Smartphones - Tech News Articles: GigaOM GigaOM

Smartphones

Why You Should Care

Smartphones are taking over the space where feature phones have long reigned. With so many mobile platforms, devices and form factors, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Here is where you can keep up with the smartphone space and follow all the major players in this market.

Google’s mystery device has been unveiled by The Wall Street Journal as a Sonos-like platform for wirelessly streaming music around the home. But the most important thing is that Google is moving beyond software to making a branded hardware device of its own. Read More »

Siri is hot, but the software is exclusive to the iPhone 4S; iPads, iPod touches and older iPhones need not apply. The situation provides an opportunity for developers on non-Siri devices, and SpeakToIt Assistant, a $1.99 app, is one of these. How does it stack up? Read More »

The scheduled delivery of petitions asking Apple for better treatment of workers in factories that produce iPhones and iPads happened on schedule in New York City on Thursday morning. Observers say there were far more press in attendance than protestors. Read More »

Appcelerator, which helps developers build mobile apps, has been on an acquisition tear in the last year and has added mobile backend provider Cocoafish on Thursday to fill out its offering. The pickup allows Appcelerator to offer a full suite of front-end and backend solutions. Read More »

Priceonomics, which keeps track of the resale value of items like cars, bikes and gadgets, published a report Wednesday that shows how the value of iPhones, Android phones and BlackBerrys hold up over time. Short answer: iPhones, even years-old models, retain their value the longest. Read More »

After using the stock Google Android software on my Galaxy Nexus for two months, I’m getting antsy. The new Chrome beta for Android is a super browser and Google Wallet is great too. But now It’s time for a custom ROM to reinvigorate the Nexus experience! Read More »

Representatives from Change.org and SumOfUs.org will deliver petitions to Apple stores in several major cities Thursday with the names of 250,000 people who want the iPhone maker to develop “a worker protection strategy” covering the people who build its devices in China. Read More »

More Must Reads

DoubleTwist, a popular free media play application for Android, has improved its software to include over-the-air podcast subscriptions. The new feature is available as part of the DoubleTwist Pro in-app upgrade, a $4.99 fee that also adds AirPlay support, wireless media synchronization and album art downloads. Read More »

Microsoft added Android support for OneNote, enabling Android users to take notes from their device and sync them in the cloud. But a few key features are missing that appear in competing apps. Is this space owned by Evernote or can OneNote succeed on Android? Read More »

Sprint sold 1.8 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, or just a quarter of the number of iPhones that AT&T did. But it’s actually good news for the nation’s third-largest carrier, which announced its quarterly earnings Wednesday. Read More »

Embattled Nokia is hoping it can become faster and more competitive by shifting the heart of its manufacturing operations to Asia, a move which will see 4,000 jobs cut in Finland, Hungary and Mexico but will be seen as long overdue. Read More »

Mobile World Congress is still three weeks and an ocean away, but Samsung is already threatening to steal the show. Analytics blog Anlytk has compiled Twitter data on the most referenced terms surrounding MWC and found that Samsung is already generating an enormous amount of buzz. Read More »

Google’s Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system went public in the same year but they haven’t converged until now. Google is finally introducing Chrome for Android, a robust beta with a lot of slick features which is limited to Android 4.0 devices. Read More »

The challenge is getting the best video quality possible, as well as making the call as convenient to manage as possible. And believe it or not, the trick is to use a smartphone car mount with a hand mirror. That’s right, a common household hand mirror. Read More »

We already knew the iPhone 4S camera was good thanks to its small pixel size and backlit sensor. That’s helping the iPhone 4S to become the most used camera on Flickr, and it may help the iPhone 4S become the most used smartphone in a microscope. Read More »

Nokia released the Belle software upgrade for its recent Symbian phones on Tuesday, bringing additional home screens, much improved notifications and other features. The rollout is a day ahead of schedule, showing that Nokia is starting to make good on promises to deliver on time. Read More »

Both Apple and Samsung have sold a historic amount of smartphones in the past year, and coming up with a tally of who sold more is harder than you’d think. But The NPD Group says they’ve done all the number crunching and have a winner. Read More »

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