Smartphones

Responding to a wave of consolidation in the telecommunications industry, the nation’s third- and fourth-largest wireless phone operators have agreed on the terms of a deal to join forces. Sprint and T-Mobile have talked about a combination for years but continued to put it off, each preoccupied with other deals, and concerned about scrutiny from Continue Reading →

Amazon took to social media and YouTube Wednesday with a cagey promotion for an upcoming launch event, setting off rampant Internet speculation that its long-rumored smartphone is about to be announced. “Join Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos for our launch event,” the company said on Twitter. The event will be June 18 in Seattle, which is Continue Reading →

Most of us want to stay in touch when we’re abroad – after all, part of the fun is sharing our adventures (or misadventures) in real time by texting, posting to Facebook, Instagram-ing sights (or meals), tweeting or even making an old-school phone call. And our smartphones have taken the place of so many gadgets Continue Reading →

Apple has added a new button to the iPhone lock screen in iOS 8. Tucked into the bottom lefthand corner of the screen — across from the camera button — the new icon provides quick access to various apps based on location. So far, beta users have reported seeing the button pop up when they Continue Reading →

Count me among the many excited by Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday. A bunch of the new iOS features seemed great, I love getting free OS X updates for my MacBook and the developers’ reactions to the dev stuff Apple showed off left me looking forward to apps that’ll launch in the near future. Even Continue Reading →

Thanks to the new Marco Polo app, available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, you can now find your hidden device by shouting “Marco!” loudly. It will respond “Polo!,” so you know where to look for it. Silently running until you need it, Marco Polo can be customized with 30 different voice options. The Continue Reading →

You could (and probably should) wait for the wide release this fall before downloading iOS 8. But if you absolutely can’t wait, here’s how to get Apple’s brand new iOS 8 beta on your phone right now. Before you do anything, backup your device. It’s a good idea anyway before updating, and considering how temperamental Continue Reading →

Last year, Apple revealed the biggest change to-date of iOS, the mobile operating system that many of us have been using for years. Now, the true evolution begins. Jony Ive and the iOS team have had plenty of time to listen to feedback and dig deeper into features introduced before Ive ever took control of Continue Reading →

At Monday’s WWDC conference, Apple made a string of announcements that essentially turns all your devices into one, synchronized, Apple-fueled monster. The most notable of these is the fact that Apple is more or less literally turning you computer into a second phone, allowing you to receive both calls and texts on your Mac. The Continue Reading →

Taiwanese PC maker Asus has added laptop to the forms that its latest Transformer phone-tablet hybrid can adopt—potentially taunting Microsoft and Google once again with the device’s ability to run both Windows and Android. The Transformer Book V combines a 5-inch smartphone running Android 4.4 with a 12.5-inch Windows 8.1 tablet. The smartphone slides into Continue Reading →