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Which phone cracks up in iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy S3 torture test?

Smartphone sadism continues in this face-off video between the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3 from gadget warranty outfit SquareTrade.

After being dropped, drowned, and pounded with various household objects, the lightweight, metal-backed iPhone 5 seems to hold up much better overall than its Android arch-nemesis, but the demonstration is far from scientific. The Galaxy S3 took a serious face shot to its glass screen in the drop test, whereas the iPhone 5 lucked out and bounced off its side edge. … Read more

SquareTrade's warranty now covers jailbroken iPhones

Third-party gadget warranty service SquareTrade today expanded its coverage, and now supports jailbroken iPhones.

That procedure -- which gives device owners deep system-level access, letting them install third-party software from places other than Apple's App Store -- voids Apple's own warranty, and that from carriers.

A company spokesperson said the change affects both new and existing coverage holders.

According to Vincent Tseng, SquareTrade's VP of strategy, this extends to iPads and iPods, which the company also covers as part of its warranty service. The three gadgets share the same operating system. It's also in effect for … Read more

Study: BlackBerry has twice failure rate of iPhone

Apple's iPhone has half the failure rate of RIM's BlackBerry in the first year of use, a study carried out by a mobile-phone warranty firm has found.

The SquareTrade study, released Saturday, looked at more than 15,000 handsets that were covered by the company's policies. It found iPhones had a malfunction rate of 5.6 percent in the first year, compared to 11.9 percent for Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones. Palm's Treos fared even worse, with 16.2 percent having some sort of malfunction in the first 12 months of use.

Figures from the analyst firm Canalys, released last week, showed Apple has now overtaken RIM in the global smartphone sales stakes. … Read more