Google's Android is now the second most popular mobile operating system in the world - second only to Nokia's Symbian OS, according to Gartner's third quarter report. Apple's iOS comes in third, followed by Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry OS, and Microsoft Windows Mobile.
BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) plans to undercut Apple's iPad pricing when its PlayBook tablet launches next year, according to a BusinessWeek report.
Samsung has sold three million Galaxy S series smartphones in the United States since the phones were introduced in July, according to a Reuters report. The company adopted a multicarrier strategy and has slight variations of the phone on all four major US carriers, managing to sell one million devices in a month and a half after launch.
Ditching Adobe Flash on your Apple MacBook Air can extend your battery life by two hours, according to reports. Chris Foresman at Ars Technica discovered battery life in the new MacBook Airs is 33 per cent longer without the Flash plugin installed. According to his tests having Flash installed shaved two hours off the laptop's battery life.
Apple has seeded the iOS 4.2 Gold Master to developers, which means the software is ready to hit iPhones and iPads everywhere any time now. iOS 4.2 brings several enhancements to iPad users, but iPhone users will also see some improvements. Apple seems to have kept its promise to deliver the new OS in early November, so while you wait for iOS 4.2, here's a rundown of the most important changes.
One noteworthy omission from Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 OS was Twitter integration, but not any more. Twitter introduced its official client for the platform, featuring the same swoosh user interface reviewers raved about last week. The app will be a welcome addition to Windows Phone 7's baby app library of around 1000 apps, with the first devices arriving in the U.S. on November 8.
T-Mobile starts selling Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet November 10 for $400 after a carrier subsidy. T-Mobile's pricing for the tablet is in line with Sprint's, who will sell the tablet three days later, and $200 cheaper than with Verizon, who will sell the tablet starting November 11.
If Barnes & Noble is bringing colour to the Nook e-reader, the company itself spilled the beans. Rumors of a 7-inch Android tablet dubbed Nook Color surfaced last week, and this weekend the device was spotted in the wild. Sort of.
Remember that disappointing HP tablet with Windows 7 from January everyone thought it was scrapped? Well, it's called the HP Slate and it's out now for a whopping $799. Before you get click-happy on HP's website, though, you might want to have a look at this: put alongside other tablets, the HP Slate could disappoint you, again.
The iPhone and Google Android devices had a few years to refine their user interface and features, which gave them plenty of time to get ahead of Microsoft's ailing Windows Mobile OS. But in a swift turn of events, Microsoft came up with a totally new user interface for the Windows Phone 7 OS, which will arrive on multiple phones November 8.
Even if you use the strictest privacy settings on Facebook, many applications can pass on information that personally identifies you and your friends to advertisers, says a Wall Street Journal investigation.
A Verizon MiFi bundled with an Apple iPad could save you big money on data plans, but if you already have an iPad or a MiFi, you're out of luck. Verizon will start selling the popular Apple iPad at its stores on October 28, and since there is no CDMA iPad so far, Verizon will also sell its MiFi mobile hotspots alongside the WiFi-only iPad, with some pros and cons.
Opera has announced a full-fledged Opera Mobile browser for smartphones running the Google Android OS. Opera Mobile for Android, which is slated to arrived within a month, will feature hardware acceleration and pinch-to-zoom functionality.
It's not the most likely scenario, but if you own a Mac and have a Windows Phone 7 smartphone you can sync data between the two. Microsoft said in a statement to Engadget "later in 2010" Mac users will get a software tool to sync their computers with any of the Windows Phone 7 devices introduced this week."
Just days after Microsoft sued Motorola for infringing its patents with Android phones, the two companies are now saying they might work together to build a smartphone based on the upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS. On October 11 Microsoft will unveil the first devices to run the Windows Phone 7 OS, from the likes of Samsung and LG, and reports indicate that Motorola will soon join the fray.