Attorney David Taylor took refuge with an old-school phone when he’d had enough of his smartphone’s incessant alerts. Stephen Shankland/CNET David Taylor’s phone came with a potentially useful feature: It rang hourly to remind him he had voice mail. But when one interruption too many piled on top of an overstuffed to-do list, he destroyed …

Canon’s new EOS 5DS R has a 50-megapixel sensor, but it doesn’t outscore the Nikon D810’s 36-megapixel sensor. Sarah Tew / CNET Canon’s newest cameras might be the current leader in the SLR megapixel race, but test results released today show the company still significantly lags rival Nikon when it comes to a core part of image quality. DxO Labs, …

Enlarge ImageIBM Research and business partners have built a working chip with features measuring 7 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. That’s half the size of today’s cutting-edge 14nm chips. IBM Research Chip designs two generations more advanced than today’s cutting-edge designs are now closer to reality as IBM announced Wednesday it’s built a test processor that makes computer circuitry …

Palette’s snap-together control system is a new attempt to fix an old problem: what’s the best way for a human being to operate a computer? Palette When it comes to controlling personal computers, keyboards and mice are the reigning champions. A startup called Palette, though, thinks photographers and other creative types will embrace hardware that offers even more direct control. …

The Polarr image editor for iOS is built using the same Web technologies used by websites. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET Conventional wisdom says that the technologies used to build websites are poorly adapted to the hotter and newer world of smartphone apps. But a photo-editing tool called Polarr may prove that thinking wrong. Polarr broke from convention and utilized that …

Transportation company Cabify will use Telefónica smart buttons to let people order a car. Telefónica We started with Internet-enabled PCs, moved to Internet-enabled phones and now are strapping on Internet-enabled watches. What comes next? Perhaps something as simple as an Internet-enabled button. Telefónica, a Spanish carrier with network operations in many countries around the world, on Wednesday unveiled what it …

Adobe’s David McGavran shows how Apple’s Metal technology gives Illustrator a fluid new zoom ability. Stephen Shankland/CNET This year, a new way to handle graphics chips will speed up everything on your computer — from Photoshop to a first-person shooter. That’s because a more efficient way for software to control chip hardware will lift graphics performance, empower the graphics chip …

Chrome could go even faster thanks to a new set of Web standards. Screenshot/Google An unlikely partnership between rivals may be the key to a much faster experience on the Internet. After working behind closed doors for months, browser engineers on Wednesday unveiled a project called WebAssembly. The effort, now taking place in public, aims to marry the unbeatable reach …

Adobe Stock offers imagery from the company’s Fotolia service, but with a direct link to Photoshop and other Adobe software. Adobe Systems For decades, Adobe Systems has supplied creative pros with tools like Photoshop. Now the company is supplying photos and illustrations, too, through a new service called Adobe Stock that the company launched Tuesday. Adobe Stock is based on …

A new baby has arrived in the Konrad-Shankland household. Stephen Shankland/CNET For new parents, smartphones and newborn babies are a match made in heaven. Ten years ago, just before our first son was born, I got my first mobile phone so my wife and I could stay in touch before and after the baby arrived. Now, with the arrival of …