boosted

LAS VEGAS -- Sprint Nextel's prepaid arm, Boost Mobile, is taking its own stab at the digital wallet.

The company on Tuesday unveiled its Boost Mobile Wallet program, which is an Android application that allows its prepaid customers to manage their funds, transfer funds, send money overseas, and pay bills.

While the heavy-hitters such as Google and Isis -- which is a joint venture between Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile -- are going after the high-end, tech-savvy user with their own digital wallets, Boost is going the opposite route. The company is instead targeting customers who tend … Read more

LAS VEGAS -- At CTIA 2013, Kyocera unveiled one of the newest members of its waterproof Hydro line: the Kyocera Hydro Edge.

Kyocera also introduced its slightly higher-end Hydro XTRM for U.S. Cellular. The Edge, however, will be available through Sprint and the prepaid network, Boost Mobile, and will run on both carrier's 3G network.

Through exact pricing and availability are unknown, CNET was told by a Kyocera rep that the Edge will most likely have the same initial $129.99 pricing as the original Hydro. It will arrive on both carriers by this summer.

Design The Edge … Read more

Performance is often slowed for users with little hard drive space available. iBoost for Mac allows users to clean unused files from their system, potentially boosting performance. However, to use the full functionality of this software one needs to purchase the full version.

After a quick and easy installation and setup, iBoost for Mac welcomes the user with a simple, straightforward interface. The main menu allows the user to check their system information and performance information, as well as when prior scans were completed. The program comes as a free basic version, with additional features unlocked for a $9.99 … Read more

Sprint subsidiaries Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile finally joined the LTE wave today by acquiring their first devices compatible with Sprint's growing network. Though both carriers carry WiMax handsets, Sprint began phasing out that network in favor of LTE last year.

Virgin's Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE is another member of the company's ever-expanding Galaxy family. Its feature set shows that Virgin continues to up the ante on its smartphone lineup.

Running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, it has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 5-megapixel camera with HD video capture, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Off all the things Eton showed off today at CES 2013, I am most impressed with the BoostSolar charger. It seems to be something that comes in handy when I go on a picnic or do anything under the sun, literally.

The BoostSolar is basically a solar charger on one side and a battery bay on the other side. It comes with one removable 4,000mAh lithium battery. The device's 5-inch solar panel can charge the battery in 10 hours. The battery itself then has enough juice to charge an iPhone twice from empty to full.

The cool … Read more

It's frustrating when you share the Internet between multiple devices and some of them hog all the bandwidth, leaving the rest crawling. Qualcomm has something that could potentially ease this pain.

The mobile chipmaker today introduced its StreamBoost technology, which is designed to "optimize performance and capacity of home networks" by enabling the home router to intelligently manage the broadband connection. Qualcomm says the new technology allots to each connected device and each application the bandwidth it needs, and no more, to ensure the best possible experience on all connected devices.

It's important to note that … Read more

At the Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford will unveil its 2013 Fiesta model, currently its smallest car. And along with its standard 1.6-liter engine, Ford will also be showing its smallest engine, the 1-liter, three-cylinder EcoBoost, a new option for the Fiesta model.

Three-cylinder engines are rare in the U.S., only used in the current Smart car or the odd past Asian import. In those applications, they have not garnered a really good reputation. But Ford's little mill may change all that.

Taking advantage of efficiency and power technologies, the 1-liter Ford engine produces 123 horsepower and … Read more

Top carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are losing sales of prepaid smartphones to the likes of Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and MetroPCS, according to an NPD report out today.

Third-quarter prepaid smartphone sales for the smaller carriers rose 23 percent over the prior quarter. But sales among the tier-one carriers dropped by 12 percent over the same period. Why? The smaller players won over customers by offering lower prices and a larger selection of prepaid phones, NPD said.

In the third quarter, 70 percent of smartphone buyers who bought their phones through a prepaid carrier had … Read more

Two years is a long time. In that amount of time you can finish a master's degree or, uh...raise a baby into a 2-year-old child. OK, that latter example wasn't the most illustrative, but what I'm trying to say is that for some mobile phone users out there, two years is too long to be locked down in a carrier agreement. That's why I've gathered a few top-notch, recently released phones on prepaid carriers that are ideal for those who want to be contract-free.

Samsung Galaxy Reverb (Virgin Mobile), September 2012 Though it doesn'… Read more