Smartphones

In February, we got our first glimpse at Symbian^3 but at that point, we could only imagine the revamped mobile OS with words and pictures. Now we can see it in action on an actual device.

On Tuesday, Nokia introduced the N8, the first smartphone to run on Symbian 3. Due to ship in select markets starting in Q3, the N8 features a 3.5-inch, 640x360 capacitive touch screen that lends itself well to some of the new changes to Symbian, such as the single-tap interaction model, addition of multiple home screens, and customization abilities. In addition, the display … Read more

BlackBerry users, look alive: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has ladled out a verbal foretaste of the next generation of App World, its storefront for downloading and buying software applications, the day before RIM's Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) BlackBerry conference officially kicks off.

RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie confirmed in a talk to investors and the press that BlackBerry's App World application, which users must currently download in order to access, will soon come preloaded on the home screen of all BlackBerry models shipping with version 5.0 of the operating system or higher.

The second version of the … Read more

Google I/O is only a few weeks away and the Android fanboys are getting anxious. At last year's event Google teased us with unreleased features like gesture search and the only phone on the market was the T-Mobile G1. Later in the year, some of these enhancements were rolled out as individual apps and OS upgrades, so as we near this year's two-day conference, which starts on May 19, questions are starting to pop up. What does Google have up its sleeve?

Most of the tech community is in agreement that Android 2.2 (Froyo) features will … Read more

New BlackBerry phones may be the sexiest news to come out just ahead of RIM's Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) conference, but BlackBerry-maker RIM has also thrown a bone to business users of the virtual desk phone service Blackberry Mobile Voice System (MVS).

An upgrade to version 5 will let owners of enterprise BlackBerrys field calls to their office numbers over Wi-Fi in addition to the regular cell phone network. This is courtesy of the service's new-found support for SIP, a protocol for handling voice communications over the Web. Cisco's Unified Communications Manager provides the Wi-Fi-enabling muscle. The … Read more

Verizon Wireless customers waiting for the Nexus One should probably make other plans, as it looks like Big Red's version of the Google "superphone" will never see the light of day.

When the Nexus One was first announced in January, Google revealed that a Verizon model would be made available later this year. However, on Monday, Google posted an entry on its official Nexus One blog site recommending that users head over to Verizon's site and preorder the HTC Droid Incredible instead. The official checkout page for the N1 shows a similar message.

While Google has … Read more

This post was updated at 6:39 a.m. PT with information from Sprint regarding the availability of the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650.

Research in Motion's Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) doesn't officially start till Tuesday, but the company kick-started things by introducing two new devices on Monday: the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. Carrier and pricing information is sparse at this time, but the news finally gives us a look at two devices that have been a long time coming.

The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a handset that's been promised since last summer and … Read more

When the news first hit that Verizon Wireless would offer the HTC Droid Incredible, the reaction was fast and furious and I received an inordinate amount of e-mails about the smartphone. Clearly, the Android device struck a chord with many of you.

Since then, we've had a chance to review the Droid Incredible and it truly is incredible, but, if we're being completely honest, we definitely underestimated the smartphone at first. Sure it had a better camera and more internal memory than some of its competitors, but it's not like the Incredible was offering any new, groundbreaking … Read more

The latest release from Opera Software is admittedly a mobile browser-related app that few smartphone owners will ever touch, let alone know of its existence. It's a new tool that developers of Opera Mobile widgets, however, will want to get their code-tinkering paws on.

The Opera Mobile 10 desktop emulator will let widget-creators visually mark the progress of their tiny addendum apps from the convenience of the Windows, Mac, or Linux (direct download) screen.

Emulators aren't new to the mobile development biz any more than tools for software authoring are new to Opera, whose Dragonfly debugging tool has … Read more

For those of you who thought Dell was content with putting out low-end Android handsets like the Aero, I submit the Thunder, Smoke, and Flash.

Wednesday saw Engadget leaking three new phones from the handsetmaker's road map. Looking through the various details and specs, one gets the sense that Dell has lofty ambitions for the platform, going so far as to create its own user interface called Stage. Based on the few pictures available, the experience looks stylish, sleek, and classy. Although we shouldn't expect to see these phones for nearly a year, Dell has already committed to … Read more