Smartphones

Chinese authorities believe Google’s Android mobile operating system is too popular in their country and that Google uses its clout to diss Chinese companies. They’d like it if more local companies developed their own operating systems at some point down the road. At the moment, about 80 percent of Chinese smartphones run the Android OS. Continue Reading →

Controlling your home theater system used to be easy—you simply told your kid to turn the knob and presto, Honeymooners. But today’s home theater packed with feature-rich TVs, cable boxes, AV receivers, and streaming boxes—and all demanding their own remotes—there’s no way the little guy can keep up. Instead, replace your pile of remotes with Continue Reading →

  Traveling internationally? Verizon customer? Excellent… I hope you brought your check book… this one’s gonna hurt! I have an iPhone 5 and an iPad mini – Verizon has trained me to use them both with wild abandon. I have unlimited data on my grandfathered phone plan, unlimited txt messages and more voice minutes than Continue Reading →

To our delight, the recent ruling that phone subsidy unlocks are no longer protected by copyright law has sparked a lot of attention from the general public as well as the US government. However, some of the carriers are predictably not too excited by the amount of negative light it sheds on their own unlock Continue Reading →

This is neat: A new app called RemotePlay makes it easy to beam photos, music, videos and even documents from your mobile device to other devices in the same network. RemotePlay’s Android version launched on on Google Play Thursday, and an iOS version is close to being launched as well. I had a chance to Continue Reading →

Even though there are more Android phones than iPhones in the United States, the number and variety of Android apps lags compared to Apple’s offerings. For instance, Android users had to wait a year before they got Instagram or Pinterest apps. New research helps explain why. There’s got to be more to the story than Continue Reading →

When iOS 6.1 was released, it introduced an as-of-yet unfixed lock screen bug that could give an attacker with physical access to an iPhone an entry to the phone dialer app and all of the information therein, including contact information, recent and missed calls, and voicemails. Now, a similar bug has been discovered by a Continue Reading →

We’ve known for a while that carriers have been itching for a chance to ditch smartphone subsidies, but Verizon CFO Fran Shammo now expects that smartphone subsidies will decrease naturally over the next two to three years with no added cost to consumers. FierceWireless reports that Shammo on Monday told the the Deutsche Bank 2013 Continue Reading →

Depending who you ask, Foursquare could be in a great place as far as growth. Or in a bad place. We’ve heard about potential acquisitions, difficulty fundraising and everything in between. One thing we do know is that Foursquare needs your check ins to survive. After pushing consumer-facing features that allow you to dive deep Continue Reading →

It’s already been a year since the Android Market was renamed Google Play, and the folks in Mountain View are offering up a boatload of free party favors throughout the week to celebrate. Technically, the store’s birthday is March 6th (yes, it’s a Pisces), but Page and Co. have already begun serving up free music Continue Reading →