mobility

You may have already pre-ordered the T-Mobile BlackBerry Q10, but today TMO officially announced the device will hit its stores on June 5. T-Mobile also disclosed the physical-keyboarded handset will cost an initial payment of $99.99. … Read more

Samsung, which has been fighting an often-forgotten war in the feature phone space against Nokia, has fired a shot over the bow of the Finland-based company.

According to a report on Androidbeat, which includes an invitation claiming to come from Samsung for an event it's holding in Finland, the Galaxy S maker is planning to open a research and development facility in Espoo, Finland, on June 13. And here's the kicker: Espoo is also home to Nokia's headquarters.

The letter Androidbeat reportedly received is signed by Yong-Suk Moon, president of the Samsung R&D Institute UK. … Read more

A Reddit poster going by the handle Vizionx1208 says his Galaxy S3 suddenly caught fire recently and burned his finger.

In a post to Reddit on Sunday, the person said that he plugged his Galaxy S3 in to be charged and about an hour later "was awoken by a loud noise and a weird squeaking sound." That he, says, is when all kinds of trouble broke loose.

"So, I woke up, and saw a ton of smoke coming out of my phone -- it also smelled REALLY bad," he wrote. "Half asleep, I jumped out … Read more

Soon wireless subscribers won't even have to think about signing on to a Wi-Fi hot spot. New standards that will be included in the latest generation of products will take the headache out of Wi-Fi.

Millions of wireless customers access public Wi-Fi hot spots every day. Some people get free access to Wi-Fi through their mobile operator and use the networks to avoid going over their data caps. Others subscribe to Wi-Fi services to get access to higher-speed data wherever it's available. Whether you use free Wi-Fi or you subscribe to a service, getting on to whatever Wi-Fi … Read more

Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design and the new design chief for iOS, has one idea in mind for the mobile operating system: out with the old and in with the new.

According to 9to5Mac, which cited unidentified sources who claim to have knowledge of the major changes intended for the upcoming iOS 7, Ive's new design ideas boil down to "black, white, and flat all over." What that means, the sources told 9to5Mac, is that Ive has decided to drop the textures, the shiny icons, and the lifelike design features in favor … Read more

HTC is planning to take a page out of Samsung's book by launching a "Google Edition" of its One smartphone.

That's the word, at least, from unidentified sources for Geek.com, who claim that HTC is planning to launch its flagship handset, the One, with a stock version of Android 4.2.2. The current model available to customers is running an HTC-modified version of the software.

By launching a Google Edition, HTC would be following the lead of the company it's chasing in the mobile space, Samsung. At the Google I/O conference earlier … Read more

Mobile-payment-processing company Square has brought its operation to Japan.

The company announced the news on Thursday, saying that it will charge merchants 3.25 percent per swipe. As with its service in the U.S., all funds will be automatically deposited into the merchant's bank account on the next business day.

In order to bring Square to Japan, the company teamed up with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Corporation, a credit card processing firm in Japan. The terms of that partnership were not announced.

Square's entry into Japan comes about a year after PayPal brought its own offering, PayPal Here, … Read more

HTC's flagship smartphone, the One, has inched towards 5 million units sold since its launch about a month ago, an unidentified HTC executive has told the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking to the Journal on Wednesday, the unidentified executive said that "orders are pretty good so far and are still more than what we can supply." He blamed the shortage on issues with component availability, and nothing his own company is doing.

HTC has been in a world of trouble over the last couple of years as demand for its devices has fallen. Although 5 million units sold … Read more