Smartphones

Scientists Made an Unbreakable Smartphone Screen From Clear Electrodes

The truly shatterproof screen is a little bit like the flying car: It’s been promised for years, but never arrives. Scientists at University of Akron claim they’ve cracked the code, so to speak, by creating a super-tough screen out of transparent electrodes. Right now, your smartphone screen is coated with a clear, conductive substance called…

Looks Like Amazon’s Launching Its Rumored Smartphone on June 18th

Amazon just announced a mysterious launch event in Seattle on June 18th. Well, really, we pretty much know what it’s going to be. Though we can’t be sure, the video attached to the invitation all but reveals that Amazon will announce the 3D smartphone we’ve been hearing about forever. The teaser video above hints at…

The HTC One (E8): A Plastic Alternative to HTC’s Flagship Phone

HTC has announced a budget version of the One (M8), called the One (E8). It drops the premium metal build of the M8 in favour of a range of brightly coloured plastic casings—but otherwise its specs are surprisingly strong. There’s a 5-inch 1080p display up front, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 backed by 2GB of…

A Comprehensive Look into the Future of Smartphone Screen Sizes

I analysed data of more than 7000 models of smartphones, PDAs and similar gadgets. I restricted my research then to only 4096 of those, the ones released after the initial announcement of the original iPhone, circa January 2007, to observe the trends in the modern smartphone industry. The data refers to released models, and doesn’t…

LG G3 Hands-On: Glorious Hardware, With Software That’s Actually Usable

Last year’s LG G2 was a marvel of hardware stuffed with miserable software that made the phone a perfect case for ditching bloat and rooting it, as unappealing as that option might be to normal folk. So I had a feeling that this year’s G3 would bring more of the same. After spending a few…

LG G3: A Bigger, Burlier Smartphone Workhorse

Today, LG is dumping the details on its latest Android flagship, the G3, which follows last year’s promising—and disappointing—top tier smartphone. This year’s model antes up on screen size and power, but does it have the brains to match? The LG G3 has a 5.5-inch Quad HD (2560 x 1440) display—that’s a pretty significant screen…

LifeLock’s Wallet App Will Nuke Your Data Due to Security Concerns

LifeLock announced in a blog post that the company’s Wallet app for Android and iOS may not be fully compliant with PCI security standards. Because of this, LifeLock has pulled the app—and set it to automatically delete users’ data the next time it’s opened. Talk about a thorough cleaning. On his blog, LifeLock CEO Todd…

The often reliable @evleaks just tweeted these purported images of the upcoming LG G3 in white and gold. Apparently, gold is the new black (or gray, or white, or whatever) for smartphones. [Evleaks]

A Smartphone Turns These Fast Food Trays Into Tiny Soccer Fields

Decades ago McDonald’s realized that food wasn’t the only way to draw kids into its restaurants. Toys, playgrounds, and cartoon characters all help the cause, and now a Brazilian food chain called Giraffas has come up with a clever way to lure soccer fans into its restaurants, just in time for the 2014 FIFA World…

A Blood Donation Poster That Helps Save Lives and Charges Your Phone

The simple act of donating blood could actually help save someone’s life one day. And to help drive that point home, ad agencies Publicis Sao Paulo and Fundação Pró-Sangue in Brazil created a poster with a built-in charging cable that also helps save a dying smartphone. The blood-red charging cable cleverly looks like it’s actually…

HTC One Mini 2: Like a Small M8, But Not a Small M8

As if you were ever in any doubt of its existence, HTC’s officially lifted the covers off the HTC One Mini 2, its leading pint-sized phone for 2014. But, as its name suggests, it’s not quite as feature-rich as this year’s One M8 flagship, with the company instead presenting it as a direct successor to…

Motorola Moto E Hands-On: Surprisingly Good for $150

When you’ve only $150 sitting in your pocket, you have to measure your expectations if you’re looking to spend it on a phone. That sort of price bracket used to be the reserve of the cheap, plasticky feature phone, but today’s launch of Motorola’s Moto E puts a capable Android smartphone at your disposal for…

Motorola Adds LTE to the Moto G and Launches Budget Moto E

The Moto G is Motorola’s best-selling smartphone ever, and it just got a little bit better: there’s now an LTE version available, as well as budget version called the Moto E. The original Moto G was, and still is, a wonderful phone the money—we said that it was a “solid smartphone to help you improve…

Tech’s So Advanced, Why Don’t We Change the Way Smartphones Work?

Technology has advanced so much that maybe it’s time to rethink the smartphone. In fact, Randall Munroe has an idea: why not have apps just download on the fly as you need them? Turns out, though, that such thinking isn’t perhaps as new as he might have first thought. In today’s XKCD, he explains his…

HTC One (M8) Google Play Edition Review: Great But For that Camera

Android purists have a common refrain they like to bust out every time a beautiful new piece of hardware comes out: “If only it ran pure Android!” in F-sharp. There’s a pervasive belief that unpasteurized Android—and only unpasteurized Android—directly from the great teat in Mountain View is all that’s needed to transform a good phone…

Why Are Smartphone Makers So Obsessed With Materials?

As the playing field for smartphone specs has leveled out recently, companies are increasingly turning to materials to distinguish their models. Metal, plastic, glass—which of these is the best? And which is just a gimmick? Over at Anandtech, Joshua Ho explains in a deep dive on the stuff your phone is made out of: It’s…

Want to edit a Google Drive document from your mobile device? Now you’ll need not one, but three apps: Google just removed editing capabilities from the Drive app. You’ll have to install Docs or Sheets to get your editing powers back. [Android Police via TechMeme]

Reminder: Apple vs. Samsung Is Just a Professional Fanboy Fight

Yesterday, a verdict came down in the long, long line of Apple vs. Samsung patent disputes. But before you go thinking this is some huge deal, it’s important to note that nothing’s really solved and nothing will change. And that’s fitting, since this is just a giant fanboy fight. The accusations are big… This is…

Developers, Developers, Developers…

Our pal Jason Howie asked Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to disembodied smartphone voice assistants like Siri and Google Now, what she thinks of recently-departed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Turns out Cortana’s not afraid to poke a little fun at Microsoft’s sweaty, revved-up champion of developers. If you’re not sure what she’s referring to, check out this…

What Is the Worst Phone You’ve Ever Had?

Smartphones rule, but they didn’t always. They weren’t even always smart. Once, mobile phones were dumb. Super dumb. What’s the dumbest, most terrible phone you ever had? In the discussion below, tell us the worst phone you’ve ever had. Kindly use the following format, to maximize the browseability of the discussion. It’s ok if you…