Google says it won’t test its Ara smartphones in Puerto Rico, as previously planned. Lynn La/CNET Google’s got a change of plans for its build-it-yourself smartphone initiative. Project Ara, an effort to develop “modular” phones that you can put together piece by piece, will no longer launch in Puerto Rico, as previously planned, a Google …
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A look inside the OnePlus 2, including the company’s signature red battery.iFixit OnePlus, the China-based handset maker that has made a name for itself by offering high-end devices, has another reason for Android enthusiasts to celebrate: its latest smartphone is awfully easy to fix. The OnePlus 2 Android-based smartphone earned a repairability score of 7 out of 10 from iFixit, …
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CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Enlarge ImagePictures don’t quite do Fluance speakers justice. They look way better in person. Fluance A lot of speakers come and go in the Cheapskate labs, but there’s one that has earned a …
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Enlarge Image NeoLab Congratulations to Justin B. of Lake Elsinore, California, for winning an iBattz Refuel Invictus charging case for the iPhone 6 in last week’s giveaway, and to Jim L. of Nashville, Indiana, for winning a House of Marley Chant BT Bluetooth speaker the week before that. Think those writing tools known as pens are things of the past? …
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Microsoft How many photos do you have in your phone? Hundreds? Thousands, even? I bet you’d hate to lose them. And yet phones get lost, stolen and broken every day. Are you playing it safe? Apple’s iCloud affords a backup of sorts, but doesn’t really give you a way to access your photos via anything except other iDevices. (You can’t …
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Enlarge ImageSorry, that 128GB option is a mistake on Samsung’s part. screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET Looking for a high-capacity 128-gigabyte version of Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S6 Edge+? Sorry, you’re out of luck. At Thursday’s Unpacked 2015 event, in which Samsung unveiled its latest mobile devices and its new Samsung Pay payments system, Samsung pulled back the …
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When it comes to premium smartphones, a brave new world is coming — and it’s unclear where Samsung Electronics fits in it. The change is coming slowly, but surely. You’re starting to see it with the emergence of smartphones like Motorola’s Moto X Style , ZTE’s Axon Pro or the Xiaomi Mi Note — so-called flagship products with one shared …
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Xiaomi execs alongside Indian politicians at the press conference of the announcement. Xiaomi Xiaomi, China’s No. 1 smartphone maker, is set to ramp up its operations in India with the announcement earlier this week that it is opening up a manufacturing facility in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The move by Xiaomi is a sign of a change in …
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During the Galaxy Unpacked event in New York City, Samsung Pay chief Injong Rhee talks about how the company’s new mobile payment system works. Sarah Tew/CNET Samsung announced Thursday that its new mobile payment system, Samsung Pay, will be available in Korea on August 20 and in the US on September 28. This system aims to make it easier for …
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Enlarge ImageIt’s a flippin’ flip iPhone! Martin Hajek/@deplaatjesmaker Some of us remember flip phones more fondly than others do. You never accidentally bumped your screen into your keys. Your phone stayed charged for days. You felt like Captain Kirk every time you opened it. Nowadays we have big, flat phones with the screen front and center and naked. Designer Martin …
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John Miller/CNET Samsung’s gigantic curvy smartphone — the Galaxy S6 Edge+ — goes on sale in the UK on 4 September, the South Korean tech giant has confirmed. The massive mobile, unveiled today, follows on from the Galaxy S6 Edge , which was released earlier this year and featured a display with two curved sides, for an unusual look. The …
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TV viewers will have to wait until at least 2016 for Apple’s much-hinted-at subscription TV service. CNET Cord-cutters expecting to get their movies and television shows over an Apple-administered TV service this year will reportedly have to wait until at least next year. The much-hinted-at subscription TV service was widely expected to be unveiled next month, but sources tell Bloomberg …
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HTC CEO Cher Wang is cutting her staff as she looks to boost her company’s performance. Andrew Hoyle/CNET Smartphone maker HTC has announced sweeping layoffs as co-founder and CEO Cher Wang works to rebuild the ailing company. HTC will cut 15 percent of its workforce as part of a broader push to refocus on “premium smartphones, virtual reality, and connected …
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Enlarge ImageIt’s bigger than a normal d20, but it provides an extra service. Video screenshot by Anthony Domanico/CNET The love of gamers for dice can be hard to explain. People were making 20-sided dice more than 2,000 years ago and today that iconic d20 shape turns up in mugs and cake pans and everything from doormats to soap. Sure, you …
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Apple Music has Beats 1 radio, and now Rdio has hundreds of live terrestrial radio stations. Earlier this week, Rdio announced it has added 500 radio stations from its partner, Cumulus Media, which is the second-largest operator of radio stations in the US. You can listen to these radio stations via the Rdio iOS app, Android app, or on the …
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