Mobile

Microsoft's Windows Phone continues to gain traction in the competitive smartphone arena.

For the three months ending April 13, Windows Phone captured 5.6 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reported Monday. That figure proved a healthy gain from the 3.8 percent share of sales for the same period in 2012.

Windows Phone is even winning former Android users, according to Kantar. Among people who bought a Windows Phone in the last year, 23 percent jumped ship from Android, while 25 percent upgraded from another Windows Phone and 42 percent moved up from a … Read more

Acer Chairman J.T. Wang has a hard time saying anything nice about Microsoft's Windows RT.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday, Wang said he's not sure Windows RT is "so influential anymore," adding that his company has "not decided if we want to launch [a Windows RT-based device], to start mass production."

Microsoft offered up Windows RT last year to placate device makers that were delivering tablets on ARM-based chips. The trouble is, Windows RT is incompatible with key software solutions that were designed for its standard operating … Read more

Microsoft may trim the prices it charges tablet vendors for Windows RT.

Citing "people with knowledge of the matter," Bloomberg reported Monday that the price cuts would be aimed at Windows RT running on smaller tablets. The goal is to prod more manufacturers to launch Windows RT devices, which haven't exactly seen blockbuster sales.

The new pricing is confidential, Bloomberg's sources said. But any drop in the cost of Windows RT for vendors would trigger lower prices for tablet consumers.

"You need more breadth of equipment manufacturers making the devices, you need lower prices, you … Read more

Apple's AirDrop tool, which allows OS X users to share files between computers quickly and efficiently, is on its way to the company's mobile platform, a new report claims.

Apple is currently in the process of testing AirDrop on iOS 7, 9to5Mac is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of its plans. According to the site's sources, AirDrop is currently embedded in the iOS share menu. It's possible that it could allow for sharing to Macs, though right now, it's focused on sharing between iOS devices.

Apple is expected to show off iOS … Read more

Samsung has released the details for an 8-inch and a 10.1-inch tablet joining the popular Galaxy Tab series, along with the 7-inch model currently available.

In an announcement Monday, the South Korean firm unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 models in the new sizes.

The 8-inch Galaxy Tab 3 is possibly a response to the popular iPad Mini and Google Nexus 7. The tablet is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and a 1280x800-pixel HD screen, and runs on Android 4.2, otherwise known as Jelly Bean. The 8-inch model also sports two cameras, the front shooting at … Read more

TAIPEI -- Asus has refreshed its lineup of Android devices. While not the most powerful, the Asus MeMo Pad HD 7 should end up being the most popular thanks to its attractive starting price of US$129 for the 8GB model. The 16GB version will go for US$149. The tablet will go on sale starting in July.

Specs-wise, the HD 7 sports a 1,280x800 7-inch IPS display and is quite light at just 302g. It will be available in pink, green, blue and white, and is powered by a quad-core ARM Cortex A7 processor.

The MeMo Pad FHD 10 (above) is the 10-inch version with a 1,920 x 1,200-pixel IPS screen. It runs on the Intel Atom Z2560 processor and features wireless options such as Wi-Fi, GPS and GLONASS for navigation and Miracast for wireless display. The FHD will come in 16GB and 32GB versions, and supports memory expansion via a microSD card slot.… Read more

It's never worth it.

And yet this isn't the first time someone jumped down onto rail tracks in order to retrieve a cell phone.

As New York's 1010 Wins reports, a 22-year-old man is said to have dropped his cell phone on the tracks at White Plains Road and East 241st Street, in the Wakefield section of the Bronx.

Eyewitnesses said that it seemed like a crazy thing to do. One even speculated whether he was trying to commit suicide.

What is clear is that he was struck by the No. 2 train and killed. His identity … Read more

A top adviser to mutual funds and other large investors says Sprint shareholders should give the thumbs-up to SoftBank's offer to buy the company, but it doesn't address a rival, preliminary -- and higher -- offer from Dish Network.

In a report, proxy firm Institutional Shareholder Services said, according to The Wall Street Journal, that SoftBank's $20.1 billion offer "addresses Sprint's most compelling need: capital to acquire additional spectrum and complete the transformation of its network, enabling it to fully compete in the U.S. market."

The compelling need for capital aside, ISS … Read more

The Android laptop is coming. Does that mean more market-share pain for Windows PCs?

Hewlett-Packard's upcoming notebook offerings speak for themselves. For $480, there's the SlateBook x2 Android "notebook". At $800, we have the Windows 8-based Split x2.

For me, the choice gets easier every time I pick up the Nexus 10 tablet that I've been using for the last month. In other words, if I'm spending about 50 percent of my time -- and doing limited-productivity stuff -- on the Nexus 10, it's not a giant leap to an Android laptop.

Nor … Read more