phones

If you are like me, then you use Instagram mostly to snap shots of your kids. And if you are like me, then you feel a bit uneasy after reading the news this week about Instagram's change to its privacy policy, despite its apology and reassurances a day later that it harbors no plans to sell your photos. If you are looking for an Instagram replacement, I would steer parents toward iPhone app 23snaps.

In actuality, 23snaps is more like a mini-Facebook than Instagram. It lets you create profiles for each of your kids and post status updates along … Read more

CloudOn's Microsoft Office app has expanded its horizons beyond just the iPad.

Released today, version 3.0 of CloudOn supports the iPhone, the iPad Mini, and the iPod Touch.

It handles the iPhone 5, taking advantage of the new phone's longer screen. There's also a special reading mode for the iPhone, so you can easily scroll through a document without the Ribbon or keyboard getting in the way.

The app has kicked in support for Microsoft's SkyDrive. That means you can store your documents on SkyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box.

CloudOn lets you create and … Read more

If Instagram's privacy policy shift (or not) has you packing in your Instagram account and looking for an alternative photo-filtering and -sharing app, you might want to give Aviary a try. In fact, you might already be familiar with Aviary. Its technology powers the new Flickr app for iOS and Twitter's new photo filters, but Aviary can also be used on its own. The company offers both iOS and Android apps. Here's a quick look at how the app works on the iPhone.

After launching the app and granting it access to your Camera Roll, you'll … Read more

The original iPhone has finally won a patent for Apple nearly six years after its debut.

Granted yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent is actually for the design of the phone, specifically "the ornamental design of an electronic device."

In addition to Apple design guru Jony Ive and the late Steve Jobs, other people credited for the invention are Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Rohrbach, Douglas Satzger, Calvin Seid, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang, and Rico Zorkendorfer.

The original iPhone was unveiled by Jobs in … Read more

Shipments of 4G LTE smartphones will triple next year, research firm Strategy Analytics predicts.

The research firm sees shipments rising to 275 million next year from this year's 91 million, a rise of 203 percent resulting in a record year for LTE phone vendors. Companies that stand to benefit the most include Apple, Samsung, and LG, with the iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3 among the most popular handsets.

But other vendors will participate in the LTE push, such as Nokia, HTC, Motorola, Blackberry, Huawei, ZTE, and Pantech. Growth in LTE smartphones will be driven by demand in … Read more

Worries over Apple's apparent cutting back on parts orders for the iPhone 5 are nothing to worry about, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz.

In an investor note today, Moskowitz points out that recent reports have indicated a 20 percent cut in Apple's March-quarter supply chain orders for the iPhone 5. That news has some analysts fretting over Apple's near-term prospects, but Moskowitz believes their fears are overblown.

Though the analyst can't confirm the specific reason for the cut, he believes it might simply have resulted from an improvement in production. Apple may have … Read more

Google just made it easier to capture and upload videos to YouTube from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Its new YouTube Capture app lets you share a video with as little as two taps (including the tap to launch the app). Here's how it works.

When you first launch the app, it'll ask you to sign into your Google account. You can skip this step and sign into your account later, and instead swipe through a brief, four-slide tutorial.

After the tutorial, you'll be taken to the capture screen, which, when held in landscape mode, features two … Read more

Brazil-based electronics company IGB Eletronica on Tuesday announced a new line of devices bearing the name "IPHONE."

The first of those devices will be called the Neo One, the company said inside a press release spotted earlier today by Reuters.

Product pages that went up later in the day provided more details about the quad-band device, which costs 599 Brazilian real (about $287 U.S. dollars), runs Google's Android 2.3.4, and sports a 320x480 screen.

The name is sure to draw the ire of Apple, which recently settled a multimillion dollar issue over the rights … Read more

Update, December 18, 2012: Added 15 new products, including cases from Element, Tavik, Loop, Pure.gear, uNu, Knomo, Spigen SGP, Mapi, Trident, and Ballistic.

With the launch of every new iPhone comes an onslaught of cases to protect it.

What's the best one? Very hard to say. The problem is that everybody has different tastes in cases. And, of course, some folks choose not to bother with them at all.

In doing this roundup, I've tried to present a good selection of products, highlighting some of the better cases that have hit the market -- or are about … Read more