HTC bought 50.1% of Beats Electronics back in 2011 for $300 million. Almost a year later HTC sold half of its stake back to Beats Electronics giving up the control of the company.

Since 2012 HTC has been struggling with the competition and has been trying really hard to bring back the profitable days, but it hasn’t been particularly successful. It seems the lengthy crisis has put HTC in a dire need of cash because it has just struck a deal with Beats to sell it back all the remaining shares (about 25%) for $265 million. Read more »

The latest Apple Maps flaw that resulted in several users driving onto the runway at Fairbanks airport has reignited the now infamous iOS 6 Apple Maps fiasco.

Nokia has taken to Twitter with a small dig at Cupertino, along with an image promoting its HERE Maps and Navigation suite. Read more »

Instagram has released a new update for the iPhone version of their app, which has been redesigned to go with the new iOS 7 update that started rolling out last week.

The first thing you’ll notice in this update is that the design is now flatter with the gradients being replaced by solid uniform colors. Oddly, though, the camera interface still is the same, with the curved glossy shutter button, not to mention the icon, which is also the same and inconsistent with other iOS 7 icons. Read more »

Google was expected to update its own tracking service, known as Android Device Manager with the remote locking feature. The newest security option is now available on the ADM dashboard and you can remotely lock your smartphone from the web interface.

The newest feature allows you to lock your smartphone with a new password that changes any previous screen unlock setting. Read more »

So after a long time BlackBerry finally decided to release BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, on the iPhone and Android. The dates were set; September 21 for the Android version and September 22 for the iPhone version. And when the time finally arrived, they dropped the ball.

The first comedy arrived in the form of September 21 coming and going with no sign of the Android version. Thankfully, the company kept their word and released the iPhone version on September 22 but the Android version was still not available despite the fact that it had a one day headstart. And then finally, the company pulled even the iPhone version from the App Store. Read more »

Google’s ambitious Wallet service has largely been ignored by everyone since it launched a couple of years ago. The service was available only on a handful of carriers and Android devices with NFC built-in and thus was unavailable to a majority of people out there.

Google partially solved the problem earlier this week by lifting the NFC limit and making the Wallet app available on every Android device and US carrier. But starting today, you can now also use the Google Wallet service on your iPhone. Read more »

Good news for those who have been waiting for BBM on iOS and Android (yes, all four of you). BlackBerry has finally announced the dates when you will be able to download the app for your iOS or Android device.

Android users will be getting their hands on BBM first on September 21. iPhone users, meanwhile, will have to contain their enthusiasm for a day longer, and can download the app on September 22. Both apps will be available for free from their respective stores. Read more »

An earlier report on Twitter from Samsung Nigeria confirmed that BlackBerry’s popular BBM messaging platform will be coming to Android and iOS quite soon.

Although it won’t be a three-month exclusive to Samsung as was initially speculated, BBM could hit Google Play and the iOS App Store as early as this Friday. Read more »

Google recently launched its own service, which allows you to locate your misplaced Android smartphone and to protect your privacy if your device is stolen. Initially, the latest service came with ability to locate your smartphone on Google Maps via the Device Manager website.

The Android Device Manager also offered you to wipe your device’s data or make your smartphone ring from the web interface. Now, it looks like Google is also set to add a few more features to its service, according to the leaked APK of the upcoming version of Google Play Service. Read more »

Meet the PayPal Beacon, a USB dongle, powered by Bluetooth Low Energy that will await PayPal customers in participating stores, recognize their PayPal identity by pairing to their smartphone’s PayPal app as they walk in and even let them automatically pay for their goods, no hands required.

The first participating stores are Booker, Erply, Leaf, Leapset, Micros, NCR, PayPal Here, Revel, ShopKeep, TouchBistro and Vend, but more are expected to crop up as 100 developers are poised to get the dongle and API early. The PayPal Beacon is expected to become wide-spread starting Q4 of this year. Read more »

Microsoft has announced that their music service, oddly named Xbox Music, will now be available on iOS and Android devices. The company has made dedicated apps for both platforms and they are now available for download for free on their respective stores.

Xbox Music is Microsoft’s subscription based ‘all you can eat’ music service, where you pay a subscription fee and then stream as much music as you want. You will need to purchase the Xbox Music Pass that enables you to use the service. Read more »

Flipboard has made an odd announcement after an somewhat puzzling withdrawal of its app from the BlackBerry World.

First Flipboard released a port of its Android app in the BlackBerry World store, but then it was quickly pulled out. The following announcement was made on Twitter shortly after: Read more »

Here’s something interesting – ever wondered how much apps the average global smartphone user downloads? Do you want do dig deeper – how much of that average consists of free and how much of paid apps? Well here’s a statistic that gives us some clue.

According to data, collected by Statista using Google’s Our Mobile Planet initiative the global smartphone user downloads an average of 26.2 apps, of which 20.6 are free (like Facebook, WhatsApp, Google Search, Google Maps, etc.). The information is accurate as of March 2013. Read more »

Sony has just announced a new portable streaming device that lets you stream video, music, and images to any compatible wireless device in range.

Not only that, but it lets you charge a connected device via USB, and even stream content to a DLNA-compatible TV. Read more »

Nokia Xpress service has been in beta testing for quite some time, but Nokia has recently finished the development. The final version of the app is now available for free at the Windows Phone Store.

Nokia Xpress uses cloud services to compress browsing data and saves up to 85% of the mobile traffic. Read more »