On May 30, the father of Android promised that he’d ship his ambitious Android phone within 30 days. That was 37 days ago. “It has to be a swing for the fences,” Andy Rubin, now the father of wannabe disrupter Essential, said that day.  The $700 phone (which converts to about £550 or AU$940) wants …

The next time your parent, kid or inebriated pal needs a ride, Uber wants you to whip open your phone. A new service rolling out today makes it easier to hail a ride for others, the company said in a blog post. Uber gets a tip-off when the pickup location you request doesn’t match your current location. The app will …

Apple wants to hire a human assistant for its Siri digital assistant. We swear, we’re not making this up.  According to an open Apple req flagged by 9to5Mac, the iPhone maker wants to make Siri more culturally with it. Or in Apple’s words, “to provide strategic awareness of cultural happenings in the collective zeitgeist.” In our words, Apple wants to …

If you’re one of Pinterest’s approximately 175 million active monthly users, scoot close.  The social network announced on Tuesday three new measures it’s introducing to protect your account from being compromised. It isn’t unusual to see security measures like this; in fact, they’re quickly becoming the norm. Two-factor authentication Already used by Google and Facebook, this extra layer of security …

Now playing: Watch this: Nokia 6 is pure Android Nougat in a sleek aluminium body 1:07 What would you do to get a deal on a phone? If looking at ads falls into that spectrum, Amazon is selling five new budget Android phones to Amazon Prime members for between $30 and $80 less than their full retail price. The catch: …

Enlarge Image Business magnate Richard Branson launches Virgin Mobile’s new all-iPhone plan Wednesday. Josh Miller/CNET Kick back and pass the popcorn. A carrier has just made a big, bold move that has the potential to change its fortunes, and sweeten your phone-buying experience in the process. On the surface, Virgin Mobile‘s decision to transform itself from a run-of-the-mill prepaid carrier …

Hello, iOS 11; and hello, iPhone 8 hints. Tucked into Apple’s announcements at this year’s WWDC conference — especially iOS 11 — are juicy clues about what the software update for your iPhone and iPad might also bring to the next major iPhone. Apple’s iPhone is due for a major overhaul. Last year’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus drew fire for having …

My, my, how things have changed. The way it used to be… Any phone you wanted to buy in the US was tied to your carrier and a two-year contract. But in the last several years (prodded by T-Mobile), the marketplace has burst wide open. Enlarge Image Buying an unlocked phone has its freedoms. Josh Miller/CNET Today… Verizon, AT&T, Sprint …

OnePlus just confirmed in a tweet that its upcoming OnePlus 5 phone is getting something that Samsung’s lauded Galaxy S8 doesn’t have: a dual-camera setup on the back. A continuous hard edge, refined over 3 years. https://t.co/KVXBWmhBt8 pic.twitter.com/KBNppQ0R0U — OnePlus (@oneplus) June 8, 2017 OnePlus also said that its camera technology will make photos clearer.  Dual cameras are quickly becoming the …

Five years from now, there will be more machines talking to one another than people using smartphones, tablets and laptops, according to Cisco’s annual internet forecast. Machine-to-machine communication, also called M2M, will soar to 51 percent of internet usage, with humans picking up the rest of the slack. The machines in question? Devices in your smart home, hospitals and offices. …