One of the advantages of choosing a shiny new Android phone over those Apple handsets is the extra scope for home screen customisation. If you're stuck for inspiration or wondering how to get started, here are 10 ways of tricking out your home screen and other parts of the Android OS.

Android smartphone sales are picking up while Apple's iOS handsets have lost marketshare in Australia. Meanwhile, Samsung, which is the dominating brand in the Android space locally, is losing its foothold as other phone makers saw a steady growth year-on-year. Here are the details.

Microsoft has announced it will gut 1850 more jobs from its smartphone hardware business this year, with the bulk of job losses coming from Microsoft Mobile Oy in Finland. The $950 million business write-off (or "streamlining", as Microsoft calls it) comes a week after the company sold off its feature phone division to Foxconn in a $350 million fire sale. It was nice knowing you, Nokia.

Android updates take forever. While that's OK most of the time, it can be a problem when a new, terrible security vulnerability is found. Whether you want to protect your phone, or just can't wait for new updates, here's how to skip the line and update your Nexus phone (and occasionally other devices) manually.