Smartphones

Doug from Pennsylvania inadvertently started another 404 Podcast meme in yesterday's video voice mail with his sign-off salute, "Tagger easy!" We dedicate today's show title to him and WhiteWhine, a Tumblr for First World problems.

More than 200 protesters in Libya have been killed with Qaddafi's machine guns and large-caliber weapons, but some nerds in America are more concerned with the future of .ly domains like Bitly. How will we shorten our links to a Tweet-appropriate size if Libya shuts down the Internet again?!

Don't freak out yet, because Internet restrictions by the Libyan government will not affect those domains, since most of the servers that give access to .ly links are located outside of Libya, and most administrators like Bitly CEO John Borthwick are already using precautionary measures to ensure their stability.… Read more

If you ever find yourself wanting an alternative to the Amazon MP3 Store on Android (though we can't quite imagine why), you can now consider the V Cast Music application if you're a Verizon customer. You can get both full song downloads and ring tones, and song prices range from $0.69 to $1.29 for DRM-free MP3s. You can get song plus ringtone packages for a reduced cost, and Verizon is also offering a Jukebox program that will rotate or randomize ringback tones.

This new version of V Cast requires Android 2.1 and up, and existing … Read more

Slowly but surely, the Samsung Galaxy S series phones are getting updated to Android 2.2 Froyo. First it was the Samsung Vibrant, then the Samsung Epic 4G, and now the Samsung Captivate.

AT&T said on its Facebook page that the update will be available starting tomorrow. A link to Samsung's Web site will be provided where you can find the update and instructions on how to install it.

The carrier also revealed that the HTC Aria will get Froyo as well, but did not provide a specific time frame for that update.

Users of Windows Phone 7 handsets must have had high hopes when Microsoft released a patch yesterday that updated the operating system to improve the process of installing a forthcoming OS update. But some users, notably those with Samsung's Omnia 7, are reporting that the patch is bricking their phones, making them useless.

It's not all Omnias, and we can't confirm if its happening on other Windows Phones, but there are reports on Web sites like WinRumors and Twitter that some users say the update is making their phones unusable. In response, Microsoft, via the Windows Phone support Twitter feed, recommends that affected users return to the store where they purchased them and exchange it for a new handset. … Read more

As we near the debut of the Xoom tablet later this week, our Android focus shifts to the horizon beyond Honeycomb. What will happen beyond Android 3.0? Are handsets ever going to see Honeycomb or will we be left with two different versions of the same OS? As it turns out, the answer is a little of both.

Widely expected to be code-named Ice Cream or Ice Cream Sandwich, the next iteration of Android should resemble both Gingerbread and Honeycomb. Indeed, that's exactly what Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during his keynote address at last week's Mobile … Read more

Jeff's dad, aka Sweet Lou Bakalar, is celebrating a birthday today, but unfortunately he can't be live on the show to go through his 10-item birthday wish list with us so we'll have to settle on a 10-minute voice mail instead. Lou's back, and he's cracking down on cyclists!

We'll play his voice mail right after the break, but before that we want to talk about two Facebook apps that plan to ruin (or strengthen!) as many relationships as they can. First up is a service called Breakup Notifier that automatically sends you an e-mail when your crush breaks up with his or her significant other, giving you the opportunity to turn your lurk into love.

There's also Social Harpoon, an anonymous "hot or not"-style ranking system just for your Facebook friends. The app shows you two friends and judges rating percentages based on the elo rating system to show how likely each person is to "win" against you.… Read more

Unlike Sprint's last event, which was shrouded in mystery and a lot of hype, the carrier is taking a more subtle approach with its next handset.

Spreading the word via its Twitter account, Sprint revealed that on February 24, it will introduce a new phone with a "hub for gaming, music, pictures, and video." You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that it will most likely be a Windows Phone 7 handset, since these hubs play a central role in Microsoft's mobile operating system.

Of course, the question remains about which … Read more

Another Mobile World Congress is in the bag, and as the CNET crew leaves Barcelona we can take stock of the mobile madness that was. It was my fourth year attending the show, and I can report that 2011 was one the busiest I've seen, with a ton of new smartphones and tablets. It was a lot to handle, but Bonnie Cha of CNET Reviews; Ariel Nunez of CNET TV; and Maggie Reardon, Stephen Shankland, and Elinor Mills of CNET News were along for the ride.

As with any trade show, Mobile World Congress offered a series of satisfying devices and a couple of instances where companies fell short. Here's the report from Barcelona as we saw it. And don't forget to check out Maggie's insights in her Ask Maggie column. … Read more

Selecting text, particularly entire paragraphs in Notes and other text-heavy apps can be tricky, if not somewhat difficult.

If you need to select an entire paragraph, the first intuition most iPhone and iPad users have is to double-tap a word and drag the text selection handles to cover the entire paragraph.

Though this is an effective method of getting all your text selected, there's an easier way.

Next time you have to select a paragraph to copy and paste somewhere else, try using two fingers and swiping across the paragraph you wish to copy. The text will be selected … Read more