Items tagged with smartphones
In the mobile market, 2013 will be the year that smartphone shipments reached a tipping point where they beat out feature phone shipments for the first time--just barely. According to numbers from the IDC, smartphones accounted for just under 42% of all mobile phone shipments in 2012, and that number will climb to...
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Let's face it, we're addicted to apps, which is why ABI Research is confident in forecasting that mobile users will download around 70 billion mobile apps in 2013. Half of those will belong to Android, while another 41 percent will be represented by the iOS camp, meaning more than 9 of 10 app downloads this year will...
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File this one under "R" for "rumor," but early termination fees at T-Mobile might soon be a thing of the past. That's because T-Mobile is reportedly getting rid of service contracts altogether, whereby existing subscribers will finish out their current agreement and then be able to upgrade to a new device sans service agreement. New customers...
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Today, Intel is keeping on track for execution of their roadmap plan in the mobile space, with the release of their follow-on to Medfield, code-named Clover Trail+. Clover Trail, as you’ll remember, is powering many a Windows 8 tablet these days. Intel's latest Atom-based SoC is a more natural fit...
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When we covered Intel’s first significant foray into the smartphone arena, early in January 2012, there was little doubt in our minds that the company had set its sights on the mobile market with a plan and roadmap for execution. Though Medfield and Lexington, now known as the Atom Z2460 SoC, and its lower cost sibling...
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AT&T on Tuesday announced that it sold more than 10 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012, which isn't just a lot of smartphones, it's actually a personal record. Ma Bell's previous high was 9.4 million smartphone sales, which it achieved a year prior in the fourth quarter of 2011. "We had another incredible quarter of smartphone...
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Let's say you're out playing golf and you shank the shot so badly, you end up near a pond. You walk over, whip out your smartphone to snap a pic for Facebook, and then...oops! That slippery sucker jumps right out of your hand and dives into the drink. You then fish out your phone, but it's dripping water and appears dead. What a day! That's...
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Here’s a name that’ll bring back memories (particularly memories of waving photos ‘til your hands hurt): Polaroid. The company is fighting its way back into the market with the just-announced Polaroid Fotobar, which is a retail location that lets you print the photos stored on your phone. It sounds...
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One of the essential features of any smartphone is the built-in camera, and the quality of photos a device outputs plays a role in our evaluation of these devices. For many, a quality camera is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in an increasingly social landscape, so is it any surprise that smartphone and tablet...
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Think Ubuntu could make a great tablet OS? So does Canonical, and it sure looks like Canonical is jumping into the tablet OS market today. Ubuntu's website features a giant clock that is counting down to 1PM EST today, with a hint that can only mean touch-friendly Ubuntu tablets are in the future. Actually, it's not too surprising to...
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Facebook is planning some big changes for its fairly tame advertising format, according to Ad Age. Right now, many ads are static images and a little text by your newsfeed. By Q2 of next year, you’ll be seeing video ads popping up. The plan is to make video ad spots available to advertisers in the computer and mobile app versions of...
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Dell has been rather quiet on the mobile front lately, and there’s good reason: the company is officially getting out of the smartphone game, rendering your Streak, Aero, and Venue handsets instant relics of mobile computing history. Dell’s Jeff Clarke (pictured) told Forbes, “It needs a lot of investments to really be successful,”...
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A Vietnamese website has posted what are supposedly the first real images of Research In Motion's (RIM) upcoming BlackBerry 10-based smartphone. If the pictures aren't legitimate, someone deserves kudos for a fine Photoshopping, because they sure look real. Best of all, they're not blurry, as leaked photos have a nasty tendency to be. In full...
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The next iPhone model may ship in a variety of colors. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek wrote in a note to investors that the rumored iPhone 5S is destined for a June 2013 release, and that it will be available in 6-8 color options. It's unclear if he has some inside info he's working with, or if he's basing his...
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HTC 8X owners have begun to receive the first over-the-air (OTA) update for Windows Phone 8. The update introduces a persistent Wi-Fi feature, which prevents the handset from switching over to cellular mode after the display's been turned off, and also fixes a rebooting issue some HTC 8X owners had complained about. According to WPCentral,...
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Kudos to Samsung for not resting on its laurels with what many would consider the best Android smartphone on the market (and you could argue it doesn't need the "Android" qualifier). We're of course talking about the Galaxy S III, and along with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which both T-Mobile and AT&T have pushed out...
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Some of us do it in the dark, others do it with the lights on. Heck, I've even done it in public, more than once. Yes, at some point or another, we all drop our smartphones (what did you think I was talking about?, and it's a little surprising it doesn't happen more often when you think about the number of times it...
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The iPhone 5 has been available for two and a half months, and quite frankly, we're surprised it took this long for the first pics of what's supposed to be the inevitable iPhone 5S to appear online. But they're here now, and assuming they're real, you can expect the iPhone 5S to look just like its predecessor. No big surprise there. After...
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Your run-of-the-mill smartphone announcement usually involves the same old names, like HTC, Motorola, or Samsung. But one company you probably never heard of is Oppo. That's because Oppo doesn't really have much of a presence in the U.S. market, but it sure is looking to make a grand entrance with its Find 5 Android...
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Nokia on Tuesday added to its Windows Phone lineup by launching the Lumia 620, the third and most affordable device in its range of Windows Phone 8 smartphones. It slides underneath the top-end Lumia 920 (see our review) and mid-range Lumia 820, but unlike those other two, Nokia's entry-level WP8 device aims to offer...
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Had things gone to plan, AT&T would already be selling HTC's One VX smartphone, which was originally supposed to be available on November 16. For whatever reason, it didn't launch on the day AT&T announced, but don't despair. If you've been holding out for this mid-range device, you only have to make it through the week, as AT&T...
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You might find this hard to believe (we certainly do), but obnoxious ringtones aren't the only ones that exist. If a study by Nokia is to be believed, classical music ringtones are actually the second most popular, followed by who-knows-what. It doesn't matter what came in third or fourth or fifth -- the point is, lots of mobile users enjoy...
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