Verizon dominated as best overall carrier, according to a testing firm that closely tracks carrier performance data.
Verizon swept all six performance categories, the first time that’s been done since RootMetrics began testing the entire U.S. market in 2013, the firm said this week.
Are you thinking about upgrading to the latest and greatest smartphone this summer? Don’t. Thanks to the endless cycle of consumerism we call “life,” there is always a good and a bad time to buy a new smartphone. This is the latter.
The LG G5 has them. Google’s first consumer phone will have them. The iPhone has some, thanks to this butt-ugly case. And now, it would appear that Motorola’s upcoming smartphone will have modules. But don’t let the trends deceive you: modular smartphones are not here to stay.
In a world of Bluetooth-connected fart trackers and hipster-friendly tinfoil hats, I am aware that describing a Kickstarter as “the worst” is a bold claim. But hear me out: from idea to execution to the innumerable GIFs littering the crowdfunding campaign, this particular wearable smartphone accessory ticks all of the boxes.
At heart, the SOSPENDO combines two of the very worst things: selfie sticks and wearable smartphone holders. The SOSPENDO is, according to the press release, an “innovative, ergonomic hands-free device that will hold smartphones, tablets and GoPro cameras.”
What does the future look like? Will floating autonomous cars cart us to and from work each day? Will we even have jobs anymore or will robots invade every industry from manufacturing, to trucking, to law and everything in between? The future has never looked less clear than it does right now, but a new prototype of a device called “Cubimorph” may help bring the future of consumer electronics into focus. More →
Every year, thousands if not millions of consumers either sell their old smartphones for cash or trade them in for next-gen devices, whether they be new iPhones, new Samsung Galaxy models, or even new Windows Phone devices.
While this set-up between smartphone owners and trade-in companies has been mutually beneficial for years, a new study finds that it’s remarkably easy to access personal and sensitive data from old smartphones. Recently, Avast Software purchased 20 used smartphones from pawn shops across 4 worldwide cities – New York, Paris, Barcelona and Berlin. Following that, a free software recovery tool was used to determine what type of private information happened to be retrievable, and the results should be quite concerning for anyone looking to part with their existing device.
Smartphones have become a very big part of our lives over the last decade, but when are they too much of a good thing? All the constant interruptions and notifications drove Jenna Woginrich to distraction, which is why she completely gave up her phone 18 months ago. Writing in The Guardian, Woginrich tells us what it’s been like to go smartphone-free for the past year and a half and it sounds like there are some definite upsides to it. More →
E Ink screens are fantastic for some applications, but they’re certainly not suitable for smartphones. The low power consumption and great visibility in sunlight are both big checks in the plus column, but things then turn south when you consider what a smartphone experience would be like without vivid colors or high-quality videos and images.
LCD and AMOLED screens are much better suited for smartphones and other mobile devices right now, but we may have just gotten our first glimpse at the holy grail of display technology, combining vivid colors and usable refresh rates with low power consumption and high visibility in direct sunlight. More →
Do cops need a warrant to track your phone? Believe it or not, the answer to this question varies by state. To help you figure out whether cops can track your phone without a warrant, the American Civil Liberties Union has created an interactive map that details what procedures, if any, police need to follow in every state before tracking your location. More →
While we often hear that smartphones have gotten “boring,” the truth is that 2015 has been a tremendous year for smartphone hardware innovation. We realized this when Motorola unveiled the new Droid Turbo 2 this week that featured a five-layer display that the company claims is shatterproof. Below we’ll go over the five coolest smartphone hardware innovations we’ve seen this year, including the innovations of Samsung, Apple and more. More →
You probably think you know several tips and tricks for improving your phone’s battery life… but some of them may be straight-up myths. LifeHacker has written a lengthy article that aims to debunk several key myths about smartphone batteries and it includes some vital information every smartphone user should know. More →
You know all of those commercials you see from the top four wireless carriers bragging about how fast their LTE data speeds are and how wide their LTE footprints are? There’s no question that LTE service has gotten better over the past few years, but you’ll be shocked to learn just how far behind the rest of the world America has fallen when it comes to LTE data speeds. More →
The device pictured in the image you see above might look a bit primitive, but it’s actually a prototype built to showcase technology that may very well be the future of touchscreens. Researchers from Technische Universität Berlin in Berlin, Germany built the device, which offers a brilliant solution for touchscreens by giving them real physical buttons that appear temporarily when you need them, and then vanish when you don’t. More →
