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Nokia Lumia 920 camera vs. HTC Windows Phone 8X vs. iPhone 5

Nokia has trumpeted the ability of its Nokia Lumia 920's 8.7-megapixel camera with image stabilization, low-light enhancements, and PureView algorithms. Photo quality was strong and fairly consistent, though photos had a blue cast to them and the Lumia 920 had problems with contrast and absolute sharpness compared with the others.

In the meantime, HTC's 8-megapixel Windows Phone 8X took some pretty nice photos as well, though there was more swing between the highs and lows. For its part, the 8-megapixel iPhone 5 won some and lost some, but retained the most consistent.

Don't just take my … Read more

Rock your iPad and iPhone to a full charge

Kick back in your rocking chair. Relax. Knit some booties for your basset hound. Blast some AC/DC through built-in speakers and recharge your iPad at the same time. You have an iRock, an iPhone and iPad-charging rocking chair.

Though it's still listed as being under development, a lot of details are already available for the iRock. It comes in five colors ranging from white to bright red. It is made from Swedish pine. It has a very classic shape. There's no attempt at making the rocking chair look like it was built by Apple's design team. That's pretty refreshing.… Read more

NYU loses lab mice, years of medical research to Sandy

In the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, researchers are discovering the damage the done to one of New York University's research facilities and mourning the loss of lab animals and of scientific data that could take years to rebuild.

After the New York Daily News reported on Tuesday that flooding and power loss claimed the lives of thousands of lab mice as well as wiping out enzymes, antibodies, and DNA used in cancer and other research, the NYU Langone Medical Center confirmed in a statement released yesterday that its Smilow building was "adversely impacted" by the speed and severity of the flood surge.… Read more

Channel William Shatner with new 'Shatoetry' spoken word app

iPhone users can now make William Shatneresque poetry, filled with his dramatic pauses and unique inflections, thanks to an app released today.

Called Shatoetry, the app lets users choose from a library of prerecorded words to create what Shatner -- or his marketing people -- has branded "Shatisms," phrases played out in Shatner's voice. It's like making poetry with refrigerator magnets, but with the "Star Trek" icon and Priceline.com spokesman guiding your artistry. … Read more

Take a drive down the 'Route 66 of the future'

Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde thinks we drive on dumb roads. So he teamed with mega European construction company Heijmans Infrastructure to create a vision of a "smart highway" for the Netherlands -- and possibly the rest of the world.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of these future roads is the fact that two concepts of the bunch -- glow-in-the-dark roads and dynamic paint -- should arrive by mid-2013. The group plans to introduce the rest of the concepts before 2015, giving the world a glimpse at how technology could revolutionize the way we drive by making it a safer and more sustainable experience. … Read more

Drip.fm: Record club for the 21st century

If there's one thing music lovers enjoy, it's discovering new favorite artists, and there are now a wealth of online services that offer this. I was first exposed to digital music subscriptions in 1999 when They Might Be Giants released "Long Tall Weekend" via eMusic. It was one of the first Internet-only releases, and while listening to those files now shows the limitations of MP3 at the time, eMusic rebooted a concept that had fallen into disaffection: the "record club."

The first major record club began in 1955 by Columbia Records and was a way to sell music directly to the customer often with a "record of the month" suggestion. While the service and the others like it have faded from popularity, digital music sellers are now trying something similar.… Read more

How to keep your devices charged up during a blackout

The night Hurricane Sandy hit New York, I had no reason to believe the power in Manhattan would go out. After all, Hurricane Irene the year before had left the lights on here, even if big swaths of NYC's outer boroughs and suburbs lost power.

But, almost as an afterthought, I pulled out a bulky Dell laptop I had sitting around (just visible in the bottom left of the photo above) and plugged it in to charge its internal battery, just to have as many charged-up devices on hand as possible. Of course, the lights did go out in … Read more

Tech breakthrough may double smartphone life

Smartphone batteries may soon last twice as long -- if an MIT spinoff's power amplifier technology lives up to its promise.

The power amplifier is one of the most power-hungry pieces of hardware in a phone. It converts electricity into radio signals and consumes power in two basic modes: standby and output signal for sending out digital data. Such a chip wastes more than 65 percent of its energy, according to a report in the MIT Technology Review, and the only way to make it more efficient is by reducing the power used in standby. … Read more

International data roaming for $20 a MB! Why?

QUITO, Ecuador--I received the most hilarious text message Verizon Wireless has ever sent me upon landing at the airport here in Ecuador's capital. When I turned on my phone while taxiing to the gate, an automated message from my carrier informed me that my beloved unlimited data plan no longer applies in the Southern Hemisphere (it doesn't work standing directly on top of the equator either, it turns out).

Much to the contrary, in fact, calls home could cost me as much as $2.89 per minute; texts are 50 cents each (receiving texts, though, is actually a bargain at a nickel each); and if I manage the patience for Quito's 1X CDMA wireless data network, Verizon will reward me by charging up to $20.48 per megabyte.… Read more