Anyone in the market for a smartphone these days will likely see the term 4G shoved in their face by the major carriers. “We have the biggest network!” “We have the fastest speeds!” Sometimes the providers back up their claims with blazing fast data and great coverage, but other times, consumers will wind up feeling cheated. Here are some examples in which the reality simply doesn’t live up to the marketing hype.

Sprint’s 4G LTE Phones: Hurry Up and Wait

The nation’s third-largest carrier finds itself in serious catchup mode against Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Sprint is launching its 4G LTE service in six cities this summer, while Verizon already has more than 250 markets lit up and AT&T has 35 and counting. So what do you do in the meantime? Read the rest of this entry »

What are the next big things in mobile? Our mission was to answer that question at CTIA Wireless 2012, where more than 40,000 attendees and more than 1,000 exhibitors gathered in New Orleans this week. After meeting with dozens of companies, several products rose to the top, from a smartphone that sends sound directly through to your ear drum to a security service that can protect a family full of phones. Here are the best products that made our list in seven categories–Smartphone, App, Security Service, Enabling Technology, Accessory, Car Tech and Mobile Payment Service.

Next

Best Smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S III

The Samsung Galaxy S III is the kind of device that reminds you that someone is still taking the "smart" part of the word "smartphone" seriously. Yes, this sequel to the hugely popular Galaxy S II steps things up in the specs department with a bigger and sharper 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display and a swift, quad-core Samsung Exynos processor. But it's what you can do with all that power that has us excited about this device, which made its U.S. debut at CTIA Wireless 2012.

The Galaxy S III can respond to spoken commands with S Voice (watch your back, Siri), keep the screen lit by tracking your eyes and switch between texting and calling someone just by lifting the phone to your ear. And that’s just scratching the surface of what this Android 4.0 handset can do, which will be heading to U.S. carriers starting this summer.

Samsung Galaxy SIII Preview: The Smartest Android Phone Yet

The Samsung Galaxy S III is the kind of device that reminds you that someone is still taking the “smart” part of the word “smartphone” seriously. Yes, this sequel to the hugely popular Galaxy S II steps things up in the specs department with a bigger and sharper 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display and a swift quad-core Samsung Exynos processor. But it’s what you can do with all that power that has us excited about this device, which made its U.S. debut here at CTIA Wireless 2012.

Here are our hands-on impressions of the Galaxy S III. Keep in mind that the U.S. version of this phone will offer some important feature differences, although Samsung isn’t yet ready to share those details. Read the rest of this entry »

Where’s the hole? That’s the first thing we asked ourselves when picking up Kyocera’s concept phone that uses tissue conduction technology. What’s that, you ask? Instead of a traditional speaker, this prototype Android handset being shown at CTIA Wireless 2012 uses a ceramic transducer to pump audio directly into your ear drum. The idea is that you can hear other callers even when there’s lots of ambient noise. And it works.

All we had to do was put the tissue conduction phone up to our ear, and the vibrations coming from the transducer resulted in clear audio. Even when we put our finger in our ear, we could still the audio file being played on the handset. Then Kyocera invited us to don a pair of headphones, and the sound still came through loud and clear when we touched the phone to the cans–or even to our neck underneath the headphones. This tech is so effective it’s almost creepy. Read the rest of this entry »

In terms of apps, Windows Phone might be profoundly lagging behind both Android and iOS, but Nokia is helping the platform along. At CTIA Wireless 2012, the company announced a barrage of new app partnerships for its Lumia Windows Phone devices.

First, the Finns struck deals across the board to make sports fans very happy, with the PGA Tour app exclusive to Lumias beginning June 12 on a special 12-month agreement. Additionally, the ESPN sports hub will be on board (an exclusive deal until May 2013), and a Fantasy Football app is slated to arrive in the fall.

Gamers should also be satiated with the onslaught of such familiar EA titles as FIFA, NBA Jam and more. Most interestingly, Nokia announced that Rovio is pushing out a Windows Phone version of Angry Birds Space, as well as other future games “as soon as possible.” Read the rest of this entry »

Designed to give parents peace of mind, the Sprint Guardian is a unique bundle that combines a family safety service and mobile security in one package. Working hand in hand with partners Lookout Mobile Security and Safely, the $14.98 service covers a family of five and promises 73 percent savings over purchasing each app separately. We spent some time with Sprint hear at CTIA Wireless 2012 to get a breakdown of what you get for your money.

The Family Safety part of the bundle lets you locate your child on an interactive map, lock his or her phone while driving (the phone knows when it’s going over 10 mph) and even lock your kid’s phone during “family time,” such as when you’re all at the dinner table. You can also see who your child has been calling or texting–though not the messages themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

The Next GATE from Clarion isn’t just any 7-inch tablet. This $269 smartphone controller works with your iPhone to bring vehicle-friendly apps to your dashboard. The first six options include TuneIn and Pandora for entertainment, INRIX Traffic, as well as InfoGation for turn-by-turn GPS navigation. You can even do speech-to-text for email and social networking with the Vlingo app.

Clarion’s Smart Access Cloud Telematics Service will enable users to download additional approved apps developed using the company’s SDK. 

The tablet itself is fairly basic, with a 7-inch WVGA screen, microSD card slot and built-in speaker. The Next GATE is designed to be plugged into your vehicle’s aux audio input, and leverages Bluetooth for hands-free operation. Initially, we found the interface somewhat difficult to navigate, but once we figured out what each of the four hardware buttons do–including a dedicated voice command button–we got the hang of it. Read the rest of this entry »

Kyocera announced two new Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones here at CTIA, including the water-resistant Hydro and QWERTY keyboard-equipped Rise. Both devices sport 3.5-inch 480 x 320 displays, and feature identical internal specs, including a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of onboard storage. Both handsets also feature microSD card slots with support for up to 32GB of storage. Outside, the phones come equipped with 3.2-megapixel rear-facing cameras.

We spent some hands-on time with both phones and found them to be responsive. Swiping between home screens was smooth and opening the phones’ camera apps took just two seconds. Kyocera also loaded both phones with its proprietary Eco Mode app. The app allows you to choose at what point your phone automatically turns off certain features based on its battery level. For instance, you can set the app to turn off the phone’s animated wallpaper and haptic feedback when your battery reaches 50 percent to save battery life.

Read the rest of this entry »

HTC’s Droid Incredible 4G LTE improves upon last year’s Droid Incredible 2 in every conceivable way, but is that enough? Heading to Verizon Wireless in the coming weeks, this Android Ice Cream Sandwich phone sports a sharper 4-inch qHD Super LCD screen (up from 800 x 480), 4G LTE speeds (instead of 3G only) and a considerably faster dual-core 1.2-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor (up from single core). 

We took the latest Incredible for a spin at CTIA Wireless 2012 to see if it lives up to its name. Here’s our initial impression. Read the rest of this entry »

MasterCard is making it easier for you to make purchases from any Web-enabled device with its newly announced Paypass Online. The service allows users to create a single virtual wallet for their credit and debit cards which they can use to pay for items purchased online with just one click. MasterCard has also released an API for the service to developers for inclusion in their apps. Paypass Online will be accessible through participating websites via the standard checkout page.

We spent some hands-on time with a beta version of the service running on both a laptop and a Samsung Galaxy S II, and we were impressed with how easy it was to use. When users first sign up for Paypass Online, they enter each of the debit and credit cards they would like to associate with the account. The one caveat is that you’ll need to make sure your bank supports Paypass Online in order for your card to work with the service. Next, you enter a shipping addresses. Read the rest of this entry »