In less than 24 hours, and just over four years after the original iPhone was born, Verizon Wireless is poised to announce its own version of Apple’s device. Needless to say, it will be a very big deal for the iPhone in the United States. Not only will it end AT&T’s monopoly on the popular …

I’ve never been completely sold on the accuracy or practicality of Google Goggles, but an update to the Goggles for Android app makes this experiment in photo searching more useful day-to-day. The new Google Goggles for Android 1.3 adds three significant features–faster Google’s bar code and QR scanner, the ability to recognize print ads like in newspaper and magazines, and …

At CES 2011, Microsoft provided little detail about its upcoming Windows Phone 7 update, other than to say that it would bring copy-and-paste and performance improvements. Needless to say, the lack of information was disappointing, but at least the performance enhancements look promising. The guys over at Anandtech got a demo of the forthcoming update on video and as you’ll …

The LG Optimus Black — formerly known as the LG B — proves that you can never be too bright or too thin. Not only is it the thinnest smart phone in the world at 9.2mm, just beating out the iPhone 4 by 0.1 millimetre, it’s also got bragging rights to a new kind of display. LG says that the display, which …

Blu-ray strikes back in 2011 as the Star Wars saga arrives in glorious high definition. Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi plus prequels The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith are available to pre-order right now ready for hyperspeed delivery in September. Twentieth Century Fox announced the …

Despite some critics decrying that “plasma is dead”, Samsung has said that plasma technology will remain with us until at least 2020. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Bong-Ku Kang, Samsung’s senior vice president of the company’s marketing group, said that while it is limited in terms of the amounts of units it can produce due …

Sony has shown off its new prototype 3D visor (the “Headman”) at CES in Las Vegas, which can be used to display movies or even games in three dimensions. (Credit: Ty Pendlebury/CNET Australia) The headset includes two displays inside the visor, which is equivalent to a 100-inch 720p display, and also a set of headphones. While the looks are a …

DEK Now playing: Watch this: Ep. 50: Android Xooms, and Google Tells us how it is 24:57 Podcast Your browser does not support the audio element. Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320×180) | iTunes (640×360) | RSS (MP3) | RSS (320×180) | RSS (640×360) EPISODE 50 CES: Motorola reveals iPad-rival Xoom tablet http://ces.cnet.com/8301-32254_1-20027500-283.html A first look at Honeycomb and Google’s redesigned Android apps http://androidandme.com/2011/01/news/android-news-news/a-first-look-at-honeycomb-and-googles-new-app/ CES: Toshiba’s …

Editor’s note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes’ bio below. LAS VEGAS–The message at yesterday’s CES Tech Policy Summit was all about spectrum, and the looming crisis brought on by exploding demand for mobile broadband relying on limited frequencies. Speakers including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and three of his four fellow commissioners all sounded the same theme: the …

You may be able to get your sweetie a Verizon iPhone this Valentine’s Day. Kent German/CNET On the heels of Verizon’s announcement of a special press conference on January 11, Boy Genius Report says a source has confirmed that Apple has blacked out retail employee vacation time for February 3 to February 6, covering a possible Verizon iPhone launch weekend. …