The mystery surrounding Apple's approval process on the App Store is legendary. What gets approved or rejected on any given day can be a source of bewilderment for developers and consumers alike. But the company still surprised everyone when it rejected Google's Voice app for the iPhone on Tuesday.

The story doesn't end there. Apple then proceeded to remove third-party apps from the App Store that it said duplicate features of the iPhone. One of those apps is called VoiceCentral, and the developer is understandably upset.

Riverturn's VoiceCentral has been available in the App Store for … Read more

Amid markedly lower sales and sluggish demand for its cell phones, Motorola saw a dramatic boost in earnings for the second quarter.

The company on Thursday reported net profit of $26 million, or 1 cent a share, for the quarter ended July 4, compared with $4 million for 2008's second quarter.

The jump in earnings surprised analysts, who had expected a loss of 4 cents a share, and Motorola itself, which had forecast a loss of 3 cents to 5 cents per share.

Quarterly sales fell to $5.5 billion, a drop of 32 percent from $8.1 billion … Read more

I just got my new iPhone 3GS the other day and the first thing I did with it was get it jailbroken, just how I handled my iPhone 3G.

This time around, it was not really because I was in dire need of any extra functionality (the 3GS now can do video recording out of the box, which my 3G could only do when jailbroken). Most importantly, I wanted to feel like I could do anything with a device I paid almost $600 for (I couldn't wait until December to be qualified for the discount upgrade).

Little did I … Read more

CSR has unveiled a new GPS architecture that it says will let portable devices be constantly location-aware without draining their batteries.

The architecture, SiRFstarIV, was announced on Tuesday along with the first product to use it, CSR's GSD4t receiver for mobile phones and other portable devices.

Mobile phones increasingly have GPS (Global Positioning System) as a feature, for navigation and other location-based services. However, current GPS architecture is a major contributor to battery drain--a situation CSR is hoping to fix.

The U.K.-based company, which has generally concentrated more on Bluetooth chip design, bought GPS architecture firm SiRF … Read more

The smartphone maker made its first BlackBerry Web Development Plug-In for Eclipse available on Tuesday, along with version 1.2 of its plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio. The tools allow developers to build BlackBerry Web applications within the widely used Eclipse and Visual Studio environments.

"The BlackBerry developer tools portfolio aims to bring together the best of Java and Web development for the creation of Web applications that are integrated with core BlackBerry smartphone functions for a seamless, intuitive, and robust user experience," BlackBerry platform group chief Alan Brenner said in a statement.

Both plug-ins include BlackBerry smartphone … Read more

Updated 8:57 a.m. PDT with information from the conference call.

Despite improvements in its network reliability and customer service, Sprint Nextel is still losing high-value customers as the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for the second quarter of 2009.

The company reported a loss of $384 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with a loss of $344 million, or 12 cents a share, during the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue also fell about 10 percent to $8.14 billion. Analysts had expected a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $8.13 billion, according … Read more

Verizon Wireless is jumping on the application store bandwagon and taking on Apple and its App Store with its own Vcast application store, which it announced at its first ever developer conference in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday.

The new Vcast application store will launch in the fourth quarter of 2009. Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, said it will offer application developers a quick and simple way to distribute and monetize their applications while providing wireless subscribers with an easier way to discover and buy new applications for their smartphones.

Executives from Verizon Wireless--which has been criticized in the past … Read more

Sprint Nextel is doubling down on the growing prepaid cell phone market in an effort to better compete with rivals, AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless.

On Tuesday morning, Sprint, the No. 3 nationwide U.S. wireless operator, announced plans to buy Virgin Mobile USA in a deal that is valued at around $483 million. At first it might seem strange for Sprint, which went into a tailspin after its last big acquisition of wireless competitor Nextel in 2005, to buy another wireless operator. But with a strong cash position and a management team determined to turn the … Read more

Foxconn, the company that manufactures Apple's iPhone and iPods, has agreed to compensate the family of a Chinese worker who apparently committed suicide over a missing prototype.

A Foxconn official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday the company will give Sun Danyong's parents a one-time payment of 360,000 yuan ($52,600), according to an Associated Press report. The company also agreed to pay an additional 30,000 yuan ($4,385) for each year either of the parents is alive, the AP said.

That figure is higher than that reported Monday by The New York Times, … Read more