mobile phones

mobile phones - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

  • 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.

  • Android vs. iOS vs. Windows Phone

    The past year has been a remarkable one for smartphones, with the meteoric rise of Google's Android OS, the restart of Microsoft's mobile strategy with its much-ballyhooed release of Windows Phone 7 and the continuing success of Apple's iPhone, buoyed by its new availability to Verizon subscribers. Never has there been so much choice in the smartphone market. As a result, hype and overstatement have been the order of the day.

  • Apple iOS 4.3: A guide to getting started

    If you haven't synced your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad in the last 24 hours, you've got a surprise waiting for you: Apple has released iOS 4.3, promising new ways to access iTunes content, a Wi-Fi personal hotspot option and improved browser speeds. If you want to find out how to activate all the new features on your device, here's your getting-started guide to get the most out of iOS 4.3.

  • Steps to secure your smartphone against data theft

    You may already know the basics of Internet security and keeping your personal data private while browsing the Web: Use a firewall, don't open attachments you aren't expecting, and never follow links from strangers. But what about your smartphone? The ease with which security researcher Georgia Weidman was able to infect Android phones with her custom botnet during the 2011 ShmooCon security conference suggests that anyone concerned about the privacy of the personal data stored on their smartphone should think twice before downloading dubious or otherwise untrustworthy apps.

  • 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.

  • Motorola Atrix 4G mightiest smartphone yet?

    The Motorola Xoom was the most advanced tablet that we got to try out at Mobile World Congress. Other tablets, including the HTC Flyer, certainly look promising, but the Xoom is the launch device for the Google Android Honeycomb OS - the version of Android developed specifically for tablets - and the devices on show at MWC were fully working ones used for live demonstrations.

  • 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.

  • Six of the best free Android apps for geeks

    There are a lot of things about Google's Android operating system that appeal to geeks. It's open source, it offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to customising your handset, and, despite not yet matching the iPhone when it comes to the number of apps available, the Android Market continues to grow.

  • Samsung Galaxy S II: Hands-On

    Mobile World Congress hasn't even started, but the next generation of super phones are already being unveiled. Samsung showed off its latest, the Galaxy S II, at its flashy Unpacked event in Barcelona. The Galaxy S II sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a dual-core processor, and a whole new user interface.

  • Why Android users are such a happy lot

    Smartphone users tend to hold strong opinions about the various mobile platforms out there, often displaying feverish loyalty to the one they use and outright disdain for all others.

  • 8pen: Android keyboard app tries something new

    There are apps that I don't want to like, but do. Then there are apps I do want to like, but don't. The 8pen keyboard, unfortunately, belongs in this latter category. I'm a big fan of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking, but the developer needs to go back to the drawing board with this one.

  • Hands on with the Samsung Nexus S

    The first phone to ship with Android 2.3 (also known as "Gingerbread") as the well as the follow-up to last January's Nexus One, the Nexus S is a joint effort between Samsung and Google with some impressive features. The hardware is gorgeous, and Android 2.3 delivers some useful enhancements; but with no support for HSPA+ or expandable memory, the Nexus S falls short of its potential.

  • How Android phones will use Near-Field Communication

    The possibilities seemed endless when Google began hyping near-field communication for Android phones last month. Now, we've got some hard details on what the NFC capabilities in Android version 2.3, known as Gingerbread, will do in the near future.

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