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Podcasts have grown in popularity in recent years as smartphone use has exploded. Constantly-connected mobile devices that can not only download but also stream podcasts live from anywhere with a wireless signal make them more readily available than ever before -- so much so that Apple designed and released a dedicated Podcasts app in mid-2012. The app adheres to Apple's strict no-frills design policies and looks wonderful, but has some glaring problems that have still not been remedied after months in the App Store.

The Podcasts App is classic Apple. Open it and you're immediately shown tiles of … Read more

If a man in a bar offers you a laptop for $70, you know it's probably stolen.

Yes, he might be wearing glasses and look a little like Bill Gates, but, please think, it's probably stolen.

Similarly, if someone tries to sell you an iPhone for a radically reduced amount, suspicion should surely be your guide.

Police in San Francisco are now using a slightly suspicious method to test your suspicions to the full.

Officers in plain clothes (which presumably means plaid shirts and 7 For Mankind jeans) are wandering around areas known to be popular for stolen … Read more

Programmers who waited more than two minutes to try to get tickets for Apple's 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference -- and thus missed the boat -- will be happy to know they now have some other options.

In the briefest of announcements, Apple said Friday that it will be "posting videos of all our sessions during the conference" and also "hitting the road this fall with Tech Talks in a city near you."

The Next Web addresses the "city near you" vagueness by pointing to towns where Tech Talks involving iOS 5 were held … Read more

Entrepreneur Rakesh Kumar says he's "blown away" by the deluge of phone calls and traffic his site's getting after he pledged to plunk down more than half a million dollars for a half-hour coffee meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

"The Web site's gotten an incredible spike," Kumar told CNET in a phone interview on Friday.

Kumar, whose company DrBluetooth is working on a Bluetooth headset that encrypts voice and can be controlled through gestures, is the latest in a string of more than 80 people who have bid on a chance to … Read more

Apple is challenging a verdict from a Texas court last November that left it on the hook to pay security software company VirnetX $368.2 million in damages.

The news came tucked inside Apple's quarterly report, which was filed earlier this week, Computerworld notes.

"The Company is challenging the verdict, believes it has valid defenses and has not recorded a loss accrual at this time," Apple said in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The original complaint, which was filed in August 2010, accused Apple of infringing on four of VirnetX's patents … Read more

It's official. Intel's fourth-generation core "Haswell" processor will arrive on June 3. Expect a crush of desktops, laptops, convertibles, detachables, and tablets to ensue.

"In approximately 3,337,200,000,000,000 nanoseconds, Intel will reveal all there is to know about the highly anticipated 4th generation Intel Core processor family," Intel said in a statement Friday.

That's June 3 in the U.S. and June 4 in Taiwan, where it will be rolled out at Computex.

Haswell is mostly about better battery life and, to a lesser extent, about improved graphics performance. … Read more

Apple has backtracked on a decision it made to change how iPhones and iPads handle virtual private networking access, following the conclusion of a patent lawsuit with VirnetX.

VirnetX won a $368.2 million patent victory, which led to Apple announcing that it would change how users would connect to their corporate networks. A software update was planned for later this month.

The change would have configured devices set as "always" to instead establish a connection as and when needed. VPN technology allows users off the corporate network to act as though they are connected at the workplace. … Read more

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Friday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.… Read more

It seemed inevitable, and now it has happened: for the first time ever, feature phones have taken a backseat to smartphones in terms of quantities shipped.

In the first quarter of 2013, device makers shipped 216.2 million smartphones worldwide, a volume that accounted for 51.6 percent of total global shipments and that marked the first time smartphones have claimed more than half of all quarterly shipments, according to market researcher IDC.

The smartphone market grew 41.6 percent compared with the first quarter of 2012, but declined 5.1 percent from the shipment tally for the fourth quarter … Read more