Le chic, c’est cheap. Here’s a couple of cheapish new Android phones from French company Archos that look much classier than its previous budget efforts and have respectable specs too. The Archos 45 Helium and 50 Helium (pictured above, but the 45 is virtually identical) will set you back a penny less than £200 and …

BlackBerry, which has persisted in selling smartphones with hardware keyboards, has filed a patent infringement suit against Typo Products, which makes an iPhone case with a built-in keyboard. Typo’s $99 case, which is debuting at the CES conference next week, slips around an iPhone 5 or 5S and connects to it wirelessly via Bluetooth. It provides a keyboard that looks …

Acer has taken the wraps off a new Android PC, part of a lineup that also sees a new Android smart phone and an 8-inch Windows 8 tablet heading for the UK. The Acer DA223 HQL is an all-in-one desktop PC powered by Android, announced ahead of next week’s CES, the international technology trade show where the year’s new gadgets …

The classic home theater setup — with front left, center, and right, surround speakers, and a subwoofer — was the de facto sound standard. High-end home theater buyers still use multichannel systems, but the multichannel home theater-in-a-box system is almost dead. Up until recently, I reviewed 12 or more home theater-in-a-box systems every year for CNET, but now sound bars …

LAS VEGAS — Samsung Electronics recently announced the release of its 2014 Smart Control, the remote included with most of its new Smart TVs, and today we got the chance to try one in-hand. The updated clicker now supports motion control a la a Nintendo Wiimote or LG Magic Motion wand, and it also includes a touch pad. The touch …

Apple’s iPhone saw the highest gains in post-holiday online traffic among the major smartphones, online ad network Chitika said on Thursday. Measuring the online ad impressions generated on the major smartphones and tablets across North America, Chitika found that iPhone use grew by 1.8 percent from Christmas Day through December 29. In contrast, Google-branded smartphones eked out a gain of …

Personal details of 4.6 million Snapchat accounts have been hacked and posted online. The hugely popular photo-sharing app has been targeted by hackers looking to shame Snapchat — and by extension, other apps and companies — into improving security, with experts warning “everyone is still at risk.” Hackers created a website called SnapchatDB that publicly displayed the usernames and details …

Samsung’s blitzing 2014 with an early helping of big-screen portable power with the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, a massive new tablet that’s been thoroughly leaked online. Set for release at Mobile World Congress next month, but so well leaked I wouldn’t be surprised if it pitched up at CES in Vegas next week, the Note Pro 12.2 is at the …

Need a little extra incentive to stick to your New Year’s resolution? You know, the one about eating less and exercising more? Perhaps you’ve heard of GymPact, an app that rewards you for hitting the gym on a regular basis and charges you a fee if you don’t. Just in time for the new year, GymPact is now Pact, and …

Xiaomi, the smartphone maker whose co-founder Lei Jun has been compared to Steve Jobs, expects to sell many more smartphones in 2014. In a post on China’s Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, Lei wrote that his company will “supply 40 million phones in 2014.” According to The Guardian, which earlier reported on the assertion, Xiaomi sold about 19 million smartphones in …