Mobile

BlackBerry 10 has been missing in action for months, but some images have now leaked on the Web purporting to show the operating system in action.

The blog Crackberry last night posted BlackBerry 10 images it claims to have obtained from a 14-page PDF file prepared by "one of RIM's external ad agency partners." RIM's current generation of BlackBerry devices are included in the images and are all running its upcoming operating system, casting some doubt on their authenticity.

Still, their contents are notable. One image shows the operating system displaying widgets that seem to mimic … Read more

I woke up this morning, dreaming of the In-N-Out Burger that will be my Valentines meal, to discover serious accusations about love's labors lost.

In a quite pulsating treatise on CNN.com, experts were blaming an increase of one-night standing on technology.

Yes, apparently it creates sexual tension. Apparently, technology encourages you to offer sexual banter even before the first date. So, by the time you encounter the person in real life, you've already created the preconditions for a bedtime ending.

Verbal and romantic intimacy is being sacrificed on the altar of truncated messages, delivered with staccato urgency.… Read more

If there were any doubt the world is going mobile, it should be tossed out the window today.

A Cisco Systems' forecast, released today, claims that by 2016, there will be over 8 billion handheld or "personal mobile-ready" devices operating globally. In addition, nearly 2 billion "machine-to-machine" connections, including GPS systems and medical applications, will be in use.

All those devices will drive mobile data traffic up 18-fold, reaching 10.8 exabytes per month, or 130 exabytes a year, by 2016, according to the Cisco report officially dubbed the Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic … Read more

At Mobile World Congress later this month, a host of new smartphones will be on display. But it could be that one of Motorola's newbies has been leaked already.

Mobile blog PocketNow yesterday revealed a photo of what it claims is the first Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)-based smartphone from Motorola. The blog doesn't know what the device is called, but was able to find out that it comes with a new version of Motorola's MotoBlur user interface. In addition, the device's camera has a 15-frame-per-second burst capture, according to PocketNow.

But PocketNow's … Read more

Eat a lot of potato chips? Then consider avoiding one of the ways Google offers to unlock an Android device.

Google's mobile operating system lets people unlock devices by swiping a particular pattern across a three-by-three grid of dots. But Android evangelist Tim Bray raised a concern about "reverse smudge engineering" to figure out the unlock pattern.

"A couple of colleagues had my original Galaxy Tab and needed to use it for something, but I wasn't there. They managed to figure out my pattern by looking at the fingerprints on the glass, and it only … Read more

Two-thousand and twelve was so supposed to be the year of the digital wallet. And Google was supposed to lead the way. But it looks like the Google Wallet app has gotten off to a bumpy start.

Six months after Google introduced Google Wallet, the app, enabled by near-field communications, or NFC technology, is still struggling to find carrier and device partners, as well as, retailers willing to support the new technology. And last week, the company temporarily took part of the Google Wallet application offline while the company figured out how to fix a security issue.

Could Google Wallet … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility.

The news today comes on the same day that the European Union concluded its antitrust investigation into the merger and approved the deal without any conditions.

The Justice Department said in a statement that it had closed the investigations it had open regarding the merger, stating that the acquisition would be "unlikely to substantially lessen competition."

The main reason Google is buying Motorola is to get access to the company's big patent portfolio. And the Justice Department concluded in its … Read more

A growing number of Congressional leaders and state officials are urging the Federal Communications Commission to move forward with its review of LightSquared, the controversial startup that plans to build a national wireless broadband network using satellite spectrum.

Last week, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) sent a letter to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in support of the company and its plans.

"I write to express concern about delays in the approval process involving LightSquared's proposed 4G-LTE wireless broadband network," Conyers wrote in a letter sent last week. "I strongly urge the Commission to move with urgency to … Read more

The European Union's regulatory body has unconditionally approved Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility in a deal that could be worth about $12.5 billion.

The European Commission also said today it would monitor Google's and its rivals' use of patents to make sure that the deal complies with EU antitrust rules.

"We have approved the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google because, upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues," Joaquín Almunia, Commission vice president in charge of competition policy, said in a statement. "Of course, the Commission will … Read more