BROWSING: Devices

Apple announces new OS X, iOS and watchOS; debuts Apple Music

SAN FRANCISCO – Today at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, the company announced a number of updates to its software products and revealed Apple Music, a new service that combines streaming music, a new Internet radio service and a social component for artists. Here’s a...

Survey: Consumers are watching longer mobile video content

IAB looks at trends relative to mobile video consumption as industry invests heavily As mobile video consumption becomes more and more widely adopted, consumers are apparently getting comfortable watching longer videos on their smartphones and tablets. That’s according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising...

Cable companies crash in customer satisfaction

With the rise of over-the-top providers like HBO Go and Netflix, and increased competition from satellite and fiber providers, cable companies have been struggling to keep up in recent years. In a new survey gauging customer satisfaction, subscriber TV companies such as Comcast and...

Kagan: PayPal threat and opportunity

Can PayPal compete against Apple, Google, Android and other mobile commerce platforms? The online and wireless payment space is growing, changing and maturing and that is threatening existing leaders like PayPal. How will new competition from entrants like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Android Pay, Google...

Google launches Android Pay, Android M

Google has unveiled the newest version of its Android operating system as well as new mobile payment features that will be available later this year. Android M will have three stages of previews before becoming finalized, according to its program overview for developers. According to the...

Crash iOS devices with a text message

iOS text bug crashes iPhones, iPads and more Imagine receiving an innocent enough text message from a friend, only to have your iPhone screen go black and the white apple logo appears, indicating that it has restarted. That’s what some Reddit users discovered earlier this...

Bridging the gender gap in mobile phones with the GSMA

I recently sat down with the GSMA to discuss connected women, or the lack thereof, in emerging markets. The statistics were more challenging than I expected. This is the first of a series of three articles that will highlight the work the GSMA is...

T-Mobile US to offer free phones with prepaid plans

'Uncarrier' promotes prepaid plan with free phones T-Mobile US appears to be making another "uncarrier" move to separate itself from the competition by being the first to offer free phones with prepaid plans. According to TmoNews, the carrier will offer subscribers who pick a $40 prepaid plan,...

Smartphone sales hit record $96B in Q1

Report: Record-setting sales represents an 8% year-over-year increase Market analytics firm GfK reports record-setting smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2015; consumers spent some $96 billion on smartphones, an 8% increase over the same quarter in 2014, according to the analysis. GfK, which based its...

RF tuning and device design beyond LTE-Advanced

The ability to support tuning of radio frequency elements represents the potential for "revolutionary new approaches to mobile system design and operation," according to new work by the International Wireless Industry Consortium. IWPC released a recent white paper on the topic that is being presented...

T-Mobile US and Blackberry Classic together again

Un-carrier promotes Blackberry – and its full keyboard – for business people As forecasted in a cryptic tweet from CEO John Legere, T-Mobile US this week announced it will begin selling the Blackberry Classic in stores and online on May 13. The Canadian smartphone manufacturer stopped licensing...

As LTE-U and LAA emerge, feds may look to regulate

FCC solicits public comments on unlicensed frequency use, standardization Federal regulators on May 5 released a public notice soliciting information from stakeholders involved in the research and development as well as standards-setting associated with LTE-Unlicensed and Licensed Assisted Access. Carriers and other telecom players are developing LTE-U as...

New phone case uses Wi-Fi, LTE for wireless charging

Cases convert RF into usable power; Kickstarter funding campaign coming soon Research and development firm Nikola Labs is set to launch a crowd-funding campaign to bring to market a new smartphone case that purportedly turns energy from Wi-Fi, LTE and Bluetooth into direct current power...

T-Mobile US may borrow against device payments

As carriers turn from subsidies to financing to sell mobile devices, T-Mobile US hopes lenders will see value in that steady stream of customer payments. CFO Braxton Carter told Bloomberg that the company may raise cash by factoring its expected payments on devices. The success of...

Number of shipped smartphones reached 350.9M mark in first quarter

Apple smartphones continue surge in China; Samsung sees decrease Analysts with United Kingdom-based Juniper Research tracked 350.9 million smartphones shipping in the first quarter of 2015; that’s a 23% increase from the same time period last year. Juniper found that Samsung is the leading smartphone seller,...

Wireless device use begins in the cradle, study says

WASHINGTON – One-third of all children use a smartphone or tablet before their first birthday, according to a study conducted by members of the Department of Pediatrics at the Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. The study, which was presented at the Pediatric Academic Society’s annual...

Apple says more Android users are switching to iPhone

Apple's latest earnings report showed that the iPhone is winning over Android users and first-time smartphone buyers, as well as current iPhone users who cannot resist the urge to upgrade. The company sold a record 61.2 million iPhones in the quarter ending March 28,...

Mobile tracking charge ends in FTC settlement

The Federal Trade Commission reached a non-monetary settlement with Nomi Technologies based on a complaint that the firm helped retailers track millions of customers via their mobile phones. “Nomi will be prohibited from misrepresenting consumers’ options for controlling whether information is collected, used, disclosed or...

1 in 5 Android apps contains malware

Report from security firm tallies apps containing malware that steal data among other negatives U.S.-based Internet security firm Symantec released a report showing one in five apps for Google's Android operating system contain malware or "greyware." Symantec came to this conclusion after using Norton’s Mobile Insight...

APAC: 1,000 new towers coming to India

India Indian telecommunications tower firm Indus Towers said it plans to invest approximately $40.7 million to deploy 1,000 towers in Punjab and Haryana states this year. Indus Towers currently has 7,600 telecommunications towers in both states and more than 115,000 towers across India. The company was founded in...

China Telecom, Alibaba to boost mobile commerce

Rural penetration goal of China Telecom, Alibaba partnership Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has partnered with compatriot state-run mobile operator China Telecom to boost the adoption of mobile commerce in rural and isolated localities across China. Under the agreement, Alibaba and China Telecom will offer 14 models of mobile phones, named...

Verizon, T-Mobile customers prefer Apple smartphones

Sprint subscribers like HTC smartphones, AT&T Mobility customers lean toward Samsung A new J.D. Power survey found Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US customers express the most satisfaction with Apple smartphones while Sprint customers prefer HTC and AT&T Mobility customers are most satisfied with Samsung smartphones. This...

Verizon, AT&T lag behind T-Mobile US in customer growth

WASHINGTON – AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless are expected to continue trailing T-Mobile US in customer growth metrics for the first quarter of 2015, according to Bloomberg. AT&T Mobility, the second-largest cellular carrier in the U.S., said it expects to post 400,000 postpaid net additions,...

Telit Webinar: Connecting Edge Devices to the Enterprise, Cloud and the Internet of Things

Creating your own IoT solutions – from connection, to management and integration – has become plug-and-play easy.  At the core, delivering this simplification sits an enterprise-grade, do-it-yourself Application Enablement Platform that addresses all the necessary complex ‘plumbing’ – reducing cost, time and risk. This...