Smartphones

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it is tripling the number of U.S. stores in a pilot program that lets shoppers scan items with their iPhones and pay at self-checkout counters. Walmart’s “Scan & Go” program will soon be in more than 200 stores, up from about 70. The pilot began near its home office in Bentonville, Continue Reading →

There was one big thing missing from Samsung’s weird-yet-campy Samsung Galaxy S 4 unveiling last week: Google, the creator of the operating system the S 4 is running. While the Galaxy S 4 has Google’s latest build of Android, Google has gone largely unmentioned. At the Samsung launch event, Android was hardly even a footnote. Continue Reading →

We’ve seen some rumors flying around that Google’s upcoming “X Phone” will have customizable hardware options that will essentially let users pick some of the key features they want in a mobile device. While such rumblings are still firmly in the “rumor” category, former Apple evangelist and current advisor at Google’s Motorola division Guy Kawasaki Continue Reading →

The next major addition to Samsung’s Galaxy Note lineup — the Galaxy Note III “phablet” — may be set to debut at the IFA 2013 conference, which kicks off on September 2nd this year. The report comes from SamMobile, which has a good track record when reporting details about unannounced Samsung devices. The blog also Continue Reading →

The United States has outstanding LTE coverage compared to other markets, however worldwide carriers are beginning to upgrade their networks to deliver the high-speed wireless technology to their customers. According to a new report from ABI Research, the total mobile data traffic for 2012 amounted to 13,412 petabytes, an increase of 69% from 2011 when Continue Reading →

There was a spate of Windows Phone scaremongering over the weekend, after speculation that the platform would be discontinued in mid-2014. This came about after it was noticed that Microsoft had published Windows Phone’s support lifecycle, just as the company does with almost all its other software. Per Microsoft: Windows Phone 7.8 is supported until Continue Reading →

The HTC One, the beautiful beast of an Android, is delayed because suppliers no longer consider HTC a “tier one company”. Which basically means that component companies only care about working with Apple and Samsung. Which basically means that we’re going to have to wait a little longer to get our hands on the best Continue Reading →

Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 might not offer much in the way of an exciting new exterior design, but inside, it’s a completely different story. The retooled internals on the U.S. version of the Galaxy S 4 were put to the test by benchmark specialists Primate Labs and the results are impressive, to say the least. Continue Reading →

Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 would be the “ultimate smartphone” if it ran Apple’s iOS and accessed the Cupertino, Calif. company’s app ecosystem, a clearly-impressed analyst said today. Others were less likely to think that Samsung’s introduction yesterday of the new 5-in. “phablet” is a danger to Apple’s lucrative iPhone business, with some dismissing talk that Continue Reading →

It looks like Google is planning to establish a section in its Google Play Store for newspapers and other subscription-based news providers, à la Apple’s Newsstand. The blog Android Police uncovered a bit of Javascript on the Google Play Store website, which references “Google Play News.” The code suggests users will be able to subscribe Continue Reading →