Tag: SMARTPHONES

Are you a glutton for punishment? Do you enjoy bleeding ears? Have you not tired of Katy Perry, the Bieber and Kanye? Well, you fans of the satanic invention known as Auto-Tune, take note: you can now sound like a soulless robot using your Android phone. One of the coders over at XDA Developers has released MicDroid , a free app that will melodize your mutterings, à la the similar T-Pain ...

If you happened to buy a new Droid X yesterday, you may have noticed a couple of apps from Blockbuster and Electronic Arts pre-installed on your device. No, you didn't ask for them, but Motorola and its T-Mobile Verizon carrier thought you might like them. The Blockbuster app provides a map of local retailers and allows users to download films from the company's catalog. Good luck trying to ...

This morning, Steve Jobs took to the stage in Cupertino to address what many had dubbed "Antennagate." The iPhone 4's issues with reception and dropped calls have led to a public outcry, and Consumer Reports even decided it couldn't recommend the faulty phone. After weeks of media and users complaining that touching the iPhone 4 in just the right place could quickly cut your reception from five ...

The modern smartphone possesses the ability to surf the internet, scan retinas, fly a hovercraft and even make calls using your left hand. So, you'd think getting one of these hunks of plastic to send a sensible text would be a cinch. It's not, however. Auto-correction software for phones too often mutates a word into something completely nonsensical or embarrassing. [Ed. Note: We once had a ...

Road SMS' is an Android app from the Samsung App Store, and we hate hate HATE it. It ingeniously encourages the silly, rude and sometimes lethal practice of texting-while-walking. 'Road SMS' purports to be some kind of safe alternative because it uses your phone's camera as a video background while you're tapping away at that text that is so damn important that you can't stop walking. Oh, ...

BlackBerry isn't in danger of becoming irrelevant anytime soon thanks to its deeply entrenched enterprise install base. But it would be foolish to pretend there were no threats to the throne. Apple's iOS and Google's Android have been adding enterprise-friendly features, and Microsoft will soon be introducing the exciting looking Windows Phone 7 later this year. Recent teasers of BlackBerry OS 6 ...

An uproar ensued when AT&T discontinued its unlimited data plan last month, and the company defended itself by arguing that 98-percent of its customers never used more than the 2GB allotted by the DataPro plan. Turns out, AT&T might even have been understating its case against the unlimited plan if the numbers from a new Nielsen study are to be believed. Nielsen has been tracking the ...

The Pew Research Center recently conducted another installment in its Internet and American Life Project. The survey indicates that mobile usage is -- in dramatic fashion -- seamlessly and increasingly integrating with U.S. culture, as cell owners continue to diversify their phone habits, particularly those involving media capabilities. According to the survey, 40-percent of cell owners now ...

Since hitting the market in late 2008, Android has had one glaring omission from its repertoire of form factors: a candy-bar style, portrait QWERTY phone like a BlackBerry. Those who fell in love with their BlackJack or Dash back in the day, and are desperate to upgrade to a modern mobile OS like Android finally have an option: the Motorola Charm. The Charm is the spiritual successor to the ...

Well, it looks like the gloves are officially off. In a full-page ad that ran in the New York Times on June 30th, Motorola not only managed to laud the Droid X's sparkling new features, but also to take a cheap shot at the iPhone's well documented reception issues. As Engadget reports, Motorola threw down the gauntlet in just two sentences, which read: "It comes with a double antenna design. The ...

Thanks to Apple's rabid PR push and to media coverage, almost every little detail of the iPhone 4 has been documented -- except for one minor factoid, that is. The phone, like several other luxury electronics on the market, may contain minerals supplied by bloodthirsty Congolese paramilitary groups. Most of us should recall the controversy over the origins of so-called "blood diamonds," or ...

The Obama '08 campaign helped to pioneer the use of mobile applications in political campaigns. Now, the remnants of that grassroots group, Organizing for America (OFA), is releasing a new iPhone and iPad app that will connect voters with Democratic representatives and candidates -- just in time for the fall elections. The official OFA app has all the features you'd expect from a political ...

Well AT&T has the iPhone 4, Sprint has the Evo 4G and T-Mobile... well T-Mobile is really nice. Now, Verizon can play the super phone game too with the official announcement of the Droid X. The specs are exactly what were expected: a 4.3-inch screen, 1Ghz processor, 8-megapixel camera with flash and HD video capabilities, HDMI out and the usual assortment of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. On the ...

When Samsung's creative team was sitting around brainstorming names for the company's newest phone, they obviously wanted a moniker that would stick: something to entice its target audience, pique the interest of onlookers and, apparently, annoy the living bejeesus out of us. So, they decided to name it ':)'. Mission accomplished. Sure, the new phone features a QWERTY keyboard, runs T-Mobile's ...

Tech companies have the unbecoming habit of giving their newest gizmos misleadingly awesome names. Perhaps the most guilty party is Google, with its mobile operating system Android. While Android is perhaps one of the few viable competitors to Apple's iOS, which powers the iPhone, having a G-juiced smartphone in your pocket is not nearly as cool as having R2-D2 by your side. That being the case, ...