Michelle Maisto

Mozilla has introduced two developer preview smartphones running on its open-source Firefox operating system. The phones, called Keon and Peak, run HTML5 apps and were developed by Geeksphone in partnership with carrier Telefonica in Spain. The phones are expected to be available in early February, and pricing information is likewise still to come. Mozilla is […]

Verizon Wireless gained a record-setting 2.2 million new subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2012 and announced annual operating revenues that for the first time exceeded $30 billion. But the impacts of October’s Hurricane Sandy and recurring pension liability charges ultimately led to a net loss of $4.23 billion, versus the $2 billion loss of […]

Sprint needs control of partner Clearwire’s considerable spectrum holdings, and Clearwire shareholders know it. Sprint owns a majority share of Clearwire—a smidge more than a half—and on Dec. 17, 2012 confirmed that it had made a $2.2 billion, or $2.97 per share, bid to buy out the remainder. On Jan. 8, however, Dish Networks swooped […]

Capping a week during which Apple was reported to have cut iPhone 5 component orders in half, is a report that Apple has a new plan for attracting more customers in China—the world’s largest smartphone market but one in which Apple is losing shares to competitors with lower-priced devices. Apple plans to offer consumers in […]

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion continues to beat its drum, rallying interest ahead of the Jan. 30 launch of its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 platform. Developer interest and support is no small part of that and after a successful developer pajama party of sorts last Friday, RIM is at it again. Starting at noon EST Friday, […]

Instagram emailed users Jan. 17 to say that it has updated the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for its popular photo-sharing application and that both will go into effect Jan. 19. The Instagram Team signed off by stating, “These updates don’t change the fact that you own your photos that you post on Instagram, […]

AT&T continues to adjust its stance on Apple’s FaceTime video-conferencing application. The carrier prefers to frame its changes as an evolution; critics liken it to more teeth-pulling. Either way, more Apple device users than ever can now use the application. “As a result of ongoing testing, we’re announcing AT&T will enable FaceTime over Cellular at […]

Nokia is completing the last of the belt-tightening measures it hinted at during a June 2012 strategy announcement. In addition to transferring “certain activities” and up to 820 employees, Nokia officials announced Jan. 17 that the company will let go of up to 300 employees in its global IT organization. The majority of the employees […]

AT&T, the nation’s second-largest carrier, is looking for a European carrier to buy, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 17. An investment abroad would help it “escape constraints on growth at home” and, in Europe, enable it to offer upgraded technologies and more lucrative pricing strategies, said the report. AT&T is said to be doing […]

Apple will introduce two new iPhones this summer, one of which is likely to be a less-expensive model, according to a new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the latest industry insider to forecast the news. Kuo expects Apple to introduce a redesigned iPhone 5 and an iPhone 5S in June or July, according […]

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, has purchased a $150 million stake in broadband equipment provider Arris Group, which in December purchased Motorola Home, a division of Google’s Motorola Mobility, for $2.35 billion in cash and stocks. The newly intertwined trio subtly highlights the ways in which the Internet-connected world is shifting and the cable […]

Research In Motion won’t be left out of the growing mobile-payment market. The BlackBerry maker announced Jan. 16 that Visa has approved its Secure Element Manager (SEM) solution, which enables mobile payments not just on BlackBerry smartphones but any device equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology. “The approval from Visa of RIM’s SEM solution is […]