Phones - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

  • What smartphones will be like in 2012

    Since the advent of the first modern smartphone--arguably the original Apple iPhone in 2007--the power of these mobile computing devices that also happen to make phone calls has advanced by leaps and bounds.

  • Want Siri on your Android phone? Try these apps

    Wouldn't you like to have your very own gofer dedicated to doing all the menial tasks you hate? That's a big part of the appeal of the iPhone 4S: Siri, the voice-driven virtual assistant, turns anyone with a couple hundred bucks into a CEO attended by a full-time lackey. But can you get the same kind of slavish devotion from an Android phone?

  • Apple iOS: Why it's the most secure OS, period

    In June 2007, Apple released the iPhone, and the device quickly took off to become a major brand in the smartphone market. Yet when the iPhone shipped, security on the mobile operating system was nearly nonexistent. Missing from the initial iOS (then called iPhone OS) were many of the security features that modern-day desktop software has as a matter of course, such as data-execution protection (DEP) and address-space layout randomization (ASLR). Apple's cachet lured security researchers to test the platform, and in less than a month, a trio had released details on the first vulnerability: an exploitable flaw in the mobile Safari browser.

  • HTC Android tablet: The pen makes it special

    HTC has posted a new promotional video for its upcoming Android tablet, which will either be named the Flyer--its moniker in the video--or the smartphone-like Evo View 4G when it arrives this summer.

  • HTC ThunderBolt 4G smartphone: Hefty but fast

    Even by the new standards of cell phone advertising, the run-up to the HTC ThunderBolt -- Verizon's first 4G LTE smartphone -- was elaborate and expensive. Gatefold ads in mass-market magazines and high-profile TV spots on the Oscars, NASCAR and college basketball all proclaimed that there was a new 4G phone coming from Verizon, but not much else. Inquiries made of HTC and Verizon were met with official shrugs. The company spent many millions of dollars advertising a phone and didn't tell anyone when it would be on the shelves.

  • Six things I love about Google's Android 3.0

    Android has always frustrated me. I've tracked Google's mobile operating system ever since its debut on the T-Mobile G1, and time and again I've seen new versions fall short of overhauling the interface into a clean, user-friendly experience that can compete with -- and push -- Apple's iOS.

  • Motorola Xoom: To buy or not to buy?

    To buy or not to buy? That's the question right now as the Motorola Xoom, Google's first Android Honeycomb tablet, gets ready to make its grand debut.

  • Why there's no stopping the Android train

    It's a rare week indeed that doesn't see the emergence of some fresh news of Android's ascendance, but lately the evidence has been coming particularly fast and furious, suggesting that there really is no stopping the mobile platform--at least not anytime soon.

  • The top 5 smartphones of MWC 2011

    As Mobile World Congress 2011 draws to a close, it's time to take stock of the plethora of smartphones and tablet PCs we saw for the first time. Tomorrow, we'll bring you the best tablet PCs of MWC 2011, but here, in no particular order, are smartphones that stood out at MWC 2011. Sadly, they didn't include a Facebook phone or an iPhone nano - but when and if such things exist, you'll read it here first.

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