Sony Mobile today announced a new affordable addition to its Xperia smartphone range, the Xperia E. The Xperia E is a compact and competitively priced smartphone that is engineered for simplicity. Available in black, white and pink, the Xperia E boasts outstanding HD Voice quality that makes phone calls clearer than ever before. It also features noise cancellation that filters out background noise so consumers can hold crystal clear conversations in any environment. The Xperia E has also been designed to let consumers stay on top of cost and power consumption. The data usage application monitors how much is being spent and the extended standby mode increases the standby time up to 4 times.

Following it's earlier commitment for Windows Phone 8, Nokia today announced its third, and so far most affordable Windows Phone 8 Lumia smartphone - the Lumia 620. Alongside the flagship Nokia Lumia 920 and mid-range Nokia Lumia 820, the Nokia Lumia 620 offers a more fun, youthful appeal, and compact design. The Nokia Lumia 620 uses a new dual-shot color technique to deliver a variety of striking color and texture effects. Dual-shot adds a second layer of colored, transparent or translucent polycarbonate on top of a base layer to produce secondary color blends and depth effects. With seven different exchangeable shells to choose from, people can adapt the look of their Nokia Lumia 620 to their own personal taste and style.

Today, Verizon Wireless unveiled its latest and U.S.-exclusive Android smartphone, the Droid DNA by HTC. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quadcore CPU at 1.5 GHz, the Droid by HTC is an unmatched combination of speed and performance, which comes with 2 GB of RAM, and HTC Sense 4+ on top Android Jelly Bean. It's rivaling the latest HD TV technology by featuring a revolutionary 5" full HD 1080p super LCD 3 display with rich colors, amazing brightness and the highest resolution and pixel density available on any smartphone. Designed to accentuate the incredible 5" display, the curved, black, softtouch back tapers to a mere 4 mm to feel comfortable in your hand or pocket and the red microgrill sidewalls hint at the power inside.

While today's issued press release isn't unveiling anything except that it suggests that HTC is now out of Apple's line of fire, HTC and Apple said they have reached a global settlement that includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement. The license extends to current and future patents held by both parties. The terms of the settlement are confidential. Therefore nobody knows what HTC has paid Apple or which patents might be shared.

You might have noticed that I'm currently travelling quite frequently by aircraft which means I have to carry and to take care of a lot of boarding passes which allow me to pass TSA, give me access to airline lounges as well as finally allow me to enter my flights. Sure, whenever possible, I'm checking in online from my smartphone and nowadays it's pretty common to receive the boarding pass with a 2D bar code on the phone. No more ticket printing, no more check-ins on airports and there's one handy app I'm using quite frequently recently: PassWallet for Android by Attido Mobile. PassWallet brings support for Apple's Passbook mobile tickets to the Android platform and allows to collect all kind of tickets and coupons.