April, 2015

• 28 April

  T

  

  T-Mobile CEO John Legere at the last Uncarrier event in March. Sarah Tew/CNET T-Mobile is almost certainly the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier. That’s after the Bellevue, Wash.-based company on Tuesday posted first-quarter results that included adding 1.8 million customers in the period. The increase brought its total to 56.8 million, somewhat short of Wall Street …

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• 28 April

  LG G4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S6 vs. iPhone 6 vs. HTC One M9: 2015 smartphone specs compared

  

  Sarah Tew/CNET The LG G4 is a significant improvement over last year’s LG G3 in several key specs, and it comes with a subtly curved design that’s comfortable to hold. LG is going with plastic again for the frame of the G4, and the front looks mostly the same as the G3, but the back of the handset will offer …

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• 28 April

  How to score discounts on tech gifts for Mother’s Day

  

  A cash-back service like Ebates can help you get a lower final price on Mother’s Day gifts. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET Mother’s Day is looming large on the calendar — it’s May 10, in case you’re wondering — so any gift shopping better start soon. Flowers? Please. They’re overpriced, ephemeral and done to death, don’t you think? To really show …

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• 28 April

  PayPal

  

  Loop has raised about $30 million since its founding in 2012. Loop Commerce You probably haven’t heard of Loop Commerce, but the startup already has the attention of many bigwigs in the online payments and retail world. The online gift-giving company said Tuesday it’s raised an extra $16 million from PayPal and executives from Amazon, Facebook and elsewhere to help …

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• 28 April

  Apple Watch apps: The need for speed

  

  Sarah Tew/CNET It’s extremely early days for the Apple Watch, and there are already 3,000 plus apps on the App Store. These apps span nearly every territory and category, and many big-name brands. It’s an amazing launch effort for a new smartwatch. And yet, many of these apps that I’ve tried (60 or so, admittedly, not 3,000) have a common …

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• 28 April

  Four ways to make the most of Intel’s Compute Stick

  

  Nate Ralph/CNET Intel’s Compute Stick has tablet-grade hardware, and offers steady HD streaming performance in a package not much bigger than Google’s Chromecast. The hardware’s inability to serve up a steady Bluetooth connection while on Wi-Fi is going to be a deal-breaker for most, but pop in the USB receiver for a wireless device and you’ll get a flawless experience …

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• 28 April

  Amazon’s Whispercast expands to thousands of schools

  

  The market for education IT products and services is more than $20 billion, with Amazon, Apple and Google all vying for a piece of the space. Boston Globe via Getty Images Amazon’s efforts to grow in education look to be paying off so far. Since the company in 2012 started offering Whispercast — a free service for schools to distribute …

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• 28 April

  GetTaxi becomes Gett, starts ordering takeaways, plumbers and massages

  

  Gett began life as GetTaxi, backed by a fleet of London’s iconic black cab taxis. Gett Taxi app GetTaxi is changing its name to Gett and hitting the road for all sorts of services, bringing you everything from takeaways to dry cleaning. Launched in 2011 in Tel Aviv and London as GetTaxi, Gett is a smartphone app and website that …

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• 28 April

  Starbucks celebrates new sugary drink with edible sugary straw

  

  The new Starbucks S’mores Frappuccino with cookie straw. Are you salivating yet? Starbucks Edible straws made of cookie dough? That’s one way to keep all those plastic straws out of the landfill. Starbucks released a new drink on Tuesday, the S’mores Frappuccino, and just in time for the super-sugary drink’s release, the company is debuting a super-sugary cookie straw you …

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• 28 April

  Yes, someone put an Apple Watch in a blender

  

  Always remember to remove your wearable before performing this test. Blendtec Some marketing gimmicks die hard. But with the release of the Apple Watch, which got delivered to customers on April 24, blender maker Blendtec and the “Will it Blend?” guy are back to put the watch through a torture test that’s more of an execution. It’s hard to tell …

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