Samsung benefited in the fourth quarter from strong demand for technologies that help people during the pandemic — like TVs — but its mobile business couldn’t quite compete with Apple’s new iPhone 12 lineup.  The South Korean giant on Wednesday said its overall fourth-quarter revenue climbed 2.8% from the previous year, but its mobile business sales …

Apple’s iPhone sales surged to their highest point ever, as eager fans snatched up the company’s new iPhone 12 during the holiday shopping season, despite the continued spread of the coronavirus. The three months of Apple’s fiscal first quarter included the launch of its new series of phones, ranging from the $699 iPhone 12 Mini to the $1,099 iPhone 12 Pro Max. They weren’t …

HBO Max hit 17.2 million accounts at the end of last year, HBO parent company AT&T said Wednesday in its latest quarterly report. Boosted by interest in Wonder Woman 1984, which started streaming on Max on Dec. 25, the same day it debuted in theaters, HBO Max doubled its number of total activations at the end of 2020 compared with three months earlier.  …

I was expecting Anker to release a noise-canceling version of its popular Liberty Air 2 earbuds last year, but the launch apparently got delayed a few months, thanks in part to the pandemic. But the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro ($130, £130), the company’s first earbuds to feature active noise canceling, are now available and except for one small but …

Walmart is adding more stores, in dozens of locations, that double as local fulfillment centers for delivery and pickup orders, the company said Wednesday. A local fulfillment center is a small warehouse, stocked with frequently purchased items, that’s housed inside or attached to a Walmart store.  The centers are designed to offer customers more availability, more efficiency and faster order …

The Google Pixel 4A is an amazingly good budget phone, with a stellar camera, lots of storage and a price tag that’s hard to beat: just $349. Here’s how you can beat it, and by quite a lot: For a limited time, Visible has the unlocked Google Pixel 4A (128GB) for $336. When you port in an existing number and …

BMW is rolling into quantum computing, the German automaker said Wednesday, using a Honeywell quantum computer to find more efficient ways to purchase the myriad components that go into its vehicles. The car giant has begun using Honeywell machines, first the H0 and then the newer H1, to determine which components should be purchased from which supplier at what time to …

With Apple’s new app-transparency policy kicking in soon, Google will remove certain advertiser tracking technology from the iPhone versions of its own apps and switch to a different kind, Google said in a blog post Wednesday. Popular Google apps for the iPhone, like Maps and YouTube, currently use a tool from Apple known as IDFA to track iPhone users’ activity …

Sling TV‘s Orange and Blue plans will now cost $35 per month individually, or $50 per month for the joint package, according to a release from the TV streaming service on Wednesday. That’s $5 extra a month above the price increase in December 2019.  TV channel prices climbed too. If you’re a new Orange or Blue customer, Sports Extra will …

Enlarge Image You’ll find the option to download and install iOS 14.4 in your iPhone settings. Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET Apple released on Tuesday iOS 14.4 and iPadOS 14.4, the latest software update for iPhones and iPads and the fourth update since the arrival of iOS 14 last summer. Relatively small in scope, the update delivers a few tweaks to …