Stories by Bob Brown

Mobile World Congress sneak peek: Quad-core smartphones, Ice Cream Sandwich & more

It might be hard to imagine there will be that much more for makers of smartphones, tablets and other wireless offerings to reveal at Mobile World Congress at the end of this month after the deluge of products that debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show to kick off 2012. But Sony, HTC and others have gotten wireless watchers in a frenzy already by issuing MWC event invitations and stirring speculation about Android 4.0, Windows Phone and quad-core devices.

Amazon attacks Apple: You get 3 Kindle products for price of iPad 2

Amazon has released a new advertisement that takes a shot at the price of Apple’s iPad, emphasizing the lower cost of the Kindle e-reader and Android-based Kindle Fire tablet computer.

Obama 2012 campaign playlist revealed courtesy of Spotify

Depending on your taste in music and tolerance for others’ tastes, President Barack Obama’s latest social media move – sharing his 2012 campaign playlist via streaming music website Spotify – might be a case of over-sharing: Ricky Martin, REO Speedwagon and James Taylor all made the cut.

iPhone, iPod touch meet NERF Lazer Tag

Hasbro, realizing that iPhone and iPod touch enthusiasts might have such a hard time putting down their gadgets to actually play NERF Lazer Tag, will soon combine Apple technologies with its popular shoot-em-up game.

Apple warns iOS developers: Don't monkey with App Store rankings

Apple has warned iOS developers not to use services that manipulate App Store rankings to make their iPhone and iPad apps seem more popular than they really are.

Google piques curiosity with Solve for X website, video

Google on Monday released a video regarding its Solve for X project, which the company says is "a place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems."

Motorola, Woot 'fess up to reselling uncleared Xoom tablets

Motorola Mobility is warning people who bought but then returned Android-based Motorola Xoom tablets between March and October last year that the devices might have been resold by bargain-of-the-day website Woot with the ex-owners' sensitive data still on them.

Facebook ripe for ridicule as it suffers outage a day after IPO filing

Social networkers resorted to Twitter during and following a brief Facebook outage on Thursday, a day after the company filed for its initial public offering.

Steve Jobs lives on in endless Apple stories, marketing schemes

Although it's been nearly four months since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died, there has been little slowdown in Steve Jobs news since then. In fact, some days there seems to be more than ever.

9 "university researcher approved" tips for awesome Tweeting

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech have issued a list of 9 tips for better tweeting based on a study of Twitter usefulness (see "Most tweets are useless, Twitter users say").

Samsung: No Galaxy S3 at Mobile World Congress

Samsung has confirmed that its Android-based Galaxy S3 (or S III) smartphone will not debut at the Mobile World Congress later this month, but will be introduced at a separate event by mid-year, closer to commercial release.

Most tweets are garbage: Twitter users

Twitter has been celebrated for its ubiquity and impact on world events from natural disaster recovery to political uprisings. But researchers from a group of big time universities have found that useful tweets are few and far between.

Asus Padfone smartphone-tablet headed for Mobile World Congress

Asustek Computer has begun teasing yet another debut of its Padfone smartphone-tablet combo at the Mobile World Congress scheduled for Barcelona in late February, and industry watchers expect the device to run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Google previews new privacy policy

Preview of Google's much discussed Privacy Policy changes. Click here for the most updated version from Google.

More Android users take phones into bathroom than do iPhone, BlackBerry users

A new survey of 1000 Americans confirms what you always suspected: A good many of those incoming Android, iPhone and BlackBerry calls and texts are originating from bathrooms.