Engadget has dug up a filing at the US patent office’s application database, in which Apple describes a social network for hearing aids. The hearing aids involved would store a profile on its wearer, and, when they’re communicating with another hearing aid user, audio profiles would be swapped so the technology could adjust and people …

Australia’s gold-medal favourite James Magnussen tells CNET Australia about the personal tech that makes a difference in his life. Australia loves to dominate in the pool, and few right now are as dominant as the current 100m World Champion swimmer James Magnussen. He holds the fourth fastest swim ever over 100m, and is now the spearhead of the Australian men’s …

Samsung has something up its sleeve for August 15, but it’s not saying what. Several CNET editors just received cryptic save-the-date invitations for an event that will likely take place in New York. Here’s what we got: SAVE THE DATE August 15, 2012 10:00AM EST Please join Samsung Electronics America for a major announcement and unveiling of the newest GALAXY …

Traditionally, emoticons have been the best way to convey one’s emotion over the cold, hard form of communication that is text messaging. Now, Research In Motion (RIM) wants to inject a bit of feeling into your messages through some unorthodox means. (Credit: USPTO) A patent application, filed by RIM, details a method of translating emotions from the text you enter …

The world’s first update to Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean, was pushed back by Vodafone Australia because the new iteration of the operating system wasn’t up to the country’s standards for emergency phone calls. The update was supposed to give Nexus S users with the carrier the latest version of Android. The Next Web first reported on the …

Apparently even Nikki Minaj couldn’t spark a renewed interest in Nokia and its Lumia line of smartphones. The company disclosed yesterday in its quarterly report that it shipped 600,000 handsets to North America, a number that includes its newest Lumia phones, as well as a mix of lower end and prepaid Symbian phones already out in the market. Given that …

With an ominous creaking, Vodafone has opened the trapdoor to its Android update testing dungeon and shed some light on the process of approving and tweaking upgrades to the phones it sells. As an added bonus, it brings news of an update to Ice Cream Sandwich for one of our absolute favourite phones of 2012 — the stone-cold bargain that …

Sky Go is now on the Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Samsung Galaxy Note. The trio of Galaxy phones are the latest to stream Sky movies, sport and TV shows straight to your phone wherever you are. You can now watch Sky Go on 11 Android phones, including the HTC Desire, Desire S, Desire HD, Incredible S, Sensation and …

HTC plans to update its One X, One S, and One XL smartphones with Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean, the company confirmed to Engadget today. HTC confirmed the upgrade plans, but unfortunately didn’t provide any specific detail on timing to CNET. The company also said the updates would come to versions sold by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Rogers. Related …

Hoping to use your iPad in place of your laptop? The stumbling block has always been the keyboard: onscreen keys lack the tactile feedback afforded by the real thing, and therefore tend to trip up touch-typists (who are now woefully mislabeled). Of course, there are any number of keyboard cases and add-ons, but those add bulk and weight to your …

After the 2010 World Cup, major sporting events broadcast in 3D have been few and far between. NBC and Panasonic aim to change that by offering a new dedicated channel delivering a massive 242 hours of coverage in the third dimension. More important, chances are you’ll actually have access to it. NBC says the channel will be available to nearly …

ZTE is a pretty unknown brand in these parts — a brand X, if you will. But brand X just became Grand X, as the Chinese company announces the ZTE Grand X, a 4.3-inch, Android-powered dual-core smart phone. The Grand X is powered by a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core chipset. The powerful Tegra 2 chip lets you play souped-up games that you can …

Verizon continues to see a slowdown in customer growth, but oddly enough, that’s producing strong profits for the telecommunications giant. The New York telecommunications company posted a profit of $1.83 billion, or 64 cents a share, up from $1.61 billion, or 57 cents a share. Revenue, meanwhile, rose 3.7 percent to $28.55 billion. Analysts, on average, forecast earnings of 64 …

With people making fewer phone calls, the big mobile companies are losing money and desperately need new subscribers. Pop quiz, network hotshot — what do you do? If you’re Orange, you give younglings free stuff. If you’re O2, you reward loyal pay as you go customers with new deal Pay & Go Go Go. The oxygenated operator, perhaps worried everyone …

Josh Miller/CNET With the iPad Camera Connection Kit allowing users to connect a variety of unexpected USB devices (like a MIDI keyboard) to their iPads, the next logical question was, “Is there something similar for Android?” Although it’s not advertised or sold by any of the big Android phone manufacturers, the solution is a cheap cable called a USB On-The-Go …