Many of the patent applications and grants we come across involving Apple relate to theoretical products that may never see the light of day. Today, Apple has been granted a patent that covers one of the most basic (and copied) processes in iOS, slide to unlock. Though Apple holds many patents pertaining to gestures, the …

Boost Mobile has cultivated a reputation for offering slick, good-looking smartphones–which is why I’m pleasantly surprised to see the ZTE Warp enter Boost’s no-contract lineup. ZTE isn’t well-known in the U.S., and definitely not for higher-end devices, but the specs are promising so far. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread ZTE Warp offers up a 4.3-inch display, a 1GHz processor, and a …

It was a crazy week in cell phone land, what with the Droid Razr and the Galaxy Nexus making their worldwide debut on the same day. And it’s not over yet, as Nokia and Microsoft have an announcement of their own coming up this week. Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing? We also talk …

Samsung is a company with a penchant for sequels, and just a few months after releasing Exhibit A, here comes Exhibit B: the Samsung Exhibit II 4G. The specs are modest to be sure, and very similar to the original. It starts with Android 2.3 Gingerbread running behind a 3.7-inch WVGA touch screen and powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm …

The Motorola Atrix 2 is, on the surface, a rather incremental upgrade over the original Atrix. It has the same slab design, and since it still has a 1GHz dual-core processor and HSPA+ speeds, it’s not that much faster. Yet, it does offer a number of improvements that should make Android fans happy. It ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and …

Another budget phone for Virgin Mobile has entered the arena: the slide-out Samsung M575. We’ve seen it before as Virgin Mobile’s Samsung Restore. This no-contract QWERTY slider has a 2.4-inch LCD screen, a 2-megapixel camera and camcorder, and threaded text messaging and e-mail. It also has a browser, Bluetooth support, a music player, and a microSD card slot that can …

Siri has been the subject of Apple’s ad campaigns for the iPhone 4S. It’s been discussed in terms of its one-liners and its Easter eggs, its cloud-based accomplishments and its similarity to services Android already offers. That’s all fine, but it’s ignoring the obvious question: what are you really, truly going to use Siri for? My iPhone 4S arrived on …

For those of you keeping an eye on Apple AirPlay-compatible products, Logitech is on the verge of releasing its first AirPlay speaker. It’s simply called the Logitech Air Speaker and a photo of it with limited information has appeared on Amazon’s U.K. site. Dave Zatz, who posted a story about the upcoming product on zatznotfunny.com, notes that the Air Speaker, …

LONDON – Nokia’s big comeback could start this week as the beleaguered cell phone maker is set to introduce its first smartphones based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system. CNET’s concept art of the ‘Sea Ray’ Nokia-made Windows Phone. Josh Long/CNET On Wednesday, the Finnish cell phone maker will kick off its Nokia World Event here in London where …

Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich software update is just around the corner, and it’s promised to offer huge improvements that will make Android phones easier to use. But what if you’ve already got an Android phone? Will you be left out? In this edition of Ask Maggie, I try to answer that question. First, I explain which phones I expect the …