phones

Looking for an easier way to control the music on your iPhone? If you like gestures, you'll love Toones, though there is a small catch. And that small catch is the app is free and ad-free, but two key features -- search and shuffle -- cost 99 cents to enable.

After you launch the app for the first time, you'll notice that it has accessed your music library. When you tap to play a song, album art fills the screen. Notice the lack of buttons or any sort of control. Hidden beneath the album art are different zones … Read more

If this week's news of Facebook tinkering with Instagram's privacy policy before backpedaling has you heading for the exits, Flickr's iOS app is probably your best bet for snapping, filtering, and sharing photos. But for a more disciplined approach, or if you'd like to start a photo-a-day 365 project, check out Blipfoto for iPhone.

Blipfoto features five buttons along the bottom: Camera, Newsfeed, Browse, Map, Search, and More. Camera mode lets you snap a shot or grab a photo from your Camera Roll. The only editing tools the app provides are 12 rather underwhelming filters, 5 … Read more

What, you're not sick of slicing fruit apart with a swipe of your finger? Apparently not. Fruit Ninja made it onto Apple's list of top-downloaded paid iPhone apps for 2012. It has even earned itself the real-life video treatment.

Uploaded by YouTube user scottdw, the real-life Fruit Ninja video casts the game as a much more epic adventure than it ever was as a time-killing app. The characters Sensei and Gutsu are the stars. There's horse-riding, a training montage, and endless slow-motion shots of fruit splitting apart. … Read more

Is Siri more responsive in iOS 6 than she was in iOS 5?

A new study from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster uncovered a slight improvement in the voice assistant in the latest version of iOS.

Based on the analyst's testing, Siri understood 91 percent of queries under iOS 6, compared with 89 percent in iOS 5. Further, Siri correctly answered 77 percent of those queries under iOS 6, versus 76 percent in iOS 5.

In general, Siri was adept at finding local businesses and understanding operating system commands but not so good at tracking down general information or … Read more

Brazilians think different.

Why, only last night I had dinner with the great Brazilian-American chef Berenice de Araujo of Miami's Standard Hotel. She explained to me there's a certain "bats*** crazy" that flows through Brazilian veins.

So why be surprised that Brazil has an iPhone that isn't, well, an iPhone?… Read more

If you're desperate to stay with T-Mobile's service and rock an iPhone, the nation's fourth-largest carrier has good tidings on both fronts.

Today, T-Mobile unveiled plans to expand its 1,900MHz band in 14 new markets, bringing its grand total to 37 cities covered by the faster network.

In addition, the carrier announced a partnership with Solavei, a no-contract carrier that resells T-Mobile's service -- and the iPhone. Customers who sign up with Solavei in any of T-Mobile's 4G markets will be able to purchase the iPhone and sign onto an unlimited talk, text, and … Read more

Google Play is on a growth spurt, but Apple is still tops in app sales.

Over the past four months, Google's app store saw its daily sales jump by 43 percent across the 20 countries measured by analytics provider Distimo in a report out today.

At the same time, sales growth for Apple's App Store rose just by 21 percent on a daily basis. That's slowed considerably since January, when the App Store's daily sales growth was 51 percent.

As Distimo points out, however, the daily revenue values in the App Store were already much higher … Read more

Holiday shoppers looking for a gift for their favorite Apple fan can save $10 on an iTunes gift card via Walmart.

The retail company is now offering a $50 electronic iTunes gift card for $40. That seems to be the only deal since Walmart is selling all other iTunes gift cards at their regular prices.

Buyers who opt for the deal receive an initial confirmation e-mail from Walmart and then a second e-mail with access to a PIN. After receiving the PIN, you can then send the card as a gift to your recipient. The turnaround seems to vary, however. … Read more

It's rare that The Onion manages to scoop other news outlets, especially when it comes to tech, but it happened today: Apple will soon unveil the iPhone 5C, a new model with a special feature designed especially for college girls.

And forget grainy leaked snapshots; The Onion has actual video of the 5C, as shown in the below exclusive news report.… Read more