© Wade Rockett

Microsoft's Windows Phone smartphone will be moving to the Verizon network with the HTC Trophy. The company is heavily promoting the phone's ability to integrate with Xbox Live, which lets users access their gamer avatar and challenge others online. In fact, as part of a special promotion Verizon is throwing in a free Xbox console game for anyone who purchases the HTC Trophy before July 15.

The HTC Trophy is not the first Windows Phone to run on a CDMA carrier, but the Trophy has the potential to boost Microsoft's smartphone prospects during a particularly difficult phase in its competition with iPhone and Android OS. Windows Phone originally appeared on GSM-based networks like AT&T, and has sold 1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011. This pales in comparison with the number of Apple and Google devices activated during the same period, but it is selling at a comparable rate to other first-gen platforms.

© Razvan Antonescu

There are apps for everything, but till now we didn't have an app that could help you find the right kind of app for your smartphone. Yahoo has become the first search engine to offer a special search for smartphone apps. Most smartphone app searches on the app turn up with promoted apps on the first page, and it's not easy for smartphone users to get access to lesser-known, but better-functioning apps.
Talking about the new step, Yahoo's vice president of search and marketplace said, "The one thing that keeps showing up in our search logs around the globe is that people are installing more and more apps, and they are trying to find more apps." Yahoo's new search facility will help smartphone users search for apps within Apples app store and Google's Android Market also.

© LGEPR

As the countless ads suggest, you can now buy Verizon's 4G LTE smartphone. But we suggest that you wait for a while and let the 4G smartphone services get better and cheaper before you go for the fastest smartphone in the market. The chief drawback is that the 4G services is not available all the time; when you do connect you will be rewarded by 6mbs download speed on your smartphone, but your battery will run out very quickly (unless you are really lucky).
The other problem is that you've got very few choices: there are just three 4G smartphone devices, they are all single core, and they are almost the same. It makes sense to wait for a few months for the service and smartphone devices to get better.