Facebook tops 1 billion active users, 600 million are mobile

When 20-year-old Mark Zuckerberg first created “TheFacebook” in 2004, the social network’s membership was restricted to Harvard students, which naturally limited the maximum number of users. Eight years, several lawsuits, one controversial hit Hollywood movie, and one not-so-great IPO later, there are no less than one billion people worldwide that live and breathe Facebook.

Read More

Best Android smartphones of fall 2012

Fall is upon us and the Thanksgiving holiday season (and all the numerous sales and discounts that arrive around that time of year) is getting ever closer. As was the case every single year, smartphone manufacturers are gearing up right about this time to provide the “best and latest” of the Android ecosystem, in an attempt to gain a place in the smartphone consumer’s heart, mind and wallet.

Read More

Alternative app stores and platform branches: Is Android too open?

Android is continuing to dominate the worldwide smartphone market. According to the IDC, reporting on the second quarter of 2012, Android has a 68 percent market share with more than 500 million globally activated devices. A more recent comscore report just covering the U.S. puts Android market share at 52.6 percent, which marks a steady rise. Whatever way you look at it, Google’s platform is doing extremely well.

Read More

Motorola job cuts to cost Google more than expected, with a $300M bill for Q3 2012

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt speaks during a press conference in this September 5, 2012 photo in New York, where Motorola introduced three new smartphones, the first since it became a a part of Google. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Read More

Samsung says Apple patent verdict was tainted because of jury foreman’s misconduct

Apple scored a big win over Samsung this August, when a California district court ruled in favor of the Cupertino company in its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung. The Korean company was ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages for having infringed on Apple’s patents and diluted its “trade dress.” However, Samsung is still seeking other legal remedies, among these trying to shoot down the jury’s decision because of juror misconduct.

Read More

US Cellular Galaxy S3 getting software update with Google Wallet, no word on Jelly Bean yet

After officially learning that all US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S3 will get Jelly Bean “soon”, we all hoped to get automatic prompt messages for downloading a new buttery software package on our super-phones. That hasn’t happened yet, although owners of the US Cellular version of the S3 are getting a (much less significant) update as we speak.

Read More

LTE Samsung Galaxy Note 2 coming to EE UK on October 15

UK’s first 4G LTE network is ready to roll, but before anything, EE has to build a strong line-up of high-end phones to go with the new speeds. That doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore for the T-Mobile/Orange joint venture, which has officially announced the release of the Galaxy Note 2 on October 15.

Read More

It’s official: The LG Optimus G is coming to AT&T and Sprint, no idea when though

LG has just issued a press release saying that their current flagship smartphone, the Optimus G, is going to hit two American operators: AT&T and Sprint. We read the press release several times to try and find some details regarding pricing and availability, but it looks like that information has been purposefully left out. Now in case you’re not familiar with the Optimus G, here’s the basic spec sheet: 4.7 inch 1280 x 768 pixel display, 1.5 GHz quad core Snapdragon S4 processor, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, and as for the camera … let’s quote LG:

Read More

Two mysterious Samsung tablets and two new Galaxy Note 2 variants visit the FCC

The FCC is under Samsung siege, with four new devices getting the regulatory approvals just a couple of days after we spotted the AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon versions of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Among the four new gadgets, there are, as expected, the other two Note 2 models officially announced as coming this fall, but also a pair of rather mysterious Android tablets.

Read More

TomTom turns up on Android at last

It has taken TomTom so long to bring its popular offline navigation apps to Android that you’d be forgiven for thinking they got lost along the way. If you’ve been waiting for a good offline solution then you might want to take a look. You also get spoken turn-by-turn directions, 2D or 3D views, speed camera alerts, traffic routing, multi-stop and eco routes, and lifetime updates to the maps.

Read More