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Nokia may be trying to make a comeback in the smartphone world by pairing with Microsoft and leveraging Windows Phone, but analysts are concerned that the company may be burning through its cash reserves too fast. Last quarter the Finnish smartphone manufacturer reported a $1.7 billion loss, and analysts fear the company may not be able to stop hemorrhaging money.
Pre-orders for Samsung’s next flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S III , have already reached 9 million just two weeks after it was announced. In comparison, the last Galaxy phone took several months to reach 3 million pre-orders .
If you didn’t know, Samsung introduced some alternate colors for the Samsung Galaxy Note. Unfortunately, those alternate colors only launched in Korea.
Say what you will about the Galaxy S III , but Samsung is going to sell mountains of phones. The Korea Economic Daily is reporting that the Samsung Galaxy S III has already amassed around 9 million pre-orders with over 100 global carriers.
LG’s latest 4.7-inch wunderphone may not have penned in an official release this side of the Atlantic, but that doesn’t mean the Feds aren’t putting it through its paces. A global version of the LG Optimus 4X HD made its way through the FCC test labs recently, revealing a quad-band GSM / EDGE radio with 3G support over AT&T’s 1900 / 850 bands.
China is expected to rule soon on Google’s proposed acquisition of Motorola, with the deal already approved in the U.S. and Europe.
While the British government considers forcing internet providers to censor the web , it turns out that many European mobile operators are happily acting as censors themselves already — and mistakenly blocking lots of legitimate sites along the way. According to a report this week from Open Rights Group and the London School of Economics , many local mobile operators are using aggressive — but haphazard — child protection filters by default, leaving adult customers unable to see perfectly ordinary websites instead of preventing kids from accessing adult material.
Canadians sometimes can’t catch a break: while NFC payments have been relatively common for Americans , Europeans and certainly the Japanese , Canucks have had to largely make do paying with ye olde credit carde. Rogers and national bank CIBC want to put an end to these antediluvian ways: starting later this year, CIBC card holders will just need to swipe an NFC-equipped BlackBerry like the Bold 9900 ( Bold 9930 for CDMA-loving Americans) at a matching terminal to pay at a given store.
Gartner Says Worldwide Sales of Mobile Phones Declined 2 Percent in First Quarter of 2012; Previous Year-over-Year Decline Occurred in Second Quarter of 2009 Samsung’s Android-Based Smartphone Sales in First Quarter of 2012 Represented More Than 40 Percent of Android-Based Smartphone Sales Globally; No Other Vendors Achieved More Than a 10 Percent Market Share Egham, UK, May 16, 2012— Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This is the first time since the second quarter of 2009 that the market exhibited a decline.
Love them or hate them, those ubiquitous Android skins aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Now the latest one to make an entrance to the overlay game is LG’s UI 3.0, which the Korean outfits says will make the overall experience of its handsets easier, speedier and “more convenient.” The new UI brings features such as a novel drag anywhere-style lock screen, an Icon Customizer for setting your own photos as icons / shortcuts, a revamped Pattern Lock that lets you preset apps for quicker launch and a Voice Shutter trait for taking snaps via voice commands — à la Sammy S Voice .