smart phones

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

With the announcement of the iPad 3 right around the corner, a lot of people are going to be getting rid of their ancient iPad 2 to help fund their purchase of a pristine iPad 3. Rick Broida already told us how to get top dollar for the iPad 2 and Dan Ackerman filled us in on how to get the most for an iPad trade-in. (Remember to delete your personal data before selling an iPad.) But, what about those used electronics you have lying around that haven't been touched in days?

I rounded up five sites … Read more

Smartphones--can you give them as a gift? And if so, which one should you give as a gift? Go with the Droid Razr or wait for the Galaxy Nexus? Or learn to love Siri and all her quirks? We're here to help--live.

CNET smartphones expert Jessica Dolcourt joins the CNET Holiday Help Desk Monday Dec. 12 at at noon Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern at CNET Live.

Monday's show is our fourth help desk of the season, here to answer your holiday tech-shopping questions. Not only will Jessica help you pick a smartphone, we'll also have Claudia … Read more

Most of us live with some amount of cable clutter--it's a fact of contemporary life. There are numerous cable minders, and many desktop monitors have them built in. Still, it's nice to see an elegant solution, especially one that doubles as a tablet or smartphone stand.

Cable.Gone's shape and materials set it apart from other cable minders. It's a slanted, rubberized plastic tube with open ends and a couple of holes in the middle. Cables can run from one end to the other or from either end to the middle. Running cables through Cable.Gone is an easy way to consolidate cables, save desk space, and reduce visual clutter.

Cable.Gone's cross-section is hexagonal, with one side lower than the other so the top surface is slanted. The slant is useful for propping up tablets and smartphones at an angle that makes them easier to see and type on. The bottom surface has a slot that makes it easy to insert cables. The tube is made of a rigid plastic with a rubberized outer surface, which helps hold tablets and smartphones in place.… Read more

The morning of October 4, I had my credit card in hand, ready to buy an iPhone 5 and wave good-bye to Android forever.

Sadly, the iPhone 4S isn't quite what I'd hoped for: it's too expensive for the high-capacity models I'd prefer, I want a bigger screen, there's no 4G, and I'd hoped for integrated turn-by-turn directions. The 4S has left an opening for Android to reassert itself and win my continued loyalty...but it's a tiny opening, indeed. This is Android's last chance, and here's why.

Fragmentation (still) I'… Read more

HTC has a press event scheduled for October 6 in London where a "surprise headliner" is promised. Though a focus on HTC's Beats Audio could mean that the special guest is an actual musician, HTC may just be playing coy about a coming new phone as well.

One device rumored to take the stage is the Runnymede, a Beats Audio-equipped phone with a 4.7-inch display. Mirroring HTC's Windows Phone-powered Titan, additional specifications are expected to include a single-core 1.5GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and 16GB internal storage.

According to a trusted source to Pocketnow, … Read more

Huawei announced its next Android endeavor yesterday, unveiling the Gingerbread-powered Honor and putting it on track for a fourth-quarter release.

Ask an average Android user to name one item they'd like to improve on their handset and you'll likely hear battery performance. That's why Huawei is really hoping to impress by adidng a 1900 mAh battery with a promised three days of juice. While it's not the highest-capacity battery we've seen yet (Atrix 4G has 1930 mAh), it still manages to keep the phone relatively light (140g) and thin at only 10.9 mm.

Other specifications include a single-core 1.4GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera, 512MB RAM, and 4GB internal storage. Falling right in the middle of the pack of today's new Android releases, the Honor will likely make a lower cost alternative to handsets from competitors such as Samsung or HTC. Additional noteworthy details for the 3G smartphone include a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, a microSD expansion slot, and support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and FM radio. … Read more

The hardware specifications for the rumored Droid Razr surfaced over the weekend at This is My Next, painting the image of a slightly evolved Droid Bionic.

The seemingly reliable details include a 4.3-inch display, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, and 4G LTE support. Although the processor's manufacturer has not been identified, it's definitely a step up from the Droid Bionic. What's more, the Super AMOLED Plus display certainly is a departure from the PenTile matrix found in other recent Motorola smartphones.

According to This is My Next's source, the handset had a code name of Spyder, but the name "Droid Razr" is referenced in the handet's "About" screen. What's more, the tipster indicates that the phone features an "HD" front-facing camera, though its resolution was not immediately known.

Comparing these new images to one that first surfaced in August, it's highly like that this is the same phone once also known as the Droid HD. Indeed, the other details match up pretty closely with each other so I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this phone has multiple names. … Read more