News

• Samsung's Android smartphone gets first outing

  Samsung Electronics showed off its upcoming Galaxy smartphone, which runs Google's Android operating system, at the CommunicAsia exhibition in Singapore on Tuesday.

• Next batch of Acer smartphones due out in September

  Acer plans to send its three latest smartphones to market in September, with two of the new handsets priced for the recession.

• Developers asked to stop tethering talk on Palm Pre

  Palm Inc. has "politely" cautioned a developer forum not to allow online discussions of tethering with the new Palm Pre.

• Nokia expands XpressMusic line with cheap touch phone

  Nokia has announced the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, a cheaper version of its successful touch phone, the 5800 XpressMusic, it said on Monday.

• iPhone surcharge protest highlight carriers' loss of control

  Ask smartphone users anywhere in the U.S. what they think of their wireless carriers, and you will get an earful.

• Pricey Nokia phone faces tough competition

  "The hottest release of the summer," according to Nokia, is not the new iPhone 3G S or the Palm Pre. It's the N97, Nokia's newest high-end phone and one that few people have probably heard of.

• Ovum: New iPhone marks Apple's continued smartphone focus

  "The latest version of the iPhone marks Apple's continued focus on the smartphone market," said Adam Leach, Devices principal analyst with Ovum. The advisory and research firm expects 171.9 million smartphones globally to be shipped this year, a growth of 23 per cent on 2008 and will represent 15 per cent of the total worldwide mobile phone market in 2009.

• Pre is not the home run Palm needed

  Someone at Palm should probably be kicking themselves: The first reviews of its much-hyped Palm Pre aren't bad, but they are not incredibly good, either. This sets a pretty low bar for what coming competitors must achieve to appear more advanced than Palm's newest device.

• INQ to launch Twitter phone by Christmas

  INQ has revealed it plans to launch a mobile phone with a Twitter app aimed at fans of the micro-blogging site.

• Smartphones to rule declining handset market

  Changing consumer behaviors brought about by the ongoing global economic downturn is stimulating a renewed focus on smartphones, which analysts say would rule the declining handset market.

• JavaFX set for phones, smartbooks, TVs

  Listening to Sun Microsystems heap accolades on its JavaFX multimedia application technology Wednesday evening almost obscured the fact that JavaFX faces quite a battle in the space against the established Adobe Flash and AJAX platforms and Microsoft's up-and-coming Silverlight platform.

• BenQ plans Android smartphones, netbooks for 2010

  Taiwanese consumer electronics maker BenQ plans to launch a smartphone and a netbook running Google's Android operating system next year, a company representative confirmed Thursday.

• Is 2009 the Year of the app store?

  The year 2009 is shaping up as the year of the app store, a Sun executive conjectured Wednesday during a panel session at the JavaOne conference.

• Garmin-Asus' first Android smartphone due next year

  Garmin-Asus plans to launch its first smartphone based on Google's Android mobile operating system no later than the first quarter of next year, executives said Tuesday in Taipei.

• Acer's first Android smartphone due in Q4

  Acer plans to launch its first smartphone with Google's Android software on board in the fourth quarter of this year, the company announced Monday.