Smartphones

HP aims to get back into the smartphone game

Hewlett-Packard plans to jump back into the smartphone business.

Yam Su Yin, HP's senior director for consumer PC and media tablets for Asia Pacific, told the Press Trust of India that the company will focus on all segments of the market, including tablets, notebooks, and all-in-one PCs, the Indian Express reported Sunday.

Asked specifically about a smartphone, Yin said: "The answer is yes, but I cannot give a timetable. It would be silly if we say no. HP has to be in the game."

HP attempted to carve a bigger slice of the mobile market after acquiring Palm in 2010. … Read more

Firefox OS phone launches Tuesday in Spain at $3 a month

It's not every day that a new mobile operating system arrives, but Tuesday will be one of them as Telefonica begins selling the inexpensive ZTE Open with Mozilla's Firefox OS in Spain.

The move marks the commercial beginning of an effort by phone makers and network operators to use Mozilla's open-source, browser-based operating system to reclaim power in the mobile market lost to Apple and Google.

The phone itself costs 69 euros ($90), including 30 euros ($39) of pay-as-you-go credit -- or for those who sign up for a two-year contract, for 2.38 euros ($3.10) … Read more

Prizefight: The Fitbit Flex takes on the Jawbone Up

Wearable tech is becoming a hotbed for innovation, but fitness tech has been the category that's opened people's minds to wearing tech 24-7. So we're taking the Fitbit Flex and the Jawbone Up and throwing them into the Prizefight ring!

The Fitbit Flex is the company's first fitness wristband with Bluetooth syncing. The Jawbone Up brings a unique design that's been fine-tuned after its initial release.

Both of them measure your steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, and quality of sleep with complementary apps.

Who will cross the finish line first? Will it be the … Read more

How to move Google Authenticator to a new device

Two-step verification can help thwart malicious attacks against your online accounts. Anyone trying to break into your account would need both your password and the mobile device that authentication codes are sent to in order to gain access.

Google has done a splendid job of providing options for those who are interested in setting up this extra security measure: you can get text alerts, or you can use Google's authenticator app, available for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS.

When using the app as your method of authentication code delivery, you may wonder what happens when you want to retire an … Read more

T-Mobile forks over $308M for U.S. Cellular spectrum

T-Mobile customers in a swarm of cities, including St. Louis and New Orleans, are about to get a boost in coverage.

The wireless carrier has signed a deal to pay $308 million in cash for U.S. Cellular spectrum to expand its footprint in the Mississippi River Valley region, T-Mobile said Friday. Specifically, T-Mobile said it will buy 10MHz of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum that covers 32 million people in 29 markets, including St. Louis; Nashville and Memphis, Tenn.; Kansas City; Lexington and Louisville, Ky.; Little Rock-North Little Rock, Ark.; Birmingham, Ala.; and New Orleans.

The company noted the … Read more

Record silent Instagram videos

I love animated GIFs. They're quick, there's an art to them, and as obnoxious as they might be visually -- they're silent.

My big problem with this whole Vine and Instagram video boom is that the end product is often unintentionally noisy -- sometimes even jarring. I used to browse my Instagram feed like I was walking through an endless art gallery made by my friends. But now it seems like every few posts there's a video sucking down my bandwidth and assaulting my ears with a cut-up of ambient noise.

Close your eyes and your … Read more

T-Mobile to make bold moves July 10

T-Mobile issued invitations today for a media event in New York City on July 10.

Exactly what the carrier has in store for the shindig remains a mystery, but T-Mobile promises that it will deliver its "boldest moves yet." It all begins at 11:30 a.m. PT.

Of course, a flashy new handset (or handsets) is a big possibility, with the Sony Xperia Z as the most likely star. Remember that last week, CNET's Roger Cheng reported that T-Mobile had confirmed that the Xperia Z would go on sale "in the coming weeks."

The … Read more

How to sign up for Facebook's Android beta program

On Thursday Facebook announced its plans to begin letting Android users test unreleased builds of its app. The testing will allow Facebook to gain more insight on how its app behaves across a wide range of carriers, devices, and operating systems. The best part is that it's an opt-in program, so only users who want to deal with issues and bugs typically found in beta builds of an app will sign up.

Are you willing to deal with some issues in order to make the Facebook Android app better for everyone? If so, make sure you use the same … Read more

Search anonymously on your phone with DuckDuckGo

If the government's PRISM program has you looking over your shoulder, perhaps you'll find yourself a little less paranoid with DuckDuckGo Search & Stories on your phone. The app was released today for iPhone and for Android.

DuckDuckGo lets you search anonymously. Unlike other search engines, it does not collect or share your personal information. Thus, should the feds request user information from DuckDuckGo, it'll have nothing to turn over.

I tried out the iPhone app and was surprised to find it's more than a simple search app. It's a blend of search and news. … Read more

iTunes replacements for Windows, Mac OS X, and iOS

Recently the subject of people's least-favorite software came up. Instead of the usual suspects -- Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Norton Antivirus -- I was surprised by the unanimous response of a mixed group of Mac and Windows users: "iTunes stinks" (or words to that effect).

Apple's media software doesn't earn a spot on my personal list of adventures in bad coding (which is dominated by products from Microsoft and Adobe), but I rely on the program primarily because of ancillary products: the iPhone, iPad, iCloud, and iTunes Match.

As stated in CNET's iTunes 11 review from last October, … Read more