iphone

Here's a new one from the world of whacky maps brought to you courtesy of Apple. It turns out that Apple's maps in iOS 6 -- which has brought images such as this wobbly rendition of New York's Williamsburg Bridge, and this free-falling road over the Hoover Dam -- is anything but helpful when you want to get off the Interstate? Which Interstate? Well, any of the ones we looked at, from California to New Jersey. Just check out the maps above, which shows Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 50 near Sacramento. Google maps shows the … Read more

I really wasn't going to order an iPhone 5 -- I stayed up until midnight on pre-order night to order two unlocked versions, one to unbox, and one to torture, and then realized the unlocked versions weren't available.

So, I now own one, but I do think that makes this week's Unboxing more exciting, because of my personal stake in the whole thing.

Speaking of exciting, for those of you who requested that we torture test the Nokia Lumia 900, here it is! Jeff Cannata takes over this one, and I think he's really getting the … Read more

Apple didn't do much to the iPhone's camera from the 4S to the 5. Then again, it didn't really have to.

The iPhone 4S has one of the best cameras on a smartphone, and with some improved processing and other enhancements, the iPhone 5 does now, too. But it's not the only mobile device with a good camera built in, with the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3 offering up some strong competition.

All three devices use an 8-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor. Basically, the benefit of BSI CMOS sensors over regular CMOS sensors is … Read more

Do a quick search on Twitter and you'll find many iOS users sending request after request (or in some cases, demand after demand) to retailers, airlines, and merchants for Passbook integration. Passbook is clearly one feature iOS users are eager to use, but the delay in adoption is driving them mad.

Enter Gyft.

Gyft is a gift card app for iOS that allows you to store gift card information in a single, easy-to-access place. Sound familiar?

As TechCrunch pointed out this morning, Gyft received a big update last night, bringing with it the ability to add any gift card … Read more

Drafts, by Agile Tortoise, aims to be the tool for capturing your moments of inspiration, all within a clean, intuitive user interface. Its long list of sharing options places Draft ahead of other note-taking apps. It also includes easy syncing options for Evernote, Dropbox, and Simperium, although it lacks the most convenient iCloud synchronization.

The app opens with a blank screen ready to save your ideas on the go. We liked the simplicity of the design: it divides the screen in two and provides just the tools necessary to concentrate on drafting your ideas. It's easy to access the … Read more

Though its thinner profile and longer screen are two of the iPhone 5's top draws, I'm more interested in what's inside Apple's newest handset. Yes, after a long wait, the iPhone 5 finally adds support for 4G LTE data networks. Of course, I have to point out that a galaxy of Android phones (get it!) have long offered the feature, but that doesn't mean I'm not grateful that at long last the iPhone has caught up.

Editors' note: This article was originally posted September 22, 2012. We will continue to update it as we … Read more

The iPhone 5 has arrived, and it's pretty great. But I can't shake this nagging feeling that Apple could have done more.

A week ago, CNET's David Carnoy penned a great roundup of the most-wanted features that didn't make it into the iPhone 5. It seemed like easy pickings for a Top 5 video, so I imposed a ranking, stood in front of a camera, and created the video you see before you (click here if you don't see a video at the top of this … Read more

Yesterday we performed a field test of the turn-by-turn directions on both the iOS 6 Apple Maps app on the iPad and Google Maps on a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Both fared pretty well with getting us to our destinations, but Google Maps came out on top. As we pointed out yesterday, a number of people have been complaining about the Apple Maps app, from inaccuracies to poor directions.

Today, in part two of our testing, we did a number of searches for landmarks and other destinations to see how each app performed. After only a couple of tests, it was … Read more