smart

Apple has won dozens of new patents across a wide array of technologies, including how pinch-to-zoom works in software and its iPad Smart Cover's attachment features.

Perhaps the most important patent is one that relates to how a touch screen reacts to a person's thumb and index finger during a pinch-to-zoom gesture. Sensors within the touch display change in size and shape based on the gestured detected by those fingers. If a thumb and forefinger start to move together, the sensory panels change around that. When they move apart, the sensors once again adapt. Other sensors around the … Read more

Want to toss YouTube videos from your phone to your TV? You got it. It's called "Send to TV," and it's a feature of Google's YouTube app that Android users have had for some time.

But now that Google has rolled the feature out to Apple's iOS devotees, and expanded support for more streaming devices, the feature is seeing a second wind.

But how do you do make it all work? Well, I gave it a shot with an iPhone 5 and the YouTube App for Xbox, but it could just as well have … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Nokia has just thrown the curtains open on its new additions to the Windows Phone 8-packing Lumia range. The baby of the bunch -- the Lumia 520 -- starts at only 139 euros (around $185 or 120 pounds) making it the cheapest way into Windows Phone you'll find But Nokia's Vice President of Smart Devices Marketing, Hans Henrik Lund, hinted that even cheaper Lumias could be on the way.

Speaking behind the multi-coloured Nokia stand at Mobile World Congress here, Lund explained, "I believe 139 [euros] is not the lowest price point we can get to. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Nvidia's latest mobile processor, the Tegra 4, and its little brother, the Tegra 4i, will soon be turning up in all manner of smartphones and tablets. I went hands-on with some of Nvidia's reference devices at Mobile World Congress and found the new silicon to deliver some impressive results.

Like the Tegra 3 chip before it, the Tegra 4 is a quad-core processor with a fifth power-saving core for less intense tasks. Based on ARM's latest Cortex A-15 platform, it boasts a faster clock speed and a whopping 72 GPU cores -- that's six times … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Want to challenge Siri to schedule every aspect of your busy life but don't want an iPhone? Great news for you then as Artificial Solution's Indigo service brings similar functionality to Android, Windows Phone 8, and your Web browser. Better yet, it's completely free.

Indigo works in much the same way as Siri; ask it your question and it will use its various channels -- Web searches, a built-in catalog of commands, and, also like Siri, Wolfram Alpha information -- to perform the required task.

The usual requests of "What is the weather doing in … Read more

Wireless carrier T-Mobile expanded its prepaid offerings today with the nationwide launch of GoSmart Mobile, a budget wireless service targeting consumers interested in low-cost unlimited plans.

The service, which has been in beta mode in nine markets since December, is geared toward consumers more interested in voice and text services than high-speed Internet access. As such, GoSmart's target audience includes younger people, college students on a budget, and those with incomes between $30,000 and $40,000 a year, GoSmart Marketing Director Shailendra Gujarati told the Seattle Times.

"We are looking at customers whose predominant needs when it … Read more

One feature on the beleaguered Boeing 787 Dreamliner is its electrochromic dimming system that lets passengers make windows on the aircraft more or less opaque at the touch of a button.

Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) says that while these smart windows can take about 30 seconds to change, it has a new stick-on window film that can go from reflective to see-through in only 5 seconds.

The switchable mirror device can change states when a low voltage is applied. … Read more

Many smartphones look the same from afar. I bet most of you own one that's thin, rectangular, and features a big screen. Boooring!

A fully transparent conceptual smartphone, developed by Taiwanese company Polytron Technologies, gives me hope for a future full of fancy smartphones far different from the common designs seen today.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Heart Attack Grill spokesman dies of heart attack.

- Two Atlanta women left with third-degree burns after Instagram feud fuels hot oil attack.

- Apple reportedly testing curved glass for 'iWatch.'

- CBS stations stop Tweeting about Dorner.

Bathroom break video: Beatboxing and studying the SATs… Read more