Months before the first iPod was announced by Apple, another company — one that has much to do with the performance of today’s Macs — announced its own digital music player. Intel’s Pocket Concert won praise for its audio quality but wasn’t much to look at. The silver-and-blue MP3 player, along with Intel’s other consumer …

Smartphones have become the dominant connected device in the US and around the globe on the twin motors of connectivity and portability. But with dominance comes the congealing of a once frothy market around a handful of operating systems and handset providers, and many companies are eager for a new round of disruption. This year saw the rise of “concept …

If Kickstarter is any reflection of the zeitgeist, one of the biggest problems plaguing humanity is an insufficient selection of wallets. And judging by the projects building out those wallets, there’s an unmet need for minimalist designs, those that hold a few bills or none at all and a small selection of plastic cards. Meanwhile, it seems you can’t buy …

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8: This tablet comes with a stylus. Josh Miller/CNET The tablet market had its breakthrough moment when Apple’s iPad arrived sporting a nearly 10-inch screen. Later, much of the significant action among tablets centered on those in the 7-inch realm. In general, the 7-inch size marks the border between so-called phablets and proper tablets. The group …

This year, the smartphone world pushed forward with new generations of some of the most popular mobile processors, including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800, Nvidia’s Tegra 4, and Apple’s 64-bit A7. Along with that, recent smartphone introductions have cast light on the coprocessors that handle specific — some might say mundane — tasks. But what those coprocessors may lack in sizzle, they …

It was a Hail Mary pass that badly missed its mark: the release of BlackBerry 10 and its first cellular vessel, the Z10. And in the ensuing series of downs, BlackBerry suffered injury after injury. These included a failed promise to bring BlackBerry 10 to the Playbook, delays in delivering BBM to iOS and Android, and T-Mobile’s yanking of BlackBerry …

These days, the smartphone sector revolves around the competition among Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Those three companies wrested power from the likes of Motorola, Nokia, and BlackBerry (then RIM) — but there was also another group sidelined in the rise of the smartphone, even as its members profited immensely from the uprising: mobile operators. Especially in the US, carriers still …

The 2013 edition of Google’s Nexus 7 tablet. Josh Miller/CNET At the Google press breakfast where the company unveiled the new Nexus 7 — Google’s first product franchise with “the new” Apple-esque branding — the company made sure to highlight the many benefits of the 2013 product compared with its earlier foray into the tablet space. The successor is faster, …

If there is one thing Sony has learned in watching the rise of Samsung over the past decade, it’s been the singular power that smartphone leadership affords. In recognition of this, Sony acquired Ericsson’s stake from its 10-year joint venture last year and created Sony Mobile. The evolution of the Sony-Ericsson mobile product line had reflected Sony’s fortunes. Imbued with …