mobile

SAN FRANCISCO -- After eight years as director of engineering for iPhone, iPod, and iPad accessories at Apple, Jesse Dorogusker could have gone just about anywhere he wanted for his next gig.

He chose Square, the mobile payments company that, among other things, gives away its signature credit card reader for free.

By Dorogusker's own admission, that's a "terrible hardware business" model. So what inspired someone with a solid gold resume to leave a company that makes billions on hardware for a place that gives away his work for nothing?

For Dorogusker, it was the opportunity … Read more

The rumored HTC One Mini takes another step closer to reality. An image reported to be the fabled, micronized handset has bubbled up into view courtesy of gadget blog Engadget.

If the photo is legit, then the One Mini's hardware will indeed match all the hearsay and speculation. The device is said to be a shrunken-down version of HTC's flagship device, which, unlike the HTC One, features a 4.3-inch LCD screen and a thinner and shorter frame. The phone will likely sport the same gorgeous unibody aluminum chassis as the HTC One.

Other speculation points to a … Read more

Who won E3 so far? Was it the Xbox One? Or, was it the PS4 that kicked its butt? Did Sony dominate, totally smack down Microsoft, and run away with Best in Show?

All I know, from a distance, is this: boy, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 look a lot alike.

The picture above is from a classic "Star Trek" episode featuring two different alien races that fought bitterly but were more alike than they dared to admit. Sound familiar?

The moment the PS4 was unveiled, in its boxy glory, you couldn't help but be reminded … Read more

Android vendors shouldn't expect to make many friends with Apple's current customers.

In a study released Tuesday by gadget-comparison company Retrevo, 81 percent of current iPhone owners will buy another Apple handset when their contracts are up and they have to purchase another device. Another 14 percent of current iPhone owners identify themselves as "undecided." Just 4 percent say that they plan to switch to Android.

It's a different story on the Android side. Just under two-thirds of current Android owners -- 63 percent -- say that they'd stick with a handset running Google'… Read more

If smartphone users have problems with your site, here's some incentive to fix them: Google said Tuesday it plans to punish problematic sites with lower placement in search results.

"To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users," said Yoshikiyo Kato, a mobile search team programmer, and Pierre Far, a Webmaster trends analyst, in a blog post.

The pair gave some examples of common problems:

• Redirecting visitors trying to use assorted PC-optimized … Read more

On Tuesday, Qihoo launched two major security products: 360 Internet Security and 360 Mobile Security.

360 Internet Security (32-bit / 64-bit) is a light weight security program that provides real time scanning, automatic updates, and some basic tools to protect your PC from viruses, malware, and other potentially unwanted or suspicious applications.

360 Mobile Security is the younger Android cousin, designed to provide malware protection for your mobile device and comes with a slew of useful system management tools to give you control over what apps have access to your sensitive data. Grab them both over on Download for an exclusive … Read more

360 Mobile begins installation with a standard EULA menu. The first thing we noticed was how clean the process looked; Mobile Security walks you through a fancy but minimal tour that previews what 360 is all about along a lengthy vertical flow.

Despite sporting a slightly different design direction than its older PC cousin, 360 Mobile Security retains the same focus on streamlined design, paired with some subtle indicators of your mobile security status. Depending on whether your phone is secure or not, the background menu's photo changes to reflect the state of your device.

In terms of performance … Read more

Sprint announced today that it will be offering a 4G LTE, Android Jelly Bean handset called the Vital, starting June 14 for $99.99.

Packing a 13-megapixel camera, a dual-core processor, and an expansive 5-inch HD screen, the Vital joins the ranks of the Warp Sequent and Sprint Flash as high-end phones from Chinese manufacturer ZTE.

With its release, the Vital is unquestionably the best handset that ZTE has put out in the U.S. market. Compared to the other two, it shows marked improvements in both processing speeds and camera quality.

That'd be fine if ZTE were only … Read more

Samsung has announced a new addition to the company's smartphone line.

Dubbed the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3, the device comes with a 4-inch screen and a 1GHz dual-core processor. It's running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and comes in the customer's choice of 3G or 4G LTE. The 3G option comes with 4GB of internal memory, while the 4G LTE option has 8GB of internal memory. Both support a microSD card of up to 64GB of storage.

On the back, users will find a 5-megapixel camera. The software coupled with that lens allows for users to share … Read more