iPhone

Super-sharp displays on Android phones take on Apple

HTC, Sony, and Huawei are leading the charge into large, full high-definition phone displays, said DisplayMate Technologies. It's a market Apple has yet to enter.

"With the iPhone 4 Retina display, Apple pioneered the previous generation of smartphone displays in 2010," wrote Raymond Soneira in DisplayMate Technologies' Full HD Flagship Smartphone Display Technology Shoot-Out released on Tuesday.

"This time the pioneers are all Android devices, with the iPhone still not even at the basic HD resolution of 1,280x720," he said.

Apple has some catching up to do to achieve "true Retina," as … Read more

49 iPhone games that would rock with a controller

Apple's opening up iOS 7 like nothing before it, allowing and even encouraging the use of game controller hardware that will finally bring physical buttons to iPhones, iPods and iPads.

This has been done before, of course, but not with Apple backing those efforts. Companies like ION Audio and its iCade have brought hardware add-ons, though they required developers to tweak their games in order make those things work. This new option from Apple also requires that, but aims for a standardized set of controls that developers can plug into their software, and that come baked into Apple's … Read more

Video shows what looks like iOS 7 running on an iPad

Apple has yet to give developers an iPad version of iOS 7, but photos, videos, and reports are popping up left and right about what the new operating system will look like on the tablet.

A new iPad iOS 7 video (see below) surfaced Tuesday from a Russian-based YouTube user named Rozetked who claims to have the upcoming OS running on his iPad. In the video, the user holding an iPad taps and swipes through different screens and features.

What's shown is awfully similar to what is known about iOS 7 for the iPhone and iPod Touch. When Apple … Read more

A portable Breathalyzer that can be too social

Driving while intoxicated is, quite literally, a life-and-death issue: according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, every 2 hours three people are killed in alcohol-related highway crashes. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that these deaths are preventable. Keeping intoxicated drivers from getting behind the wheel can save lives. And that's where the BACtrack Mobile Breathalyzer aims to make a difference.

While keychain-sized Breathalyzers have been around for years, the $150 BACtrack Mobile Breathalyzer brings the technology into the smartphone age. The pocketable unit syncs wirelessly over Bluetooth, allowing you to view your blood alcohol level on the … 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

The iPhone 5S rumor roundup

Editors' note: This story was originally published on December 6, 2012. We'll continuously update this piece up until the device's official launch; let us know if we missed any rumors ourselves.

iPhone rumors are like flies at a summer picnic: they're nearly unstoppable. Collected in one batch are all the iPhone 5S/6 rumors CNET has reported so far, with some commentary on where these rumors came from.

We always have long wish lists for newer features and further redesigns, but the bottom line is this: nobody knows exactly what we'll get until Tim Cook reveals … 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

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

Action Movie FX adds 'Star Trek' effects, donates proceeds to 9/11 veterans

One of my favorite apps of 2012, Bad Robot Interactive's Action Movie FX, just got even better.

Available for iOS, the app lets you add Hollywood-style special effects to videos you've shot with your iPhone or iPad.

What kinds of effects? Suppose you're making a movie that involves blowing up a car (as all good movies should). Action Movie FX includes a missile-attack sequence that ends with a gorgeous fiery explosion. All you do is record at least 5 seconds of video (in this case, footage of your car), then wait for the app to render the … Read more