Mobile

Google Nexus 7 tablet preorders ship today

Good news, tablet-lovers. Google will ship units of its 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet to customers who preordered the device, the company announced in an online post.

The Nexus 7 tablet is equipped with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, and is powered by a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

Its clear screen and dirt-cheap $200 price tag make it primed to wrestle the Amazon Kindle Fire, but there are some downsides, like the lack of expandable memory, and no HDMI port or rear-facing camera.

Developers are apparently fleeing BlackBerry

Things never seem to look up for Research In Motion these days. So perhaps it's no surprise that a new report from All Things D's John Paczkowski has found that RIM is "bleeding developers."

Citing a recent survey of 200 developers (from a sample set of 4,300) by Baird Equity Research, Paczkowski wrote that developer interest in working on BlackBerry OS versions 7 and 10 are at a n all time low.

Baird researchers polled developer sentiment towards all major mobile platforms based on a 10-point scale with 10 marked as "excellent" and … Read more

Harsh: Windows Mobile still more popular than Windows Phone

The headline out of the latest smartphone market share numbers from Nielsen is that Android now operates 51 percent of smartphones in the U.S., but the punchline is that Windows Mobile still holds twice as much market share as its far more attractive successor, Windows Phone.

Ouch. That's the statistical equivalent of American consumers giving Steve Ballmer an atomic wedgie.

Windows Mobile, which used the Windows CE "Pocket PC" kernel, basically sought to jam the Windows desktop into a phone and never gained too much traction or acclaim. Yet somehow, following in the grand tradition of … Read more

Is the DOJ holding up Verizon's $3.9B cable-spectrum deal?

The U.S. Justice Department is holding up Verizon Wireless's $3.9 billion bid to buy wireless spectrum from a consortium of cable operators, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Federal Communications Commission, which also has to sign off on the deal, is ready to approve the deal, sources have said. Verizon announced in December that it planned to buy about 20 MHz of Advanced Wireless Services wireless spectrum from a group of cable companies that includes Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House.

The deal is the largest spectrum transfer the FCC has ever considered … Read more

Verizon GameTanium makes $6 play for Android subscribers

Verizon has launched a new subscription-based gaming service for its network.

Dubbed GameTanium, the subscription service comes from digital-entertainment company Exent. GameTanium lets Verizon customers pay $5.99 per month per device, and access over 100 Android smartphone games, and more than 50 tablet titles.

According to Verizon Wireless, which announced the news today, the titles include Doodle God, Fruit Ninja, and World of Goo.

The games included in the GameTanium listing are hand-picked by Exent's editorial board. Each title comes with parental ratings and reviews, and Verizon was quick to point out that the fee will safeguard users … Read more

Koreans flock to Galaxy S3 at Samsung showroom

SEOUL, South Korea -- Samsung's Galaxy S3 LTE hit stores in South Korea a few days ago, and the phone's popularity was plain to see at the tech giant's store here in the Gangnam district of Seoul.

Koreans swarmed around the oversized handset at the flagship Samsung D'light Shop, which is roughly equivalent to Apple stores.

The quad-core phone debuted on Korean carriers KT, LG U+, and SK Telecom this week. Samsung apparently sold 50,000 units on its first day.

Staff at the Samsung store say the phone's selling points are its battery life and speed, LTE support, and features like the ability to show a video feed in one window while using other functions. … Read more

Does an app store's size matter if content is the killer app?

Apple claims 500,000 apps in its App Store for the iPhone and over 700,000 when iPad apps are added in. Google Play claims 600,000 apps for Android. Windows Phone is estimated to have 100,000 apps in its marketplace.

But do the numbers really matter, especially when the "new apps" may be content like video, music, and books?

I'm not a big fan of numbers just for numbers' sake. I watched search engines play the numbers game for years, each trying to be "bigger" than their competitors by having more Web pages. … Read more

FBI takes aim at ZTE over alleged Iran dealings, report says

The FBI is investigating Chinese telecommunications company ZTE for its alleged dealings with an Iranian telecom, according to a new report.

The Smoking Gun is reporting, citing sources, that the FBI is investigating ZTE for allegedly acquiring hardware and software from U.S.-based technology companies and then illegally shipping them to Iran's government-controlled carrier, the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).

Reuters, which first reported on the allegations back in March, said at the time that ZTE bought surveillance equipment that could have been used by TCI to spy on Iranian citizens. The contract, according to Reuters, was inked … Read more

Nokia restructures China operations, shuts down offices

Nokia is shuffling its operations in China as it hopes to better address the largest smartphone market in the world.

The company confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that it would close its operations in Chengdu and Shanghai, but increase the size of its operations in Beijing and Guangzhou.

Once a major player in China, Nokia has watched its market share fall there just as it has elsewhere around the world. But if the company wants any real shot at a comeback, it will need a strong presence in China, similar to its need to be more visible in North … Read more