When it comes to GPS-based friend-finding apps, you either love them or you don’t. Google has been a big believer on its Android platform for some time, integrating Google Latitude into all of its Android phones. Apple’s iOS 5 update brings a separate downloadable app, Find My Friends (shortened to Find Friends once it installs). …

CNET has told you all about what’s new in Apple’s iOS 5 operating system and in the iPhone 4S that launched today, but this here’s a deep dive into the Notifications Center, one of the new features to hit iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Pull down notifications The new notifications center is one of the biggest changes …

The interesting thing about CTIA’s fall show is that you never know what you’re going to get. We all expected it to be small this year, and it is, but it turned out far busier than we imagined. (Here’s a look at Day 1.) Ever since Google and Samsung pulled out of their big, not-so-secret secret event, we expected a …

The phones (and tablet) of CTIA fall 2011 +14 more See all photos This past CTIA may have held only one or two surprises, but thankfully, it also held 17 photogenic devices that were either brand-new to us, or which we’ve heard of, but hadn’t seen before. So here they are, all compiled together in one bright, easily perusable package. …

Now playing: Watch this: T-Mobile SpringBoard 1:36 “Not another 7-inch tablet!” you say. Well, hold that thought and feast your eyes on the T-Mobile SpringBoard, first announced at CTIA. Manufactured by Huawei, the SpringBoard is a dual-core “4G”-capable tablet with high build quality (its resemblance to the HTC Flyer is suspiciously close). The Honeycomb 3.2 device also has an HD …

Oh, Microsoft. It’s no secret that I think you could and should do more to win hearts and minds over to Windows Phone’s cause. I proclaimed it loudly a year ago, and I’ll say it again today. By relying solely on your partner manufacturers to trot out your few Windows Phones this CTIA, you’ve missed another golden opportunity for showing …

They’re tough, they’ve got rock-hard bodies, and they can communicate. We’re talking about the Kyocera DuraCore and DuraMax phones, of course, the first two in Sprint’s lineup to use push-to-talk over 3G CDMA. While not exactly twinsies, the handsets are quite similar, with the DuraCore being the more basic of the two. Both feature phones operate under the Direct Connect …

Even as we lick our lips over Google’s upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update to Android, I’m impressed that even the more modest new Android phones are on board with Gingerbread. The ZTE Score is one of them. First introduced exclusively through Best Buy, the Score is also Cricket’s latest Muve Music phone. ZTE Score (photos) +2 more See all photos …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Transfix (Cricket) 1:18 Samsung may have crushed our CTIA dreams by pulling back on its biggest announcement here at CTIA, but thankfully it still introduced a number of new handsets. The Samsung Transfix sits on the opposite end of the grandeur spectrum from the Galaxy Nexus we were all anticipating, but it’s a good add …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung Transform Ultra (Boost Mobile) 1:11 It’s been about a month since Boost Mobile and Samsung announced the Samsung Transform Ultra, but we only just got our hands on it at CTIA. The specs are nothing to sneeze at–they include Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 1GHz processor, a VGA front-facing camera, and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera–but the …