smartphones

Go to any live concert these days and you'll see many audience members watching the performance through a small screen instead of their own eyes.

In response to this epidemic of diverted attention, indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs recently put the proverbial foot down on concertgoers with a sign that instructs those with a smartphone, tablet, and/or camera to "Put that s*** away."… Read more

How bad is the smartphone-theft epidemic? San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon accuses phone companies of profiting from stolen phones, as Michael Scherer reported last month on Time's Swampland site. Gascon is one of several leading law-enforcement officials calling for carriers to be required to implement technology that permanently deactivates stolen phones. It is simply too easy for thieves to resell smartphones.

One year ago, the major cellphone services announced via the CTIA Wireless Association plans to create a database "designed to prevent GSM smartphones reported as stolen from being activated or provided service." The database was … Read more

iPhone 5S buyers could have their choice of screen size, according to Topeka analyst Brian White.

Citing information from a meeting with a "tech-supply chain company," White said today he believes Apple will unveil the iPhone 5S in at least two or possibly three different screen sizes.

"We believe Apple is coming around to the fact that one size per iPhone release does not work for everyone, and offering consumers an option has the potential to expand the company's market share," White said in an investors note released today.… Read more

Loyal BlackBerry keyboard addicts may not have long to wait. Reportedly, a leaked memo from Canadian carrier Rogers pins the launch date for BlackBerry's Q10 phone as April 30. … Read more

Samsung could soon introduce a pair of large-screen Galaxy Mega smartphones, if recent chatter proves to be accurate.

Rumors surfacing this past week indicate that Samsung may be readying both a 5.8-inch and 6.3-inch Galaxy handset as part of a new line of phones. Early details for the so-called "Galaxy Mega" series point to a midrange Android experience. Both devices are reported to run Android Jelly Bean with Samsung's own TouchWiz Nature interface.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 (GT-i9152) is expected to feature a 5.8-inch qHD (960×540-pixel) LCD display as well … Read more

The Nokia Lumia 920 is now the best-selling handset running Microsoft's Windows Phone software. At least that's what specialty Windows Phone application advertising firm AdDuplex says.

Indeed according to AdDuplex, and reported by Windows Phone Central, the Lumia 920 enjoys 14 percent of the entire Windows Phone market. That may not sound like much, but Nokia will be glad to learn its Lumia 800 also grabbed a 14 percent slice of the pie. And right behind that sits older Lumia devices such as the 710 (13 percent), Lumia 610 (11 percent), 820 (8 percent), and 620 (7 percent). … Read more

Apple sold less than 33 million iPhones last quarter. No, wait, it sold more than 42 million. Actually, those are just the lowest and highest predictions offered by a bevy of analysts surveyed by Fortune.

Among the 48 analysts questioned about Apple's iPhone sales last quarter, Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu was the most bearish, offering an estimate of just 32.5 million. On the other end of the spectrum, Michel Contant of the Braeburn Group was the most bullish, eyeing sales of 42.5 million.

The average turned out to be almost 36.9 million, while the median … Read more

The late launch of the HTC One smartphone put a damper on HTC's first-quarter profits.

For the quarter ending in March, net profit plummeted to 85 million Taiwanese dollars ($2.85 million), a fall from 10.9 billion Taiwanese dollars ($363 million) a year ago and the company's lowest quarterly profit since 2004. Results also disappointed analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who on average were expecting a net profit of 467.5 million Taiwanese dollars ($15.5 million).

Shipments for the new HTC One phone have been delayed due to a limited supply of cameras. Last month, HTC … Read more

BlackBerry watchers may have just gotten a peek at the upcoming BB10 R-Series QWERTY smartphone.

A purported image of the R-series phone popped up yesterday in the BlackBerryOS forums. The image doesn't show much other than the familiar BlackBerry QWERY keyboard and screen. But further details about the new phone may have been revealed by blog site BlackBerry Empire.

An alleged sketch of the R-Series phone shows slots for a Micro SIM card and an SD card on the left side. The Micro SIM slot is a new feature for BlackBerry phones and is likely geared for travelers who … Read more