News

Apple’s Newest iPhone Ad Still Says Nothing, Is a Little Less Great

in Mobile on May 23 at 8:23 pm PT

Same song, new verse. But not quite as much fun this time.
apple iphone 5 music ad

Cellphones

HTC First’s Trip to Europe on Hold as Facebook Works to Improve Its Home

in Mobile on May 23 at 11:26 am PT

After a poor reception in the U.S., Facebook has asked France Telecom and its British joint venture not to start selling the Facebook Home-equipped device, at least for now.
htc_first_slide

Social Networks

With New Mobile App, Nextdoor Unveils Its Take on the Neighborhood Watch

in Social on May 23 at 6:00 am PT

Radios and neighborhood patrols are so last year.
nextdoor_hand_newsfeed_square

Gaming

Xbox One Joins the Gamecasting Fray With Social Game DVR

in Social on May 22 at 8:00 am PT

Boom, headshot! Boom, my Xbox recorded a video of that headshot automatically!
cod_ghosts

Hardware

Apple’s Made-in-USA Mac Will Be Built in Texas

in News on May 22 at 6:00 am PT

Designed by Apple in California, assembled in Texas …
macbook_us_flag

Health and Fitness

Scanadu Hikes Price, Beefs Up Specs of Forthcoming Medical “Tricorder”

in News on May 22 at 5:00 am PT

The product gains the ability to measure others as well as cuffless blood-pressure tracking. But it will cost $50 more than anticipated.
scanadu_scout

TV

Why Microsoft’s Xbox One Won’t Kick the Cable Guy Out of Your House

in Media on May 22 at 3:00 am PT

Microsoft’s new box does lots of cool stuff. But when it comes to TV, it’s still an accessory.
cable_guy

Cellphones

Chief Product Officer Kouji Kodera Among Several Exits at Troubled Phone Maker HTC

in Mobile on May 21 at 10:28 pm PT

Product chief Kouji Kodera is among those who have left the Taiwanese phone maker in recent days.
htc_one

Mossberg's Mailbox

Windows Version of Quicken on the Mac

in Mossberg’s Mailbox on May 21 at 6:14 pm PT

Walt answers a reader’s question on using a Windows version of Quicken on the Mac.

Gaming Hardware

Xbox One Design Started From a “Blank Slate”

in Media on May 21 at 1:36 pm PT

The Xbox One is not an iteration, Microsoft says. It’s a complete media overhaul
xbox_one_panel

Durango on the Horizon: Here’s What’s Interesting About Microsoft’s New Xbox

in Media on May 21 at 6:30 am PT

A preview of things to come at today’s Xbox: A New Generation Revealed event.
Xbox_invite

Cellphones

Caterpillar Aims to Make Splash With Rugged, Waterproof Android Phone

in Mobile on May 20 at 3:00 pm PT

The $349 phone is designed to be able to withstand a six-foot drop onto concrete or a 30-minute dip in a pool, all without adding too much heft to a standard Android phone.
CAT_B15_FRONT_MASTER_V5alt-1-NO-HILITE-180x2851-feature

Applications

Email Money to Friends With Square Cash (But Only if You Work for Twitter, Pinterest or Box)

in Commerce on May 20 at 2:58 pm PT

A new kind of cash — via email — from the micro-payments company.
Square_Cash

Mobile Apps

New Hangouts App Conflicts With Google Voice Feature; Fix Coming

in News on May 20 at 9:42 am PT

Tough luck for Google Voice loyalists, as the new Hangouts messaging product denigrates a key function of Voice. Change is coming, but it could be a while.
google_hangouts_icon

Hardware

Meta Wants to Become the Next Augmented-Reality Glasses Phenom

in Product News on May 17 at 9:00 am PT

Meta wearers can interact with virtual games, architectural renderings and other 3-D objects by using their hands.
meta headset front on

News Byte

Nintendo Says 3DS-Exclusive Games Are Selling Better Than They Were Last Year

in News on May 16 at 4:25 pm PT

One P.S. to that IDC/App Annie report from this morning: Mobile games may be pulling in more money than those on “gaming-optimized handhelds,” but Nintendo doesn’t want you to count it out yet. The company said in a press release that games made exclusively for its most recent handheld device, 2011’s Nintendo 3DS, sold twice as well in the first four months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. It took 18 weeks to sell two million units of “first-party software” for the 3DS, vs. 30 weeks last year, according to the press release.

Google Demos Linux Running on Hacked Glass

in Mobile on May 16 at 3:07 pm PT

In a session at Google I/O, the company shows how to hack its Glasses, voiding the warranty but opening up new possibilities.
google_glass_penguin

Mobile

Support for Facebook, Twitter and Video Streaming Coming to Google Glass, With New Tools on the Way

in Mobile on May 16 at 10:24 am PT

In addition to the new partners, Google says a broader set of developer tools are coming.
google_glass

Gaming

Meet the Dudes Behind Dots, the iPhone Game of the Moment

in Product News on May 16 at 8:16 am PT

You might be surprised by their Dots scores.
Dots1

Mobile

Now Fully Kickstartered, Pebble Raises $15M in Venture Capital From CRV

in Mobile on May 16 at 8:00 am PT

Charles River Ventures backs the Kickstarter darling.
Pebblefactory

News Byte

King Touts Latest Gaming Numbers: 70 Million Daily Players, 21 Billion Games Played Per Month

in News on May 16 at 6:30 am PT

On the back of its hit Facebook/mobile game Candy Crush Saga, casual game studio King said in a press release that it has crossed the 70 million mark in daily active players across all platforms. That puts it within striking distance of Zynga’s all-time quarterly peak of 72 million daily active users (achieved in Q2 2012), and well beyond that competitor’s latest quarterly total of 52 million DAU, as reported last month. The company also said that its cross-platform games are now being played more than 21 billion times per month.

News Byte

Apple’s iTunes App Store Passes 50 Billion Downloads

in Mobile on May 16 at 12:01 am PT

Apple couldn’t have timed its countdown to 50 billion app downloads more perfectly. Just hours after Google revealed during its I/O conference keynote that app installs from its Google Play store had hit 48 billion, the iTunes App Store countdown clock rolled over to 50 billion, passing another major milestone and surpassing the achievement its rival had announced earlier in the day. The 50-billionth app? Say the Same Thing. Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio, will receive a $10,000 App Store gift card for downloading it.

Mobile Apps

Microsoft’s Anti-Google Campaign Gets a Boost, From Google

in Media on May 15 at 9:37 pm PT

Google tells Microsoft to turn off a home-grown YouTube app. Microsoft couldn’t be happier.
The_Trap_FilmPoster

Mobile Apps

Google’s Upcoming Maps App Includes Smarter Venue Search, Waze-Like Rerouting

in Product News on May 15 at 11:50 am PT

Google jabs at Apple, touting the accuracy of its own Maps app at Google I/O today.
Google Maps

Mobile

Google Gives Search a Deeper Voice and Adds Reminders and More to Google Now

in News on May 15 at 11:03 am PT

Conversational search, the knowledge graph and other improvements will fundamentally change the future of search, says longtime engineer Amit Singhal.
google_search_slide