As the percentage of Americans who own cell phones approaches 100 percent, analysts predict that the two biggest wireless providers in the country will have a harder time selling new cell phone contracts to high-value subscribers. AT&T and Verizon, which are announcing first quarter earnings this week, are likely to see slower growth of contract …

Are you stuck under an ash cloud in Europe, with nothing but your iPhone to keep you company? Lonely Planet wants to take you out for some fun times, by knocking down its city guides to the low, low price of free. Apps for Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Vienna are all …

Earth Day is just a couple of days away, but Sprint and Samsung are getting a head start by introducing their latest eco-friendly cell phone, the Samsung Restore. Due out this summer, the Restore is a messaging-centric handset with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a midlevel feature set that includes a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, stereo Bluetooth, an MP3 player, and support …

Plantronics just announced the Explorer 395, an entry-level headset that promises to be easy to use. Even though it doesn’t have the noise-canceling performance of its more expensive brethren, the Explorer 395 still boasts good audio quality (with noise and echo reduction) and dedicated buttons for volume, power, and calls. It also features a QuickPair technology that lets you easily …

There is a short answer and a long answer to this — we’re going to attempt both. In “theory” all HDMI cables are identical and the version only changes on the electronics side. The HDMI cable should feed whatever signal it receives from one end to the other unchanged, that is if it’s of sufficient quality. The problem is that …

HDMI has been with us for several years, but version 1.4 is an important update and so we walk you through what it is and why you need it. For more in-depth information on HDMI connectivity and how it’s different from analog cabling, see our feature Why HDMI? What you need to know before going digital.

The gadget world is buzzing today over a supposed iPhone 4G that both Engadget and Gizmodo say was discovered on a bathroom floor in a bar in California. Gizmodo says it has even procured the hardware for a more detailed hands-on overview of what we can expect from the next iPhone. We expect the iPhone 4G to have the same …

If you have ever wondered how Windows 7–or any version of Windows, for that matter–would look on the iPad, there’s indeed an app for that. It’s called LogMeIn Ignition. The app has been available for the iPhone for a long time and just got a major upgrade to version 1.1.138 earlier this month to fully support the iPad’s larger screen. …

Editors’ note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes’ bio below. Even before the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Comcast v. FCC, a great deal of ink has been spilled over speculation that the FCC will rescue its marooned Net neutrality rulemaking by “reclassifying” broadband Internet access as a “telecommunications service” under Title II of the Communications Act. (Some of …

It sucks to lose your phone in the pub — but it’s a whole world of fail if you lose a prototype of the next iPhone, currently nicknamed the iPhone 4G. Engadget reports that an iPhone 4G was found on the floor of a bar in San Jose, California — a mere drunken stumble from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. Further evidence …