reporting

AT&T rated worst cell phone carrier for second year in a row

AT&T may be huge and generating boatloads of cash every quarter, but when it comes to service, the carrier has a lot of work to do.

For the second year in a row, AT&T was ranked last in Consumer Reports' annual customer satisfaction survey. The company was hit especially hard by complaints over poor voice service and phone-based customer care. Even worse for AT&T, the company's 2011 rating is slightly lower than last year's.

Consumer Reports' survey examines voice, data, and text-messaging service, as well as customer care. The specific ratings are … Read more

How to help jailbreak future iOS updates

Despite the overwhelming success of Apple's "walled garden" approach to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, many users still wish to part ways with the benefits of control in favor of the unbridled technology (good and bad) available when jailbreaking iOS. If you are one of those users, you can actually become an integral part of the jailbreaking community.

Jailbreaking your iOS device largely depends on finding exploits in the iOS code that hackers can use to take control of the operating system and install applications and functions not approved by Apple. Those exploits can be found … Read more

How to monitor your time spent Web surfing

The Internet is full of useful information. It's also full of lots of distractions that can prevent you from being productive at work or at home. If you're curious what sites you spend the most time on, or are concerned with how much time you spend not working on the job, follow these five steps to monitor your browsing habits.

Begin by downloading and installing Gold Limiter. When installing, you will be given the option to add the Internet monitor and filter, or just the Internet monitor. Chances are, you're only interested in the monitor, so select … Read more

Unlike iPhone 4, Consumer Reports recommends iPhone 4S

Although the iPhone 4 has proven to be a Consumer Reports outcast, the device's successor, the iPhone 4S, has been recommended by the organization.

"The Apple iPhone 4S is among the recommended models in our newly updated Ratings of smart phones," Consumer Reports announced today. "Apple's newest smartphone performed very well in our tests, and while it closely resembles the iPhone 4 in appearance, it doesn't suffer the reception problem we found in its predecessor in special tests in our labs."

Consumer Reports stirred up a controversy last year when it announced that … Read more

China: Don't blame us for U.S. satellite hacks

China asserts it was not behind a series of hacks against U.S. environment-monitoring satellites a few years ago.

Speaking at a news briefing today, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said claims that China was behind the hacks, which occurred in 2007 and 2008, are "untrue." The spokesman added, according to Reuters, which attended the briefing, that China is "also a victim of hacking attacks and will oppose any form of cybercrime, including hacking."

Last week, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission wrote in a draft of its annual report that two … Read more

The world according to Opera Mini (scoop)

What you do with your mobile Web browser may depend heavily on which mobile operating system you're on, if the results of a new study by Opera can be extrapolated to other browsers. In its State of the Mobile Web monthly report for September 2011, released first to CNET today, Opera revealed that Opera Mini users were more likely to use it for search on Android, for travel and tourism on iOS, for sports and technology on BlackBerry, for news on Windows Phones, and for social networking on feature phones.

Opera and its subsidiary AdMarvel unveiled not only a … Read more

Tidbits from Apple's 2011 annual filing: Lots of growth

Apple has released its 10-K annual filing, a full rundown of its fiscal year which wrapped up last month.

While there aren't too many surprises given what's found in the company's quarterly reports, it provides a good rundown of some of the company's key metrics over the course of the past 12 months, some of which have been summarized below.

Apple's building space, which it has owned or leased, jumped from 10.6 million square feet, to 13.2 million square feet this year. In its … Read more

Consumer Reports finds Scion most reliable brand

Consumer Reports released the results of its annual car reliability survey today, and Scion came out as the top brand, with the fewest reported problems.

Scion cars proved the most reliable, according to owners contributing their experiences in the latest survey by Consumer Reports used to predict car reliability. The report, released today, compiles survey results for 28 brands. The least reliable cars, according to the survey, bear the Jaguar badge.

Along the Scion range, the xD scored the best, while the xB model was the worst, although all were well above most other brands. Lexus, another brand from Toyota, grabbed the No. 2 spot, and its CT200h model proved the most reliable, even more so than the Scion xD. Toyota-branded cars showed up at No. 6 in the survey.… Read more

Yahoo won't allow bidder cross talk, report says

Yahoo has made the controversial decision to ban all cross talk as part of the bidding process for its company, according to a Reuters report citing anonymous sources.

Yahoo's non-disclosure agreement, which must be signed by potential suitors who want nonpublic financial data, forces them to agree to not discuss their bidding plans with any other company that might be considering making an offer for the online giant, the Reuters report said. The move, according to the news service's sources, is designed to increase competition and limit the chances of several firms combing their cash into one big … Read more

The 404 928: Where Jill feeds us an ice cream sandwich (podcast)

CBS MoneyWatch's Jill Schlesinger helps us understand why Wall Street is disappointed with Apple's fourth-quarter results despite year-over-year growth across its iPhone, iPad, and Mac properties.

We return the favor by telling Jill why she should care about Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich updates, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and why babies under 2 years old shouldn't live in front of digital screens.

Also, stay tuned after the break for news about Sony PlayStation Vita launch delays, and Jeff chimes in with a surprising pitch for the future of portable gaming. Heads up, Sony and Nintendo!… Read more