smartphone

Fake apps dressed up to look like official ones but actually designed to steal user data are increasingly targeting Android phone users, according to a study by Trend Micro.

The company looked at the top 50 free apps in Google's Play Store and then searched Google's app store and others to see if fake versions existed. It found fake versions existed for 77 percent of the apps. The fake apps are often made to look like the real ones and have the same functions, but carry a dangerous extra payload.

The president of the United States says he's not "allowed" to own an iPhone, which is why he's sticking with his BlackBerry, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It's a politically sensitive subject because the iPhone is the big American brand, and the president is a self-proclaimed fan of the late Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs. He'd love to pander to buy-America voters. (Obama is also probably not "allowed" to have an Android phone.)

They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.

Android might have face unlock, which has been defeated previously with photos, but EyeVerify is aiming to take things a step further. At Mobile World Congress this week, the company is demonstrating its Eyeprint technology that's designed to scan a users eye veins and grant them access to a phone or application.

Most Linux fans like Canonical's plans for a unified Ubuntu for PCs, smartphones, TVs, and tablets. Some, however, such as Aaron Seigo, a leading KDE developer, have doubts about this claim.

Engineers at Fujitsu Laboratories are developing an HTML5-based platform for smart phones that designed to keep corporate data secure when accessed from employee-owned handsets.

The system, which Fujitsu plans to launch later this year, is one of a number that addresses this increasingly common problem: how to allow workers access to corporate IT systems while avoiding deliberate or inadvertent leaks of data from devices that are not totally under the company's control.

It might not be a household name in the U.S., but China's Huawei sought to make a statement at CES in Las Vegas on Monday.

The company, which is one of the world's biggest vendors of cellular network equipment and one of China's top cellphone makers, unveiled two new handsets: the Ascend Mate, which claims the world's largest display, and the Ascend D2, which Huawei claims is the world's most powerful smartphone.

As you all know, Canonical unveiled today, January 2, their gesture-based phone operating system based on the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Many websites are already posting various articles related to this interesting piece of news, but it looks like The Verge has the first hands-on video with the Ubuntu OS for smartphones, as you can see in the video above.

Ubuntu OS for phones is a mobile operating system based on Ubuntu Linux, especially designed for smartphones like Galaxy Nexus, which is also the only supported device, at the moment.

Google's Santa Tracker can help you keep track of the Big Man on his deliveries on Christmas Eve, and don't forget to use Google's cool Santa Call service, too.

Google Maps' Santa Tracker is ready to be used by Santa Claus fans around the world as they track his Christmas Eve trip that has him delivering toys and gifts to good children and to well-behaved techies.