smartphone

At CES 2011, Microsoft provided little detail about its upcoming Windows Phone 7 update, other than to say that it would bring copy-and-paste and performance improvements. Needless to say, the lack of information was disappointing, but at least the performance enhancements look promising.

The guys over at Anandtech got a demo of the forthcoming update on video and as you'll see, the app load times are significantly faster. In the side-by-side demo, Bejeweled loaded 16.9 seconds faster on the updated phone compared to the handset running the current version of Windows Phone 7.

The Microsoft representative notes that … Read more

Since it precedes two very large wireless trade shows, Mobile World Congress and CTIA, you never know what CES will bring in the way of cell phones. Some years can be pretty quiet, but other years the wireless industry decides to show up in force. Fortunately, CES 2011 was a big wireless event, with two companies in particular, Motorola and Verizon Wireless, pulling out all the stops. You also might call it the "Year of 4G."

Moto goes the extra mile (and then some) It was late last year when we saw the first signs of a big … Read more

LAS VEGAS--With so many press conferences, meetings, and product demonstrations, there's never enough time to really see CES. Indeed, it wasn't until the second day of this year's show that I was able to roam the Las Vegas Convention Center and check out the cell phone action.

Naturally, I was first drawn to the booths of the big players first, but half the fun of a gadget trade show is tracking down the smaller mobile players that bring the more unusual products to Las Vegas. So while racing between the immense booths of RIM and Verizon Wireless, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We've seen a lot of touch-screen smartphones at CES 2011 so far, but very few with QWERTY keyboards. However, Acer's got one that combines both.

The Android 2.2-based Acer BeTouch E210 has a compact, slate design that features a 2.6-inch, 320x240 touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard, as well as an optical trackpad. Hoping to provide more instant access, the keyboard has been redesigned since the BeTouch E130 and now includes shortcuts to contacts, camera, and messaging apps.

The BeTouch E210 has full wireless options and a 3.2-megapixel camera, but it's not … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you find the traditional black and silver handsets to be boring, then you might want to check out the newly introduced Acer Liquid Mini line of Android phones.

Available in five different colors--royal blue, lime green, light pink, and yes, piano black, and jet silver--the Liquid Mini focuses on style, with chrome edges, a curved body, and soft-touch finish. It features a 3.2-inch, 480x320 multitouch screen and Acer's customized user interface, which sits on top of Android 2.2.

The Liquid Mini isn't just about looks, though. The smartphone also has a 5-megapixel camera with … Read more

Sony's as-yet-unannounced PlayStation phone could be one of the worst-kept secrets in the technology industry.

Just a couple of days after images of what appears to be a PlayStation phone leaked on a Hong Kong forum, several more photos have been published on a Chinese Web site, called IT168.

The images appear to show a PlayStation phone in full working condition. According to Engadget, which first discovered the leak, the device in the images features a 4-inch touch display, 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash, a microSD slot, and a micro-USB port, among other features.

The smartphone in the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Fear not, Verizon customers, never again will you have to miss an episode of your favorite TV show, as Sling Media has just announced that it will offer a subscription service to a select number of Big Red's upcoming 4G smartphones.

The service includes a Slingbox, SlingPlayer application, and networking accessories, which, coupled with Verizon's 4G network, will allow you to watch programming from your home TV on your smartphone.

Sling says that Verizon customers will be able to sign up for the service later this year through Verizon's mobile app store, V Cast Apps, beginning … Read more

Have you ever noticed that your old flip phone held its charge for days, even weeks sometimes, but a half-hour spent surfing the Web or watching a video on your new smartphone and the battery is dead?

You aren't alone. As cell phones get more sophisticated, all those bells and whistles come at the cost of heavy power consumption. Sure, we all like the convenience of hitting Google on the go or getting turn-by-turn navigation on our smartphones, but when the battery life is drained almost instantaneously, those new features become a drag.

In this week's Ask Maggie … Read more

LAS VEGAS--One of the most anticipated smartphones coming into CES 2011 had to be the HTC Thunderbolt.

Unveiled today at Verizon's press conference, the Thunderbolt is HTC's first LTE device and has been described as "blazingly fast." However, we had to find out for ourselves and luckily we got some hands-on time with it.

In short, the HTC Thunderbolt is fast. Granted, there aren't too many people on Verizon's LTE network right now, but we were impressed at just how fast it pulled up CNET's full site and played video. On other devices … Read more