life

Battery life on iOS 5 has been a big letdown for both iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S users alike. As Apple continues to work on a solution, there is a quick and easy way to help increase your battery life. … Read more

When you sign a new wireless contract and pay $200 for the latest smartphone, you expect that device to last at least until the end of your two-year contract. Right?

Unfortunately that's not the case for many smartphone subscribers. If your device has issues within the first year, consider yourself lucky since the repair is likely covered under the manufacturer warranty. But if it craps out 13 months into your contract, you may be screwed. Ask Maggie offers some advice for how to protect yourself. And in a second question, there's some advice for keeping an older iPhone … Read more

If the Kindle Fire has become your closest companion, the last thing you want is for it to die on you.

With apps, books, the Web, and music running in the background, you might find that your tablet's battery life doesn't last as long as you expected. As ZDNET points out, "the Kindle Fire consumes battery like, well, an Android tablet."

You'll be lucky if you get the estimated 8 hours Amazon promises.

To fix your battery woes, you could carry around the charger (no, thanks!) or use some of these battery-saving tricks:

What's the most important measure of any laptop? Some might say the processor speed, or the size and weight, but at the end of the day, it's got to be battery life.

After all, these are mobile devices, designed to be used in coffee shops, airport lounges, and college libraries (even big laptops get carted around occasionally), so being able to spend the maximum amount of time possible away from a wall outlet is important.

During 2011, the CNET Labs team tested more than 100 laptops, from 11-inch ultraportables to monster 18-inch gaming rigs. Despite the wide range … Read more

If you're a fan of Pixar's many wonderful movies--and who isn't?--you've no doubt spent years caught up in the studio's terrific storytelling. But you've probably also been glued to your seat again and again by Pixar's terrific artistry.

Now, you can dig deep into the history of that work. With the new book "The Art of Pixar," Amid Amidi takes us inside the creative process behind Pixar's long list of hit films--"Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," "Monster's Inc.," "Ratatouille," "… Read more

App users are a tight-fisted bunch, according to a recently released Pew Internet & American Life study. Pew reports that only 46 percent of U.S. cell phone and tablet users who have downloaded apps have paid for one.

That means that 16 percent of adults in the United States have paid for an app. That's a boost from the 13 percent polled by Pew who reported parting with their cash in May 2010.

Pew queried 2,260 adults over the age of 18 between July and August of this year, including 916 interviews conducted over cell phones. The numbers might not look so rosy for app developers who would much rather have paying customers than freeloaders.… Read more

A new study entitled Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Networks confirms much of what we already know about cyberbullying. Most kids aren't bullied and most kids don't bully either online or off.

In fact, the study--conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project for the Family Online Safety Institute and Cable in the Classroom--concluded that "[m]ost American teens who use social media say that in their experience, people their age are mostly kind to one another on social network sites." Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) of teens said that peers are mostly … Read more

The iPhone 4S on Verizon offered a good balance between call quality and data speeds during travels in California.

Question: Which is more important, call quality or data speeds? Let me state my bias up front: The Web running on 3G is really important to me. On any device. Whether it's a MacBook connected to a MiFi hot spot, a 3G iPad 2, or an iPhone. That said, is it important enough to justify sacrificing voice call quality?

This week I spent a lot of my time obsessing about the Web performance of my new Verizon iPhone 4S during … Read more

Cupertino, we have a problem.

This morning I woke up to a dead iPhone 4S. When I went to bed last night, the battery gauge showed at least 50 percent.

I did see a few vampires roaming the streets (it was Halloween, after all), but I didn't expect them to sink their fangs into my iPhone.

I do expect this kind of overnight power loss from Android phones, as I've seen it happen with any number of models. But I've owned every iPhone since the original, and this has never happened with any of them.

Last night was the second time with my 4S.… Read more