HTC's new 5-inch Butterfly S phone takes wing

HTC has unveiled the Butterfly S at a press conference close to Taipei.

The electronics maker's latest flagship model has now officially launched in Taiwan. The HTC Butterfly S, an updated model based on the original 1080p Butterfly smartphone, comes with a 5-inch, 1080p Super LCD 3 display which is capable of supporting a 440ppi resolution on scratch-resistant glass.

<> The Butterfly S is equipped with a 2.1-megapixel camera for video calls in addition to a 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera on the back which supports HTC Zoe, software that organizes snapshots into 30-second movies.

Front-facing BoomSound stereo speakers … Read more

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 incinerates the competition

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 will destroy your mobile processor. Not literally, of course. I'm strictly referring to its ability to render real-time graphics so fast as to make your current mobile processor -- on your phone or tablet -- embarrassingly pokey in comparison.

At a benchmarking event in San Francisco, Qualcomm allowed me and others in attendance to run a benchmarks on a reference Mobile Development Platform (MDP) tablet housing its latest Snapdragon 800 system-on-chip (SoC). The results speak for themselves; however, I should warn that these are only benchmark results (3DMark and GFXBench, specifically) and don't necessarily … Read more

Nvidia to license its graphics technology to device makers

Could Apple tap Nvidia for graphics power in its mobile devices? Maybe, now that the chipmaker has decided to license its graphics technology.

Nvidia on Tuesday said it would begin licensing its GPU cores and "visual computing" patent portfolio to device manufacturers -- a new business model for the company. The technology could appear in a full range of products from phones to supercomputers, the company said, with products likely emerging in 2015, given design and testing requirements.

"It's not practical to build silicon or systems to address every part of the expanding market," David … Read more

Preview iOS 7 using nothing more than your browser

With the curtains pulled back on the new-look iOS 7, it's only natural for users to want to get a better idea of what the changes actually mean to their daily use. People don't like change -- big or small -- especially when it comes to the tech that's used on a daily basis.

Should you not be a developer and have access to early beta builds of iOS 7, or don't want to deal with all of the bugs and issues that come from dealing with the early test builds, you can click your way … Read more

Huawei reportedly 'open' to acquiring Nokia

Huawei would consider snapping up Nokia, which could help it boost its smartphone gains in Europe and the U.S., a company executive said on Tuesday.

According to the Financial Times of London (paywall), Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, said at the launch of its latest smartphone offering, the Ascend P6, in London: "We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia."

"We are open minded," Yu told reporters.

Nokia would have to be a willing participant in a buyout discussion, … Read more

Never miss the free App of the Week from the App Store again

Last summer I covered an easy-to-create recipe on IFTTT that would send an e-mail or alert of your choosing once the App Store Twitter account posted a tweet announcing the latest freebie. Since that time there have been some changes to Twitter 's API policy, and IFTTT (name based on "If this, then that") has had to change how it uses Twitter within its service.

As such, the recipe demonstrated in my post last June no longer works. While browsing through public IFTTT Recipes today I found a solution that uses posts on the App Store's official … Read more

Samsung Galaxy Ring circles up with Virgin Mobile for $180

Those eyeing Virgin Mobile's prepaid phones now have another Android 4.1 smartphone to choose from. Starting Tuesday, the Jelly Bean-filled Samsung Galaxy Ring debuts with decidedly entry-level features that are aimed for the budget-minded.

Let's start with the 4-inch display, backed by a 5-megapixel camera with HD video recording, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The Swype keyboard comes preinstalled, and ID packs can customize your phone by adding a themed profile. The more compact Galaxy Ring keeps gaming interesting with a 1.4GHz quad-core processor and a $179.99 up-front price.

Speed demons, however, will balk … Read more

Check the air quality with Smoggy

I spent a couple of years growing up in Los Angeles, and I can still remember the feeling I'd get in my chest on particularly smoggy days in the summer. It was so bad some days that my brother and I would have to cut our Wiffle ball games short. If you live in a part of the country where the air quality isn't great, use iPhone app Smoggy (99 cents) to get a reading of the air quality before heading out to exercise or sending your kids out to play.

The app lets you use your current … Read more

BlackBerry Q10 finally landing on AT&T June 21

It's been a long time coming, but AT&T customers can now expect to get their hands on the BlackBerry Q10 on June 21. The physical keyboard-toting gadget will cost the industry standard price of $199.99.

With an expertly designed typing surface that's based on BlackBerry's legendary Bold line of handsets, the Q10 features keys that are billed as 30 percent larger. In my experience with the device, I can certainly vouch that punching out messages on the keyboard is both fast and accurate.

That said, to make way for the bigger key layout you … Read more