first

Recently my brother-in-law, Ken Landau, was doing a major spring cleaning when he came across a bit of computing history in his basement: a Colby Walkmac, the first battery-operated Macintosh computer and first portable Mac with a LCD display.

I'd never heard of the Walkmac, which wasn't built by Apple but by electronics pioneer Chuck Colby, who founded Colby Systems in 1982. The Apple-sanctioned model you see here was "modded" around a stock Mac SE motherboard and hit the market in 1987, two years before Apple put out its Macintosh Portable in 1989 for $7,300. … Read more

Samsung has succeeded in maintaining its edge on China's smartphone market for the fifth straight quarter in a row. It has also broke its own record by selling more than 10 million smartphones in a single quarter.

The Korean phone maker sold 12.5 million smartphones in China during the first quarter of 2013, according to new data from market research firm Strategy Analytics. This is up 2.2 percent from the last quarter of 2012 and makes up 18.5 percent of China's smartphone market. These numbers were first reported by The Korea Herald.

Coming in second … Read more

HTC executives are departing a company that's facing strong challenges in the mobile market.

Our colleagues at CNET Asia this morning reported that HTC Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik has left the handset maker after an absence of two months during which he was "on leave," and there's no word on where he is headed.

That departure continues an unsettling trend for HTC. Chief product officer Kouji Kodera, who led HTC's general product strategy, left last week, according to The Verge. Vice president of global communications Jason Gordon recently exited the company after a seven-year stint. … Read more

A federal judge has rejected attempts by the estate of the late Aaron Swartz to disclose confidential court documents that could have revealed key details about MIT's role in his prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston ruled today that the possibility of violence aimed at MIT officials -- some have reportedly received threats, and the campus was locked down in February after a gunman hoax -- outweighed the public's right to access court records that would have identified which professors, university attorneys, or staff members were involved.

"The estate's interest in disclosing the … Read more

The HTC First, also known as the Facebook phone, was unofficially declared a disaster after AT&T dropped its price from $99 to 99 cents on Wednesday.

Is anybody surprised?

Even in an industry known for liberal smartphone discounts, the price drop of the First -- which comes less than a month after its debut -- came relatively quickly. That suggests what many of us have suspected: that the First was dead on arrival.

Despite an army of naysayers, the First actually had a lot going for it. It had the backing of a well-known name in Facebook, which … Read more

Less than a month after its release, the HTC First, also known as the first "Facebook phone," is selling for the clearance price of 99 cents with a two-year contract with AT&T.

The mid-range smartphone, which arrived on April 12 and was previously selling for $99, comes preloaded with Facebook Home, the social-networking software package that turns the device's home screen and lock screen into Facebook-only zones.

The dramatically reduced price point seems to confirm our earlier suspicions that Facebook wasn't proving to be much of a sales pitch.

HTC avoided sharing sales figures … Read more

A new entrant in the long-loved, first-person shooter series, Wolfenstein, is coming, Bethesda Softworks announced Tuesday.

Dubbed Wolfenstein: The New Order, the game will follow series protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz after World War II. But there's one problem. In the new game, the Germans have won the war, and Blazkowicz is charged with taking on the Nazi regime.

CNET sister site Gamespot was first to announce the new Wolfenstein, confirming rumors that a new chapter of the famed franchise will unfold in the fourth quarter.

According to Bethesda, The New Order will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation … Read more

Microsoft and its partners have cracked the tablet market, according to a report from Strategy Analytics.

Windows 8 tablets (which include Windows RT) took 7.5 percent of the global tablet market based on operating system (OS) market share in the first quarter, Strategy Analytics said.

PC makers (including Microsoft) shipped 3.4 million units worldwide in Q1 2013, "for a niche 7.5 percent share," Neil Shah, a Strategy Analytics analyst, said in a response to an e-mail query.

But the market research firm said things could have been better.

"Very limited distribution, a shortage of … Read more

The Facebook-powered HTC First can count on at least one close friend: AT&T.

The Dallas-based wireless carrier, which is the exclusive partner to Facebook and HTC for the First, is promising to give the device its most prominent position in stores when it launches on Friday. That's because AT&T considers the HTC First its flagship smartphone for the spring, Claudia Knop, a device executive with the carrier, told CNET.

It's a curious decision by AT&T, which also has the HTC One and Galaxy S4 waiting in the wings. While AT&T … Read more