consumer electronics - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• Text message of 'death' threatens smartphone security

  Security researchers have shown that carefully crafted text messages sent to cell phones via short message service (SMS) can cause them to shutdown without the knowledge of the owner.

• What's new with Samsung's Smart TV

  Samsung has beefed up its connected TV platform considerably as it faces threats from Google, Roku and its fellow television vendors.

• IT in 2011: Four trends that will change priorities

  It's always a challenge for IT departments to anticipate how corporate technical demands will evolve, especially when IT budgets have been as tight as a drum for two years.

• Microsoft should ditch 'Windows' brand for TV set-top

  Rumor has it that Microsoft will launch a barebones version of Windows for TV set-top boxes at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

• Asus unveils three tablets and a slate

  At CES 2011 today, Asus announced three new Android tablets and a Windows 7 based slate PC. The tablets, all Android-based, go by the moniker "Eee Pad" while the Windows 7 device is called an "Eee Slate." Each one offers some unique features, from stylus input options to sliding keyboards or docking stations. Unfortunately, we don't yet have exact shipping dates or prices for the Android tablets, and the Eee Slate looks to be fairly pricey.

• CES 2011: Tech Giants Battle for Gadget Dominance

  Call it the desert showdown royal.

• Why Apple’s iPhone Will 'Drown in a Sea of Androids'

  Google's Android mobile platform may still follow Apple's iPhone in the smartphone race, according to fresh Nielsen data released Monday, but that advantage may not last long.

• Microsoft TV vs. Google TV: Showdown at CES

  Microsoft will reportedly announce a new Windows-based US$200 set-top box using Windows Media Center as its primary interface, according to the Seattle Times.

• Smartphones in the enterprise: A changing landscape

  As recently as a year ago, many enterprises couldn't have imagined that the iPhone would now be second place in terms of security features that enterprises require, behind only the BlackBerry and ahead of Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

• Cloud drives speech recognition forward for Microsoft

  For years, using voice recognition technology on phones or other devices has been a novelty -- something people try once but never again, usually because it works so poorly. But recent developments, including harnessing the computational power of the cloud, have made it more usable and will make it even better in the near future, according to Microsoft.

• How Android phones will use Near-Field Communication

  The possibilities seemed endless when Google began hyping near-field communication for Android phones last month. Now, we've got some hard details on what the NFC capabilities in Android version 2.3, known as Gingerbread, will do in the near future.

• What's in the Tech Crystal Ball For 2011?

  Market research firm IDC makes a number of tech-related predictions near the end of every calendar year, but its prognostications for 2011 may well be among the company's most dramatic yet.

• Samsung Craft: Hands on the first LTE 4G phone

  It was pure coincidence that I happened to be in Las Vegas on the very day MetroPCS launched the country's first Long Term Evolution (LTE) services, so I took the opportunity to chase down and test-drive the Samsung Craft phone, MetroPCS's sole LTE device.

• Android app offers new flexibility for IT admins

  Information workers are increasingly demanding to use consumer-friendly Android and iOS devices on the job, so it stands to reason that IT administrators would value such flexibility too.

• Galaxy Tab will soar on Android's key strengths

  As the details of Samsung's Galaxy Tab are gradually revealed, it's becoming increasingly clear that many of the tablet's most desirable features derive from its use of Android--or Linux, that is--which, after all, is the basis for Google's winning mobile operating system.