Mobile & Wireless

Facebook first began testing a “Buy” button within the News Feed in July, and payments startup Stripe has been tasked with powering the technology, Re/code has learned. The “Buy” button, which allows Facebook users to purchase goods that are featured in ads or posts on the social network, is still in its test phase, but Continue Reading →

The first scientific study of driving while texting with Google Glass found that the hands-free eyewear is no safer to use on the road than a smartphone. “When you look at how fast people react to an unexpected traffic event – how fast they slam on their brakes, we didn’t find a statistically significant difference Continue Reading →

By now you’ve probably heard about #Bendgate, the silly name for an issue that some new iPhone 6 Plus owners have been reporting where the device warped while in their pockets. So far the problem seems to be fairly isolated, but we struck up an Apple support chat anyway to see how it’s covered by Continue Reading →

Instagram’s first update to its timelapse app Hyperlapse will let you create mini-travelogues of your face hurtling through the world. Hyperlapse now lets you capture timelapses with the front-facing camera to create what Instagram calls a #Selfielapse. The app also now supports iPhone 6 and 6 Plus screen sizes. Instagram tells TechCrunch that since Hyperlapse’s Continue Reading →

Imagine you just dropped your phone in your toilet. Quick — what do you do? If you said race to the kitchen to throw your phone in rice, you’re probably like most people. According to a new study from TekDry, though, using rice to dry your phone doesn’t actually get the job done. In fact, it’s LESS Continue Reading →

Decades from now, maybe we’ll forget about smartphones and start communicating via electronic telepathy. In a new experiment, scientists were able to show that one person could communicate to another–thousands of miles away–without typing or talking. The technology is rudimentary at the moment and a little more complicated than someone simply reading another’s thoughts. In Continue Reading →

Apple Pay what again? Walmart is getting into the mobile banking space, the company announced on Wednesday, through a partnership with financial services provider Green Dot Corporation. The company’s low-cost checking account product called GoBank is now being made available exclusively at Walmart, offering customers an overdraft-free bank account with no minimum balance requirements. The service Continue Reading →

Nokia may have been gradually building out its mapping empire for more than 10 years, but it’s only now preparing to really ramp up its presence in the mobile navigation realm as it prepares to launch for Android and iOS this year, only months after selling its Devices and Services division to Microsoft. But how Continue Reading →

If you have Insteon gear set up in your home (a fair number of people do) and you also are toting a Microsoft handset (a smaller number) then you can control your home via voice command using Microsoft’s Cortana personal digital assistant. Since I’m a huge fan of voice control in the home, and we’re Continue Reading →

Apple says it’s working “around the clock” on a fix to its 8.0.1 update, which went out Wednesday and proceeded to wreak havoc for owners of the company’s newest iPhones. Apple now says a working version of that update will be ready “in the next few days.” In the meantime, the company has outlined a Continue Reading →