Symbian is officially dead, in North America and the UK at least. Here lays a mobile OS which paved the way for the smartphones of today and is now destined to be remembered as another missed opportunity in a line of failures from Nokia. Nokia’s final Symbian phone was the Astound, which had the misfortune of launching directly after the announcement of the company's adoption of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 mobile OS. Thanks to the upcoming closure of its ...

A hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could transform medical sensing, computer gaming and even spy operations, according to a US study published Thursday. The micro-electronics technology, called an epidermal electronic system (EES), was developed by an international team of researchers from the United States, China and Singapore, and is described in the journal Science. "It's a technology that blurs the distinction between electronics and biology," said co-author John Rogers, a professor in materials science and ...

Google has added games, including the hugely popular Angry Birds, to the fast-growing social network vying with Facebook to be the hub for people's online lives. Along with global game sensation Angry Birds, the initial array of offerings available at Google+ included Bejeweled Blitz, Zynga Poker, and Dragon Age Legends. A standalone version of Crime City lets Google+ members play as a ruthless crime boss. A Facebook version of Crime City leapt to popularity after being released in September of last year. Just ...

Earlier this week Facebook launched a mobile messaging app for iPhone and Android, creating some buzz and lots of angry buzzing. It's not a dramatic move, but almost certainly a very important move for Facebook as it looks to become even more entrenched in our daily lives - and make ever more connections between Facebook members and their real-life identities. The app does roughly what messaging featre in the existing Facebook app does - except that it takes a few clicks ...

Even though I've been connected to Xbox Live and the PSN network for a while now, there is one aspect of those services which I’ve never got around to taking advantage of: downloadable games. Both the Xbox 360 and the PSN have a marketplace that offers a number of games which are only available through them. Downloadable games tend to be smaller in terms of spectacle and “ooh-aaah” visuals, but many of them pack it in where it's most needed: ...

Video Review: The US$500 XZ-1 looks serious. Little adornment, and a clever selection of materials and textures means it looks like a sturdy metal bomb-proof camera of yore (i.e. about 1980), even though most of the body is a rugged plastic. So it’s tough, but not too heavy - and sports a big light-gobbling Zuiko lens. Roger Hislop reviews Olympus' return to the enthusiast compact camera market. [jwplayer mediaid="30931"]

Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC plans to pay about $309 million for a 51 percent stake in Beats Electronics, the celebrity-centric marketing operation for higher-end headphones, fronted by hip hop artist and producer Dr Dre. According to HTC, the company is working with Beats Electronics LLC to create a line of HTC headsets offering "high performance sound" to be available this fall, a company statement said. Manufacturing for Beat's headphones is done by Monster with lines including Beats by Dr Dre ...

Hewlett-Packard, in an attempt to steal the thunder from the iPad 2 has slashed the prices of its TouchPad tablet; the new price for the 16GB and 32GB versions are US$400 and US$500 respectively. These are both US$100 down from the original prices. The TouchPad makes a strong case for itself as it attempts to become a rival to the iPad 2 thanks to its ace-in-the-hole, native Flash support. This puts it in a stronger category in terms of browser ...

Back-to-back Review: The Samsung NX11 and Canon SX30 bridge cameras are aimed at the same photographer, but take different approaches. Both are very light and very compact, ideal for doing the tourist or family holiday thing. One goes with an interchangeable lens system, one with a beast of a lens that does everything. Ish. Cameras in the bridge camera segment have, for a long time, been squeezed between their little brothers, the steadily more powerful and capable point-and-shoots, and big brother ...

Japan's Sony and Panasonic and South Korea's Samsung Electronics have announced that they will jointly develop new standards for glasses used to watch 3D images on television, computer and movie screens. The three Asian consumer electronics giants, working with European technology firm X6D Limited, said their collaboration will cover a technology called "3D active glasses", according to their joint statement. The universal glasses -- which can be used on TVs from all three firms -- will go on sale in 2012 and ...