Android gets a bad rap for short battery life, but that’s only if you stick with its default settings. Make these simple adjustments to give your phone or tablet a battery boost. Now playing: Watch this: Get better life on your Android device 2:58 Disable location reporting and history GPS is a huge battery hog, …

Samsung and Barnes & Noble’s Nook business sent an invite for an event later this month. Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET Here comes another Samsung event. The company and partner Barnes & Noble plan to host a gathering August 20 in New York to show off their first co-branded tablet, the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. The event will be held at …

Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is one phone you can turn into a two-way radio. Josh Miller/CNET Miss the days of walkie-talkies? Verizon will now let companies reclaim some of that ease with its new Push To Talk Plus service. The Samsung Galaxy S5 , Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, and Casio G’zOne Commando 4G LTE will all work with the business service, …

Counterpoint Research Samsung still can’t be beat in the US smartphone market, according to new data from Counterpoint Research. In the second quarter, Samsung accounted for 36.1 percent of US smartphone shipments, topping Apple’s 29.7 percent, the research firm reported Wednesday. During the same period in 2013, Samsung tallied 33.9 percent of shipments and Apple held 25.9 percent LG came …

Apple’s iPad Air. Josh Miller/CNET Has China banned key Apple products from government purchase? A new report is throwing cold water on that claim. In a story picked up by CNET and other news sites on Wednesday, Bloomberg said that China had banned Apple’s iPad and Mac from government purchasing over security concerns. Citing “government officials familiar with the matter,” …

All of the US telecom chiefs kicked off their careers in the industry with a job at a phone company and worked their way up through the system. Marcelo Claure, the new CEO of Sprint. Sprint Marcelo Claure got his start by being in the right seat on the right flight. Such is the unorthodox journey of Claure, who on …

Stock-Point Looking for a solid smartphone and dirt-cheap monthly service to go with it? Today’s your lucky day. For a limited time, and while supplies last, electronics dealer Stock-Point has the refurbished Republic Wireless Moto X (black) for $199, plus an obnoxious $15 for shipping. (It’s also available in white for the same price.) The phone sells new for $299. …

Apple and Samsung settled their overseas cases but the fight continues in the US. CNET The Apple v. Samsung patent-battle may have ended overseas, but it’s still going strong in the US. The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected several claims of one of the patents Apple wielded against Samsung in the most recent patent-infringement trial, saying in a …

CNET Reports of a partial cease-fire in the patent war between Apple and Samsung over various design features of the iPhone is certainly welcome news. Ever since late Apple founder Steve Jobs promised operating system, the mobile ecosystem has been engulfed in over a hundred largely pointless lawsuits, with Apple claiming ownership of such basic features as the rectangular shape …

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse at an event in Chicago. Sarah Tew/CNET Dan Hesse was dealt a bad hand when he took the reins at Sprint, stepping into a wireless carrier that was working its way through a messy merger that was costing it customers and tarnished its reputation for quality service. Seven years later, Hesse can list the many changes …

A lip-sync error occurs when the video of a person speaking on your TV doesn’t match up with the sound of them speaking. This can make it look like someone else is doing the voices on your movie, like a badly dubbed foreign-language film. Most commonly the video lags behind the audio, but the reverse can also happen. It can …

Sarah Tew/CNET A spot of good news for those itching to get their paws on Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet — the software giant has confirmed the precise date that its powerful tablet will arrive in 25 new countries. Shoppers in the UK, Australia and 23 more territories will be able to buy Surface Pro 3 tablets with Intel Core …

Lyft Line Lyft Lyft has launched a new type of ride sharing, one that stems from the car service’s earliest days. A carpool option called Lyft Line rolled out Wednesday. Lyft Line lets people share a ride — and its costs — with a stranger going the same way. Lyft said riders will save an average of 30 percent to …

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse at an event in Chicago. Sarah Tew/CNET Sprint’s Framily friends and family program offers a good deal — in theory. Framily’s hook is it gives you a bigger discount as you add more members, with the best deal only coming to groups of at least seven. With so many competing carrier options and people on differing …

The Intuition, LG’s first stylus/phablet foray in the US, was a flop. Will the G3 Stylus do better? Josh Miller/CNET A recent leaked LG video, intended to promote the Korean company’s new G3 Beat phone, revealed an LG G3 Stylus handset as well, apparently by accident. This G3 variant appears to have a bigger display and — you guessed it …