Smartphone Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

MIT makes a smartphone-controlled bartender

by Mike Schramm (May 13th, 2013)

We've seen beer-pouring robots before, but MIT has recently put together a smartphone-controlled robot bartender, with three robot arms that can pour and mix up to 100 different alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavors. The Makr Shakr lets you order up a drink directly from your iPhone, and then it ...

NY State attorney general asks smartphone manufacturers to help combat theft

by Steven Sande (May 13th, 2013)

Smartphone thefts are running rampant -- especially in New York City -- so much that the practice of grabbing the expensive phones is being referred to as "Apple picking." Bloomberg announced yesterday that New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has sent letters to executives at ...

A glimpse of the future: 5G wireless technology in the labs now

by Steven Sande (May 13th, 2013)

Over the past few years, 4G LTE wireless networks that can handle download and upload speeds of up to 75 megabits per second (Mbps) have become increasingly more commonplace. Still, it takes a long time to download movies, and streaming video can be a challenge on today's handsets. Yonhap News ...

New Kevo lock uses your iPhone for keyless entry

by Mike Schramm (May 8th, 2013)

Kwikset has made a new lock it's calling Kevo that makes use of your iPhone to lose your keys for good. The idea on this one seems great, and apparently the company picked up some money from a pitch on the Shark Tank TV show. The lock has both standard key-based and wireless mechanisms, so ...

Square Enix announces Final Fantasy Tactics S, coming soon to iOS

by Mike Schramm (Apr 26th, 2013)

Square Enix has launched a Japanese site for an upcoming mobile game called Final Fantasy Tactics S, and it sounds intriguing. Final Fantasy Tactics, of course, is the excellent tactical strategy game based on Square's old Final Fantasy series, which arrived on iOS a little while ago. The "S" ...

Apple starts iPhone payment plans, makes retail deals to grow India's smartphone market

by Mike Schramm (Feb 25th, 2013)

China is no longer an emerging market at this point. It's now the top market in the world for smartphones, and Apple has worked hard to get a foothold in early. So now that China is covered, where's Apple headed to next? India seems to be the answer, as Apple has slashed prices and implemented ...

Qualcomm tried to get Apple to put a radio in the Newton

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 3rd, 2013)

Steve Jobs will be forever known for his moving introduction of Apple's first phone in 2007, but history may have been different had Apple worked more closely with Qualcomm in the '90s. According to a report in Venture Beat, Qualcomm courted Apple and tried to get the company to put a cellular ...

HTC exec lauds licensing agreement with Apple

by Mike Schramm (Jan 2nd, 2013)

Ray Yam is the president of HTC China, and he recently said in an interview with the Economic Observer of China that the company's recent licensing agreement with Apple will "pay off" sometime this new year in 2013. HTC and Apple, you may remember, finally settled a longtime patent disagreement ...

New York City board votes to approve taxi app pilot test (Updated)

by Steven Sande (Dec 13th, 2012)

Update: Per The Verge, the pilot program has been approved by a vote of the TLC. When savvy travelers want to hail a taxi or limo in many metropolitan areas, they grab an app like TaxiMagic (free) or Uber (free), tap a few buttons to "e-hail" a nearby driver, and they're on their way. New ...

Research: Over 1 billion smartphones in use

by Steven Sande (Oct 17th, 2012)

Sometimes it appears that everyone in the world uses a smartphone, and now research by Strategy Analytics covered by Bloomberg shows that in reality, there are over 1 billion smartphones in use around the world. The total of 1.038 billion smartphones in use came at the end of the third ...

Apple granted another important mobile device patent for iOS

by Mike Schramm (Jul 18th, 2012)

Patently Apple notes that among 25 Apple patents officially published by the USPTO today, one was a whopper. US patent number 8,223,134, which covers a "Portable electronic device, method, and graphical user interface for displaying electronic lists and documents," includes 30 separate claims ...

Report: Americans have 28 percent more mobile apps in 2012

by Steven Sande (May 17th, 2012)

If it feels like you not only have more apps on your iPhone, but that you're spending more time in those apps, then you should congratulate yourself on being as savvy as pollster Nielsen. According to a report from the organization, the number of apps on the average smartphone increased from 32 ...

Verizon Wireless to start charging $30 handset upgrade fee

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 11th, 2012)

A Reuters report claims Verizon Wireless will start charging customers an additional US$30 when they upgrade their phone. This fee will apply to existing customers who buy new hardware with a two-year customer agreement. Verizon says it's levying this additional charge in order to "provide ...

Demand for the iPhone 4S still high six months after its release

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 11th, 2012)

A recent ChangeWave survey suggests demand for the iPhone 4S is still high six months after the handset launched. ChangeWave surveyed 4,413 consumers and 56 percent of future smartphone buyers say they plan on purchasing an iPhone. This is up two percentage points from a previous survey ...

Nielsen: More people use tablets, smartphones while watching TV

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 5th, 2012)

A recent report from Nielsen shows that folks in the US and UK enjoy using their mobile devices while watching TV, while those in Germany and Italy prefer to do one thing at a time says a report in CNET. Up to 88 percent of US tablet owners and 86 percent of US smartphone owners use their ...