Smartphones

The US National Security Agency can reportedly sniff out every last bit of data from your iPhone, according to leaked NSA documents published by German magazine Der Spiegel. Known as DROPOUTJEEP, the spyware is said to be one of the tools employed by the NSA’s ANT (Advanced or Access Network Technology) division to gain backdoor Continue Reading →

The dropping of the ball on Times Square is a tradition that goes back more than a 100 years, and every year, millions of people from all around the world turn in to watch it live. Of course it’s on TV, but you can also tune in without cable, or without a TV at all, Continue Reading →

Fitbit updated its iOS app on Monday, bringing, perhaps most significantly, the ability to track “basic” activity on an iPhone 5s, without the company’s proprietary wearable. Using Apple’s motion-sensing M7 chip, the app’ll track your steps, distance and the number of calories you’ve burned. You can also utilize features like food and weight tracking, fitness Continue Reading →

After winning the Black Friday shopping war against Android, iPhones and iPads scored a similar “win” when it came to Christmas Day online shopping in the United States. According to data from IBM analytics, which tracked about 800 nationwide retail sites, Christmas Day online sales were up 16.5% compared to last year. Mobile traffic was Continue Reading →

I don’t know how many people found an Android smartphone among their holiday gifts although I suspect it was more than a few. There’s no lack of good options available from Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola and others. No matter what Android phone you might have unwrapped, however, there are a few easy things you can Continue Reading →

Apple on Tuesday was granted two iOS device-targeted patents, one for a “touch and hover” display panel that is made more accurate by compensating for signal drift, and another for heart rate monitor that can be seamlessly integrated into a handset. The newer of Tuesday’s patents, Apple’s extensive U.S. Patent No. 8,614,693 for “Touch and Continue Reading →

Welcome to our annual New Smartphone Set Up Guide. Someone thought enough of you to help replace that dumb ol’ brick you’ve been lugging around these past few years. Now what? Out of the box, most smartphones aren’t all that smart. In fact, many can be downright idiotic. Prepping your new pocket ‘puter means some Continue Reading →

I love year-end lists! It’s my favorite thing about turning over the calendar. Here are my picks for the best iOS games on iPhone and iPad of 2013. Ridiculous Fishing ($2.99 for both the iPhone and iPad version) Ridiculous Fishing is my vote for Best iOS Game of the Year. A ridiculously (no pun intended?) simple Continue Reading →

Two big shifts happened in the American cellphone industry over the past year: Cellular networks got faster, and smartphone screens got bigger. As a result, people’s consumption of mobile data nearly doubled. In the United States, consumers used an average of 1.2 gigabytes a month over cellular networks this year, up from 690 megabytes a Continue Reading →

As improbable as it might seem, we might be getting a new iPhone much sooner than we’d expected in 2014. Digitimes‘ supply chain sources claim that Apple is “rumored to be planning a larger size iPhone for May 2014, using a 20nm processor manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.” While Digitimes doesn’t give any more Continue Reading →