mobile

Samsung offers more color variety for Galaxy S4

Consumers looking for a bit more variety in their life will soon have it when it comes to buying a new Samsung Galaxy S4.

During Samsung's big product event in London on Thursday, the company announced a bevy of new color options for flagship smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the newly introduced Galaxy S4 Active.

Now the company is offering five color options in addition to the already available black and white: Blue Arctic, Purple Mirage, Red Aurora, Brown Autumn, and Pink Twilight. The company also announced additional colors for the Galaxy S4 Active phone, which is a … Read more

Post picture comments on Facebook from your smartphone

Facebook on Wednesday announced it was rolling out a feature that allowed users to post a photo as a comment on any thread or status update from the Web site. The feature, a long overdue addition, was slowly activated for users throughout the course of the day and should be active for pretty much everyone by now.

When I first posted about the feature, I had a few friends comment they didn't have access to it via the mobile app, which is expected, because the feature wasn't added to any of the dedicated apps. The ability to use … Read more

Samsung Galaxy S4 variant to get Snapdragon 800?

Samsung is planning to launch a Galaxy S4 variant with Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 800 processor, according to a new report.

A user manual for a new Samsung device, known as the SHV-E330S (PDF), shows a spec sheet that includes mention of a CPU called the MSM8974. That product ID is the code name Qualcomm uses for its Snapdragon 800 processor.

The manual was originally spotted by RBmen and was posted again by Engadget.

The Snapdragon 800 processor has been making chip fanatics swoon since its announcement earlier this year. The system-on-a-chip (SoC) is capable of delivering vastly … Read more

LG Optimus F7 from U.S. Cellular is a $100 winner

The fact that the LG Optimus F7 is available on more than one carrier is no surprise. It's an excellent midlevel phone that's packed with quality specs, such as a vivid 4.7-inch touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera, and a dual-core CPU.

Boost Mobile announced today that the F7 will be coming to the carrier on June 27 for $299.99 off contract, and U.S. Cellular customers can already get the device for $99.99 with a two-year agreement.

All in all, despite some of its drawbacks (like its sluggish 3G speeds), I'd still recommend it … Read more

Intellectual Ventures sues Motorola Mobility, again

Intellectual Ventures is coming back for seconds in another lawsuit against Google-owned Motorola Mobility.

The controversial Bellevue, Wash.-based company that's made headlines for accumulating a massive trove of software and design patents, sued Motorola Mobility in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday.

The complaint targets several Motorola phones including the Atrix HD, Electrify M, and Photon Q 4G LTE, accusing those devices of infringing key parts of seven different patents. IV says the lawsuit comes after the company was "unable to reach an agreement with Motorola."

Motorola, not mincing … Read more

LG Optimus F7 available on Boost Mobile, June 27

Boost Mobile announced today that it will begin offering the 4.7-inch, LG Optimus F7 on June 27 for $299.99.

The device will be equipped with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, Android Jelly Bean, and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera.

We first caught wind of this smartphone back in February, when LG debuted the handset at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

In addition, U.S. Cellular started offering the Optimus F7 earlier this month for $99.99 with a two-year carrier agreement.

Other features include 1080p full HD video-recording capabilities, 4G LTE, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, … Read more

Microsoft, Qualcomm to team up on next round of Surface RTs -- report

Microsoft and Qualcomm will work together on the next generation of Surface RT devices, a new report claims.

Microsoft will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor in some versions of its Surface RT tablets, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the companies' plans. Bloomberg's sources said that the Snapdragon processor will allow for improved performance and could mean 4G LTE support will be available in the Surface RT.

The Surface RT is currently running on Nvidia's Tegra processors. According to Bloomberg's sources, at least one version of the next-generation Surface RT will still … Read more

A portable Breathalyzer that can be too social

Driving while intoxicated is, quite literally, a life-and-death issue: according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, every 2 hours three people are killed in alcohol-related highway crashes. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that these deaths are preventable. Keeping intoxicated drivers from getting behind the wheel can save lives. And that's where the BACtrack Mobile Breathalyzer aims to make a difference.

While keychain-size Breathalyzers have been around for years, the $150 BACtrack Mobile Breathalyzer brings the technology into the smartphone age. The pocketable unit syncs wirelessly over Bluetooth, allowing you to view your blood alcohol level on the … Read more

Facebook looking to partner with Samsung?

During Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's whirlwind Asia tour, he stopped by the offices of Samsung this week for a quick meeting with the company's president, Shin Jong Kyun.

After the meeting, Shin stopped to talk to reporters and said that the two discussed potential partnerships, according to Bloomberg. The partnerships would reportedly center on advancing mobile-advertising sales.

Facebook has been long pushing to boost advertising on mobile. In April, the social network debuted Facebook Home, which is a family of mobile apps and a social-networking-focused skin that runs over Android in smartphones like HTC's One and Samsung'… Read more

BlackBerry Q10 finally landing on AT&T June 21

It's been a long time coming, but AT&T customers can now expect to get their hands on the BlackBerry Q10 on June 21. The physical keyboard-toting gadget will cost the industry standard price of $199.99.

With an expertly designed typing surface that's based on BlackBerry's legendary Bold line of handsets, the Q10 features keys that are billed as 30 percent larger. In my experience with the device, I can certainly vouch that punching out messages on the keyboard is both fast and accurate.

That said, to make way for the bigger key layout you … Read more