The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency within the United States Department of Commerce, will stop using BlackBerry phones later this year and instead supply workers with Apple’s mobile devices. In a memo relayed by Loop Insight, NOAA’s Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications said that support for BlackBerry phones will cease in May of this year. Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S will replace the agency’s BlackBerry ...

The recent federal takedown of notorious file-sharing service Megaupload was initially seen as a huge victory for owners of copyrighted music and movies, but new research shows this may not be the case. Federal prosecutors successfully shuttered the service last month and arrested seven men associated with Megaupload including site founder Kim Dotcom, who is said to have earned $42 million from the site in 2010 alone. What was initially thought to be a victory for movie studios and record labels is turning ou...

When new CEO Thorsten Henis took the reins at Research In Motion, he immediately pointed to the smartphone vendor’s marketing strategy as an area the company needed to focus on if it hoped to regain share in key markets like the United States. The wheels on RIM’s recent marketing efforts had already been set in motion, however, and early reports suggest that the increased volume of familiar BlackBerry ads aren’t having the impact RIM was hoping for. Read on for more. (more…)

With great power comes great responsibility — and a flurry of advertising campaigns that target your wares. Samsung tried to make its name a verb in a recent round of anti-Apple ads where senseless iPhone owners got “Samsunged,” and the South Korea-based vendor’s campaign culminated with a $10 million extravaganza that aired during the Super Bowl. Amazon is next up to the plate, and the company’s recent commercial takes aim at Apple’s iPad. A woman sunbathing and reading a boo...

Apple and Samsung are in the midst of a patent-fueled war with no end in site, but the pair has also inadvertently joined forces to make it increasingly difficult for other vendors to continue making smartphones. New estimates suggest Apple and Samsung combined to take in a staggering 95% of smartphone industry profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. The figures paint an even bleaker picture for the rest of the players in the smartphone business than earlier estimates; UBS analyst Maynard Um said last week th...

More details surrounding the design of Apple’s upcoming iPad 3 have been revealed as images of a variety of internal components have been published online along with new images of the tablet’s rear shell and possibly Apple’s new Retina Display as well. Following reports on Wednesday that emerged surrounding a purported image of the iPad 3′s rear case, Cult of Mac has published higher-quality images of the same component along with a number of additional internal parts. While the various compon...

Google’s bid to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion is set to gain regulatory approval as soon as next week, multiple reports claim. Google announced last summer that it intended to purchase the struggling smartphone and set-top box maker for $40 per share, and CEO Larry Page explained that Motorola’s patent portfolio was a key draw for the company. Google’s Android partners had fallen under attack from patent predators such as Apple and Microsoft, and the ability to spread Motorola&...

Vonage on Wednesday unveiled a new mobile app for the iPhone and Android smartphones that affords free calling and messaging along with cheap international calling rates. Vonage Mobile allows users to make free “high-definition” voice over IP calls among each other over Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G data connections, and low-cost calls can also be placed through the app to any landline or cell phone globally. The New Jersey-based Telco says its international calling rates are 70% lower than rates from major ca...

Protesters plan to stage a demonstration tomorrow in an effort to take Apple to task for partnering with Eastern manufacturers repeatedly accused of mistreating factory workers. Change.org and SomeOfUs have combined their efforts to raise awareness of poor working conditions in factories operated by Foxconn that manufacture consumer electronics for Apple and other vendors. The two organizations have gathered more than 250,000 electronic signatures on petitions that call for Apple to demand improvements be mad...

A recent study showed that social networks like Twitter and Facebook are potentially more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol, and now we may have an idea why. A group of scientists from MIT in Massachusetts, IULM University in Milan and two other laboratories in Italy found that people showed physical and psychophysiological responses while using Facebook similar to those exhibited by people while playing a musical instrument or engaging in other creative activities. Beyond wanting to use Facebook for obvi...

Apple’s iPhone is the most profitable product offered by the most valuable company in the world. With only three iPhone models in its lineup, the Cupertino-based technology giant shipped more smartphones last quarter than any other vendor in the world. Carriers that sell Apple’s sought-after smartphone enjoy huge activation figures each quarter as a result, but activations and unit sales don’t necessarily paint a complete picture. In fact, according to some industry watchers, carriers hate t...

Nokia plans to eliminate 4,000 jobs as part of a major cost-cutting effort that will see much of its manufacturing shift to Asia. The cuts will be made across three Nokia plants — 2,300 workers will be shed in Komarom, Hungary, 700 will lose their jobs in Reynosa, Mexico and 1,000 more in Salo, Finland will be laid off. Each of the three plants will continue to operate at reduced capacities, and the move is part of a larger effort to cut costs following the €1 billion loss Nokia reported last quarter. &...

Sprint on Wednesday reported its results for the fourth quarter of 2011. The nation’s No.3 carrier sold 1.8 million iPhones, 40% of which were sold to new subscribers, and it managed 1.6 million total net subscriber additions in the quarter — its best performance in terms of customer acquisition since 2005. Sprint still posted a net loss of $1.3 billion in the quarter, however, or a diluted loss of $.43 per share. The carrier saw net operating losses increase to $438 million from $139 million in the...

Samsung has developed a new universal remote control for its televisions and home theater accessories that ditches dozens of buttons in favor of Siri-like voice command support and a touch pad. As Apple reportedly readies an assault on the TV industry, established vendors such as Sony, LG and Samsung looked to cut the Cupertino-based firm off at the pass during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. All the big names at this year’s show added voice controls and gesture support to their flagship HD...