Consumer content

Apple supplier Foxconn wants to branch out by grabbing a slice of Taiwan's 4G spectrum.

Foxconn, aka Hon Hai, said that it submitted an application on Tuesday to bid for 4G spectrum in Taiwan, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Taiwan's National Communications Commission announced on Monday that it's appraising the applications of seven companies. One of those is Hon Hai unit Ambit Microsystems, which makes routers and other wireless devices.

A list of qualified bidders is due to be released by the end of August, with the actual spectrum auction to kick off in September, the … Read more

Users of the RSS iOS app Reeder can now add feeds from Feedly following the demise of Google Reader.

Released on Tuesday, version 3.2 of Reeder for iOS no longer supports Google Reader since the search giant's RSS service has kicked the bucket. But the new support for Feedly should be able to fill the gap.

Feedly has been hard at work trying to make itself a home for RSS users. The company recently upgraded its site to offer a new interface and end its dependence on Google's RSS feeds.

Feedly has also made it easy for … Read more

Motorola's upcoming Droid Ultra will be thin and still as "tough as steel." At least, that's how the company is teasing it.

A page on Motorola's Web site displays a small gray box with a tidbit of promotional copy for the Droid Ultra: "Available in a bunch of glossy colors, this high-grade DuPont Kevlar body proves you can be even thinner and still be tough as steel."

The rest of the page is filled with lots of technical specs. But as noticed by blog site Droid Life, the specs are the exact same … Read more

Long forgotten 8-year-old social network Bebo, which AOL bought for $850 million in 2008, is escaping near death once again.

Original Bebo co-founder Michael Birch said in a tweet Monday that he has purchased the property from owner Criterion Capital Partners (CCP) for $1 million with plans to reinvent the site. AOL sold Bebo to CCP three years ago for reportedly less than $10 million.

We just bought Bebo back for $1m. Can we actually re-invent it? Who knows, but it will be fun trying...

The social property never got close to accumulating a … Read more

Facing stiff competition in mobile messaging, Microsoft-owned Skype updated its Android application Monday with a crisper design meant to emphasize conversations. The application has been installed on more than 100 million Android devices, Skype said.

Skype for Android 4.0 arrives with a contemporary look where messaging -- chats, voice calls, and video calls -- takes center stage.

The application now features a person's most recent conversations on the home screen and comes with call and chat buttons at the bottom of the screen for quick access. Messaging dominates in the Favorites and Contacts tabs as well, as the … Read more

A federal appeals court has decided that the lawsuit against Google's digital scanning of books shouldn't be classified as class-action suit just yet.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said in New York on Monday that Circuit Judge Denny Chin should not have certified a class-action suit against Google, Reuters is reporting. By classifying the case as class action, the judge effectively allowed hundreds of thousands of authors to possibly net some cash in the ongoing lawsuit against the search giant.

Google and the Authors Guild have been embroiled in a lawsuit for nearly a decade. The Authors … Read more

Nintendo has failed in its bid to obtain the rights to WiiU.com.

Late last month, a panel of arbitrators ruled that Nintendo could not obtain the rights to WiiU.com, as shown by a case summary originally obtained by GamesIndustry.biz. Nintendo had hoped to take control over the domain, which currently houses ads and a search bar from which the owners are ostensibly generating revenue.

It's not clear from the filing why Nintendo's request was denied, but it appears likely now that in order for the company to take control over that domain, it'll need … Read more

Hewlett-Packard plans to jump back into the smartphone business.

Yam Su Yin, HP's senior director for consumer PC and media tablets for Asia Pacific, told the Press Trust of India that the company will focus on all segments of the market, including tablets, notebooks, and all-in-one PCs, the Indian Express reported Sunday.

Asked specifically about a smartphone, Yin said: "The answer is yes, but I cannot give a timetable. It would be silly if we say no. HP has to be in the game."

HP attempted to carve a bigger slice of the mobile market after acquiring Palm in 2010. … Read more

More than a year after Microsoft announced its Xbox Music service, the company has finally brought it to the Web.

Microsoft's Xbox Music platform is now available for users in the browser. Customers can head over to its page and stream "millions of songs" from within the browser. Microsoft last week told CNET that the subscription, storage, and track-purchasing service would be coming to the Web, and it has officially made good on that promise.

Microsoft claims to offer "millions of songs" through Xbox Music and allows users to download tracks they purchase to a … Read more