Smartphones

Several weeks ago I posted a tip about discovering Spotlight searches on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The tip this week will show you how to customize the arrangement of your search results. You can decide to list application, contact, music, etc., search results in first, last, or anywhere in between order.

1. Launch the Settings app 2. Tap General 3. Tap Home 4. Tap Search Results

Initially your search results will be set up like this:

Now you can customize the order of your search results by performing these tasks while the screen above is displayed:

LAS VEGAS--Before CES, one of our predictions as to what would be a big story on the show floor was the emergence of smartbooks, or mini-notebooks as they're sometimes called. The term was coined by Qualcomm in referring to tiny laptop-like devices using processors that are derived from smartphone-level CPUs, but are in many cases even more powerful. The two most common CPUs seem to be the Snapdragon from Qualcomm and the Tegra/Tegra 2 from Nvidia, both using ARM-based processors.

Consider the concept, ideally, as a device somewhere between a smartphone and a Netbook--hence "smartbook." Unfortunately, … Read more

Google's forthcoming Nexus One smartphone is composed of components worth about $175, according to a teardown conducted by iSuppli.

The new phone, which Google unveiled Tuesday, offers an inside designed by Google and an outside designed by HTC. The primary interface is a 3.7-inch AMOLED display. The Nexus One runs Google's Android 2.1 operating system, and the WVGA display can show 3D graphics.

While Google has priced the Nexus One at $179 with a two-year T-Mobile service plan ($529 without a subscription plan), the phone has a bill of materials of $174.15, according to iSuppli analysis, … Read more

Moto Development Labs devised a simple method of analyzing capacitive touch screens using drawing programs. They put the iPhone, the Nexus One, the Droid, and the Droid Eris through the paces and proved not all touch screens are created equal.

Using only your fingers and a drawing app, Moto shows how you can test out the accuracy of your smartphone's touch screen. The test is simple: draw some slow, steady lines across the screen with your finger. If they're smooth and straight, your touch screen is tracking with relative accuracy. If they're wavy or jagged, your phone … Read more

Sony Ericsson announced its first Android phone, the Xperia X10, in London two months ago, but I had to wait for CES to get my first look at the device on this side of the Atlantic.

As you'd expect, the Sony Ericsson stand at the massive Sony Electronics booth was crowded with people wanting to get a look at the handset. And there's no wonder why--the X10 is a sight to behold. Its slim profile and clean lines hit high on the beauty scale, and I enjoyed how sturdy and comfortable it felt in my hand. Front and … Read more

Attention Verizon customers who own an HTC Ozone or an HTC Touch Pro2, a Windows Mobile 6.5 update is now available for your downloading pleasure. You can find the update for the Ozone here and the Touch Pro2 here.

LAS VEGAS--Motorola's new Backflip Android phone captured most of our attention at CES, but the company also displayed two recent touch-screen devices destined for the Chinese market.

The XT800 has an attractive slim design with a 3.7-inch, 16 million-color WVGA display. I handled it for a few moments and liked how solid the device is and how it fit squarely my hand. It runs Google Android 2.1 and sports a standard 3.5mm headset jack.

The feature set is respectable. You'll find two SIM card slots, a 550MHz processor, Wi-Fi, A2DP Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel camera with … Read more

Mozilla has finished its second release candidate for its first mobile Firefox browser. Firefox 1.0 for Nokia's open-source Maemo platform can't be far behind.

In addition to fixing "a major performance issue" plaguing the Nokia N900, Mozilla has also updated the latest version of the Gecko layout engine. By using the same version of Gecko that's driving the forthcoming Firefox 3.6 RC1, Mozilla is keeping parity between the mobile and desktop versions of its browser.

Mozilla is expected to push out an update for Web surfers who have already downloaded the first release … Read more

LAS VEGAS--LG doesn't have much of a smartphone presence here in the U.S., but it does have quite a number of them in Europe and Asia. Here at CES 2010, we finally gotten the chance to take a closer look at these unattainable devices. We've compiled a photo gallery showcasing the two Android smartphones (the LG GW620 and the LG GT540), and two Windows Mobile ones (LG GW550 and the LG GM750).

Though we didn't have a chance to get a hands-on with the recently announced LG GW990, we did get a shot of it behind … Read more