilman said that this kind of advertising is very powerful to brands.

"Location is important because we know where you are, and when you are doing something," she … Read more

The high-end Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has no marketing budget and no flashy retail stores. And yet it is one of the most successful handset makers in the coveted Chinese mobile market.

Speaking here today at the All Things D conference, president and co-founder of the 3-year-old company, Bin Lin explained how the company has grown so rapidly from its first device sold in 2011 to now. He also offered advice to bigger multinational companies struggling to sell products in China.

"The way we sell online is to be transparent," he said. "We tell users everything about … Read more

NEW YORK -- Firefox Mobile OS will launch this summer in five countries, Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs said at the All Things D conference here Monday.

Kocacs, who announced earlier this month that he will be stepping down from his post as CEO, said that the new operating system, which is designed for low-end devices, will launch this summer in Venezuela, Poland, Brazil, Portugal, and Spain.

A spokesman for the company reiterated that the company had announced initial launch countries on February 24 when it was showing off the mobile OS at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Spain.… Read more

GOM Media Player for Windows handles most of the more common video formats, including MP4, AVI, MKV, and more. It comes with a sleeker, more media center-focused design and packs plenty of codecs under the hood to play just about any media format you throw at it.

The initial installation is standard, like any other Windows product: accept a couple terms, set a destination folder, and choose to opt in or out of an offer from AVG. After installation completes, GOM will guide you through an optional setup process to optimize initial use based on sound and monitor setup.

You'… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski urged TV broadcasters to partner with the wireless industry to grow their businesses, instead of fearing mobile operators.

Speaking at the broadcast industry's annual trade show here today, the chairman, whose agency is preparing to auction off more TV spectrum to wireless broadband providers, said that TV broadcasters have nothing to fear from the wireless carriers that want their valuable wireless spectrum. And he encouraged them to work with the wireless industry to find new ways of distributing their content.

"Mobile is an exciting, new platform for exactly what broadcasters do, … Read more

AirDroid is a great utility for accessing your Android device remotely and without cables. It allows you to wirelessly transfer files, update contacts, manage ringtones and more. Nicole Cozma previously went over using AirDroid, but that version was limited to just Wi-Fi networks.

Version 2 of AirDroid now works over the Internet as well as Wi-Fi networks. It also adds some new features, like remote camera control and a phone locator. Since it's not available for download from the Google Play store yet, we'll show you how to get it and sign up for the beta.