Do you still use your smartphone behind the wheel? At least a third of people polled do. Among two thousand drivers surveyed by McKinsey & Company, 35 percent revealed that they do use their smartphones while driving. And it’s likely more people do but just didn’t admit it. Out of the drivers who fessed up, …

commentary Facebook ended yet another press conference without mentioning a smartphone or mobile operating system bearing its branding. Should we be surprised? No. Are we? Sadly, yes. Months of rumors fueled expectations that Facebook would move into mobile in a bigger way, including unveiling — with a handset partner — a phone of its own. Such talk heated up in …

Smartphones are hitting the mainstream market. And that means old and young want a piece of the action. But at more than $1,000 per year for service, a smartphone may not be the best choice for every consumer. In this edition of Ask Maggie, I help a reader decide if he should get his parents smartphones or if he should …

The Samsung Galaxy S3 may be six months old — which in smart phone terms means we’re fitting a stairlift in its house while the broadsheets write their obituaries — but it’s still earning Samsung big piles of cash, having hit the impressive 40 million sales mark. Samsung’s lofty sales figures represent channel sales — the number of units flogged …

Vodafone will retire googly-eyed brand Crazy John’s from 20 February, closing some stores and rebranding others. (Credit: Crazy John’s/VHA) Last year, the news broke that Vodafone was closing some of the Crazy John’s stores around the country. Now, Ausdroid is reporting that Vodafone will close the brand in its entirety from 20 February. The plan seems to be to move …

Samsung has dropped a great big clanging hint at what we can expect from the Samsung Galaxy S4 — namely a 5-inch high-definition screen. Alongside its futuristic prototypes at CES, the annual technology trade show in Las Vegas, Samsung highlighted the progression of its screen technology from 2010 to the first quarter of 2013 — which is when a certain unnamed phone arrives. …

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for Android Jelly Bean phones to ship, I’m glad to see that a flood of handsets with the coveted software has burst onto the mobile scene. Some of these devices, such as the HTC Droid DNA and LG Nexus 4, rolled straight off the assembly line boasting Google’s most modern OS. Older …

Sony is reportedly knocking its Timescape social app on the head, starting with its upcoming 5-inch waterproof monster, the recently revealed Xperia Z. The Timescape app is a mainstay of Sony’s Android mobiles, offering glassy blue transitions and a supposedly attractive way of keeping an eye on your contacts and various social networks. The app can usually be found filling …

The Federal Aviation Administration looks to be tightening the screws on what personal devices pilots are allowed to use while in the air. A new proposal, which the agency published in the Federal Register today, aims to stop pilots from using electronic devices for any type of personal use while in the cockpit. The proposal comes after a handful of …

A lot of people like to do some of their banking on their mobile devices, but one company says the smartphone isn’t just for checking balances. Green Dot thinks the device can be the entire bank. With the launch today of GoBank, Green Dot — a major player in reloadable prepaid cards — is betting that an all-new FDIC-insured bank, …

LG will introduce the Optimus G2 in the fall of 2013, according to the latest round of chatter. Reportedly, the flagship device will debut right around the time the current model hits the one-year mark. Related stories LG Optimus G review Android rumor roundup Rumors to watch for in 2013 Previously rumored to arrive as early as last week’s annual …

Apple’s iPhone is the No. 1 pick among prospective smartphone buyers polled in North America, though it’s losing some ground to Samsung. Among 4,000 people looking to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 50 percent plan to buy an iPhone, according to a report out today from ChangeWave Research. That’s not a bad number, but it’s down from …

It’s already available in Wi-Fi-only versions, but a 4G iPad mini will launch in China by the end of the month, Apple boss Tim Cook has said. His Cookness was speaking to Chinese news outlet Tencent, spotted by my colleagues at CNET News. He didn’t give an exact date for the network-equipped tablet though, saying only “late January”. The Wi-Fi-only iPad …

Remember that story that said cheapness “will never be the future of Apple products“? The one that quoted Apple marketing supremo Phil Schiller in The Shanghai Evening News? Well it turns out to be wrong, as Schiller was either misquoted, or never said any such thing. The Chinese newspaper has updated its story, and at Apple’s request, no less. There …

Samsung has ditched its Ativ Tab Windows RT tablet, blaming Microsoft for failing to explain Windows RT. The company will not sell the tablet, which it launched at IFA in August, in the US — and it’s not looking good for the UK either. “There wasn’t really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace,” Samsung …