The ultraslim PC market, which includes ultrabooks and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina display, is set for explosive growth in the coming years, according to one researcher. Last year, just 3.4 million ultraslim PCs were shipped worldwide. By 2015, that figure will grow to 65 million, according to new data from NPD …

Pantech’s Burst and Element will be getting the Ice Cream Sandwich treatment starting today. Both phones can be upgraded to Android 4.0, AT&T said in a blog post published today. The update brings the phones to the second latest version of Android, behind Jelly Bean, or Android 4.1. To download the update for the Burst, go here. To download the …

iOS 6 users who want to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks can now pay for it through their iPhones. Launched yesterday, the latest update to the Starbucks iOS app stirs in support for Apple’s Passbook. Starbucks Card owners can add their accounts to Passbook directly through the app. Once that’s done, customers can pay for food and beverages, …

Related stories: Windows Phone 8: What you need to know HTC Windows Phone 8X vs. Lumia 920 Hands on with the Nokia Lumia 920 Mark your calendars for Microsoft’s official launch of the Windows Phone 8 smartphone OS. We have. CNET will be there, fingers flexed and laptops raring to go, to cover the San Francisco launch of Microsoft’s latest …

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest consumer electronics maker, expects to report its fourth consecutive record quarter on surging sales of its Galaxy smartphones despite ongoing legal woes with Apple. The Korean electronics giant projected Friday that its operating profit totaled $7.3 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, a jump of 90 percent from a year ago to 8.1 …

Deutsche Telekom is doubling down on its U.S. wireless subsidiary T-Mobile USA with a plan to buy the prepaid regional carrier MetroPCS. But what’s it mean for wireless subscribers? Yesterday, Deutsche Telekom announced it had agree to buy MetroPCS and combine it with T-Mobile USA. The move is an indication that T-Mobile’s German parent isn’t giving up on the wireless …

Bits and pieces of the hotly-tipped iPad mini have appeared online, giving us a glimpse of what the rumoured sawn-off 7-inch iPad might look like. Photos of the iPad mini, reported by Ukrainian iPhone, show components that appear to include a black aluminium case, like the new iPhone 5. It features a nano-SIM for 3G browsing when you’re out and …

Update: A source at Carphone Warehouse, who wishes to remain anonymous, has told CNET UK that the ‘invisishield for Samsung Nexus 2’ has been present on the company’s inventory system for months and months, and could well be a defunct product code for 2010’s Nexus S or the original Galaxy Nexus. That doesn’t mean Samsung isn’t cooking up a sequel, but certainly …

Sad about your beloved iOS 5 Maps app getting nuked in favor of Apple’s new Maps app? Do you miss Street View? Well, Google’s come to the rescue to some extent, via its maps.google.com Web app, which launched Street View functionality today. For iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad owners, using the Web-based version of Google Maps is as easy as …

The humble home-grown Fruit Ninja is poised to be transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing marketing machine, as Halfbrick co-founder and CEO Shainiel Deo capitalises on the popularity and riches generated by the smartphone game. Fruit Ninja is just the beginning for the Halfbrick team. (Credit: Halfbrick) Millions around the world have downloaded the game Fruit Ninja, where users slice-and-dice airborne …