Smartphones

Sometimes I get bored with the same old holiday song and dance.

If you do too, you can create your own theme, techy-style, with a unique Web page that turns your smartphone, tablet, or PlayStation Vita into an on-the-fly holiday music loop maker. German design firm deepblue came up with the site, which blends HTML5 and the powerful WebSocket protocol to offer a unique live mobile-to-browser experience that many of you probably have not experienced before. … Read more

It appears that 2013 will be the year that mobile shopping becomes pervasive. According to the just-released "Q4 2012 Developer Survey Report,"  from research firm IDC and Appcelerator, a mobile-platform developer, it's likely that most retail companies will have enabled mobile commerce in 2013. 

The survey, which encompasses the views of nearly 3,000 Appcelerator customers, predicts that 86 percent of shoppers will access a retailer's site on their mobile device while shopping in a retail store, and 71 percent of those surveyed predict the mobile wallet will "permeate" the consumer … Read more

New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission voted today in favor of a one-year test program that would let people use a smartphone app to hail a taxicab.

And that was sweet news for startup Uber. The private-car service had begun offering its app to cab users in September but stopped the effort a little more than a month later when the commission raised concerns over a long-standing agreement between the taxicab and for-hire vehicle industries.

That arrangement prohibits prearranged rides in New York's iconic yellow cabs, and members of the for-hire industry had said apps like Uber'… Read more

Google Maps is back on iOS, but this time as a standalone app. You'll find it doesn't look like it did on iOS 5, due to Google having complete freedom with the user interface and design. As such, using Google Maps on iOS is going to feel a bit familiar, yet like a completely new experience.

To install Google Maps on iOS, you'll need to be using an iPhone (3GS and newer), iPod Touch (fourth and fifth gen) or an iPad running at least iOS 5.1. If you're using one of the above devices, download Google Maps for iOS … Read more

The holiday season may be in full swing, but that hasn't stopped AT&T from keeping busy. The carrier announced today that it has expanded its 4G LTE data network to seven additional metropolitan areas.

Ma Bell's most advanced cellular network now covers Reno, Nevada; Richmond, Virginia; Allentown-Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Hattiesburg and Starkvillle, Mississippi; Moscow, Idaho; and Pullman, Washington. That's not a bad day's work. Still, while AT&T says it now blankets 3,000 cities more than its arch-rival Verizon with 4G, an area that includes over 160 million people. That claims AT&… Read more

Research In Motion's upcoming BlackBerry 10 is being eyed by one government agency that had already planned to switch to iPhones.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will take a look at BB10 starting in January. The agency plans to launch a pilot program to test BlackBerry 10 devices and the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 to see if the new operating system can meet its needs for security and mobility. ICE will be among the first government agencies to give BB10 a spin, according to Research In Motion.

"ICE has been a valued BlackBerry customer … Read more

It's a common affliction: you're using your smartphone to navigate in a city with a bunch of big buildings and your phone misplaces your location.

Often the problem often is that the GPS location system just doesn't work well where the satellite radio signals can be blocked or reflected. A company called Locata says it's got an answer.

Locata does what the GPS system does, but it replaces satellites in orbit with radio transmitters on the ground. The result is location services with high precision, better reliability, and indoor coverage, said Paul Benshoof, global business development … Read more

A new Apple technology could make it easier for you to manage incoming phone calls.

Approved today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent dubbed "Dynamic Context-Based Auto-Response Generation," describes a method to intelligently manage an incoming call, whether you're on the line with someone else or simply unavailable.

In one scenario, the system can be totally automated. So if you can't answer the call, the caller receives a specific pre-recorded message based on the caller ID and other attributes. In that case, the caller would be prompted to leave a voice mail. … Read more

Google Maps didn't take long to capture the top spot among free iPhone apps.

Driving back into iTunes earlier today, the app had already reached first place after the first several hours. It's also garnered close to 8,000 reviews at this point, almost all of them earning five stars.

The new app offers all of the features that made it an iOS standard in the past but with a cleaner look and feel.

You can search for your destination by typing or speaking it. The app handles specific addresses as well as the names of businesses and … Read more