smartphones

Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, reported Thursday that its second-quarter operating profit fell 71 percent to 427 million euros ($600 million) from 1.47 billion euros during the same quarter a year earlier.

The company also reported that sales fell about 25 percent to 9.9 billion euros in the second quarter. But sales were up 7 percent sequentially from the first quarter of 2008.

Nokia shipped 103.2 million units during the quarter, which was down about 15 percent compared with a year earlier. But shipments were up 11 percent sequentially compared with the first … Read more

This post was updated at 2:56 p.m. PDT with a comment from Palm.

Oh dear. We can't say this was a complete surprise, but it looks like Apple made good on its earlier warning and put an end to the Palm Pre-iTunes synchronization with the release of iTunes 8.2.1.

In the release notes, Apple states that "iTunes 8.2.1 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices." Not wanting to believe the news, we bit the bullet and downloaded the latest version of Apple's music software to our PC … Read more

Apple's popular App Store has proven that selling mobile applications for smartphones is a hot business, but can all these copycat application stores expect to find the same success as the App Store?

Companies, such as Nokia, Google, LG Electronics, Research In Motion and Microsoft are hoping they can. Since the Apple App Store came on the scene a year ago, these companies have each announced plans for their own application stores.

LG Electronics, the third largest mobile handset maker in the world, is the latest to announce its store. On Tuesday, the South Korean device maker announced it … Read more

When I bought the Pre and openned a new account with Sprint, they offered me a 10% discount if bought two accessories. I wanted the Touchstone anyway, so I threw in some screen protectors and the discount covered those.

Palm has introduced some pretty slick new tech with the Touchstone charger. The kit comes with the Touchstone and another back plate.… Read more

Research in Motion is about to launch a new social network for its BlackBerry App World store, according to a report from the blog TechCrunch.

The new site is called MyBlackBerry and it will allow device owners to create a social profile where they can share opinions and recommendations for their favorite applications and accessories, the story said. Users will also be able to share tips and tricks for using their devices.

TechCrunch claims that RIM will launch the new site on Tuesday. A source close to the company confirmed for CNET News that RIM is working on some kind … Read more

On Monday, AT&T Wireless introduced the Nokia Surge, a Symbian-based smartphone aimed at all you social butterflies out there.

Equipped with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the Surge offers a suite of messaging capabilities (Oz Email 2.8 for personal accounts and Mail for Exchange 2.9) and comes preloaded with JuiceCaster so you can post messages, updates, photos, and more to social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

In addition, the smartphone offers a full HTML Web browser with Flash support and supports a number of AT&T services, including AT&T Navigator, AT&… Read more

The Apple iPhone and other smartphones hitting the market are cool, but if you don't have a spare $200 in your wallet, and you can't afford the hefty monthly service fees, there are less expensive options that still offer some of the wireless Web at a much more affordable price tag.

These alternative phones may not be as sexy as the iPhone or the new Palm Pre. And the Internet service and applications will not be as slick as what you'll find on a full-fledged smartphone. But for many wireless subscribers, less expensive feature-phones and cheaper data … Read more

I would really like to carry one device. Ideally this would be the Palm Pre: phone, email, sms, internet, calendar, contacts, and media player. I listen to a lot of podcasts and music on my 30GB iPod classic right now, and it would be great to not carry it around anymore since I have the Pre. … Read more

The RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 has received positive reviews from around the tech world, though there's been one universal complaint: the lack of Wi-Fi. However, Sprint is hoping to right this wrong by releasing a Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry Tour next year and said it will require all of its future smartphones to have Wi-Fi.

"It is now a requirement for all our PDA equipment suppliers to include Wi-Fi," said Sprint's director of business product marketing, Jeff Clemow, in an interview with Fierce Wireless. He did not, however, specify a deadline for when manufacturers will have to adhere … Read more