SMARTPHONE

A result of flagging sales and optimism, Research in Motion (RIM) decided to replace its two co-CEOs with Thorsten Heins, RIM's former COO of product engineering. But who is the new leader of BlackBerry?

The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, which was showcased at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Jan. 9, is expected to hit the markets on Thursday.

iPhone 5 fever is picking up as we inch closer to the Mobile World Congress in Spain in February where many new smartphones are set to debut, including the Samsung Galaxy S3. That's because nothing in the consumer tech world generates as much buzz as new Apple iPads or iPhones.

While millions of Apple users are occupied with the recently released Absinthe untethered jailbreak for A5-powered devices, intense discussions on the features and success of Apple's next generation iPhone 5 have gained momentum.

The prospect that MS Windows Phone will beat Apple's iPhone in year 2015 has emerged. According to industry research firm IHS iSuppli, Windows Phone will increase its market share of smartphone operating system up to 16.7 % in 2015. Though Windows Phone has only 1.9% market share in year 2011, it will increase its market share gradually to 9% in 2012, 15.3% in 2013, 16.1% in 2014 and 16.7% in 2015.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 should make some significant improvements over the Galaxy S2, but the difference will mostly be on the inside as a radical physical redesign is unlikely. In fact, there has been speculation that one particular device seen in a Samsung promotional video during the Consumer Electronics Show was the Galaxy S3.

I don't know what I was expecting from Portlandia: The Tour in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

As tough as it may be for Android enthusiasts to choose between two highly acclaimed devices, a roundup of specifications can probably help...

Motrola's Wi-Fi Xoom tablets began getting the new Android 4.0 update Jan. 18, and that brings the total number of tablets running the new system to a whopping two. Xoom wasn't the first tablet to get the software update, and that had been a minor mystery because Xoom was basically a Google tablet. Asus' Transformer Prime was the first tablet to get the update, and now that the Xoom is getting its chance, we'd venture a guess the Samsung Galaxy Tab line of tablets is next.

With the searing success of Apple's iPhone line helping to spur sales of nearly 580 million smartphones in 2011, consumers are lining up to buy them. Meanwhile, the mobile industry is dying to serve them, lured by prospects of subscriber growth and terabytes of new revenue.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had once sworn to fight Google's Android with his last dying breath and every penny Apple had in the bank as the creative tech genius believed the rival has committed a grand theft of the iPhone's operating system. However, another Steve in Apple, and ironically, a co-founder of the tech giant, feels Apple has a lot to learn from Android phones.

In October 2011, Intelliborn introduced the jailbreak solution known as IntelliScreenX, and is only for devices running iOS 5.0 and above. Now apparently the word is the IntelliScreenX jailbreak also works with the Apple iPad 2.

Google Inc's quarterly results fell short of Wall Street's heightened expectations for the holiday season as declining search advertising rates contributed to a rare miss, triggering a 9 percent slide in its shares.

The move underscores the company's need to provide wireless bandwidth to a customer base increasingly using data-heavy smartphones.

Research In Motion may still see software licensing as an important part of its turnaround plan, even though Samsung has denied that it might pay to use the BlackBerry maker's technology or even buy the company.

HTC EVO family legacy was continued by Sprint with the addition of HTC EVO Design 4G, the first EVO family member touting World Phone capabilities. But the phone faces immense pressure from Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, which is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) version of the Galaxy S2 and debuted in AT&T network Nov. 6.

Samsung's $41 billion investment splurge should ring alarm bells at its competitors. It's a bold bet in a slowdown, if its bet pays off Samsung could lengthen its lead over the likes of Apple.

Sony Ericsson posted a quarterly loss that missed all forecasts after losing in the battle for smartphone sales in the key year-end period, showing the challenge for Sony as it prepares to take full control of the joint venture.

AT&T Inc. is raising the prices and the allotments of its data plans for smartphones and tablets. The new plans will be effective from January 22, the Dallas-based company announced on Wednesday.

Jailbreaking your iPhone for Siri can be a bad card to play.

The latest figures disclosed by Nielsen reveals Apple Inc.'s amazing performance in terms of grabbing smartphone market share in the fourth quarter of 2011. The credit for this leap should be attributed to the iPhone 4S which was launched in October, opine experts.