Android

Every device has its pros and cons. Here are five reasons to buy — and not to buy — the latest iPad. Reasons to buy: 1. The display: If you're really into photos or video, then the screen is probably the single-most compelling reason to upgrade. Apple says that the iPad screen has more pixels than an HDTV. 2. Dictation: There hasn't been much attention paid to this little feature, probably because everyone was bummed that Siri wasn't in the new iPad. But dictation will go far on the iPad, as many people find...

Tried and true There are lots of travel apps. Here's what I thought of some — all free — after my app-guided trip to Atlanta. The Layover Available in the iTunes store. A nice distillation of Anthony Bourdain's Travel Channel series (choose which destinations you want to download). You can watch clips, build an itinerary or buy music inspired by the destination. It gets bonus points for including detailed information on restaurants and attractions, including hours.

If you like to attract birds to your yard with nesting boxes and feeders, you're not alone. An estimated 55 million Americans are into bird-watching and many are discovering that smartphones offer a whole new relationship with their avian friends. Some birders are content to attract and watch birds in their own gardens; more serious hobbyists will travel near and far for the chance of spotting, recording and reporting bird species. For the plugged-in bird person, there are dozens of apps available,...

NEW YORK — The stock market is closing higher after shaking off a morning slump. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 60 points to close at 15,275 Wednesday, a gain of 0.4 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose eight points to 1,658, or 0.5 percent. Both the Dow and S&P are at record highs. The Nasdaq composite rose nine points to 3,471, or 0.3 percent. Macy's rose after beating Wall Street's profit expectations, and Google rose after announcing a several upgrades to...

Another day, another iPhone rumor. The latest buzz coming out of the company's leaky — but not always reliable — supplier chain is that the company is following the Android crowd with several models of the iPhone this year . That alone might set some Apple watchers reaching for their salt shakers, but it gets even shakier: Rumor has it at least one of the three models Apple's planning is called the ‘iPhone Math,' which will have a...

Apple designers are said to be working around the clock on major changes to iOS to update, streamline and improve how the mobile operating system looks ahead of the company's Worldwide Developer's Conference in the second week of June. The changes may be so drastic, Bloomberg reported , that the company may even consider delaying the release of iOS 7. Apple's hardware design, under the watch of the meticulous Sir Jony Ive , has always been seen as a benchmark for the industry, but its software design hasn't...

For a country seemingly obsessed with reality television and tabloid journalism, the United States is suddenly very worried about privacy. And I'm not talking about celebrity privacy; I'm talking about your privacy. For Facebook users, questions of privacy and security are nothing new. In fact, concern over those topics are regularly raised by users and critics alike. Even the Federal Trade Commission has looked into (and mandated) how Facebook handles your private data. But...

Last week I was at my family's Thanksgiving dinner, when amid a typically busy (and loud) conversation, someone blurted out something that made my ears perk up: "I hate ‘Droids!' " This sparked a quick — but heated — discussion at the table about how Droids were too complicated, too nerdy, and, worst of all, had bad ads. "Those ads are scary," one person said. Another chimed in, "I can't stand them. " I tried in vain to explain to the group that Droids weren't necessarily representative of what "Android" was really...

MobileCrunch has a fairly detailed look at the new Android emulator. We go through all the current apps?the phone, the browser, Google Maps?and even crash the OS a few times for good measure. Android adopts a traditional desktop user interface, letting you drag icons around that launch different apps, as well as look at a full menu of apps hidden away in a tray. A small search box can also be placed right on the opening screen. Another nice little feature is the ability to assign certain contacts different priorities.

Adobe and HTC are bringing Flash to Android on its new Hero smartphone. The implementation will support video and audio codecs familiar to users of Flash on the desktop. Check this post for more info as we get it.The HTC Hero delivers powerful, compatible video playback performance using Flash technology, and interactive content enabled by ActionScript® 2.0. Users can enjoy and navigate through Web videos using intuitive video controls. With progressive streaming of large MP3 audio files from a Web server and the local file storage, the HTC...

SAN FRANCISCO — For Google CEO Larry Page, happiness is a warm computer. "Technology should do the hard work so people can get on doing the things that make them happiest in life," Page told a crowd of 6,000 software developers and entrepreneurs who flocked to San Francisco Wednesday for the opening day of Google's annual showcase for its latest breakthroughs. In the latest display of its technological prowess and sweeping ambition, Google is rolling out another wave of...

___ US boom transforming global oil trade NEW YORK — The surge in oil production in the U.S. and Canada and shrinking oil consumption in the developed world is transforming the global oil market. The threat of chronic oil shortages is all but gone, U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil will continue to dwindle, and oil will increasingly flow to the developing economies of Asia, according to a five-year outlook published Tuesday by the International Energy Agency. The report paints a picture of a world with plenty of oil to...

BlackBerry, with an eye on making a bigger footprint in the mobile space, announced that its popular messaging system, BlackBerry Messenger, will soon be available on competitors' platforms. BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, will be coming to phones that support Apple's iOS 6 platform and Android's Ice Cream Sandwich . BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins said that the BBM apps for those platforms will come this summer and will be available for free. The company made the...

Capital Insight, the independent polling operation of Washington Post Media, today launched the "Poll Watch" app for iPhone and Android. The new app offers the latest polls, polling industry news, graphics and videos, along with social media updates from polling experts and analysts. "Poll Watch is ideal for journalists and anyone who wants to stay on top of public opinion research. No matter where you are, you can understand where the country stands on the latest issues," said Jon Cohen,...

Short takes on the week's announcements and deals. Acquisitions San Jose, Calif.-based Haystax Technology said it has acquired Reston-based cloud software company FlexPoint Technology . Terms were not disclosed. McLean-based network integrator Global Telecom & Technology said it has acquired the data services business of Chicago-based Intelliquent for $54.5 million. Call for entries Bethesda Green is accepting applications for its first investor pitch training program for entrepreneurs in the...

BlackBerry's last stronghold in the smartphone market may be under siege. A review of Apple and Samsung's software for use on the Defense Department's secure classified and unclassified networks is expected to be completed within two weeks and could further curtail BlackBerry's once dominant position among the security-conscious government employees. The Defense Department may allow its employees to choose among Samsung and Apple smartphones and tablets for the office, according to a statement...

The browser-bearing world was atwitter yesterday with the announcement of Google's Chrome browser. Just about overnight, they've managed to convince hordes of people that Chrome is the way to browse on your PC. Next step? They're taking it mobile. According to an interview with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the two projects will start working together more closely now that both are approached 1.0 releases, with the Android browser adopting much of Chrome's inner workings.

"It was lying around in one of the warehouses. Nobody knew what it was," says Paul Ceruzzi, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum. "Someone said to me, 'Find out what it is or we're going to get rid of it.' " The "it" in question looked like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. Ceruzzi would later learn that this tin man played an important role in the design of spacesuits for U.S. astronauts. In 1961, when President John F. Kennedy committed the nation to sending men to the moon before the end of the decade, the space agency,...

Apple designers are said to be working around the clock on major changes to iOS to update, streamline and improve how the mobile operating system looks ahead of the company's Worldwide Developer's Conference in the second week of June. The changes may be so drastic, Bloomberg reported , that the company may even consider delaying the release of iOS 7. Apple's hardware design, under the watch of the meticulous Sir Jony Ive , has always been seen as a benchmark for the industry, but its software design hasn't always been as...

Ready for the evolution of the selfie? Vine announced it will support videos made using a smartphone's front-facing camera and that the Twitter-owned service will get a tad more social by allowing users to mention one another in their short video posts. The company announced the changes in a blog post , though the news spread more quickly thanks to a front-facing camera Vine post from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey . People can post up to six seconds of video using the app, which lets them switch between the...