mobile

T-Mobile customers expecting to place their online orders for the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Wednesday will have to wait until next week to order the hotly anticipated device.

Formerly expected to be the first to offer the device online, the wireless carrier said Tuesday that the beginning of online ordering has been rescheduled to Monday, blaming an inventory issue for the delay.

"Due to an unexpected delay with inventory deliveries, the Galaxy S 4 will not be available on www.T-Mobile.com as planned on Wednesday, April 24," the company said in a statement. "Instead, online availability … Read more

Facebook has acquired the team behind Spaceport, a cross-platform development company specializing in Web-based games, the companies announced Tuesday.

The move shows a continued focus for Facebook on mobile development expertise.

"After looking at Facebook's mission of building best-in-class mobile experiences, as well as much internal discussion with my co-founder and mentor and YouWeb Incubator founder Peter Relan, our team saw a huge potential in working more closely with Facebook," Spaceport co-founder Ben Savage wrote on the company's site today. "With that said, today we're announcing that the Spaceport.io team will move as … Read more

The calls for Verizon Wireless to drop the contract are getting louder.

The petition posted on Change.org calling for Verizon to kill off its contract model has garnered nearly 120,000 signatures, with 25,000 signatures added over the weekend alone.

The petition was created by Verizon customer Mike Beauchamp on April 7 after Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told CNET on the sidelines of an event held earlier this month that he would consider moving to a no-contract model if consumers demanded it, and said the process to shift to no-contracts wouldn't be difficult.

The comments came shortly … Read more

The release of Samsung's next super smartphone, the Galaxy S4, is just days away. Sporting an improved design over the Galaxy S3 and packed with a ton of high-end features and specialized software, the Galaxy S4 already is an Android powerhouse. And even better, it will land at all major U.S. carriers plus a few smaller, regional providers.

Note, however, that the carriers aren't following the same release schedule. T-Mobile, for example, will begin selling the phone this week, but U.S. Cellular customers will have to wait until next month. Meanwhile, C Spire and Cricket have … Read more

Slowly but surely, LG is releasing more details about its "Share the Genius" event, that's scheduled for Wednesday, May 1 in New York City.

The event will take place at The Metropolitan Pavilion at 8 p.m. EST, and will feature the band Atlas Genius (hence, the "Share the Genius" event name).

Most importantly, however, is that the event will focus on the LG Optimus G Pro.

The handset debuted back in February, during MWC 2013. Its 5.5-inch full-HD IPS screen places it in "phablet" territory, and it's pitted as a … Read more

Nokia appears to have a new smartphone in the works.

The company on Monday posted a brief writeup to its blog, saying that it has something in store for Wednesday at 7 a.m. GMT. Nokia didn't say exactly what will be announced, but it promised "something new, followed by a Q&A session with Neil Broadley from our Mobile Phones team." There will also be "a special guest."

As for what Nokia has planned? It appears to be a new smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard. The image included in the blog post shows … Read more

The HTC One, otherwise known as the phone that we're sort of in love with right now, hits various online and retail stores today.

Two carriers that offer the device, AT&T and Sprint, start selling the device today via both their respective online and retail stores.

However, only AT&T carries both storage capacities for the HTC One.

Contract-free carrier T-Mobile also starts selling the handset today, though users can only purchase it online for now. Starting on April 24, it will be available in the carrier's retail stores.

Unfortunately, Verizon will not offer the … Read more

Starting April 19, T-Mobile will unlock the door to online sales for the HTC One, the phone maker's most impressive handset on the market.

Starting April 24, you'll be able to also buy it in stores.

As a newly minted no-contract carrier, T-Mobile can't sell the smartphone for $200, but it will give you a break with a down payment of $99 and a $20-per-month charge for the next two years. The cost works out to $580 for the feature-laden handset. You can also pay the full price up front.

HTC's One features a stunning design … Read more

With the emergence of malware for smartphones, using a protection program is quickly becoming a necessity. Norton Mobile Security Lite for Android is a good option with several useful features for phone security.

The Lite version of the program comes free of charge, but payment of $14.99 for a one-year subscription unlocks additional features such as backup, call blocking, and web protection. Installation of the Lite version was seamless and completed quickly. Technical support was available from the developer for problems as well as updates. Upon startup, the user must accept a licensing agreement and can either sign in … Read more