Mobile software

As I write this, CNET writers from three countries are traveling to Barcelona, Spain, to bring you the best of the annual Mobile World Congress trade show.

If you're a smartphone fan, you probably know that Mobile World Congress (MWC) is a big deal. And if you don't know about it but still love gadgets and technology, there are very good reasons why you should care. I'll explain.

To put it simply, MWC is the most important wireless trade show of the year. It's bigger than CES (where, no … Read more

In the older version of Any.Do you had to schedule each task on your list individually. While this was effective in the sense that it set off notifications, it wasn't efficient. Luckily, the new Any.Do Moment feature creates a path between listing your tasks and getting things done by helping you plan out your day.

Before you get started, make sure you have the latest version of Any.Do installed on your device. You'll probably see an update, but if not, head to Google Play and grab the latest version.

Once you open Any.Do on … Read more

"OK Glass."

Those are the two words that Google showed today will initiate a variety of commands for its Glass computerized eyewear.

In the Google Glass "How it Feels" video, people speak the words "OK Glass" and then pick from a list of featured voice commands to send a message, record a video, take a photo, launch a video-chat hangout, conduct a search, check the weather, or get driving directions.

The demo is a concrete illustration of how Google is evolving its technology from a mere search engine to a constant personal companion that augments your mind. … Read more

Did you ever want to leave a message for a Skype buddy who just wasn't there? Skype's new video-messaging feature, now in a beta of sorts, is the interactive way to do it.

Available today for users in the U.S., U.K., and other select countries (Skype isn't listing them all,) video messaging sends a recording to friends who may be offline or on another call.

Android, iOS, and Mac users don't have to do anything to play around with the prerelease feature, except to make sure they've got the most recent software update (… Read more

A lot of apps are designed by boys.

Because a lot of boys are quite linear, they design largely with boys in mind.

Boys then buy these apps, which are often based on relatively puerile forms of humor and behavior, for which boys are quite renowned.

However, occasionally boys design with girls in mind. And therein lies disaster.

One such disaster has affected Chubby Checker's pants. For he has them in a twist about an app that's called, well, Chubby Checker. (Must I explain the derivation?)… Read more

Vimeo has brought aboard a new app (and new people) that can transform your videos into animations.

The company announced today that it now owns Echograph, an app that lets iPhone and iPad users create animations by blending together different parts of a video clip.

Purchased from Clear-Media, the Echograph app previously cost $3 but is now available free.

As described in a promotional video (see embedded clip below), an Echograph is a photograph that contains small slices of animation. You start off by selecting a video and then trimming it to 5 seconds. You then pick a single still frame from the clip. From there, you actually paint over an area of that still frame with a moving element from the video, creating an image with touches of animation.… Read more

An ex is like a scar you once got after a seventh Cabernet in a bar with 12 steps.

Some days, you look at it and are proud. At other times, you wonder how you could have done it to yourself.

The lies, the hurt, the occasional odor of indifference and the underarm spray that was at least two years old -- they all serve as jogs and jags to the memory.

Sadly, many people still hold material relics of disappointed love all over the most important part of their lives -- yes, their Facebook timelines.

In the bowels of … Read more

If you didn't get caught in Cupid's spray this year, we have some pretty good ideas for how to spend your free day. Take a day off and spend it with the classiest person you know: that special guy/gal in the mirror. Of course there's nothing stopping you from using this list to get started on the best date ever, if you're lucky enough to feel the sweet warm embrace of requited love.

Go on an urban adventure The world is a big and terrifying place, and it will remind you of that fact every … Read more

It was a good day for the WebKit browser engine yesterday when Opera Software adopted it in place of its in-house Presto. But yesterday's developments also became an opportunity for a high-profile JavaScript programmer to lodge criticisms about WebKit.

"Each release of Chrome or Safari generates excitement about new bleeding-edge features; nobody seems to worry about the stuff that's already (still!) broken," complained Dave Methvin, president of the jQuery foundation and a member of the core programming team that builds the widely used Web programming tool, in a blog post.

"jQuery Core has more lines … Read more