Smartphones

It's here: Your complete guide to the Galaxy S4

With so many features and extras packed into the Galaxy S4, where do you begin? With CNET's e-book guide, of course. Starting today, "Mastering the Galaxy S4" is available in Amazon's Kindle store for $3.99.

New to Android? We've got you. Google maven? You'll find plenty of hidden tips here, too. We've tapped through every last feature, button, sensor, shortcut, and blaster (seriously) to bring you the tips and tricks that remind us why we called the S4 "the everything phone."

The e-book features hundreds of guides, from setting up … Read more

See which apps have access to your online profiles

There are 70 apps accessing my Facebook account. I did not know that before I had MyPermissions scan my account. With this free app for iPhone or for Android, you can keep track of the apps that have access to your various online profiles, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Dropbox, Instagram, Foursquare, and Flickr. The app doesn't do anything that you can't do directly on the permissions page of a given account, but it acts as a convenient dashboard to monitor and control which apps have access to your accounts.

To check the permissions of one of your … Read more

Apple's patent win over Mirror Worlds stays intact

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Mirror Worlds' appeal of an Apple victory in a patent case, putting to rest the long-running dispute.

The nation's highest court said on its site that it has denied Mirror World's request that it consider the case related to software patents for features such as Apple's Cover Flow.

Mirror Worlds was founded by Yale University computer-science Professor David Gelernter. In a 2008 lawsuit, the company accused Apple of infringing on its patents with its Mac OS X operating systems going back to 10.4 "Tiger," … Read more

Apple to cut iPhone orders for rest of year, claims analyst

Apple may trim its iPhone build orders for the rest of 2013, at least according to a new report from analyst Peter Misek.

In an investors note released Sunday, Misek said Apple has already revised its build plans. iPhone orders for the calendar third quarter will be cut to 25 million to 30 million from 40 million to 45 million previously. And orders for the fourth quarter will drop to 50 million to 55 million from 60 million to 65 million.

Why the downturn? The analyst cited a few reasons, mostly notably iPhone inventory checks at the stores of three … Read more

Tablet shipments to jump 68%, PCs to slip 10%, says Gartner

Global shipments of PCs, tablets, and mobile phones will rise by 5.9 percent this year, reaching 2.35 billion, research firm Gartner predicted on Monday.

Though PC shipments continue to nosedive, the technology industry is getting a shot in the arm from tablets and smartphones.

Worldwide PC shipments, which include desktops and notebooks, are expected to drop by 10.6 percent this year to 305 million, Gartner said. Tablet shipments are pegged to jump by 67.9 percent, hitting 202 million. And shipments of mobile phones are forecast to grow by 4.3 percent to more than 1.8 … Read more

An iPhone 5S with better camera? Bring it

Word is that the iPhone 5S is a minor upgrade. But if it's got a better camera, it's major. … Read more

Has Samsung gone too niche with its new GS4 smartphones?

Samsung has expanded its Galaxy S4 family of products to appeal to niche markets, but consumers will likely find trade-offs in certain specifications and functionality in these devices.

The company has been touting the expanded family of Galaxy S smartphones for a couple of months now. But earlier this week, at its event in London, Samsung specifically talked up the three new additions to its Galaxy S4 family of devices. The new devices are meant to address niche markets. But in tailoring the devices for specific audiences, Samsung has diluted some of the core specifications that make the Samsung Galaxy … Read more

3 apps for mobile language learning (roundup)

There's a lot of language Web sites out there. Some are definitely more well-known than others, but what if you want something that works really well on your device? That's when it's time to use an Android app instead of just a Web site. Here are three of the top language-learning apps on Android.

Babbel mobile for Android

Most of Babbel's language packs feature 3,000 vocabulary words (though you'll need to download more data to complete the language pack). The vocabulary is divided into categories, so if you need to learn words related to … Read more

Sync two iPhones on one computer

I've actually lost track of all the iOS devices I have. From iPhones to iPads and iPods, there are a few generations of mobile Apple gadgets populating my home that are occasionally adopted or abandoned by my wife and kid.

For the most part, today's iOS devices are self-supporting. They get their updates directly, and purchased media can be downloaded and redownloaded without hassles that used to come with Apple's iTunes-focused, obnoxiously DRM-wrapped early days of iOS.

But what do you do when your kid wants you to load your Led Zeppelin bootlegs onto his iPad? Or … Read more