This year may have been a disaster economy-wise, but app-wise it was awesome. I mean, consider just a sampling of what 2009 brought us: a wealth of GPS apps (most of them quite good), some way-cool barcode-scanning apps, voice-morphing, auto-tuning (still not sure what that is), and, lest we forget, bobble-head politicians–(OK, maybe that wasn’t …

Updated at 5 p.m. PST with additional details and at 10 a.m. PST December 13 with photo of the phone. A blog post from a Google executive on Saturday morning dropped hints that the company would release a Google Android phone of its own. In the post, Mario Queiroz, a Google vice president of product management, said the company had …

AT&T 3G wireless customers in San Francisco had problems making calls, sending and receiving text messages, and accessing data on Friday evening. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said that starting at about 4 p.m. PT on Friday afternoon, AT&T experienced a hardware issue in San Francisco that disrupted its 3G wireless network within the city. The hardware issue, which he did …

While Verizon customers have been feeling the Android love lately with updates for both the Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris, Sprint users have been left to wonder when they might see an update for their Android devices. Well, we sort of have an answer now. The carrier announced via Twitter on Friday that it will offer an Android 2.0 …

Somewhere, Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) is smiling. “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” for iPhone turns the classic tale into a superb interactive e-book, one that’s as much a learning tool as it is an entertaining diversion. With all the fuss over Kindles, Nooks, and other e-book readers, I’ve often wondered why there’s been so little focus on children’s books–arguably …

Greetings, Androids. Some good news for you from Spotify today: the new version of its app for Android has been released, with additional support for version 2.0 of the OS (aka Eclair), which means it’ll work on the snazzy Motorola Milestone, or Droid as it’s known in the States. It’ll add a feature previously available on the iPhone version, which …

Orange is now selling the iPhone, and O2 is no longer the UK’s exclusive iPhone network. But it puts you, dearest consumer, in quite the pickle: not only are the two models offered identical, but so are the prices (almost). So how on Earth do you decide which network to choose? We’re here to help. First, we’ll examine the tariffs …

Yet another wireless technology has been finalized by its backers, this one promising even faster speeds than current Wi-Fi specs. The new WiGig standard has been finalized by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, a group comprised of such heavy hitters as Intel, Dell, NEC, Toshiba, and Microsoft. WiGig promises speeds as fast as 7 gigabits per second, about ten times quicker …

Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile handsets, said Thursday that it plans to close two flagship stores in the U.S. as it refines its sales strategy and struggles to get a bigger foothold in the North American market. Nokia also said it plans to close one of two stores in London. And it will look for a new location …

We don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that the Motorola Droid was the hottest Android phone to be released in 2009. Of course, the Verizon Wireless ads attacking AT&T and the Apple iPhone did a lot to bring attention to the smartphone, but it wasn’t all hype. The smartphone delivered with excellent performance, an attention-grabbing 3.7-inch …