Tag: SMARTPHONE

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have called for a grand jury investigation to determine whether or not smartphone apps have been illegally gathering and spreading users' personal information. According to the Wall Street Journal, federal authorities are looking into whether or not app manufacturers properly disclosed the kinds of personal information their apps collect from users, and whether ...

Android users should be on the lookout for a malicious little app that's circulating around some file-sharing sites. The app, called 'Walk and Text,' advertises itself as a legitimate app of the same name, which uses a smartphone's camera to help guide texters as they walk. Unlike the real 'Walk and Text,' though, the fake app is available for free, and offers version 1.3.7 (which doesn't ...

IMDB will release a major update to its app for iPhone and iPad today, designed to allow users to follow a movie's development from start to finish. With the update, users will be able to receive news on films and TV shows from the moment they're greenlit and up until the second they're produced via updates from IMDB. Selected projects can be added to a user's 'Watchlist,' which will display ...

Amazon launched its own Android app store today, despite facing legal challenges from Apple. The Amazon Appstore will provide a new way for Android users to purchase apps for their mobile and tablet devices, while offering a few features unique to Amazon. Because the online retailer already enjoys a strong consumer base, Amazon will be able to integrate its own marketing and recommendation ...

In the largest deal the wireless industry has seen since 2004, AT&T has agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in cash and stocks. In acquiring T-Mobile from parent company Deutsche Telekom, AT&T will pick up an extra 34 million wireless customers, and will provide service to about 43-percent of all U.S. cell phones, making it the country's largest network operator. At the end of ...

As it did last year around this time, the Associated Press is making some tech-term related changes to its style guide. Hence forth 'e-mail' will be 'email,' 'cell phone' will be 'cellphone' and 'smart phone' will be 'smartphone.' Game-changing? No. But it's interesting to see the language evolve. The terms are no longer merely abbreviations for things like electronic mail or cellular telephone -- ...

Have you been tethering your smartphone without shelling out for AT&T's subscription plan? Your days appear to be numbered. The company has started cracking down on unauthorized tethering, sending out an obnoxious email that tells users to cut it out or they'll be automatically enrolled in a more expensive data plan. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. It's something AT&T ...

A guy in Idaho has been arrested for pretending to be a police officer -- with his smartphone. On Saturday night, Alexander A. Welch allegedly used an app that flashes blue and red lights to trick another driver into thinking he was a police officer. It worked. The motorist pulled over, and Welch sped away. Understandably annoyed, the driver followed Welch's car, and called the real police. ...

YouTube user BITcrash44 recently posted a video in which he allegedly plasters his image all over Times Square's TV screens, using only his iPhone and a transmitter. If the video is to be believed, BITcrash44 apparently created a transmitter capable of taking over any screen within a certain vicinity, allowing him to replace some of Times Square's ads with his own video. After recording a ...

Many countries print their currencies in different sizes or shapes in order to help the blind and visually impaired pay for things with greater confidence. In the U.S., however, a $1 bill and a $100 bill have exactly the same dimensions, making it difficult for America's blind to tell the difference. Fortunately, though, there's a new iPhone app that can help. With the LookTel Money Reader, ...

On Friday, the Los Angeles Police Department launched the Tracking and Automated Graffiti Removal System (TAGRS) -- a program that allows law enforcement officials to track graffiti artists/vandals with their smartphones. Under TAGRS, graffiti-cleaning crew members can use their smartphones to take photos of any vandalism, and upload the images to a LAPD database. The photos are then analyzed, ...

It looks like the iPhone 4 isn't the only smartphone that's susceptible to the so-called 'death grip.' A recent study from the University of Bristol found that placing your thumb over any smartphone's antenna can reduce the device's sensitivity by up to 100 fold. The researchers also found that placing a buffer between your thumb and the antenna doesn't mitigate this signal-reducing effect. It ...

Researchers at Harvard University and MIT have developed a handheld scanner that can detect potential cancer cells and diagnose them with an iPhone app -- all in about an hour. According to Physorg, the scanner uses antibodies and magnetic particles to identify suspicious lumps. But rather than biopsy the entire mass, the scanner, which costs just $200 to create, extracts cells from all over ...

Symptom: You reach into your pocket or bag, and, well, it's empty! Diagnosis: Beyond the understandable distress of losing a pricey smartphone, laptop or tablet PC, the real trauma is the sudden and unfettered access afforded to the slippery-fingered jerk who took it. The cost of a new laptop is meager compared to the personal and even financial havoc that a motivated thief can wreak ...

The Wall Street Journal has confirmed rumors that Apple is developing a new line of smaller and cheaper iPhones. Those trusty old "sources close to the development" tell the Journal that the new device will be about half the size of the iPhone 4, and will be sold to service providers at about half the price of existing iPhones. The new phone, which goes by the codename "N97," will apparently ...