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Want a seriously cheap Android Gingerbread phone that doesn't suck? You got it! Meet T-Mobile's Samsung Exhibit II 4G.

It has T-Mobile's HSPA+ speeds (hence the "4G"), a front-facing camera, a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 1GHz processor. Plus, it's filled with a bunch of useful apps, like T-Mobile TV HD. Overall, it's a nice chunk of plastic smartphone power for just $30 with a contract and $200 without one.

Read all the pros and cons, take the video tour, and peruse the photos (including comparative camera shots) in the full Samsung Exhibit II 4G review.… Read more

Apple surprised many when it introduced quad-core processors into its MacBook line for the first time in February. But a Commodore 64 packing quad-core?

For the uninitiated, the Commodore 64 Keyboard PC was introduced back in 1982 packing a MOS Technology 6510 1MHz (yes, that's one megahertz) chip running the Commodore kernal accessed via BASIC commands.

That model competed with the Apple II and Atari computers.

Well, a lot has changed in 30 years. After resurrecting the Commodore name in April of 2010, the company came out with an Intel Atom-based design in April of this year. That's … Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Sprint Nextel is working to take its flagship smartphones and eventually sell them to its prepaid and wholesale partners, according to product chief Fared Adib.

Sprint could eventually take a high-end handset such as the Samsung Electronics Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch and re-brand and sell it to different providers, Adib said during the company's developer conference here today.

The approach would mark a radical departure from conventional thinking in the wireless industry. The national carriers typically guard their flagship handsets with exclusive agreements, and consider them the "crown jewels" that allow them … Read more

AT&T gets its first LTE smartphones this weekend, Google Reader is integrated with Google Plus, and we learn more about the death of Microsoft's Courier tablet project.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

November 6 is shaping up to be a big day for AT&T, as the carrier will release its first 4G LTE smartphones and expand its LTE network to nine additional markets on that day.

When it comes to devices, customers will be able to choose from the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket or the HTC Vivid, both of which are compatible with AT&T's HSPA+ and LTE networks and run Android Gingerbread. … Read more

Samsung Electronics reported a 23 percent decline in its third-quarter profit despite surging performance from its mobile devices unit.

The South Korean consumer electronics titan reported a profit of 3.44 trillion Korean won ($3.08 billion) on revenue of KRW41.27 trillion ($37.43 billion).

Samsung posted declining profits in its memory business, where demand for PC RAM continued to be weak, as well as operating losses at its display panel business.

Like fellow Korean conglomerate LG Electronics, the company cited weak global demand for the results, but said it expects a pickup heading into the holiday selling season … Read more

Around about this time in 2010, I blogged about WHDI and its potential to change the way we entertain ourselves in a big way when this wireless display is implemented in mobile devices. Now a year later, that reality is still in the distant future.

Fortunately, there's something else to take its place. It's already here, and chances are your phone and HDTV at home come with it. It does require a wire, however, but that's a good thing.… Read more

Samsung Electronics surged past Apple in smartphone shipments in the third quarter, helped by the wide availability of its flagship Galaxy S II handset.

Samsung controlled 23.8 percent of the global market for smartphones, according to a recent study released by Strategy Analytics. Apple, meanwhile, had 14.6 percent of the market.

It's been a rapid ascent in the smartphone world for Samsung thanks to its aggressive embrace of Google's Android smartphone platform. The company built upon the early success of its flagship Galaxy S smartphones with the Galaxy S II this year, which has seen even … Read more

Samsung is a company with a penchant for sequels, and just a few months after releasing Exhibit A, here comes Exhibit B: the Samsung Exhibit II 4G.

The specs are modest to be sure, and very similar to the original. It starts with Android 2.3 Gingerbread running behind a 3.7-inch WVGA touch screen and powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. There's a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing VGA camera. In addition to the usual Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth support there's also T-Mobile TV and the Samsung Media Hub.

Of course, there's also … Read more