mobility

Sprint announced today that it will be offering a 4G LTE, Android Jelly Bean handset called the Vital, starting June 14 for $99.99.

Packing a 13-megapixel camera, a dual-core processor, and an expansive 5-inch HD screen, the Vital joins the ranks of the Warp Sequent and Sprint Flash as high-end phones from Chinese manufacturer ZTE.

With its release, the Vital is unquestionably the best handset that ZTE has put out in the U.S. market. Compared to the other two, it shows marked improvements in both processing speeds and camera quality.

That'd be fine if ZTE were only … Read more

Samsung has announced a new addition to the company's smartphone line.

Dubbed the Samsung Galaxy Ace 3, the device comes with a 4-inch screen and a 1GHz dual-core processor. It's running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and comes in the customer's choice of 3G or 4G LTE. The 3G option comes with 4GB of internal memory, while the 4G LTE option has 8GB of internal memory. Both support a microSD card of up to 64GB of storage.

On the back, users will find a 5-megapixel camera. The software coupled with that lens allows for users to share … Read more

ColorBox is an ambitious app with a huge collection of writing implements, but without animations, a clearly-labeled interface or menus, it is unnecessarily hard to use. What ColorBox does well is to create a tool in which you can write nearly anything in any style or color you want, which for many people will be enough to overlook the glaring omissions in the app.

When you first open ColorBox, you can see at a glance just how many options there are. Tap any of the tabs on the left side of the screen and you can choose from one of … Read more

I first encountered the MyCharge Peak 6000 at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Since then it has become my most prized travel accessory. I literally never leave home (for a trip) without it.

Why am I so enamored with something as basic as a mobile charger? Simple: the Peak 6000 does right what every other mobile charger does wrong.

For starters, it packs a 6,000mAh battery, which can recharge an average smartphone three to four times. Even better, you recharge the Peak's battery by plugging the entire unit right into an AC outlet. Its fold-up wall prongs … Read more

Huawei, the embattled China-based telecom equipment maker that has been trying unsuccessfully to make an entrance into the U.S., thinks it has the right recipe to be successful in smartphones.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview published on Friday, Huawei deputy chairman Guo Ping said that his company wants to expand its presence in smartphones and not co-branded devices with carriers, as it has in the past. As part of that strategy, the company wants to try and combine the benefits of flashiness and high-tech to appeal to customers.

"In some ways, (designing) a smartphone is in the … Read more

Despite Samsung's claims last month that its Galaxy S4 was performing quite well on store shelves, and had reached 10 million units sold in less than a month, analysts are concerned things are changing.

Samsung's shares were down around 6 percent Friday, representing their largest drop since August. Blame analysts worrying about flagging demand for the Galaxy S4. JP Morgan was among the analyst firms that expressed concern about Samsung, and it cut its share-price estimate by 9.5 percent.

In a note to investors, JJ Park at JP Morgan said that supply chain checks are showing "… Read more

No matter how slick the new hardware is or how hard BlackBerry strives to convince us that its new BB10 handsets are the cat's meow, there's still one massive stumbling block -- quality apps. Apparently even the BlackBerry faithful agree and intrepid tweakers have stepped in to fix the situation themselves.

Read on to learn how you can quickly take advantage of free BlackBerry 10 apps that others have kindly ported from Android. Best of all, the entire process takes minutes and loading apps to your Z10 or Q10 just a matter of seconds.

Gather your tools So … Read more

F-Secure Mobile Security is an all-encompassing service that provides antivirus scanning, parental controls, and anti-theft solutions in an attempt to provide an all-encompassing protection package.

Upon installation, the app will walk you through a series of steps that include accepting some guidelines and allowing permissions, like the ability to wipe your device without warning, check your location, and other sensitive administrative actions. It'll then guide you through an anti-theft setup process, first with Android's stock security and then with F-Secure's own security code. You'll then be asked to add an optional trusted number to send an … Read more

LG will want to sell the Optimus F3 it announced on Thursday to everyone, but the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean smartphone comes with some features specifically meant for blind and hearing-impaired users.

Most notably, the phone automatically integrates Google TalkBack, a text-to-speech accessibility app that you would ordinarily have to download and activate to use.

Students can also download the Accessible Education ID pack using Sprint ID. It contains Web apps that center heavily on math and target students who struggle to read print.

For hearing-impaired users, the Optimus F3 color-codes a spectrum of LED colors and pulse patterns … Read more