Mobile

HTC may be showing cracks.

The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer said today that it saw November sales fall nearly 30 percent to NT$30.9 billion (roughly $1 billion) from a year ago. That follows its warning from last month that it wouldn't see any sales growth in the fourth quarter.

Those are just the latest cracks in a company that over the past year has seen its Android crown seized by a rival as support from its carrier partners receded, all while suffering several legal setbacks in its patent battle against Apple. While HTC still enjoyed strong performance for … Read more

AT&T may be huge and generating boatloads of cash every quarter, but when it comes to service, the carrier has a lot of work to do.

For the second year in a row, AT&T was ranked last in Consumer Reports' annual customer satisfaction survey. The company was hit especially hard by complaints over poor voice service and phone-based customer care. Even worse for AT&T, the company's 2011 rating is slightly lower than last year's.

Consumer Reports' survey examines voice, data, and text-messaging service, as well as customer care. The specific ratings are … Read more

Android's surge in popularity has triggered an accompanying surge in malware aimed at the mobile OS, says a new study today from Fortinet.

Analyzing the malware landscape this year, the security vendor tracked a 90 percent jump in Android malware families in 2011 compared with 2010. That figure doesn't account for infection rates or severity, only the rise in malware seeking to infect Android devices.

In comparison, malware directed toward Apple's iOS rose by only 25 percent over last year.

Fortinet pointed to two reasons for the larger bull's eye painted on Android's back.

Google'… Read more

Verizon Wireless will begin selling its version of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone on Friday, according to documents purportedly from an authorized Verizon retailer.

An e-mail and PDF posted by RootzWiki say UPS will ship the phones to Verizon stores on December 6 and gives an "official launch date" of Friday, December 9.

"Do not receive the product in via your scanner (this is a change in procedure)," the e-mail warned those collecting the shipments to stores--perhaps in response to the frequency with which sales plans have been revealed through screenshots of retail inventory systems.

Verizon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. … Read more

A consultancy has spotlighted difficulties people have using Amazon's Kindle Fire. But the "usability sessions" can hardly be considered exhaustive testing.

A summary of Nielsen Norman Group's tests said the Kindle Fire "offers a disappointingly poor user experience," and cites the size of the screen as the main culprit.

Then the group adds this caveat: "This was a small study, with only four users, but qualitative studies often generate deeper insights than bigger, more metrics-focused quantitative studies." The link to the findings first appeared on Daring Fireball.

Highlights of Nielsen Norman Group findings:… Read more

Xamarin, a company seeking to extend Microsoft's .Net programming technology beyond Microsoft's operating systems, has released a version of its developer tools that can work with the latest iteration of Google's Android operating system.

The company builds Mono, an open-source version of Microsoft's .Net technology for programming in Microsoft's C# language. With the newest version of Mono for Android, C# programmers can produce software that will run natively on both Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, and on Android tablets including Amazon's Kindle Fire and Samsung's Galaxy Tab, Xamarin said yesterday.

The … Read more

Tablets and e-readers are all the rage this holiday season. So which device is right for the loved ones on your Christmas list?

Tablet or e-reader?

Dear Maggie, I am thinking about getting my wife an e-reader or a tablet for Christmas. And I wanted to hear your thoughts. Basically, I'm just looking for something she can read books and magazines on. An Internet browser would also be good if it's available, but it's not necessary. In our home, we already have two lap tops, two iPhones and a BlackBerry, so we're pretty connected as it … Read more

Verizon's Galaxy Nexus is expected to launch in the coming weeks without Google Wallet, at the carrier's request.

The phone, which was developed by Samsung in partnership with Google, will debut with the Web giant's mobile payments system disabled by Verizon's choice, a Google spokesman told CNET, confirming a story first reported by Computerworld.

"Verizon asked us not to include this functionality in the product," a Google representative told CNET.

It's unknown whether that omission is related to Isis, a partnership Verizon Wireless formed with AT&T and T-Mobile USA in an … Read more

When Verizon Wireless' version of the Galaxy Nexus finally launches, it will cost consumers $299.99 with a two-year contract, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Verizon is expected to launch Samsung's new smartphone sometime this month, but the report, from Dow Jones Newswires, doesn't indicate exactly when that will occur.

Verizon Wireless representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Widespread speculation has held that the new Android device will launch before the end of the year. A screenshot posted by Engadget earlier this month purported to show a Galaxy Nexus listing … Read more