Phones

Watch This Renegade Phone Pull Off Its Own Aerobatic Stunts at the X Games

We’ve all broken our share of phones, and generally the only day-to-day danger they face is a three or four foot fall, or maybe the odd puddle of water. Norwegian X-Games competitor PK Hunder’s phone had a bit more to deal with when he lost it in mid-air, half-way through a 720 during practice yesterday.…

Unlocking Your Phone Is Illegal Starting Tomorrow

You may remember that last year, the DMCA exemption on unlocking phones was smacked down. Well it’s going into effect this Saturday. So starting tomorrow, unlocking your phone will be officially illegal. Yay. https://gizmodo.com/jailbreaking-is-now-legal-for-smartphones-but-not-table-5955130 Unlocking phones without the express consent of the carrier who locked them became illegal thanks to edits to DMCA exemptions back…

So long, Symbian! Nokia announced this morning that the 808 PureView was the last phone it’ll ship with the aging OS. https://gizmodo.com/nokia-808-pureview-hands-on-a-superb-camera-with-a-ph-5912940

Nokia Is Profitable Once More

For once, Nokia’s earnings report isn’t the kind of thing which makes investors weep like small children. In the fourth quarter of 2012 the Finns became successful once more—netting a $585 million profit. For some perspective, that’s a remarkable turnaround from the third quarter of 2012, which saw Nokia make a $754 million loss, and…

Redesigned Umbrella Handle For Those Who Refuse To Stop Texting When It Rains

If you’ve ever tried to frustratingly juggle your phone and umbrella like some hapless idiot in an infomercial, you can rest assured there’s at least one other person who’s been in the same situation. But instead of grumbling about it, they went and created the Brolly: an umbrella with a redesigned handle that makes it…

Android Is Popular Because It’s Cheap, Not Because It’s Good

The story goes like this: The iPhone comes out, and it’s the only smartphone anyone wants, because there’s never been anything like it. It is the smartphone. Step forward a few years, and Apple is losing to Google—at least in sheer numbers of phones being sold. What happened? People without money happened. The split between…

Leaked Screenshots Suggest HTC’s Sense Skin Will Be Massively Simplified

HTC’s Sense skin for Android has long been a bloated skeuomorphic mess, with aluminum ring pulls, flip clocks and fancy weather animations. If these leaked screenshot are accurate, though, that all looks set to change—for the better. These images were posted by XDA developer mdeejay, who claims to have a working port of the forthcoming…

Texting While Driving Hands-Free Is Still Very Unsafe, Says Science

California just passed a law that says drivers are free to text and email while they drive, as long as they’re doing it by voice. Sounds safer, right? Not exactly, according to quite a bit of research. Opponents of the law—specifically the National Safety Council for California—are calling for its repeal, citing years and years…

Rumor: LG’s New Optimus G Pro Will Have a 5-Inch 1080p Screen

LG’s Optimus G—the boilerplate for the wonderful Nexus 4—is getting a big brother. According to a leaked image acquired by Engadget, LG has a 5-inch, 1080p monster coming. The phone’s full reported specs are a 1.7Ghz Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064, LTE, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, and a 3,000mAh battery (still not quite up to the…

Here’s How FaceTime on AT&T LTE (Finally!) Looks

For way, way too long, AT&T blocked us from using the data we were paying for to make FaceTime video calls. Why? No good reason at all. But the blockage is over, and the good news is it works fantastically. https://gizmodo.com/at-t-will-finally-let-everyone-facetime-over-3g-network-5976515 Although Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi calls still have an edge in terms of picture and…

11 Apps to Put Your Musical Taste Back on the Right Track

Most people probably remember having a song, album, or band change our lives. It’s a fairly common experience, even for those unfortunate beings who don’t live and breathe music. It’s a good thing to have happen to you (unless you’ve become too obsessed). Still, anyone can get bored of the music they already know, or…

Every Phone Should Have This Mode That Won’t Blind You in the Dark

You know that feeling. You’re in a dark room, maybe you just woke up, and you reach for your phone to check something and—BAM!—you’re assaulted by its full brightness and effectively blind and squinting for the next 30 seconds. Or maybe you just want to text at the movies. Microsoft has a potential fix for…

The Five Best Phones of CES 2013

Compared to years past, CES 2013 was pretty light on phones. The focus was more on health/fitness gadgets and 4K UHD TVs. But among the few phones at the show, we some good ones. Here are the top five. ZTE Grand S The hardware of the ZTE Grand S is really lovely. It’s extremely thin…

Hack Turns Cisco’s Desk Phone Into a Spying Device

Cisco’s internet phones—which sit on thousands of desks around the world—have been shown to be easily hacked and turned into remote spying devices. The official announcement comes two whole weeks after Cisco first found out about the problem. The exploit was discovered by Ang Cui and Salvatore Solfo, a pair of computer scientists from Columbia…

Ubuntu Mobile Hands-Off: Stripped Down and Sleek

The world of mobile OSes is totally dominated by Android and iOS, but that hasn’t kept Ubuntu from trying to sneak in. And finding a way into already dominated markets is kind of Ubuntu’s strong suit. We got to take a “hands-off” look at the new mobile OS running on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. While…

Huawei’s 5-Inch Ascend D2 Takes the Scene With a Killer Screen

Huawei isn’t the biggest player in the phone game, at least here in the States, but it’s making moves to step up. Huawei’s taking another stab at high-end relevance with its new Ascend D2, which looks like it could be a nice device if it isn’t plagued by delays. The D2 rocks a 5-inch 1080p…

Eat It, Galaxy Note. Huawei’s New Phone Has the World’s Largest Screen (Updated: Hands On)

Oh man, here we go. Phablets are no longer no longer constrained to limits of being under half a foot. Huawei’s new Ascend Mate is an unprecedented 6.1-inches. It’s been around before, but now it’s official, and has the largest screen of any smartphone in the world. To date anyway. Cower in fear beneath its…

The Emergency Phone With Crazy Battery Life Now Has Audio Feedback and Location Data

If you’ve kept a SpareOne cell phone in your car for emergencies since Xpal announced them at CES last year, congratulations! You still have 14 years of power left on that one AA Energizer battery. https://gizmodo.com/an-emergency-phone-with-a-15-year-battery-life-is-defin-5874309 Those late to the party, though, can consider this year’s upgraded model, SpareOnePlus, which still comes with a waterproof…

What It’s Like to Have a Nexus 7 As a Phone

Like most in the Android world, I’ve been steadily increasing my comfort zone on how big a screen I want. Back in the day, I was obsessed with getting my phone as small as possible, like Zoolander. Then I got my first smartphone in the Windows Mobile 6 days, and ever since then every device…

Smartphone Camera Features That Need to Appear In 2013

Cameras in cell phones have come a mighty long way in the past few years, from the pixelated shit-vision of yore to the current breed that have replaced most of our compact digicams. But the sense of wonder is fading, and we need some new features. Who’s gonna step up? No matter how serious a…