Is Apple putting its own interests over the public good? Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

BlackBerry CEO John Chen has waded in on the the question of whether or not Apple is right to refuse to help the government access smartphone data for security purposes.

“For years, government officials have pleaded to the technology industry for help,” Chen wrote in a recent blogpost. “Yet [the requests] have been met with disdain.”

Chen’s position is simple: that, “We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good.”

Google’s new Nexus smartphones are available at a $50 discount. Photo: Google

To celebrate the holiday season, Google is offering a $50 discount on the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X through its Google Store in the U.S. While the company had previously discounted the Nexus 5X by as much as $80, this is the first time that it has given any kind of discount on the Huawei-made Nexus 6P.

Split-screen multitasking could come to Android sooner than expected. Photo: Google

Google recently revealed that it is working to bring split-screen multitasking to pure Android, and now “trusted sources” are promising it will arrive next June with Android 6.1 Marshmallow.

Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon 810 will have an all-new GPU. Photo: Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 820 chipset, which is a significant improvement over the Snapdragon 810 in almost every way, could be exclusive to Samsung at first.

A new report claims the South Korean company has agreed a deal that provides it with exclusive rights to the chip until April 2016, preventing rival device makers from using it before then.

Not quite the One A9, but still pretty swish. Photo: Anzhuo

HTC’s new One X9 handset has leaked out again — this time in new, high-quality photos that reveal its impressive design in all its glory. The device is reminiscent of the new One A9, but its metal unibody design isn’t quite as iPhone-like.