Today is the big day -- Research in Motion finally took the wraps off BlackBerry 10 and two new smartphones. The Waterloo, Ontario, Canada-based company, which new name is same as the device, bleeds market share to Androids and iPhone. During fourth quarter, BlackBerry fell out of the top-5 smartphone makers, as measured by shipment share, according to IDC. The latest operating system and new handsets might just well be the last chance to regain lost ground.

CEO Thorsten Heins officially launched the much-anticipated platform during BlackBerry World. The BlackBerry Z10 comes with a 4.2-inch touchscreen display and 356 pixels per inch, whereas the BlackBerry Q10 sticks to a traditional layout featuring a physical keyboard. According to Heins, both the on-screen as well as physical keyboard provide the best mobile typing experience, but more on the two after the break.

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Maybe one head really is better than two. Today during the BlackBerry World keynote, Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins made a startling, and quite unexpected, announcement. There's a new name, adopted from the flagship product -- BlackBerry.

Heins replaced co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie a year-ago this month, promising to aright the badly listing RIM. Today, BlackBerry 10 operating system and new devices officially launch, as Heins seeks to deliver on the promise. Apparently, the name change is part of that.

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Another day, another Galaxy smartphone. On Tuesday, Samsung unveiled a new handset as part of the company's ever expanding Galaxy lineup, this one dubbed the Galaxy Express.

The new device slots in-between the Galaxy S III Mini and the Galaxy S III, with similar design characteristics including the traditional rounded corners. Samsung could have named the new device the Galaxy S III Average, as the handset features a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display with a resolution of 800 by 480 and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, both of which are in-between the specs of the two S-branded smartphones.

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Panic in Cupertino: Headless chickens run around smacking into one another, because they don't know they're dead.

That's the fundamental problem with Apple, and this situation is largely independent of recent stock price declines that analysts, bloggers, reporters and other writers can't opine enough about. Falling shares are part of a necessary correction, as reality displaces perception. To understand what's happening now, you need to look into the past -- three years, which by Internet counting is like a lifetime.

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Apple today released iOS 6.1, which is available via over-the-air download. The update extends 4G LTE support to 36 additional carriers, bringing the total to 70. High-speed data is also available to 23 more carriers for iPad. Apple already supports LTE in Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom and United States, among others. New coverage extends to Denmark, Finland, Italy, Philippines, Switzerland and some Middle Eastern countries, to name a few.

"If you look at the total of all of these and the incremental subscribers that are in those countries, that’s over 300 million", Apple CEO Tim Cook boasts. Availability and adoption aren't the same thing. IHS iSuppli sees global LTE subscribers reaching 198.1 million this year, up from 92.3 million -- that's 115 percent -- in 2012. The analyst firm forecasts 139 percent compound annual growth rate through 2016, with 1 billion expected subscribers.

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… Milo carefully said nothing when Major —— de Coverley stepped into the mess hall with his fierce and austere dignity the day he returned and found his way blocked by a wall of officers waiting in line to sign loyalty oaths. At the far end of the food counter, a group of men who had arrived earlier were pledging allegiance to the flag, with trays of food balanced in one hand, in order to be allowed to take seats at the table. Already at the tables, a group that had arrived still earlier was singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in order that they might use the salt and pepper and ketchup there. The hubub began to subside slowly as Major —— de Coverley paused in the doorway with a frown of puzzled disapproval, as though viewing something bizarre. He started forward in a straight line, and the wall of officers before him parted like the Red Sea. Glancing neither left nor right, he strode indomitably up to the steam counter and, in a clear, full-bodied voice that was gruff with age and resonant with ancient eminence and authority, said:

"Gimme eat".

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To be frank, acronyms like "SAFE" and "BYOD" are not overly exciting, especially when combined with words like "business" or "enterprise". There's just something missing that makes related adverts unappealing and boring. Samsung, however, begs to differ and has meshed all those terms together with unicorns to create two rather cool video ads.

The two commercials are, at core, related to SAFE, which is short for Samsung for Enterprise, and the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement but with an emphasis on entertainment rather than bombarding the viewers with too many technical details. At the same time the South Korean corporation did not pass on mocking BlackBerry devices, once known as the business world's top choice for at-work smartphones.

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Suddenly, I feel sorry for the folks over at Apple. Chicken Little bloggers and Wall Street analysts run round crying "The sky is falling!" Strangely, they are believed. Apple shares are down 38 percent from September's all-time high. On Friday, the company's market cap fell below Exxon's. Suddenly, the world's most valuable company isn't. I just don't feel right kicking fruit as it falls down, so as a gesture of goodwill my boycott ends today.

That's not to say I have plans to buy any Apple products. I'm more than satisfied with Chromebook and my three Nexus devices. That said, as an act of solidarity, I let Apple auto-charge my credit card for iTunes Match renewal today. I don't own a single device that supports the service, but, hey, what's $24.95 between friends? I was a loyal OS X and iOS user until my boycott started in June 2012, protesting aggressive patent lawsuits -- unaffectionately called innovation by litigation.

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Sales growth comes from the wrong places: iPhone 4 and China.

IDC and Strategy Analytics have released fourth-quarter phone shipments, which at first glance look good for Apple. While competitively behind Samsung, the fruit-logo company continues to gain smartphone market share -- in fourth quarter, respectively, 29 percent and 21.8 percent, according to IDC. But gains largely come from older models, particularly iPhone 4, despite the newest handset shipping in volume during the quarter. This demand says much about iPhone's perceived value, its successor's appeal and future carrier subsidies and the margins Apple gets from them.

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Introduced in time for last year’s Olympics, Virgin Media’s free Wi-Fi service has proven to be a big hit with people travelling on the tube, but all good things come to an end, and this particular gravy train is about to terminate. Well, for some people at least.

Although Virgin will be ending its free-to-all Wi-Fi service from Tuesday (29 January), the good news is if you’re a Virgin Media broadband or mobile customer, or are with EE (Orange and T-Mobile), or Vodafone, you’ll be able to continue to use it for gratis. So that’s bad news for O2 and 3 subscribers in particular.

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Valentine’s Day is coming and since nothing says "I love you" more than a Windows Phone, Verizon has decided to mark the occasion by debuting a red edition of Nokia's mid-range Lumia 822 smartphone. The choice of color will certainly help the handset stand out, seeing as the 822 is otherwise only available in sober shades -- black, white, and grey.

The small red is available to buy from Big Red now, either online, or from a Verizon Wireless retail store, and can be picked up for free on a new two-year contract.

The Windows Phone 8 model features 4G LTE connectivity, a 4.3-inch display with an 800 by 480 resolution, and a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It also has an 8MP back-facing camera (capable of 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second) and a 1.2MP front-facing camera.

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Ever since leaked ROMs started to surface, more than two months ago, it was obvious that Samsung was planning to officially release Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for the popular Galaxy S II smartphone. The only question at the time was: When?

At the time of writing this article Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, build number JZO54K, is available for the international variant of the Galaxy S II (codename "I9100") in Spain, with other European markets likely to follow in the upcoming period. The available official distribution comes hot off the press as it ships with a January 14 time-stamp.

With the latest official build, Galaxy S II owners can expect a revamped Touch Wiz skin, with design cues borrowed from the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II user interfaces. The most noteworthy improvements over the previous build, based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, include Project Butter for increased responsiveness and fluidity, redesigned lockscreen, and new widgets, as well as an updated notification bar with a higher toggle selection.

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Most analysts, journalists and pundits use the new year to rattle off lists of what might be. Well, my inside sources were on vacation over the holidays and then at the Consumer Electronics Show. This week I finally hooked up with them and can finally make some safe bets on what's ahead. The delay gives me one-month edge on everyone else -- 11 to be right.

You will be shocked by this 2013 will-be list. BetaNews uses nothing but the finest sources, culled through constant pestering, home phone calls and secret online and parking garage meetings. With that, I present the Big 5.

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Firefox OS is anything but a secret with Mozilla releasing important details down the road since its unveiling and even an eye-opening operating system simulator, the latter introduced little more than two months ago. Frankly, the only important missing piece of the puzzle is the hardware on which Firefox OS is designed to run.

Mozilla decided to shed some light on the matter and through Geeksphone, that works in conjunction with Telefonica, revealed two developer preview phones, dubbed Keon and Peak. Spoiler alert: If you're hoping to see two LG Optimus G Pro devices in disguise you're in for a big surprise.

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On Tuesday, Japanese carrier NTT DOCOMO took the wraps off its new smartphone and tablet lineup, arriving in the Spring. From the significant number of new devices that will be launched starting from January 25, one stands out from the rest -- the new LG Optimus G Pro smartphone.

NTT DOCOMO's decision to unveil the Optimus G Pro shows unfortunate timing, seeing as on the same day LG revealed plans to introduce its current flagship handset, the Optimus G, into more than 50 new markets, starting with Singapore at the end of January.

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