HTC has had a meteoric rise in the smartphone world over the last few years, easily outpacing almost everyone on the market with their Droid and Windows Mobile phones, and achieving the impossible, like reviving Sprint as an actual player in the mobile market. And one of the favorites has been the Incredible, with phones like the Incredible S.

But you know what the Incredible was really missing? A big, scary, red Eye of Sauron on the home screen. A phone just isn’t a phone if you’re not feeling like a hobbit being chased by Ringwraiths every time you take your phone out to call the pizza place or something.

Continue Reading

Did you want to get an iPhone from AT&T with a shorter contract, the sooner to jailbreak it? Or maybe you just don’t want a contract with AT&T, but do want an iPhone? You’re going to pay for the privilege.

Granted, AT&T has never been really possessed of much in the way of common sense, but this move seems custom made to drive customers into Verizon’s loving arms. How much is it going to cost you?

Continue Reading

As we all know, often from painful experience, AT&T has a terrible network. So terrible, it had to buy an entire other carrier just to get up to speed on 4G. Unfortunately, until that happens, there needs to be other solutions, especially since iPhone customers are jumping ship to Verizon left and right. So AT&T has to get proactive to keep those profitable customers and boost its network.

So, free femtocells for everyone!

Continue Reading

One of the key selling points of Google’s Android platform was its open source mentality; anybody could have the code! Anybody could do anything with Android! It’s your mobile phone OS! It’s free! Free!

Many analysts predicted that this would do two things: make Android the number one smartphone OS and backfire horribly and cause dozens of broken versions of Android. Guess what? They were right. Now Google is yanking some control back, and its partners are less than happy about it, as in “talking to the Justice Department” unhappy.

Continue Reading

It’s an article of faith among travelers: you have to shut off your cell phone on the flight because it might disrupt the navigational equipment. And while you won’t be able to take it on a commercial flight yet, Aircell, leading providers in in-the-air telephony, are happy to sell you the first Android smartphone for in-flight use. Price is currently unavailable, but we’re going to guess “expensive”.

Or you could just use your actual cell phone, since the entire reason you can’t use your cell phone in-flight is due to bureaucratic problems, not science.

Continue Reading

It may not to be a function that most Android users care about, but it’s something developers have been eagerly anticipating for months. No, not Google unlocking Honeycomb. No, not Google repairing Honeycomb from its painfully busted beta state. Nope, they’re finally ready to test…in-app billing.

Continue Reading

Google’s Nexus phone was a noble experiment in trying to break with the traditional model of “carrier sells you phone at a discount, locks you into agonizingly long contract” with “huge Internet company sells you phone at full price with its fancy new OS”. Unfortunately, the Nexus didn’t really stand out: it was an iPhone clone that just didn’t stand out from the pack, even with Google branding behind it.

All that is about to change.

Continue Reading

Hey, remember when the Sidekick was hot? Man, back around 2002 that phone was absolutely everywhere. Whatever happened to it? Oh, right, Microsoft bought the parent company, which is usually the kiss of death for any hot product, and then Apple finished the homicide by making it irrelevant with the iPhone. You’d think the Sidekick would be dead. But, apparently, that’s totally wrong.
Continue Reading

Yesterday’s announcement from Apple might’ve damped Palm’s parade, but at least the Pre and exclusive carrier Sprint had a wild weekend. Sprint Nextel says it broke its single day and single weekend sales records thanks to the new smartphone, though it’s not offering specific figures. Analysts guess that between 50,000 and 100,000 Pres were sold. If that’s the case, it’s easy to see why Sprint is staying silent on the numbers: Apple sold one million iPhone 3G phones in its debut weekend. If Palm is really supposed to rival the iPhone, it will probably want to avoid direct sales comparisons. Supply shortages will make it even harder for the Pre to catch up, but a sell-out’s a sell-out, right? [via CNet]