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"smartphones" news, interviews, and features

Features about smartphones

  • iPhone owners, beware! (of iffy iPhone studies)

    BREAKING NEWS: Your Apple iPhone is bound to break! At least, if you believe a new study by an electronics warranty company that, by pure coincidence, happens to be promoting an iPhone warranty plan on its home page right now. Breaking news? Broken news might be more like it, as far as I'm concerned.

  • The case for an iPhone 3GS 'B'

    The new iPhone 3GS is a conservative, yet intelligent addition to the iPhone family. Its faster processor and greater operating memory are exactly what the doctor ordered. However, the lack of a keyboard, UMA and better battery features allows the competition an edge with business users.

  • iPhone 3G S is evolution in action

    The iPhone 3G S handset is well appointed, functional, and nicely packaged, but it's not at the high-end of the smartphone hardware scale. The OS and interface -- and the richly stocked App Store -- remain the best reasons to buy an iPhone. Unless you need 16GB or 32GB of storage, a compass, and a faster CPU, the iPhone 3G will suit you as well as the more expensive iPhone 3G S.

  • Nokia N97

    On paper, the Nokia looks as if it could rival the other big phones of this summer, the Palm Pre, the Apple iPhone 3G S, and HTC's Android-based Magic. It has more memory than the other three, supports a wide range of multimedia files, and has a large touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard. But the N97 falls short of its potential, largely because the operating system it uses--the Symbian S60 5th Edition--lacks the refinement of other OSs. Still, the N97 impresses in certain areas, particularly audio and video.

  • iPhone 3.0 Update: 10 Hidden Features

    It has been a crazy night trying to download the latest iPhone update, with many reporting that they are unable to access Apple's servers due to unusually high traffic. But Apple's servers are now up to scratch and everybody should have the 3.0 software update installed on their Phone and iPod Touch.

  • Smartphone OS smackdown: WebOS vs. the world

    Does the world need another smartphone operating system? Apple's iPhone OS is still booming; Google's Android is increasingly promising; and three longtime contenders--Microsoft's Windows Mobile, RIM's BlackBerry OS, and Symbian's S60--are undergoing serious renovation to keep up with the times.

  • Palm Pre: Nowhere to go but down

    Ed Colligan is a nice guy and visionary marketer who, nevertheless, deserves blame for most of Palm's problems, including the failed launch of the Palm Pre last weekend. At least by sacrificing Colligan so quickly, that must be what "the new Palm" hopes we'll think.

  • Should you put a Pre in your pocket?

    I have a confession to make: About two years ago I made a big mistake and bought a phone designed for mere mortals when what I really wanted was an Apple iPhone. Don't get me wrong -- my Sony Ericsson W580i has served me well -- but I'm ready to move up to a super-phone.

  • The smartphone forecast for 2009

    The Palm Pre and the Apple iPhone 3G S are the smartphone standouts of 2009, but they're not the only news. Operating systems are receiving updates, new devices are debuting, and app stores are growing by the day. Here's what to look for from the six big operating systems in smartphones today.

  • iPhone vs. BlackBerry: Readers strike back

    In comparing the RIM BlackBerry Bold to the Apple iPhone 3G, after a month-long test of each, I declared that it was time to bury the Blackberry, as it was mediocre in its signature mail functions and pathetic in next-gen mobile capabilities such as Web browsing and applications. I got many heated replies, such as this one from reader Mortys11 (a comments handle, as with the other names cited): "Who is this guy? He must be on the Apple payroll because any tech writer with half a brain would never claim that the BlackBerry is an inferior e-mail device." (Sorry, I do not work, and have never worked, for Apple. I do use a Mac, but until Vista I had used Windows XP.) Smalpre says, "I would have to declare the writer of this article a completely incompetent nontechnical person that obviously has never had a 'real job' in IT."