Virgin Mobile offers some unbeatable iPhone deals, but beware the hassles of getting a replacement. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET Back in March, having decided that Android wasn’t for me, I decided to buy an iPhone 5S from Virgin Mobile. The deal was too good to pass up: 30 percent off the phone itself and $30 …

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang shows off the company’s Shield gaming device at Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. Shara Tibken/CNET SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Nvidia is shifting gears again. The company, which has risen to prominence by creating graphic processing units, or GPUs, for computers, has long been looking for other avenues of growth. It had sought to break into …

The market for smartwatches like the Samsung Gear 2 more than doubled in Q1 2014. Sarah Tew/CNET Half a million Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatches have been dispatched into the world this year, with Samsung hogging 70 percent of the fast-growing market for connected timepieces. Analysts Strategy Analytics have crunched the numbers for the wrist-worn wearable devices set to be the …

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung’s Galaxy S5 rises to the top 4:42 If prepaid is the name of your game, you’ll be happy to know that as of Monday, Sprint has added the Samsung Galaxy S5 to its Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile prepaid networks. The top-its-class Android 4.4 KitKat smartphone will cost $600 off-contract and will ride the enhanced …

BT is launching 4G in summer, for business users. Shutterstock Whether you’re a businessman or a business, man, BT is one step closer to going 4G. You can now sign up to be kept in the loop when BT’s first 4G service launches this summer, with a consumer service to follow some time in the next year. BT’s super-fast 4G …

When it comes to communications mergers this year, it’s all about the bundle. Attention will focus on federal regulators this year as they now have not one but two major communications mergers to consider. So far, chances look good that AT&T and DirecTV will be allowed to consummate their $48.5 billion proposed merger. The best thing that AT&T and DirecTV …

CNET Apple and Samsung reportedly are giving truce talks another shot in an effort to settle their legal differences out of court. The two combatants have recently “resumed working-level discussions” with the key topic being how to dismiss all lawsuits, the Korea Times said Monday, citing information from people directly involved with the matter. Apple and Samsung emerged from yet …

The school at the center of the allegations. Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET Educators aren’t always comfortable with students having cell phones. While some might argue phones are a classroom distraction, other teachers face a different problem with mobile devices. It seems there’s too much temptation hidden within them to discover everything about their students. An incident in the UK offers …

AT&T will eventually sell DirecTV service in its stores. Josh Lowensohn/CNET For AT&T and DirecTV, the sales pitch begins. The companies have a lot of convincing to do. Consumer advocacy groups have already bashed the deal as the creation of another media industry giant, while financial analysts remain skeptical about the potential advantages of combining the second-largest wireless carrier in …

DirecTV The blockbuster deal between AT&T and DirecTV proves one thing: that the National Football League Sunday Ticket package is the crown jewel in the satellite-TV provider’s programming package. DirecTV’s relationship with the NFL and maintaining the Sunday Ticket package is critical enough to the $48.5 billion merger with AT&T that it is deemed a deal breaker. If DirecTV doesn’t …