Smartphones

U.S. 4G Coverage Still World’s Second-Worst, Now 30% Crappier Than 2013

The network-analyzing super-wonks at OpenSignal have released their 2014 State of LTE report, and things aren’t looking good for U.S. smartphone users. Not only is our 4G LTE signal once again the second-slowest in the world; compared to last year’s report, it actually got more than 30% slower. The full report is generated from data…

Which Phone You Should Buy Explained in One Handy Flowchart

There are a ton of phones out there. A lot of options. That’s great, but it can also make for a tough decision. Which one is for you? We’ve got just the flowchart you need. The phone landscape is always changing, and there are always new phones on the horizon, but at this specific moment…

Good news and bad news for serial phone-flippers: Starting on the 23rd, T-Mobile’s Jump plan will let you upgrade your phone any time you want, not just twice a year. But! You’ll have to have paid off half the value of your current phone in order to swap to the newest thing, a limitation that…

From Tablets to TVs: What’s Next For Display Tech in 2014

Starting in 2010 when Apple made the retina display and display quality a central theme for their product marketing, displays have moved up from the doldrums into an unprecedented renaissance of new display technologies for smartphones, tablets, TVs, and entirely new classes of products like wearable displays. That approach impressed consumers and moved the entire…

LG G Flex Review: Behind the Curve

The one thing you can say for certain about the LG G Flex is that it commands attention, mostly because it is curved. Beyond that, the questions start flooding in. Why is it curved? Why is its screen so mediocre? Why would you want to buy it? Unfortunately, after using the phone for several days,…

How Good Data Makes Transit Feel More Efficient—Even When It’s Not

I tried a little experiment the other day—and I’m not sure why I hadn’t tried it before. Before I walked to the bus stop to go downtown, I checked the real-time arrivals for my stop. It turned out the bus wasn’t coming for another 11 minutes, so I did the dishes first and only then…

Rumour: The Nokia X Will Be a Super-Cheap Android

New specs have appeared giving us a look inside the Nokia X Android model, suggesting it’ll be a very low-spec budget phone. Conspiracy theorists might even suggest Nokia’s making a rubbish Android phone on purpose, to make its WP models look better in comparison. According to popular and usually on-the-ball Twitter news source EVLeaks, the…

The NSA Spies on You Even When You Play Angry Birds

Newly published slides from the NSA and its UK counterpart GCHQ show that the spy agencies delight in scooping up data from “leaky” smartphone apps. That means that you’re being watched when you do everything from playing Angry Birds to uploading Facebook photos. What kinds of data, you wonder? Just about everything actually. Using all…

How Much Storage Does Your Smartphone Actually Give You?

The dirty little not-so-secret of smartphones is that you’ll never get the full amount of memory marked on the case. Operating systems take up space! But different phones leave you with different amounts of storage. Here, from Which?, are the most and least generous. Among 16GB smartphones, the iPhone 5C ends up leaving the most…

This Smartphone-Powered Microscope Now Even Works Underwater

Sometimes, you never knew you wanted something until someone drops it in your lap. That’s exactly what Bodelin Technologies has done with their smartphone-powered ProScope Micro Mobile microscope. This genius little thing now works underwater. Truth be told, the ProScope Micro Mobile has been around for a while, but this upgrade opens it up for…

We knew LG’s curved G Flex was heading to US carriers, but it’s happening sooner than expected: you’ll be able to get the phone via Sprint from January 31st for $300.

Blackphone Promises To Be a Cellphone to Beat the NSA

Privacy is at the forefront of everybody’s mind, now more than ever. So Blackphone, which will run a “security-oriented” version of Android and claims to be able to foil the NSA, couldn’t be better timed. The brainchild of renowned cryptographer Phil Zimmermann—and in fact a commercial venture between his company Silent Circle and Geeksphone, a…

Samsung May Start Making High-End Windows Phone Handsets Again

Samsung’s biggest mobile successes have been planted firmly in rich Android soil, but it looks as though the company hasn’t given up on Windows Phone yet. A high-end Windows Phone 8 handset from Sammy looks to be on the way, after a number of details hit the web. Shipping documents have pointed towards a high-end,…

The Cheap Moto G Gets a Stock Android Google Play Edition

The Motorola Moto G is a wonderful phone for the money. And the deal just got a tiny bit sweeter for people who would rather run stock Android KitKat than Motorola’s very lightly skinned Android UI. It now comes in a Google Play Edition. You know, for the nerds. https://gizmodo.com/moto-g-review-the-best-cheap-phone-but-still-a-cheap-1479588299 Even if you’re a stock…

Sony’s Xperia T2 Ultra: 2014′s First Gigantaphone

Sony’s announced a new mid-to-high-end “phablet” model today, with its Xperia T2 Ultra arriving in both normal and dual-SIM options. It combines a 1080p display with a 13-Megapixel camera, with Sony plumbing its quad-core Qualcomm MSM8928 chipset into 1GB of RAM. Sony’s even gone and used the word “selfie” in its press release, suggesting its…

Sony Xperia Z1S Review: Big Camera In a Sleek Package

Sony finally got one mostly right when it came to tablets last year, but the Japanese company has struggled more with phones. The Xperia Zis the closest thing it’s had to a success, and ultimately, it left us wanting more. So, we were excited when we first saw theXperia Z1S, which on paper looked like…

A Droid Apart: Motorola’s Rick Osterloh on Google, Moto, and More

The last five years have been full of reinvention for Motorola; it’s gone from being kind of a dinosaur, to launching the super-popular Droid line, to being swallowed up by Google, to making some of the best, easiest-to-use smartphones out there. It’s been quite a roller-coaster. Yesterday at CES, I had a chance to sit…

Sony Xperia Z1S: This Thing Could Be Really, Really Good

In what is certainly the most enticing phone we’ve seen at CES thus far, Sony’s Xperia Z1S is heading to the U.S. as a T-Mobile exclusive, and it looks like an absolute powerhouse (as does its little buddy, for those who like smaller phones). Where to begin? It’s an Android phone with a 5-inch screen…

There’s Another Weird PadFone Coming Out For Some Reason

Well, if it were a human this thing would have borderline personality disorder. Asus is back with a second-gen version of the PadFone, the big ass smartphone that transforms into an even bigger tablet when docked, and it has yet to recover from this severe identity crisis. The KitKat-running PadFone X will be out later…

Huawei Says It’s Launching a 4G Phone in the U.S. (Don’t Count On It)

Meet the Ascend Mate 2, a big ass 6.1-inch 4G phone from Chinese purveyor of cheap phones, Huawei. Company exec Richard Yu said the device is actually getting a U.S. release on AT&T. We’re just not exactly convinced. Now, absent a confirmation from AT&T, we’re a skeptical here. Especially considering Huawei has recently said it…