Phones

Hulk-strong screens, IR blasters, NFC-everything: Your future phone (Smartphones Unlocked)

Here's the smartphone of your short-term future: it has a 5-inch, 1080p HD screen, an 8-core application processor, and a 13-megapixel camera that does crazy things like simultaneously record through both front and rear lenses. You can use it to change your TV channel, tap it to play songs on your car, and control it without ever touching the screen.

The smartphone of your near future takes your pulse, synchronizes to your scale, and tumbles from your hands without a scratch. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it'll last two days on a single charge?

New production … Read more

HTC One lands in U.K. next week, U.S., Europe, and Asia in April

After a delay that's stalled HTC's sale of its flagship HTC One, the company has now announced the phone's availability for several markets.

HTC will start stocking shelves with the One in the U.K., Germany, and Taiwan next week. Most other markets in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region will follow by the end of April.

HTC acknowledged the shipping delay in a statement, saying: "We appreciate our customers' patience, and believe that once they have the phone in their hands they will agree that it has been worth the wait."

CNET editor … Read more

The Galaxy S4 gets more screen time

Last week at this time, the Galaxy S4 had just made its debut at Samsung's wacky unveiling in New York. We've explored the new flagship smartphone in almost every detail, but our friends Luke Westaway and Andrew Hoyle at CNET UK channeled their creative sides with these awesome videos that take a closer look at the Galaxy S4 while building on the First look video of our own Jessica Dolcourt.

The first clip focuses on the Galaxy S4's unique software (one area where the handset promises to stand out), the second compares the Galaxy 4 to its … Read more

HTC One's camera takes on iPhone 5, Lumia 920, Galaxy S3

Samsung, Apple, Nokia, and HTC may all crow about the quality of their flagship phones' onboard cameras, but nothing reveals real strength and weakness like a thorough camera shootout.

Hence CNET Asia's thrilling battle for image dominance among the HTC One, Nokia Lumia 920, iPhone 5, and Samsung Galaxy S3. (Yes, we'd love to do this with the newly announced Samsung Galaxy S4 and we will, as soon as we get the phone in our hands for longer than 10 minutes.)

CNET editor Jacqueline Seng took the four phones around Singapore, shooting close-ups for crisp edges and rich … Read more

Huawei Premia 4G now available at MetroPCS

Today, MetroPCS and Huawei announced their latest collaboration, the Huawei Premia 4G.

Powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Huawei Premia 4G is the carrier's second smartphone to feature 4G LTE connectivity.

Hardware details include a 4-inch display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and a 5-megapixel camera. Falling somewhere between the ZTE Avid 4G and the LG Spirit 4G, the Premia 4G should appeal to first-time smartphone buyers.

While the handset does run an older version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich is still modern enough to hold its appeal. As an affordable smartphone capable of … Read more

Motorola adviser hints at custom-built smartphones

The next generation of Motorola smartphones may allow for custom designed handsets, if ongoing chatter is to be believed.

According to a recent AndroidAndMe post, the rumored X Phone is actually part of a larger brand and approach that includes user-defined configurations for color, storage capacity, ringtones, apps, and more.

If that weren't enough to whip fanboys into a frenzy, a source close to the blog suggests that memory, processors, and carrier support may be customizable as well. Reportedly, Motorola will guarantee one-week delivery for custom devices.

While the casual smartphone observer might find the rumors just a tad &… Read more

Sony offers slick new SmartWatch software

Sony's high-tech timepiece offering, the Sony SmartWatch, isn't exactly known for smooth performance. The company's new software update, however, promises to offer a slicker interface and six new watch faces, and to address any lingering stability issues. … Read more

Nvidia CEO unveils next two gens of Tegra, dubbed Logan, Parker

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang today talked up the chipmaker's next two generations of mobile chip, saying the Tegra chip line will show a 100-times improvement in strength from the first chip to the fifth.

The current Tegra chip, Tegra 4, hit the market earlier this year. The next generation, coming later this year, is code-named Logan, while the fifth generation of Tegra is code-named Parker, Huang said at the company's GPU developers' conference.

Logan will incorporate Nvidia's Kepler GPU, which currently is dominating the discrete graphics market. It also will include CUDA, Nvidia's programming model for … Read more

Verizon's Samsung Galaxy Nexus gets Android 4.2.2

Verizon announced today that it's making the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean software update available for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Verizon says it'll push the update in "phases," which means that you may need to exercise a bit of patience if your phone doesn't receive the update in the first round.

At long last, Verizon's "pure Google" Samsung Galaxy Nexus has finally caught up with its Sprint counterpart in running the latest version of Android. Launched as the first Android device to run version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy … Read more

Samsung, LG may battle over eye-tracking technology

Samsung and LG Electronics could find themselves in another patent squabble, this time over eye-tracking technology.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 and LG's Optimus G Pro both will offer an eye-recognition feature that automatically reacts to the movement of the user's eyes.

The Galaxy S4 already comes built with Smart Scroll, which lets people scroll through the screen and trigger certain actions by moving their eyes up and down. The phone also includes Smart Pause, which pauses a video when a person looks away from the screen.

LG will add a Smart Video eye-recognition feature to its Optimus G … Read more