Jason Cipriani/CNET Sitting down on a Friday night with a date or the kids and watching a movie no longer requires a trip to the local video rental store, let alone a Redbox to pickup a DVD. Instead a couple button taps on a remote is all that’s needed to begin watching the latest Hollywood …

Jason Cipriani/CNET The longer I use the G3 the more I find and appreciate some of the software tweaks LG has made to Android. I recently covered one such feature called Guest Mode. Another feature I recently discovered pertains to the volume buttons on the back of the device. Not only can they adjust the volume of both media and …

LG G3’s Guest Mode menu Jason Cipriani/CNET There’s a brief moment of hesitation when someone asks to see or use your phone. It’s not necessarily that we have something to hide, but a phone is a very personal device, making the hesitation a natural feeling. LG’s G3 has a feature to help eliminate your internal fears called Guest Mode, and …

The WearBucks app on both an Android and Android Wear device. Jason Cipriani/CNET Mobile payments have yet to gain mass adoption across major retailers, but that doesn’t stop Starbucks from trying to lead the way with its mobile app. As such, I fully expected to see an Android Wear compatible update made to its app shortly after Google I/O when …

The moment you realize you’ve lost a phone is a rush of emotions. Your photos, text messages, contacts, email, and social accounts are all in the hands of a stranger. You feel exposed. As technology has progressed, methods for tracking lost devices are now as common as seeing Facebook installed on a phone. Doing its part to reunite owners of …

When Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos announced its first smartphone, the Fire, he discussed how much time and effort his team had put into perfecting a new feature called Dynamic Perspective. Bezos explained how the three-dimensional interface made possible by four front-facing cameras offered a new method of interacting with a smartphone. He was right, but unfortunately for some, the stuttering …

Firefly attempting to scan a Fire Phone box. Jason Cipriani/CNET The Fire phone, Amazon’s first smartphone, isn’t simply a phone. In addition to giving users access to Amazon Prime (and all of the included services) for a year, the Fire phone has a few tricks up its sleeve. The first of which is called Firefly. Building upon the bar code …

Jason Cipriani/CNET Upon unboxing your shiny new Fire phone, you likely noticed the four small dots, one in each corner, on the face of the device. The dots are where Amazon placed specials cameras that track your face whenever you’re using the Fire. Using four cameras instead of just two ensures that no matter how you hold the device, Dynamic …

Jason Cipriani/CNET With the Fire Phone, Amazon took a new approach to the how we interact with a smartphone, from incorporating 3D gestures, to turning the world into a showroom with Firefly, to a new take on the behavior of your home screen. The general approach to the home screen on the Fire phone is similar to what Amazon has …

Jason Cipriani/CNET You may have noticed the screen on your Android Wear watch never truly turns off. Sure the brightness is turned way down and the bright, colorful display is hidden when the watch goes into idle mode, but the screen is still on. Not only is it sipping on battery power, but it’s also an annoyance when you’re trying …