Samsung to launch next Galaxy phone
Samsung will put the rumours and alleged leaks about its next flagship smartphone to rest when it unveils the handset in London later on Thursday. More than 20 million copies of the existing Galaxy S2 have been sold since its launch in April 2011. Analysts say its success helped Samsung overtake Nokia to become the […]
RIM CEO: We’re not abandoning BlackBerry physical keyboards
Research In Motion is not killing off its physical keyboards, according to CEO Thorsten Heins. Heins, who addressed a room full of journalists and bloggers at the company’s BlackBerry World conference here, said he wanted to clear up confusion based on the company’s unveiling of the BlackBerry 10 software. It was widely reported or intimated […]
Android’s new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu
Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing. Last year was a long time ago for Android. That was when Google’s mobile platform was stealing market share from all the other smartphone platforms — winning […]
LG to open up multi-screen cloud streaming service
Apple’s iCloud will soon have a new contender to take on in the sky. LG announced today that its new Cloud offering will launch in beta tomorrow. LG Cloud is designed to work on “three screens” — smartphones, PCs, and televisions — and streams everything from video to photos. In order to access LG Cloud, […]
Samsung overtakes Nokia in mobile phone shipments
Samsung Electronics has overtaken Nokia to become the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Nokia took the top spot in 1998 from Motorola, but in the first quarter of 2012 Samsung shipped 93m phones compared to almost 83m by Nokia. Samsung also reported its highest quarterly profit since 2008. […]
Samsung announces quad-core chip for Galaxy S phone
Electronics heavyweight Samsung will put quad-core silicon in its next Galaxy smartphone, upping the ante for mobile performance. The Exynos 4 Quad integrates four processor cores and is built on the company’s cutting-edge 32-nanometer manufacturing process. The chip will run at speeds above 1.4GHz, the company said in a statement today. As a yardstick, the […]
Apple’s Tim Cook rejects idea of laptop-tablet hybrids
Apple’s boss has dismissed the idea of mixing laptops and tablets into a hybrid product. Chief executive Tim Cook said the idea of combining the iPad and MacBook Air would “wind up compromising” both. Rival Asus already markets such products in its Transformer series. Intel has also been a vocal advocate of the idea. Mr […]
Did Facebook pay just $83M for that giant pile of IBM patents?
Social-networking giant’s amended S-1 sheds light on how much it plunked down for patents in first quarter. News today that Facebook is spending $550 million to buy 650 patents held by Microsoft came just weeks after it made what seemed to be an even bigger purchase from IBM in which it spent an undisclosed sum […]
Android chief: We didn’t believe we needed a license from Sun
Android chief Andy Rubin wrapped up his testimony this morning in the copyright portion of the Oracle-Google trial at the U.S. District Court here. Google counsel Robert Van Nest picked up from where he left off on Tuesday afternoon, asking Rubin what happened after initial negotiations with Sun Microsystems ended in 2006. Rubin said that […]
Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 getting Wi-Fi hot spot update
An update that brings with it Internet tethering is reportedly about to roll out to the two Lumia handsets in certain countries. Nokia’s Lumia 710 and 800 phones may be one step closer to gaining the ability to act as Wi-Fi hot spots, though the company itself isn’t confirming or revealing any details on the […]
Cyber-spying on the rise
When Linda Trottman’s husband landed a promotion at his company, a co-worker congratulated her on it a few days later. Trottman says she hadn’t even realized her colleague monitored her husband’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional-networking site, where he had posted his new title. “It hit me that he was targeting my husband’s previous position,” […]
Apple ratchets up App Store security
iOS and iTunes users have been bumping into new and stricter security measures as they use their accounts. The new security demands, apparently implemented yesterday, have been asking users to choose three security questions and answers that are then required to download a new app from the App Store. A backup e-mail address is also […]
Google’s Project Glass: How much will glasses cost?
Google on Wednesday unveiled its “Project Glass,” augmented reality glasses that will be able to display chats, maps and more. The Verge says that it seems like the glasses are “past the concept phase.” Speaking to [Nick] Bilton, someone who has used the glasses said, “They let technology get out of your way. If I […]
Instagram and the Zuckerbergian plan for global conquest
If we needed another reminder that Hollywood and history often have an arm’s length association, consider the Mark Zuckerberg who Aaron Sorkin created in “The Social Network.” That celluloid Zuckerberg was a callow nebbish who didn’t really know what Facebook ought to be and needed Sean Parker to get him to think seriously about the […]
More than 600,000 Macs infected with Flashback botnet
Russian antivirus company says half the computers infected with malware designed to steal personal information are in the U.S. — with 274 located in Cupertino. More than half a million Macs are infected with the Flashback Trojan, a malware package designed to steal personal information, according to a Russian antivirus company. The company — Dr. […]
New Yahoo CEO sweeps out 2,000 employees in purge
Yahoo’s turnaround attempt is going to be messy. In his first three months on the job, CEO Scott Thompson has imposed the largest layoffs in the company’s 17-year history, reshaped the board of directors, picked a potentially disruptive fight with a major shareholder and sued Facebook for patent infringement. He says there’s even more upheaval […]
110,000 PC-strong Kelihos botnet sidelined
Researchers use specially crafted code to direct infected computers to their servers instead of servers run by the criminals who have been using the botnet to distribute spam. A new version of the Kelihos spamming botnet has been sidelined by using the peer-to-peer distribution mechanism to basically hijack it, researchers announced today. The botnet, which […]
Facebook users beware: Don’t use the word ‘Book’
The social-networking site is updating its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities — if approved, account holders must agree not to use the words “Face,” “Poke,” or “Book.” Individual privacy is a hot topic in the social-networking world right now. But have people thought about privacy of the companies, such as protection of their brand, logo, […]
Anti-SOPA Internet Society under fire for hiring MPAA executive
The Internet Society is hardly a fan of the Stop Online Piracy Act or the Protect IP Act. The venerable non-profit, which acts as the umbrella organization for the Internet’s key standards bodies, bluntly warns that the pair of copyright laws would end the “viability of the Internet.” Which is why ISOC’s decision this month […]
Bringing broadband to the boonies: The odyssey begins
Although my author bio hints at it, you might not guess that I file CNET stories from the edge of the vast wilderness. I’ve lived here five years now, and it’s taken me that long to cross the Digital Divide that still exists in this country between those who take decent broadband for granted and […]