Michelle Maisto

Verizon and AT&T reportedly are putting together a bid to buy Vodafone. Verizon and Vodafone, which is the world’s second-largest mobile carrier behind China Mobile, jointly own Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile carrier in the United States. According to the Financial Times blog Alphaville, Verizon would acquire Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless, and […]

Amazon.com is rumored, again, to be working on a smartphone. The bookseller-turned-retail giant-turned-tablet and e-reader maker has hired Charlie Kindel, a 20-year Microsoft veteran and one-time general manager of the software company’s Windows Phone Developer Experience. Kindel left in 2011 to form BizLogr, a startup that creates software products “based on doing big-data analysis of […]

Apple has offered an apology to customers on the home page of its site in China, and announced several changes to its repair policies. The apology, signed by CEO Tim Cook, follows criticisms from the China Consumers’ Association, a consumer-interest group that has accused Apple of treating Chinese customers differently from others around the world. […]

The relationship between Nokia and Siemens may soon change, as a shareholder agreement of their Nokia Siemens joint venture faces a renewal April 3. Siemens has said it plans to sell its half of what the pair has worked to convert from an albatross to an asset. According to the The Wall Street Journal, the […]

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins continues to trickle out details of his company’s plans to regain smartphone market share from Apple and Android-running competitors. Heins told The Canadian Press that BlackBerry plans to offer three tiers of products: high end, mid-tier and entry level. “In order to stay relevant, we have to build a portfolio,” Heins […]

The HTC One and the BlackBerry Z10 offer a study in contrasts. Just ask repair site iFixit, which recently disassembled the two smartphones, both key devices in the portfolios of vendors struggling for a win. iFixit is a strong believer in the importance of being able to repair—and so continue to use—all the things users […]

Amazon has announced that it is buying Goodreads, a book-recommendations site with 15 million opinionated members who have posted more than 21 million reviews. The deal—the financial details of which have not been made public—nods to both the megasite’s bookseller roots and its growth into new areas, including tablets and e-readers. “Goodreads has helped change […]

Rumors of planned layoffs at T-Mobile’s Bellevue, Wash., headquarters have unfortunately come to fruition. As many as 300 employees were laid off, the The Seattle Times reported March 28, and in a manner that left many disappointed that the carrier out to change the way consumers are treated could have so little regard for its […]

Facebook has invited members of the media to an April 4 event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, and the invitation asks recipients to “Come see our new home on Android.” Though Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that “building out a whole phone” doesn’t make sense for the social media company, it’s expected that […]

What will Apple think up next? That was the question that arose shortly after Samsung launched the Galaxy S 4, a large, thin, saturated and rather laughably feature-packed device. Apple’s only real rival had, it seemed, pushed every feature as far as they could imaginably go. To increase the wow factor—the job of every new […]

AT&T is creeping up the price on what is expected to be Samsung’s next blockbuster device, just as T-Mobile is marketing itself as the “un-carrier” and announcing it no longer cares to play by the old rules. AT&T announced March 28 that it will sell the Galaxy S 4 for $249—$50 more than the industry […]

New York International Auto Show The first NYIAS opened in 1900. Cars, historically, have been a way of keeping people connected. Today, automakers are teaming with mobile industry players to explore how cars can also connect drivers to their other devices and content, as well as to personally relevant information. Personalized Fuel Efficiency Apps Challenge […]