ctia

NEW ORLEANS--If you've got a mischievous pet with a habit of stepping out, you may be interested in Tagg, a pet-tracking system that uses GPS, data, e-mail, texting, and a handful of apps to help you keep tabs on your tabby.

The $99 starter kit comes with a passive tracking attachment for the collar, and an at-home unit that includes a short-range radio.

If Fido leaves the perimeter of your home, the collar tracker awakens. If he strays too far, up to five people will receive a text or e-mail alert. You can also keep an eye on your … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--Sure, Pal by Clarity isn't the sleekest or most high-tech phone on the market. It doesn't go on the Internet, it can't take pictures, and it definitely won't let you play a round of Angry Birds on its screen.

Instead, Pal was designed for an older demographic, and for less able-bodied users like paraplegics. It's produced by Clarity, an offshoot division of the mobile and Bluetooth accessory company, Plantronics.

Clarity has been around for 40 years, and it specializes in products for seniors for a good reason: according to Clarity, 35 million people suffer … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--We heard about the massive 13-inch Toshiba Excite 13 back in April, when we declared the thing too large to really be considered a portable device.

Now that I've seen the so-called tablet in its footlong glory, I can say with complete authority: as a tablet, it's insane; unwieldy and hard to handle.

That's perhaps why Toshiba envisions use cases that more or less keep it within domestic confines -- playing games, propping it on its included stand to use in the kitchen, watching movies in a room without a TV.

Get beyond its size and … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--When you're stuck in the tornado of a cell phone conference, it's sometimes hard to savor what you see. I had sought out the Nokia 808 PureView at Mobile World Congress. I mean, a 41-megapixel camera -- how could I not investigate?

However, it wasn't until I had spent some time digging into the mechanics behind the phone camera that I started to really appreciate what the PureView camera does differently.

Here at CTIA is where it began to click. I had a moment to actually peruse the camera menus and take the test shots I wanted to see how oversampling worked in a meaningful way.… Read more

Here's the problem with Huawei's image: it doesn't have one.

While known in technology circles, it is a virtual nonentity for many consumers, some of whom are probably unaware they are using a Huawei smartphone.

Huawei, however, wants to change that, and is planning a large U.S. marketing campaign to build consumer awareness of its brand. The company has already worked with its carrier customers -- typically prepaid players such as MetroPCS or Leap Wireless -- to jointly do so. But with the planned campaign, slated for the second half of the year, the company will … Read more

NEW ORLEANS -- Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead defended his company's plan to buy wireless spectrum from cable operators during a keynote here Tuesday.

Mead emphasized the need for more wireless spectrum in the market to keep up with growing demand for wireless data services among consumers. He said it will take years for the Federal Communications Commission to auction off additional spectrum. And he said Verizon can't wait: his company will need additional spectrum in some markets by 2013, and it will need even more by 2015.

Verizon has been deploying new technology to get more efficient … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--What if there were an accurate way for your phone to help you time your commute on a given morning? "Take Highway 280 today instead of 101; there's an accident" for instance, or "It will take you 10 minutes longer than usual today, so you'd better leave by 7:30 in order to make that 8:30 meeting."

Unfortunately, our phones aren't quite up to being quite so helpful just yet, at least not the way I envision it in my daydreams. However, Nokia is planing an update to its Nokia Drive … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--Pandora has surpassed 150 million users, according to CEO Joe Kennedy.

The Internet radio service remains the second most downloaded app in the history of Apple's App Store, Kennedy said during a keynote address at the CTIA Wireless conference here today.

Pandora recently faced stiff competition from latecomer Spotify, which has managed to capture some buzz from recent announcements, such as its move open up the service to third-party developers. Spotify said a few months ago that it has 3 million paying customers.

But Pandora believes it is at the early stages of the growth curve.

"We … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--From a user point of view, ZTE's head of the North American business, Lixin Cheng, prefers the Windows Phone OS over Android.

"In my personal experience, the iPhone, of course, has a well-polished user interface experience," Cheng told CNET. "And then Windows, and then Android."

But for the small-time phone manufacturing company, which has been steadily trying to plant a presence in the United States, releasing Windows Phone devices hasn't been easy.

In fact, the majority of ZTE handsets run on Android. Along with the ZTE Orbit, which is available in the U.… Read more