Can Samsung innovate?

If we're not there yet, we are quickly approaching the Samsung Era in handheld electronics. The Korean giant sells more mobile phones, and more smartphones, than any other company. It competes in all markets, from the high-end down, and is pouring its record profits into expansion and advertising. Samsung is now among the most valuable brands on the planet. Samsung rose to prominence by out-grinding rivals in commodity markets,...

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Nokia offers paid upgrade to music service

Nokia plans to roll out in the first quarter of this year its Nokia Music+, a new subscription-based upgrade to its free-to-stream mobile music service. The paid service will offer unlimited downloads of sets of tunes or "Mixes" for offline playback, and unlimited track skips, Nokia said on Sunday. Nokia started offering last September in the U.S. its Nokia Music, a free music streaming service. The service will continue...

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Wouldn't it be nice if you could always access your data from anywhere?

A business idea starts simply enough: You identify a need, and then you fill it. It seems that a number of innovative entrepreneurs have identified the need to access data from mobile devices no matter where it's stored, and we're seeing an explosion of solutions designed to address that need. Where is your data? Mine is all over the place. I have data stored locally on my PCs and tablets, and data stored on external USB hard...

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SAP cozies up to Windows 8 with mobile apps, platform support

SAP said Tuesday that it plans to roll out a series of mobile applications for Windows 8, a move that underscores the companies' deep partnership at a time when many observers believe Microsoft's new OS is in for a tough ride. In addition, SAP is planning to add support for Windows 8 mobile application development for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 through its SAP Mobile Platform, which has been renamed from Sybase Unwired...

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Cisco to build small cellular base stations, Chambers says

Cisco Systems plans to build small cellular base stations, building upon its fast-growing business in Wi-Fi base stations for mobile operator networks, Chairman and CEO John Chambers said on Tuesday. The move will bring the networking giant into a major part of communications infrastructure that until now it has left mostly to the handful of major manufacturers that are steeped in the cellular world, such as Ericsson, Nokia...

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The Week in iOS Apps: A better Facebook

This week's roundup of iOS apps offers new ways to shop, track your life, and make new websites. Already this week we brought you news of the Angry Birds Star Wars game, word of updates to theClear and FreshBooks apps, as well as the announcement that Microsoft Office may finally be available on iOS in 2013. Here are other new and updated apps that caught our eye this week. Apple Store: Siri:...

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