Blog Layout

Apple iPhone 5 prototype left in tequila bar. Again

An Apple employee has left his prototype iPhone 5 in a tequila bar in San Francisco, proving once and for all that lightning does indeed strike twice, after an identical situation arose with the iPhone 4 last year. Our buddies over at CNET.com explained the “phone went missing in July, sparking a scramble by Apple …

Read More »

Sprint to increase upgrade fees to $36

Yesterday we reported that Sprint is raising its ETFs to a whopping $350 for advanced devices, though it will be prorated based on the remaining months of your contract. Well, perhaps to ready itself for the incoming deluge of customers who want to upgrade their handsets to the Samsung Epic 4G Touch or the rumored iPhone 5, Sprint will also …

Read More »

Verizon offering $100 to smartphone upgraders

Verizon iPhone Verizon Wireless Verizon Wireless is offering some incentives to convince basic feature phone owners to upgrade to a smartphone. Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney told CNET that customers with basic phones who are eligible to upgrade between now and the end of the year can currently upgrade to a smartphone. Such customers have until September 30 to make the …

Read More »

Lenovo’s A1 tablet goes cheap, stays classy

Now playing: Watch this: Lenovo IdeaPad A1 0:50 Lenovo’s A1 Android tablet isn’t setting out to change the world, but it is hoping to raise your expectations of budget-priced Android tablets. The A1 is a $250 7-inch Android 2.3 tablet in the same vein as 2010’s Samsung Galaxy Tab. Unlike most Android tablets in this price range, the A1 is …

Read More »

HTC Titan, Radar to serve up Windows Phone Mango this fall

Though not much of a surprise, HTC fans were among the first to get a look at the company’s new Windows Phone Mango handsets today. The HTC Titan and the HTC Radar were introduced at meetups held in England, France, Spain, and Germany, with both smartphones expected to be available in Europe in October. Pricing, as well as U.S. availability, …

Read More »

Samsung Galaxy Note: Big phone or tiny tablet?

BERLIN–With its new Galaxy Note, Samsung is adding another size category to its already broad range of Android devices. The company already had more conventionally sized Android smartphones with its Galaxy S line, larger tablets such as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, and intermediate ones such as the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab and the new Galaxy Tab 7.7. The …

Read More »

Why companies test phones in the wild

As CNET reported yesterday, a second unreleased Apple iPhone has gone astray. The secret device was lost at a San Francisco bar in late July, CNET reporters Declan McCullagh and Greg Sandoval wrote, and Apple quickly conducted an aggressive campaign to find it. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Remember that last year, an Apple computer engineer accidentally …

Read More »

How HTC’s new Windows Mango phones stack up

Ever since Microsoft took the wraps off of Windows Phone 7.5 (code-named Mango), we’ve been wondering how phone-makers would update the first crop of phones to carry the new operating system. HTC gave us its answer with the announcements of the HTC Titan and HTC Radar, both available in Europe starting in October. Both handsets bring hardware improvements in the …

Read More »