Michelle Maisto

BlackBerry is testing out a new payments feature tied to its popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) feature in hopes that the offering will increase user loyalty to the phone brand. Called BBM Money, the service is being rolled out in a pilot test to customers of PermataBank in Indonesia, and for now is limited to BlackBerry […]

The BlackBerry Z10 smartphone is selling well, and its success has changed the tone of the strategic review under way at the struggling Canadian company, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine. The Z10, a Q10 sister device expected to launch in April, and the BlackBerry 10 mobile platform both phones run on […]

Sprint’s Boost Mobile brand, competing in a fast-growing but increasingly crowded contract-free market, will begin selling the HTC One SV and the Boost Force March 7. Both phones offer access to Sprint’s growing 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, at Boost’s monthly rate of $55 for unlimited service. With time, the monthly fee can potentially […]

Samsung will this year begin selling smartphones running the Tizen mobile operating system, in a move intended to begin lightening Samsung’s reliance on partner Google, which makes the Android operating system run by Samsung’s successful line of Galaxy devices. But the growing discomfort in the relationship, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 25, actually goes […]

Wireless carriers in the United States have repeated their desire to support a third major platform, alongside Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, and Nokia is in a fierce competition with BlackBerry—and possibly others—for the position. However, at the 2013 Mobile World Congress event Feb. 25, Nokia instead chose to focus on developing markets, introducing four […]

LG Electronics has acquired Hewlett-Packard’s webOS mobile operating system technology for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced Feb. 25. HP had inherited the OS when it purchased Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010, and since then company officials have mostly debated what to do with what is widely considered excellent software that never made it […]

Mozilla is introducing the first commercial build of its Firefox mobile operating system and says it has the backing of 17 major operators worldwide, including Sprint in the United States. Mozilla officials, announcing their mobile OS and the carrier support Feb. 24 at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, said the first phones […]

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has emphasized how important Yahoo workers are to her mission of making the company once again a leading mobile brand. But a new initiative to build a stronger Yahoo team isn’t sitting well with all Yahoos—as the staff is called internally. Jackie Reses, Yahoo’s chief of human resources, acting on instructions […]

AT&T has signed a multi-year deal with General Motors subsidiary OnStar to bring 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile Internet access to millions of GM vehicles, including Chevrolets, Buicks, GMCs and Cadillacs. The GM deal follows AT&T’s November 2012 announcement that it plans to more heavily invest in the connected car market, which it has […]

Sprint has enlisted Bear Grylis, a chisel-cheekboned extreme adventurer, former British Special Forces agent and star of the television show “Man vs. Wild,” to help promote the Kyocera Torque, a rugged Android smartphone it will begin selling March 8. The “live more, fear less” handset,” as Sprint has taken to calling it, is 4G Long-Term […]

Chromebook Pixel Hits the Market Google began accepting orders for the WiFi-only Chromebook Pixel Feb. 21, and said the laptop will begin shipping in three to five days. The WiFi version is priced at $1,299 in the United States. A version with LTE will ship in April and retail for $1,449. Users will have access […]

A Whitehouse.gov petition asking the White House to help change the fact that it’s now illegal to unlock a mobile phone, even one no longer under contract with a wireless carrier, has exceeded 100,000 signatures—the minimum required for the White House to acknowledge it. On Jan. 26, it became illegal to unlock a locked device, […]