Spencer Platt/Getty Images Google is one of the many companies vying to transform New York City’s increasingly anachronistic phone booths into Wi-Fi hot spots. The search giant was present at an informational meeting held in May to discuss the project. Other big-name attendees include Samsung, Time Warner Cable, Cisco, and Verizon. Bloomberg reported news of …

Cortana will play a critical role in Microsoft and Windows Phone’s future. James Martin/CNET NEW YORK — The woman behind the counter at the American embassy in Istanbul eyed Sogol Malekzadeh skeptically. “Why are you here?” the immigration official asked. “You [already] know my answer.” It was Malekzadeh’s first attempt applying for a cultural visa to the US, a process …

The Sony Xperia Z2 Sony Sony’s flagship Xperia Z2 smartphone is now on sale in the US, and the company is offering fast-acting customers a slight discount. The Xperia Z2 is available now in Sony’s US-based online store for $700, $50 off its standard price of $750. The device has been making its way to various markets, including Singapore, Australia, …

Now playing: Watch this: Push takes fitness trackers to the next level 2:56 Fitness-tracking devices like the Fitbit or Jawbone Up measure your steps and movement throughout the day to motivate you to adopt an healthy lifestyle. But beyond motivation, that data isn’t always useful. A new armband called Push puts a focus specifically on optimizing your strength-training workout. For …

HP is set to reveal three new tablets. Mobilegeeks.de HP is adding a trio of sleek slates to its tablet line-up. According to German tech site Mobilegeeks.de, HP is prepping two 10-inch tablets and one 7-incher, with an official announcement expected in the next few weeks. The HP Slate 10 Plus and Slate 8 Plus feature similar internal specs, running …

The original Galaxy Gear CNET Samsung on Monday said it’s now offering owners of the original Galaxy Gear the choice to switch over the smartwatch’s operating system to the company’s own Tizen software from Google’s Android. Word of such a change had been reported in May. While the change is optional, the switch conveys the South Korean company’s interests in …

CNET Apple is apparently going big with its next-generation iPhone, both in terms of screen size and production volume. The handsets, which Apple has yet to announce, will sport much-rumored 4.7- and 5.5-inch screens, according to The Wall Street Journal. Betting that larger screens will attract more consumers, Apple has asked its suppliers to produce 70 million to 80 million …

Blackberry BlackBerry’s renewed enterprise push has prompted the company to hire a new chief operating officer with an entire career of corporate focus. BlackBerry announced Monday it has appointed Marty Beard as chief operating officer, effective immediately. Beard will oversee marketing, application development, customer care, and quality — all of which BlackBerry describes as “cross-functional organizations.” He will also be …

Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET Verizon will now reward participating customers with a new loyalty program that promises lots of goodies. Available nationwide starting Thursday for any Verizon subscriber with a postpaid account, the new Smart Rewards program will dole out points based on specific activities. For example, pay off your monthly bill, sign into your My Verizon account management tool, …

CNET LG’s G3 smartphone has been getting great press and rave reviews for a while now — we gave it 4.5 stars last month. The only issue has been its availability, or lack thereof, in Australia. But we’re finally getting some tiny titbits of info trickling in from the Aussie telcos about the G3. Remember that the official RRP from …

The Passport delivers a big-screen experience the BlackBerry way. BlackBerry Since the release of the BlackBerry 10 operating system, the Canadian handset maker’s devices have come in two flavors: phones with large rectangular displays that embody the modern iPhone and Android slab motif and phones with small square displays and physical keyboards that hearken back to classic BlackBerry designs. Now, …

Samsung plans to move its mobile marketing operations from the group’s current Richardson, Texas, location (pictured here) to the New York area. Shara Tibken/CNET Samsung is relocating the team that dreamed up the successful “Next Big Thing” marketing campaign to New York and New Jersey, closer to its US headquarters, as part of an effort to consolidate its operations, CNET …

HP Chromebook 14. It’s a traditional laptop design with one exception: it runs Google’s Chrome OS not Windows. Hewlett-Packard More evidence this week showed that the Chromebook continues to make inroads into traditional Windows markets. And Microsoft is responding. First, let’s look at a report that came out this week from market researcher NPD. Sales of chromebooks — inexpensive laptops …

Nokia Nokia’s streaming-music app MixRadio has become another casualty in Microsoft’s deep cuts, but the service will live on as a standalone platform, its chief executive has confirmed. Speaking to The Guardian in an interview published Friday, MixRadio chief Jyrki Rosenberg confirmed that “basically, we’re planning a spin-off” from Microsoft. He added that while the streaming music service will continue …

Screenshot by CNET WeChat, the China-based messaging app maker, has officially made a foray into the wearable devices market. Wearables from iHealth, Huawei Honor, Lifesense, and Codoon that sport WeChat’s application programming interface (API) went on sale online in China earlier this month, according to WantChinaTimes.com. The market for such fitness bands and smartwatches in China is immature and fragmented …