With all Microsoft had to show at last week's Windows 10 event – from HoloLens to Spartan, not to mention what the new OS will mean for the company's smartphones – there are plenty of good reasons to be excited for what Microsoft's doing next. But before we start focusing too much on the future, it's time for another round of looking back on past performance as Microsoft release its latest quarterly financial figures. The overall picture is a mixed bag, but the company does manage to score a few wins in mobile, especially with the help of the Surface Pro 3 and its Lumia phones. Last ...

We've all praised Microsoft for the death of Internet Explorer in part of the company's Windows 10 announcements. We haven't really seen Microsoft's Spartan browser compared to others, but the features shown off at the event were cool enough to have us excited. We all thought the browser would simply be named "Microsoft Spartan," but it seems that the company is already considering something more appealing to the past. New internal surveys being conducted are already throwing around a couple of possible names for the browser. We do hear that Microsoft is experimenting with a couple of ...

Last year, at MWC 2014, Sony introduced the Xperia Z2. After seeing the Xperia Z3 launch at IFA in late summer, our eyes were once again on the first quarter of the year in the hopes of Sony launching the latest member of this family. CES came and went with no Xperia Z4 in sight, leaving us to assume that we'd be witnessing it appear at MWC in early March. And while that would make enough sense, a new report claims that Sony's got something a bit different in mind, and that it will still be several months before it's time for the Z4 to go official. If not at MWC, then when? We don't have a ...

As our phones get more powerful, wireless networks faster, and storage options more plentiful, it's very easy for a developer to let his or her app start getting “fat.” Optimizations become a less important distraction, leaving more time to deliver new features. Of course, not everyone's lucky enough to have high-end hardware on a speedy connection, and sometimes it can feel like apps are starting to get away from us, designed for use on phones that are just out of our reach. Facebook hasn't forgotten its users operating on more budget-focused devices, and has a new Android app just ...

When Android 5.0 Lollipop first landed late last year, certain phone manufacturers were out to make a name for themselves by getting updates to at least some of their phones as quickly as possible. Motorola and LG led the pack there, though while LG got the ball rolling for G3 Lollipop updates in early November, it wasn't until several weeks later in December when we saw it really spreading to a lot of users, as the update moved across Europe. That was well and good for G3 owners over there, but what about all you users in the States? Obviously, carriers would slow things down a bit, but ...

This past fall, Google broadened its Nexus lineup with the launch of the Nexus 6 phablet and Nexus 9 tablet, the first hardware to arrive running Android 5.0 Lollipop. But beyond those mobile devices, we also saw Google introduce the Nexus Player, a set-top box running Android TV, intended to expand on what Chromecast did to bring Android into our living rooms by giving users a one-stop hub for both media and gaming. And while Google was quick to make the Nexus Player available for sale in the Play Store, that's where it stayed – until now. Reports are coming in on multiple fronts of ...

Maybe the only thing harder than trying to claim a record is being able to keep it. You work for so long to be the best at something, and then the second you let your guard down, someone else saunters right past you. When we're talking smartphone details, this is an ongoing battle: you may have the highest-density screen, or longest-life battery today, but you're always at the risk of someone else showing up out of the blue and one-upping you. This is a fact of life that makers of the thinnest phones around know all too well, and it looks like the crown for thinnest is about to be passed ...

We recently found out that Motorola is planning on updating all 2013 and 2014 devices to the latest version of Android 5.0 Lollipop, thanks to Motorola’s Luciano Carvalho and one of his social network posts. That "really soon" Carvalho was talking about is happening now for some users in certain regions, as the Moto G Lollipop update process has been commenced. According to a tweet on Motorola Mobility's official account, the Moto G Lollipop update will be rolling out in phases in the US for the second generation Moto G, and in India for both the original Moto G, as well as the second ...

Microsoft sure had a lot to share at yesterday's Windows 10 event, including both new hardware and software. On the hardware front, the HoloLens was easily the flashier of those new offerings, but we also got to see Microsoft's new collaborative wall-mounted slate, the Surface Hub. We heard about how easy it would be to interact with, and how it would be available in both 55-inch and 84-inch sizes, but beyond that high-res 4K display, we didn't get a lot of hardware details. While there are still empty spaces we'll need to see filled in, at least some of those specifics are finally ...

The Microsoft Surface line-up has been a mixed bag of success and failure. We highly praise Microsoft for its Surface Pro line-up, but we haven't felt the same about its Surface RT, up to the point where we really didn't pay much attention to the launch of the Surface 2 for a review. While we did like the Surface hardware, the real problem was Windows RT, and that problem seems to continue, or should we say, seems to have come to an end. Microsoft has just issued a statement to confirm that both the Surface RT and the Surface 2 won't be receiving Windows 10 like current Windows 7 and ...

Over the past few days we've been hearing tons about Windows 10 – Microsoft's new and improved operating system with a renewed focus on the future – but details have been relatively sparse about hardware. Sure, we've heard about the HoloLens and Surface Hub, but those two aren't going to be on the market for a while, if ever. Microsoft Mobile Devices exec Ifi Majid has finally told us some information we've been desperately trying to get for months now, that a Microsoft flagship smartphone launch is likely to take place this summer. We were hearing rumors swirl last month that ...

Even though we've seen Samsung launch a bevy of smartwatches running its proprietary Tizen platform, we've always know that the original plans were for the OS to power smartphones. The company teased its Samsung Z1 for months before it finally released it in India a few weeks ago. If you're wondering if it's worth to consider Tizen as a platform of choice in the future, think again. Reuters reports that the Samsung Z1 has been met with much disappointment in India. Reviewers and consumers are apparently complaining about the lack of applications on the platform, in addition to a very bad ...

Windows 10 is coming to existing Windows Phone models, right? At least, the initial word from Microsoft was that “all Lumia Windows Phone 8” models would get Windows 10 updates. And then at yesterday's event, Microsoft pushed beyond that Lumia limitation and clarified that Windows Phone 8.1 models in general – presumably including those from other OEMs – will be upgrading to Windows 10. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, we're not out of the woods just yet, and in a new blog post published overnight, Microsoft pencils-in a few asterisks next to those update guarantees. Microsoft exec ...