Mobile

Most new smartphone users are now consumers, a dramatic change from just a few years ago when the gadgets were primarily in the hands of business types, according to a survey released Wednesday by research firm CFI Group.

The survey "CFI Group Smartphone Satisfaction Study 2009" found that smartphone users are no longer just reading e-mail or scheduling appointments but also surfing the Web, streaming video and music, downloading games, and snapping pictures. Smartphones are now seen more by consumers as minicomputers than as cell phones, according to CFI.

Predictably, Apple's iPhone is credited with igniting the … Read more

Orange will carry the iPhone in the U.K. in the fourth quarter of this year, the operator announced Monday.

The move marks the end of competitor O2's lucrative exclusivity on Apple's handset in this country, and comes days after O2 announced the release details for the rival Palm Pre smartphone, on which it has U.K. exclusivity.

Orange did not say exactly when it will begin to carry the iPhone. When O2 launched its iPhones in November 2007, it did not specify the duration of its exclusivity deal with Apple, other than to describe it as "… Read more

Nokia announced Monday that it has acquired "social atlas" service Dopplr for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition isn't much of a surprise. Last week, reports surfaced claiming the deal was already done, but neither Dopplr nor Nokia would confirm it at the time. Those same reports suggested that Nokia would acquire Dopplr for $15 million to $22 million, but the official announcement did not mention an acquisition price.

Neither Dopplr nor Nokia immediately responded to request for comment.

Dopplr allows users to create trips and share them with friends. The service also provides users with help on … Read more

AT&T is accusing Google of being a hypocrite when it comes to Net neutrality because it blocks certain phone calls on its Google Voice service.

The carrier has written a letter to the Federal Communications Commission claiming that Google has violated the agency's Net neutrality principles, which Google has long supported. Google defended its position in a blog post written by Richard Whitt, Google's main lobbyist and telecommunications lawyer in Washington, that basically said AT&T is comparing apples and oranges.

In a letter to the FCC filed on Friday, AT&T said Google … Read more

Will it or won't it? That's the question that Palm Pre fans are asking. They want to know if the Palm's touch-screen phone will be offered by Verizon Wireless early next year.

TheStreet.com reported late Thursday that sources close to the companies said Verizon was considering not offering the phone on its network, as had been expected. But now analysts are saying the rumors are likely bogus.

"Our checks continue to point to healthy carrier demand for the Pre early in calendar 2010," Deutsche Bank's Jonathan Goldberg said in a research note published … Read more

As promised, AT&T's iPhone finally has the capability to send multimedia messages to another phone number. Whatever AT&T had to do to gets its act together, the carrier did it.

The update went live just a moment ago, and I've successfully sent my first MMS on CNET's iPhone 3G. I was able to exchange photos both with another iPhone and a Samsung SPH-M330 on Sprint.

You'll need to connect to iTunes to receive the update, which should download in seconds. We were able to send an update immediately, but you may have … Read more

Two prominent Web-based programming advocates have left Mozilla for Palm, arguing that the time has come to use browsers to bypass Apple's controlling role in mobile applications.

Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, who help run the Ajaxian site for elaborate Web interfaces and who worked on Mozilla's Web-based Bespin tool for collaborative programming, announced their move to Palm on Friday.

Palm is a logical place for them to go. The Palm Pre has won accolades as a competitive mobile phone, and its foundation for applications is a WebKit-based browser, meaning that Palm programs are essentially Web programs.

"… Read more

One in five households worldwide will be wired up to the Internet by year's end, according to new estimates from Gartner.

The number of households with fixed broadband connections is expected to reach 422 million across the globe this year, a jump of 10.5 percent over 382 million in 2008, the analyst firm said Friday. This number will further swell to an estimated 580 million by 2013.

Over the next four years, global broadband services revenue will also help offset declining voice revenue and account for 40 percent of the consumer fixed voice, Internet, and broadband services market … Read more

Updated at 3:30 p.m. PDT with information from the conference call.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday said it sold fewer BlackBerry phones than analysts had expected and that the company's quarterly earnings were hurt by a legal settlement.

Even though RIM still saw strong sales of BlackBerrys, the news sent the company's stock price tumbling in after-market trading. Many are now wondering if RIM's disappointing sales are an indicator of a wider smartphone slowdown or if the news is an indication that the company is losing its edge in an increasingly competitive market.… Read more