The City of New York is reportedly planning to revive 250 old phone booths with the introduction of 32-inch Internet-ready “smart screens” throughout the five boroughs, The New York Post reported on Monday. The touch-screens will display local neighborhood information in multiple languages, including lists of nearby restaurants, stores in the area, traffic updates, landmark information and safety alerts. If the pilot program is successful, the futuristic screens could replace all of the city’s 1...

As a standard security measure, Apple’s iPhone can be set to require a four-digit passcode  whenever the phone’s screen is powered on in order to prevent unauthorized access. With passcode security enabled, a user’s information is theoretically kept private if his or her device ever falls into the wrong hands. A recent Forbes report reveals that law enforcement agencies can bypass the iPhone’s passcode requirement in less than two minutes, however, gaining access to all of the privat...

The United States Justice Department has issued a request for more information from Google and Motorola Mobility concerning the search giant’s planned $12.5 billion acquisition of the phone maker. Google senior vice president Dennis Woodside explained that his company is still confident the deal will be approved. “We believe very strongly this is a pro-competitive transaction that is good for Motorola Mobility, good for consumers, and good for our partners,” he said, noting the “second...

Google asked a federal judge to secure “competitively sensitive data” that may be revealed during the Justice Department’s investigation into AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Google said the data it provided to the investigation is related to its Android operating system and it fears the information could be leaked to the press or its competitors. “Without such additional protection, Google and other non- parties could ...

Google has accused Microsoft of leaking “highly confidential source code” related to its open-source Android operating system. According to PaidContent, the search giant asked a federal United States International Trade Commission judge to sanction Microsoft after it spilled the beans on Google’s source code to a witness in Microsoft’s ongoing patent battle with Motorola. Reportedly, the witness, Dr. Robert Stevenson, has acted as a consultant for both HP and Microsoft, which Google vi...

Apple has promised to patch a security hole found in the iPhone and iPad following a report published by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security. Reportedly, a PDF security hole could allow hackers to gain unauthorized access to personal data — such as messages and passwords — stored on an iPhone or iPad and could “infect the mobile device with malware without the user’s knowledge.” Apple’s PR team was quick to respond to the allegations. “[Apple is] aware of ...

AT&T will be launching its Unlimited Messaging with Mobile to Any Mobile plan tomorrow. Just ahead of the launch, BGR has acquired an internal AT&T memo that details exactly what customers will have to do to qualify for said plans. Spoiler alert: not much. Surprisingly, there isn’t any fine print with AT&T’s latest offering. Customers with individual, post-paid lines costing between $39.99 and $59.99 per month are eligible for the unlimited texting and mobile to mobile offer —...

Yesterday afternoon, we told you about a non-working website URL indicating that HTC’s first LTE device on Verizon would in fact be named the Thunderbolt 4G. Well, it appears as though that non-working link is now live. The page reminds you that on January 6th “HTC will be the first to 4G. Again.” and will kindly take your name and email address to provide you with news on the cloaked handset when available. Don’t take our word for it, hit the read link and have a look for yourself. CE...

Today, Research In Motion announced that the cryptographic kernel of its BlackBerry 6 mobile operating system has earned the FIPS 140-2 security certification. FIPS, or Federal Information Processing Standard, is a classification used by the U.S. — and others — to validate the security of a computer system’s cryptographic services. The certification officially green-lights the OS for use by government employees handing “sensitive but unclassified” information. Just another s...

One of our Verizon Ninjas was kind enough to pass along a handful of training documentation being circulated for the Samsung Fascinate’s looming release. A lot of the documentation will confirm what you already know, the device will have a: 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, 4-inch Super AMOLED display, and a 5 megapixel shooter with 720p recording abilities. The documents also detail that the Fascinate will support ActiveSync for Exchange 2003, 2007, and 2010 servers. Mobile hotspot capability will be buil...

BlackBerry users on Big Red can now keep a leg up on their phone usage using Verizon’s latest BlackBerry application. Available for the Curve 8330, Pearl 8130 and 8830 World Edition, the My Verizon application allows users to check their minutes and data usage, view account balance, make payments, view plan, add/remove features and change their voicemail passwords directly on the handset. The application is available as an OTA download from the default Verizon BlackBerry browser homepage — http://...