Nicholas Kolakowski

Microsoft is claiming its Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate has hit 2 million downloads, roughly a week after the company first made the near-final version of its next browser version available to users. “Just a few days after its public availability, customers have already downloaded Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate two million times and taken […]

Intel CEO Paul Otellini put a brave face on prospects for his company’s MeeGo smartphone operating system, whose long-term fate seems uncertain in the wake of Nokia embracing Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 as its primary mobile software. Intel and Nokia had developed MeeGo hand-in-hand. “I don’t see that Nokia changing its strategy changes the industry […]

The day after its announcement, one thing seems very clear: Apple’s new subscription policy has the potential to complicate life for the company’s partners, competitors and maybe itself. Apple’s policy for content-based applications such as magazines, videos, music and newspapers already applies in some form to News Corp’s The Daily, a publication tailored specifically for […]

Verizon’s iPhone launch may have fizzled, according to a new Boy Genius Report posting. “We’re being told sales are performing a little under what Apple and Verizon anticipated, and we have the data to show it,” reads the Feb. 16 missive. “Additionally, we have been told that online preorders between Verizon and Apple amounted to […]

Microsoft could benefit from its Nokia partnership in ways beyond selling more Windows Phone 7 devices: According to new data from analytics firm Flurry, more developers are starting projects using Microsoft’s smartphone platform. “This week, with the early speculation and subsequent announcement that Nokia and Microsoft would be partners, Flurry measured a 66 percent increase […]

Back in October, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the unusual step of participating in his company’s earnings call. Competing tablets had no chance against the iPad, he told the assembled media and analysts, particularly tablets with a 7-inch form factor. “Almost all [competing devices] use 7-inch screens as opposed to the iPad’s almost 10-inch screen.” […]

In a widely expected move, Apple is rolling out a subscription service for content-based apps such as magazines, videos, music and newspapers. The service is already present in News Corp’s The Daily, a publication tailored specially for the iPad. Publishers will have the ability to set a subscription’s price and duration, while customers can select […]

The agreement between Microsoft and Nokia to port Windows Phone 7 onto the latter’s smartphone devices will almost certainly change the mobile landscape in coming years. But if the two behemoths are to succeed in their plan to combat Apple and Google, they may need to execute their strategy with startup-style rapidity. And at least […]

Apple responded quickly to a rash of worker suicides at the Foxconn facility that fabricates many of its products, according to the company’s annual supplier responsibility review. As detailed in the 2011 Progress Report, Apple claims it launched a high-level investigation into the 12 suicide attempts that took place at Foxconn throughout the first half […]

Windows Phone 7 will receive its first software update in early March, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told media during this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, tweaking applications and adding the copy-and-paste feature. That update is long in the making, having been announced even before Ballmer’s keynote during January’s Consumer Electronics Show. However, the update’s […]

Microsoft and Nokia announced a wide-ranging partnership Feb. 11, which will include running Windows Phone 7 on Nokia smartphones, in a combined bid to blunt the competitive momentum of Google Android and the Apple iPhone. “We have a formidable plan to ensure our collective leadership in the smartphone market and in the ecosystem that surrounds […]

The iPad isn’t the only Apple device subject to frenzied scuttlebutt: just as rivals such as Microsoft and Samsung are using this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to debut their own smartphone and tablet features, rumors sprung up on this side of the Atlantic that Cupertino is prepping a smaller, cheaper version of the […]