phones

If you're in the market for an iPhone 5, this weekend might be the time to plunk down your greenies and grab one. Several deals on the gadget kicked in recently.

Walmart has, as of Saturday, permanently dropped the price of the 16GB iPhone 5 to $130, a drop of 60 smackers. That's in-store only and requires a two-year contract with Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T. The price of the 4S has also dipped -- down 50 bucks, to $40.

If AT&T is your carrier of choice, you can take advantage of its half-off arrangement, … Read more

They are red-eyed and dead-eyed.

They are brain-dead and stiff-lipped.

Their pale faces stare at you, ready to infect you, so that they can affect you. Who are these people? These are the iZombies.

Yes, no sooner had Samsung become somewhat bored with smacking at Apple's pinata of faith then Nokia decided that it, too, must show iPhone users as a group gone awry.

In a new ad to press home the advantage of the flashy, nonflashy camera on the 925 phone, Nokia paints iPhone users as zombies: all flash and no panache.

Here we have the lone Nokia … Read more

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

Recent disclosures of U.S. government surveillance of our phone and Internet activity have heightened interest in services that promise not to collect or share our personal information.

One such service is DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine that has seen its traffic jump since news broke earlier this month of the National Security Agency's PRISM electronic surveillance program. The Guardian's Stuart Dredge reports that DuckDuckGo's daily search count reached an all-time high of 3.1 million on June 17, well above its daily average of 1.8 million daily searches prior to the PRISM revelations.

Those numbers … Read more

Editors' note: This story was originally published on December 6, 2012. We'll continuously update this piece up until the device's official launch; let us know if we missed any rumors ourselves.

iPhone rumors are like flies at a summer picnic: they're nearly unstoppable. Collected in one batch are all the iPhone 5S/6 rumors CNET has reported so far, with some commentary on where these rumors came from.

We always have long wish lists for newer features and further redesigns, but the bottom line is this: nobody knows exactly what we'll get until Tim Cook reveals … Read more

Apple's iPhone 5 is on its way to Virgin Mobile, the carrier announced Friday.

Starting on June 28, customers will be able to buy the white or black iPhone 5 on Virgin Mobile's Web site, at the company's dealers, and at RadioShack. The 16GB model will set customers back $549.99, while the 32GB and 64GB options will be available for $649.99 and $749.99, respectively.

Rumors have been circulating for months that Apple was planning to bring its iPhone 5 to Virgin Mobile. In October, in fact, rumors had suggested that the iPhone 5 would come to the prepaid Virgin Mobile unit … Read more

Airline passengers may be able to use their favorite electronic gadgets from takeoff to landing if new FAA guidelines come to pass.

The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to ease the restrictions on the use of certain devices at lower altitudes, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Citing "industry officials and draft recommendations prepared by a high-level advisory panel to FAA," the Journal reported on Friday that passengers would be spared from having to turn off all electronic devices, though cell phones may or may not remain on the banned list.

The FAA's current guidelines prohibit the … Read more

MacRumors claims new photos allegedly of the iPhone 5S show a tweaked rear shell and the phone's internals.

The only really notable change from earlier peeks that the photos reveal of the iPhone 5S rear shell (at bottom) is a larger LED flash.

Note that alleged iPhone 5S rear shell images have appeared as far back as December of last year.

The iPhone 5S -- a device that's widely rumored and expected, though Apple has said zilch about such a product -- is also expected to boast a higher-resolution camera. Earlier reports have indicated that it may sport … Read more