The stolen cellphone trade is brisk business here in the U.S.; according to the FCC, a third off all robberies involves a burgled handset. Why are black market phones so popular? The answer is simple: they continue to work even after being pilfered -- at least for now. Today, the government is scheduled to announce a new initiative, backed by the four major carriers, which will turn swiped smartphones in nothing more than useless electronic bricks. Eventually, at least.
You can't walk down the street without noticing at least one person wielding a smartphone, and in more busy areas such as airports or even on the bus, you're likely to spot bipeds bouncing their fingers on a tablet. Connected devices are everywhere, and according to data released by International Data Corporation (IDC), shipments of smart connected devices, including PCs, media tables, and smartphones, topped 916 million units with revenues of more than $489 billion in 2011. By 2016, IDC expects shipments to reach 1.84 billion units, along with a changing of the guard.
Microsoft unveiled the "Smoked By Windows Phone" campaign at CES; basically, if your non-Windows Phone could perform a certain task faster than a Windows Phone, Microsoft would give you $100. The company upped the ante recently, offering users at Microsoft stores a $1,000 laptop if they managed to smoke a Windows Phone. Well, one blogger managed to smoke a Windows Phone with a Galaxy Nexus, only to be disqualified after the fact by rules employees created on the spot.
LG has not had the same presence in Android as the likes of Motorola, Samsung, and HTC, but the company might be looking to change that at the upcoming Mobile World Congress show. The details on LG’s new flagship device (currently called P880) have been leaked, and it’s looking like a real monster with a quad-core processor, and HD screen among other goodies.
As it searches for a way to turn its fortunes around, struggling phone maker HTC is reportedly investigating the possibility of launching its own music streaming service. The client would be built into the default music app on all of HTC’s Android devices, and possibly as an add-on for Windows Phone. The company is, as expected, cagey about answering any questions at this point.
There was a brief scare earlier today when it was reported that Google Wallet, Google’s mobile NFC payment solution was vulnerable to a PIN harvesting attack. That only affected rooted devices, but now a second vulnerability has been discovered, and this one affects all Android devices with Google Wallet installed.
A new report from the Wall Street Journal is shedding some light on recent rumors that Googlers have been testing a mysterious entertainment device in their homes. According to WSJ, we can expect a system that can wireless stream music throughout the home, and will be marketed under the Google name. This would be a completely consumer-oriented device built in-house, a first for Mountain View. 
If you’re got a hankering for a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone and don’t want to wait for the Lumia 900 to drop on AT&T, Microsoft might have you covered very shortly. Microsoft will reportedly be selling Lumia 800 bundles in its retail stores on February 14th for a whopping $899. While that’s a big number, users get more than the phone in the deal.
One of the hotbeds in Apple’s ongoing patent war with Samsung has been Germany, but a German court just handed Apple a bit of a smackdown. A Munich court has found that Apple does not have the right to ban Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Nexus from Germany. The case came after Apple revoked a licence previously granted to Samsung relating to touchscreen technology.
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