When it comes to touch-screen phones, there are those who dig them and those who want to bury them.
Research in Motion is set to show whether it can keep defying the slumping economy and the slowdown in mobile phone sales, and withstand the looming threat of Apple's iPhone.
Ramon Reyes had a problem. He could only get sound from one channel on his iPod video player. At first, he thought his ear-buds were busted. But he replaced them with a pricey new pair made by Sony, and it didn't make any difference.
Steve Jobs has won over legions of new customers since he returned to Apple, but one key group has stubbornly eluded him: big business.
Steve Jobs says he won't have anything to do with smut, but porn purveyors are lusting to exploit Apple's updated device
Almost one year after the original Apple iPhone went on sale, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has announced a 3G version of the device, finally putting to rest months of rumors and speculation.
Apple announced on Monday a much faster iPhone that's half the price of the current model.
AT&T Inc.'s profits for the next two years will take a hit as it subsidizes the new low price of the latest iPhones, the company said Monday
E-Trade Financial Corp. is giving its account holders an application that will let them get real-time stock quotes and trade on their phones
European telcos are likely to subsidize Apple's new version of the iPhone, say analysts.
When it comes to touch-screen phones, there are those who dig them and those who want to bury them.
Research in Motion is set to show whether it can keep defying the slumping economy and the slowdown in mobile phone sales, and withstand the looming threat of Apple's iPhone.
Ramon Reyes had a problem. He could only get sound from one channel on his iPod video player. At first, he thought his ear-buds were busted. But he replaced them with a pricey new pair made by Sony, and it didn't make any difference.
Steve Jobs has won over legions of new customers since he returned to Apple, but one key group has stubbornly eluded him: big business.
Steve Jobs says he won't have anything to do with smut, but porn purveyors are lusting to exploit Apple's updated device
Almost one year after the original Apple iPhone went on sale, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has announced a 3G version of the device, finally putting to rest months of rumors and speculation.
Apple announced on Monday a much faster iPhone that's half the price of the current model.
AT&T Inc.'s profits for the next two years will take a hit as it subsidizes the new low price of the latest iPhones, the company said Monday
E-Trade Financial Corp. is giving its account holders an application that will let them get real-time stock quotes and trade on their phones
European telcos are likely to subsidize Apple's new version of the iPhone, say analysts.
JBL Audio has been churning out iPod speakers since the first ones hit the market years ago, and this experience shows.
Fighting boredom in the skies is big business.
For 2008, Sony makes a minor update to its entry-level Bluetooth-equipped car stereo.
The Sony NWZ-A720 Walkman series is a subtle evolution of the NWZ-A810 series we enjoyed in 2007. This year, Sony is treating us with a larger screen and a more assertive design, offered in 4GB ($149), 8GB ($199), and 16GB ($299).
With its 14-megapixel CCD, flip-up LCD, sensor-shift image stabilizer, and built-in wireless flash controller, the feature-packed Sony Alpha DSLR-A350 seems like a cornucopia of photographic goodness for the budget shopper.
Microsoft Corp. has signed a worldwide deal with automakers Hyundai and Kia to use its in-car software that allows people to use voice commands to control personal music players and telephones
Dashboard GPS devices are thieves' hot new target. But the irony is that your tracking device can't be tracked once it's lost. Why not?
Eclipse delivers an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, upgrade to its all-in-one in-car navigation and multimedia lineup with the AVN6620.
I've never owned a GPS unit or (prior to this test) even used one, so I thought it might be a good idea to test a bunch of them right out of the box. The kind folks over at Garmin, Magellan and Mio agreed to let this newbie review some of their great products.
With its eye-catching, compact body and relatively low price, the Panasonic HDC-SD9 seems to be quite an attractive buy for a flash-based AVCHD camcorder.
Most folks don't get the tech-writer thing. Yes, you're obligated to return the gadgets you review, but honestly, you usually wouldn't want to keep them. Eventually, all that tech stuff just piles up, and the office begins to look like Best Buy at the tail end of a bad post-holiday sale.
Research in Motion, the maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless device, said fourth-quarter profits and sales both doubled over the same quarter last year, thanks to strong gains in subscribers.
The 3200 LS Color represents the latest stage in the evolution of Parrot's in-car Bluetooth calling kits. The device builds on the simple design and great usability of the CK3000 and the CK3100 car kits.
With its T series, Sony has an unfortunate habit of taking at least one step back for every two steps forward.
Canon's 1Ds series of cameras exists in a class of its own.
As anticipated, Apple announced a series of software developments Thursday to make the iPhone more useful to business customers while venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said it is starting a $100 million "iFund" to finance startups developing applications for the iPhone.
Last year, Yamaha created a small portable speaker called the NX-A01 that delivered gutsy sound in a space no larger than a Rubik's cube. It had only two considerable drawbacks: it had to be plugged in; and the US model lacked the Bluetooth audio capability of the version selling in Japan.
Clearly, there's no shortage of iPod speaker docks saturating the market at the moment, which means it's all the more important to stand out from the crowd in this area.
The toymakers' motto for 2008: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Dear FSB: What is the best GPS unit available for my small package-delivery business? I would like to use it in the car and am looking for something Bluetooth-capable.
BlackBerry email service went down Monday afternoon, according to Research in Motion, maker of the smartphone.
Amir Khan says he becomes frustrated and humiliated every time he enters the United States and federal agents search his computers. Khan, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, says it has happened five times since 2003.
When you build the follow-up to a hot camera, how do you turn up the heat? When Nikon shipped the D200 a couple of years ago, its combination of speed and photo quality blew away the limited competition, and provided a powerful, relatively inexpensive alternative to Nikon's then top-of-the-line D2X.
Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill lost both his legs above the knees when a bomb exploded under his Humvee while on patrol in Iraq on October 15, 2006. He has 32 pins in his hip and a 6-inch screw holding his pelvis together.
No fewer than six of my friends and family received digital photo frames for Christmas last month. For the record, no, I was not the one to give them.
SDI Technologies adds to its line of iPod-compatible clock audio systems with the iH27, a model designed for travel that's powered by an included power supply or 4 optional AA batteries.
You love your Apple iPod and for good reason: It's easy to navigate through your extensive music collection; subscribing to free podcasts is a breeze thanks to Apple's intuitive iTunes Store; and there are thousands of fun accessories designed to give your iPod additional functionality.
Apple had a banner year in 2007. The stock more than doubled thanks to strong sales of the new iPhone, revamped iPods, and updated Macs.
Get ready for what has got to be the all-time greatest sleeper of a tech trend: Radios, I kid you not, are making a comeback in 2008.
While most of us here on planet small business have been sweating fancy productivity tools such as remote e-mail and the broadband Internet, old-school conference calling has quietly undergone a revolution. New online conferencing tools are cheaper and more powerful than ever. And they can add real value to your business.
The wireless world is buzzing with talk of openness.
JetBlue is about to become the first US airline to offer passengers free e-mail at 35,000 feet
JetBlue Airways Corp. will start offering limited e-mail and instant messaging services for free on one of its planes next week as airlines renew efforts to offer in-flight Internet access
HP's Photosmart M537 is the archetypal budget camera. It's not particularly large or small, it doesn't look terribly shiny or sleek, and it doesn't have any notably unique features.
A 129-year era is set to end at AT&T, as the telecommunications giant will exit the pay phone field by the end of next year, the company said in a written statement Monday.
In some ways, you've got to feel a little sympathetic for Sony. The company effectively invented the placeshifting concept -- the ability to stream TV programming from your living room to another device via the Internet -- in 2004, only to see it co-opted by smaller upstart Sling Media a year later. The latter company's Slingbox series of products have become the industry leader, popular enough for the start-up to be purchased by Dish Network parent EchoStar for a cool $380 million.
One of the best reasons to consider a megazoom is the fact that you get a big zoom range in a small package, so you don't have to carry around huge SLR lenses and, more importantly, you don't have to pay the huge prices for those SLR lenses.
Online retailers were set to break one-day records for traffic and sales, as consumers hunted down Cyber Monday bargains.
Having survived its freshman hazing, the Zune is back for its sophomore revenge, and the iPod has every reason to be frightened. The Zune 4 (4GB, $149) and Zune 8 (8GB, $199) offer a leaner, lighter version of Microsoft's full-size Zune 80 MP3 player (80GB, $249).
Although deep discounts brought out much bigger crowds of holiday bargain hunters, a major retail trade group said Sunday that shoppers actually spent less money this year over the crucial Thanksgiving weekend.
Management guru Jim Collins once called Steve Jobs the "Beethoven of business." He was marveling at the Apple founder's ability, time and again, to conjure digital objects of desire from esoteric blends of chips, disks, plastic, and software, and then promote them with his own alluring brand of performance art. But Jobs might also be called its Machiavelli, a man who can bend suppliers, partners, and even industries to his will.
Google is a company convinced of its own brilliance and its clear vision of the future. Being a hotbed of Mensa members will do that to you. As will stumbling early onto an obscenely lucrative business model. The same thing happened to a company called Microsoft.
Even though the sun was hours away from rising, bargain-hunters at a Wal-Mart store in Union were fully awake and ready to shop.
Neither high gas prices nor falling home values deterred customers from lining up and plunking down cash at Manhattan electronics stores Friday, and deep price cuts helped big ticket items go fast.
As South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival -- widely recognized as Asia's most important film showcase and market -- wraps up its 12th year, one thing has become apparent, at least for the domestic industry: High Definition filmmaking hasn't quite reached the omnipresent proportions many believed it would have by now.
If you're one of those people who don't want to "live with wires and boxes all over my living room," Yamaha's Digital Sound Projector series of single-speaker surround systems may be exactly what you're looking for.
Nearly five months have passed since Steve Jobs unleashed his flashy iPhone upon the world, and the sleek, do-everything gadget has met his ambitious initial sales targets and then some -- so far, more than 1.5 million have been sold.
More laptops for toddlers and MP3 players for infants are stocked on store shelves this holiday shopping season as Fisher Price and Playskool battle it out with Sony and Nintendo for dominance in the toy box.
So, Apple's much hyped iPhone is finally available in Europe. Well, in the UK and Germany at least. French readers will have to wait just a few more days until they can get their hands on one.
Among that tiny segment of the population that cares about the latest HDTV technology, and the even tinier segment that can afford it, the introduction of Samsung's 81 series of flat-panel LCDs is kind of like early Christmas. The first widely distributed LCD HDTVs to incorporate LED backlights -- Sony sold a few Qualia 005s a couple years ago at $8,000 to $15,000 a pop -- the Samsungs promise amazing black levels, claiming a contrast ratio spec of 500,000:1.
Wal-Mart Stores posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings Tuesday but offered a cautious outlook about the fourth-quarter, which includes the all-important holiday shopping period.
It's only the first day of October but Wal-Mart set the ball rolling on holiday price wars Monday by announcing deep discounts on some popular toys for the holiday shopping season.
Nintendo, thanks to the Wii, its groundbreaking game system, is not just the toast of the video game industry. It has also been a hot stock on Wall Street.
When Nokia made its $8.1 billion offer for digital mapmaker Navteq in early October, the first question batted around by investors was, Why pay so much? The question they should have asked was, How do I get in? Not on Navteq -- too late for that -- but on the technology trend to which Nokia just gave a multibillion-dollar vote of confidence: location-based services.
Here's an idea that probably wouldn't go far at your average start-up pitch meeting: Create a proprietary, digital home audio system. Build it from scratch using the best available computer and audio components. Create an interface never seen before. Brand it, again from scratch.
Wondering if it's time for a bit of the "Mission: Impossible"/Jack Bauer/"24" biometric security thing for your business? You're not alone. Biometric security devices are popular here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. One intriguing item I tested: a nifty little fingerprint scanner from Upek, called Eikon Digital Privacy Manager ($50), that debuted at the show and is due out later this year.
Big companies usually get the buzz in consumer electronics. Multinationals such as Sony Electronics, Pioneer and Microsoft do most of the media huffing and puffing about their products.
Although the cost of a barrel of crude jumped more than 40 percent this year to over $90 in October, the spike was driven more by jitters about unrest in the Middle East and forecasts of strong demand than by a drop in supply.
In the music business, promotion is paramount --- and that's why the bracelets are such a great idea.
Apple announced Wednesday that it was overhauling its line of iPod digital music players for the first time in two years to include more storage and bigger screens. A new product, the Wi-Fi-enabled iPod Touch, was also unveiled, as well as a new version of iTunes that will feature ringtones for the iPhone.
Ever since its release last June, the iPhone has inspired lust in consumers and envy in competitors. But at least for now, business users would be smart to ignore the one-million-sold hype: Apple's refusal to accommodate third party applications and AT&T's sluggish EDGE network keep this gadget strictly in the realm of fun.
Need a TV? Camera? Laptop? Maybe you'll head to Best Buy, the nation's largest electronics retailer.
Meet the "digital natives." They are the teens and tweens who flock to MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites.
The BBC is famous for its journalism. Now it's making headlines for all the wrong reasons
The venerable British broadcaster is famous for its journalism. Now it's making headlines for all the wrong reasons
Despite the dream of an "ultimate handheld," it's really hard to get down to fewer than two portable devices. A Treo may do it all, but you still want an iPod; an iPhone is great, but you still need a BlackBerry for work; you like to listen to your iPod while playing your PSP or DS; and so on.
With its U.S. sales growth expected to slow further over the next three years, Wal-Mart executives told analysts Tuesday that the retailer will open fewer stores at home and instead boost its expansion overseas.
Microsoft's is stepping up its quixotic, seven-year quest to become as ubiquitous on mobile phones as it is on desktops.
Wal-Mart, increasingly eager to grab as many early holiday sales as it can, announced a second round of price cuts on 15,000 items on Thursday.
South Korea is reputed to be the most wired country in the world. CNN has asked readers to weigh in on the topic. How is technology affecting daily life in South Korea, and influencing the rest of the world? Below is a selection of responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity:
The nation's most famous broadcasters confirm job losses and problems voting on interactive shows
Public Enemy's Chuck D. has spent his career rapping about the effects of racism in America. The self-described "prophet of rage" isn't too happy with the music industry either.
Hollywood's creative talent - writers, directors, and actors - could go out on strike anytime between now and next summer. On the surface the issue that has their unions - the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) - up in arms is how to treat residual payments from TV episodes in the Digital Age.
Tomi Ahonen's book "Digital Korea" discusses digital convergence in South Korea. Here are some excerpted statistics:
Skateboarding is all about cheeky defiance, which is exactly what Electronic Arts is sporting for going up against Activision's billion-dollar Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise.
Home-theater-in-a-box systems (HTIBs) provide a turnkey surround sound solution on the cheap. But with a few exceptions--usually large, bulky component-based systems--they're generally not known for their flexibility or wealth of features.
To hear some tell it, a revolution began last night as most in the U.S. drifted off to sleep. At midnight Eastern Standard Time, the British "post-rock" group Radiohead released its newest album "In Rainbows" directly to fans over a Web site of its own creation. The price? Whatever fans decide they'd like to pay - which also includes taking it for free.
Jensen is no stranger to aftermarket car tech, but we've mostly looked at its in-car stereo units rather than the company's portable navigation systems, so we were pretty anxious to take the Jensen NVX225 out for a test drive when it arrived at our office.
Far be it for any mortal to tell Steve Jobs how to flog his world-beating iPod music machine, but here's one humble suggestion: consider reviving the old Pantene Shampoo slogan: "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."
When Apple's iPhone debuted, it seemed to have it all - sleek hardware, a revolutionary user interface, and a cult following. But flash-forward a couple of months, and it's getting flak for being chained to AT&T's slowpoke network and for blocking non-Apple software programs.
Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. launched its much-anticipated digital music store Tuesday with nearly 2.3 million songs, none of them protected against copying
Microsoft Corp. said it will release three versions of its Office 2008 for Mac suite in January, with the most expensive of the bunch aimed at creative professionals overwhelmed by the task of organizing their digital media files.
Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. launched its much-anticipated digital music store Tuesday with more than 2 million songs, all without copy-protection technology.
As Best Buy gears up for its important high-definition TV sales months, a new survey from the No. 1 electronics retailer reveals that almost 90 percent of Americans still don't understand HDTVs - and close to 50 percent underestimate the cost of buying one.
Starbucks Corp. plans to give away 50 million free digital songs to customers in all of its domestic coffee houses to promote a new wireless iTunes music service that's about to debut in select markets.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. expects strong demand and cost cuts to boost second-half profit in its chip business, it said Friday.
Japanese electronics makers Sharp Corp. and Pioneer Corp. announced a capital and operations tie-up Thursday that will make Sharp the top shareholder in its Tokyo-based peer.
NBC will start offering limited free downloads of shows such as "Heroes" and "The Office" as part of its bid to expand the digital distribution of its programs and compete with Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, the network announced Wednesday.
Texas Instruments's Pico Projector is small enough to fit in a cell phone (albeit a chunky one, if the prototype we saw is any indication) but bright enough to shine a 15-inch-wide image even in a well-lit room.
As compact cameras continue to evolve into commodity items, camera makers have shifted the way they approach their entry-level dSLRs.
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