Nokia. Knock-ia. Know-kia. Noh-keea. However you pronounce it, few companies (other than Motorola, of course) have been so influential in creating the cell phone that we use today. Apple, LG and Samsung may get all of the glory now, but Nokia dominated the mobile industry for two decades. When I started at CNET more than …
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The owner of an Apple iPhone 7 Plus got a surprising wake-up call earlier this week. Her smartphone was on fire. A video posted on Twitter on Wednesday by Brianna Olivas, an 18-year-old college student in Tucson, Arizona, shows the rose gold iPhone in a clear, melted plastic case sitting on a bathroom basin and billowing smoke. Olivas’ boyfriend captured …
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Now is not a great time to buy a 2017 TV. The newest TVs are starting to hit the market, and Samsung‘s Quantum dot LED (QLED) TVs just appeared for preorder on Samsung’s site as well as places like Amazon and Best Buy. Initial prices are hella expensive. The cheapest QLED TV so far, the 55-inch QN55Q7F, costs $2,500. That’s …
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For the last couple of years the best TV picture quality has come courtesy of LG’s OLED TVs. They’ve also been the most expensive. Thanks to a combination of LG’s aggressive price drops and high initial pricing by rivals like Samsung and now Sony, however, the relative price of OLED isn’t sky-high anymore. Sony’s latest 2017 LCD-based TVs are now …
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It’s going to get crazy in Barcelona. Just about every heavy hitter in the wireless industry is bringing a shiny new phone to Mobile World Congress — held this time each year in Spain’s hippest metropolis — each trying to out-wow the others with its latest wares. But we won’t see any new phones from Samsung. The Korean electronics giant …
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It’s no secret: The last few years have been rough for HTC. After paving the way for Android by making the first Android phone years ago, the Taiwanese company lost its groove. While Apple and Samsung have locked in as the premium phone makers and Chinese companies like Xiaomi and OnePlus have become go-to brands for affordable, quality devices, HTC …
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When the first curved TVs appeared more than three years ago I asked whether they were a gimmick. As a TV reviewer I had to give the curve a fighting chance, however, so I took a curved Samsung home to live with my family for awhile, in addition to subjecting it to a full CNET review. In the end, I …
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The frontrunners for CNET’s highest rated TV of 2017 now have official pricing, and it’s not cheap. LG’s least expensive new OLED so far, the C7 series, starts at $3,500. That’s the cost for the 55-inch size, available this month. The 65-inch model will sell for $5,000 when it hits the market in March. Those prices are $1,000 more than …
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Mobile World Congress is upon us, and it’ll be every phone maker for itself in Barcelona. With Samsung keeping its Galaxy S8 under wraps for a future event, companies like LG, Huawei and Nokia will get the chance to duke it for MWC’s most impressive phone lineup. We take a look at what to expect over the next week and …
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Ten years ago on Tuesday, a gutsy Kenyan company launched a mobile money initiative that would change the lives of millions. Its name is M-Pesa, with “pesa” meaning money in Swahili. Think mobile money and your mind will probably jump to NFC-powered payment services from Apple, Samsung and Google. M-Pesa predates all of those and launched before the smartphones they …
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