Newest Mobile Tech: 2013

Volvo's Electric Car Charger

Electric cars can be environmentally friendly and economically responsible, but they're not necessarily known for being flashy. Volvo is now trying to change that by introducing a new portable electric charger for your car.

The stately charger, which looks a bit like a futuristic flower, has an inner lattice-work which is filled with solar panels to catch the sun at every angle, thus recharging your automobile. The charger can fill a depleted battery in 12 hours.

Volvo as crash-free Car in 2020

This video not only lays out Volvo's strategy, but mirrors the work other automakers are doing that will eventually result in autonomous cars.

Today Google introduced the Chromecast, a sticklike device that connects to one of your TV's HDMI inputs and accepts video wirelessly pushed from smartphones, tablets, and the Chrome browser. It's available for just $35 starting today from the Google Play store in the U.S., with availability in other countries to follow.

The compact 2-inch device will work with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and

The Apple-Samsung war extends far beyond smartphones and patents. Fortune on Monday released its Global 500, a ranked list of the world's biggest companies by revenue. Samsung Electronics nabbed the 14th spot in the list with revenue of $178.6 billion last year. Apple was close behind in 19th place with $156.5 billion in revenue.

Samsung jumped from 20th place last year, after securing $149 billion in revenues. Apple was all the way back in 55th place in 2012 with $108 billion in revenue.

Despite their success at winning the technology space, it appears neither Samsung nor Apple should expect to hit the top spot anytime soon.

Granted Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent dubbed "Programmable tactile touch screen displays and man-machine interfaces for improved vehicle instrumentation and telematics" (patent number 8,482,535) describes a tactile-feel touch screen that would let you adjust several of the key features and functions in your car.

The patent discusses such options as controlling the temperature, the

Gene That Spurs Early Puberty

In order to identify the genetic causes of early puberty, the researchers conducted a gene sequence

analysis of 40 members of 15 families with central precocious puberty.

Their results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reveal that the gene MKRN3, which is passed along by the father, is the culprit. The researchers found that four mutations of the MKRN3 gene cause early activation of reproductive hormones and encourage puberty.

The Future Samsung TV May Bend and Twist

Samsung has been flaunting its flexible OLED displays for quite some time, but until now the technology

seemed to be geared toward smartphones rather than TVs. While the Korea-based manufacturer has been teasing the idea of a virtually unbreakable handset for more than a year, there’s no indication as to when this technology could launch.

According to the pantent, future Samsung TV owners would be able to bend or rotate a portion of the screen or the entire display depending on your viewing preference. The remote would communicate with the TV via Bluetooth

Mark Zuckerberg's Political Strategy force the Progressive Groups to Pull their Facebook Ads as Protest

WASHINGTON -- A coalition of progressive groups is pulling its ads from Facebook in protest over

political positions taken by the organization started by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The effort is being led by former Sen. Russ Feingold's (D-Wis.) Progressives United, and joined by MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, CREDO, Daily Kos, Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, 350.org and Presente. The groups announced on Tuesday that they would either pull the Facebook ads they've already paid for or hold purchases of new ads for a minimum of two weeks in response to the tactics of Zuckerberg's new political organization, FWD.us.

Zuckerberg launched the group to press for comprehensive immigration

Apple on track to build multiple new iPhone models in June-July

Apple's new handsets are likely to launch around September, the analyst believes, based on the meetings in

Hong Kong and Taiwan. The information aligns with a separate report published last Tuesday that claimed Sharp would begin mass production of so-called "iPhone 5S" LCD displays in June.

In addition to the anticipated iPhone 5 successor, Apple is also rumored to be working on a new low-end iPhone that

T-Mobile began selling the iPhone less than one month ago on April 12, with Apple's handset debuting on $99 upfront fee, with the remaining device cost to be amortized in $20 installments spread over the following 20 months.

The Un-Carrier was the last of the big-four U.S. telecoms to strike a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone.

Sharp Aquos 206SH is unveiled

Five-inch smartphones with 1080p displays aren’t uncommon now, but Sharp‘s new AQUOS Phone Xx

SoftBank 206SH does have one advantage: enough battery life to get it through a promised two full days. The new handset, part of Japanese carrier SoftBank’s Summer 2013 line-up, uses a combination of old and new tech to help subscribers skip the overnight charge, with a huge battery paired with a clever CG Silicon TFT LCD display.

The Sharp AQUOS Phone Xx SoftBank 206SH will go on sale in late June. It has a 13.1-megapixel camera with f/1.9 optics, 1-Seg digital TV, LTE,

The product:
The VT60 is an excellent plasma with perhaps the best image quality you'll see this year not powered by light-emitting diodes. It is a shade better than the Kuro we've been using as a reference these long years, it beats the Samsung F8500 in critical dim-room viewing situations, and it's demonstrably better than the ST60. It boasts industry-leading black levels, illuminating shadow detail, and rich, saturated colors.

The product:
Kindle's in-book experience is as straightforward as it gets. To turn the page, simply swipe or tap somewhere in the margin. A tap to the center of the page brings up a status bar with location information and reader controls. There's also a menu at the top of your screen, in case you want to change text size, brightness, margins, line spacing, or background color. For now, the Kindle app offers only black, white, and sepia (my favorite) background options, but hopefully Amazon will add other textures and colors in the future.

The free Kindle app for Android is an excellent e-reader app that seamlessly ties to your Amazon account. It does a good job of presenting e-books, can easily reach into Amazon's enormous

The product:
One of the best things about Google Search is Google Now. Often misunderstood as a standalone Siri-style app, Google Now is actually a set of intelligent personal assistant features that are built right into the Google Search app. These features are only available to users with Android Jelly Bean and higher. Meanwhile, on iOS, Google Now is available to essentially all users (iOS 5 and higher).

The product:
The shiny plastic headphone's build quality is nothing special. The Zoro HDs fold up into a fairly small bundle for compact storage, but the plastic hinges are the obvious weak point in the design. After folding and unfolding the headphones many times they still seem fine, but anyone who treats their headphones roughly may have problems with this or any $100 hinged headphone.

The product:
The XPS 18 looks like a smaller all-in-one desktop at first glance. Sitting on a hefty industrial-looking stand is a featureless black screen, with only a Dell logo in the upper left corner and a Windows 8 flag logo below the screen. From the side, it's as thin as or thinner than most non-tablet all-in-one systems, and feels designed to fade nicely into the background. An 18-inch screen is on the small side for an all-in-one, but conversely it's large for a

The product:
Asustor AS-604T NAS server comes with no storage included, but it's very fast to install your own hard drives, thanks to the front-facing drive bays. Each of these bays includes a tray that can be easily unlocked and pulled out. After that it's simple to assemble a standard 3.5-inch hard drive on it. There are more than enough screws included for all four hard drives, always a good thing. You don't need to fill all four drive bays to use the server, but it's recommended that you do so, and use drives of the highest capacity

The product:
In one sense, the IdeaPad Z400 has a clean, not unattractive design. A matte chocolate-brown lid and two-tone silver and black plastic inside give the impression of something higher-end. But it's the fit and finish here that runs cheap. Everything's plastic, not metal. Also, this laptop is seriously thick and heavy: over 1 inch thick and 5.3 pounds. The 15.6-inch-screen Asus

The product:
Like a lot of these Bluetooth speakers that don't feature any sort of dock, the SRS-BTX500 has a clean, sleek look, and the speaker is a classic example of Sony's design prowess. If there's a fault, it's that the matte finish on the back scratches pretty easily if you rub it up against a rough or sharp surface. But otherwise it's really nice. It has a bit of brushed metal on the sides and measures 15.1 inches wide and 6 inches tall, and has a depth of 2.5 inches.

The product:
The size and weight of the Action Cam are impressive. The supercompact camcorder measures 2 inches high by 2.6 inches deep by 0.9 inch wide and only weighs about 3.2 ounces with its included NP-BX1 battery pack (a tray is included for use with Sony's NP-BG1 battery, too). That means there's less camera to strap to the side of your head or wherever else you plan to

Sony Xperia™ L

The camera experts’ camera phone
Xperia L, the Android mobile designed with Sony’s leading camera expertise.

The product:

Yahoo app is focused on the latest headlines, bringing more personalization to your news feed, quick summaries for easy reading, and good-looking article pages with photo backdrops.

This is not the app you're going to use to check your e-mail or access most of the other services that Yahoo provides, but what the app does well is bring you the latest news in an intuitive layout.

You have the option to view headlines in a clean list if that is your preference,

Closer to reality

The 4.6” screen of the Xperia SP HD phone is so vivid you feel you’re in the middle of it all – no matter what you’re viewing. The Reality Display is powered by Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2. That means razor sharp images, vibrant colours and the enhanced contrast you recognize from Sony TVs.

Icona Vulcano is a 900-HP V-12 Hybrid – 2013 Shanghai

Shanghai-based Icona’s new Vulcano supercar has boldly styled curves that demand a second look.

Debuting at the 2013 Shanghai auto show, the Icona Vulcano makes us wonder: How do you think a car with this design might fare parked next to other supercars?

The Icona design studios created the Vulcano after styling the Fuselage sedan. Perhaps in contrast to McLaren’s approach with the P1, Icona was looking for a balance between aerodynamic efficiency and

Google Glass Explorer Edition starts shipping

Google has informed developer members of its Glass Explorers team that the first wave of Glass prototypes

is ready to go out to them.

Anandtech’s Brian Klug received an email from the company that said the hardware and software are ready and the “first few devices” are coming off the production line. Though there aren’t enough yet for all Explorers, Google is going to send them in batches, notifying members as they’re ready.

“We know you’ve been standing by patiently to get

The product:
ViewSonic VX2460H-LED is a 24-inch monitor with a 1080p resolution and dual HDMI ports. With a price of only $200, the aforementioned specs alone are enough to recommend it to those looking for a general-purpose monitor. Luckily, it has a bit more to offer.

There's a 16-degree back-tilt option and 5 degrees of front tilt, but no other ergonomic options exist. The display sits on a "Y"-shaped foot stand that's 10.5 inches in width at its widest and extends back about 2.5

Audi R8 V10 Plus 2013

For this coupe-only R8 Plus, that means the 5.2-litre V10 is cranked up to 542bhp, the ceramic brakes,

bucket seats and carbonfibre parts (like the front spoiler, rear diffuser and sideblades) trim away 50kg, and Plus-specific suspension means revised spring and damper rates. It’s £12k more than a standard 518bhp R8 V10, on which the seats and brakes alone are options worth £9500. Plus (sorry) it’s only 10bhp down on the outgoing limited-edition 552bhp R8 GT, but £20k cheaper. It’s almost a bargain.

Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. HTC One

Screen
Samsung Galaxy S4

Perhaps the most striking thing about the GS4 is its massive 5-inch HD Super AMOLED display. It also features a sharp 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and a pixel density of 441ppi (pixels per inch).

HTC One
HTC gave the One a 4.7-inch LCD screen that's slightly smaller than the Galaxy S4's but boasts the same 1,920x1,080 resolution. As a result, the HTC One's display has a higher pixel density of 468ppi.

iPhone 5S Will Carry A 12-Megapixel Camera

Rumors of what the next iPhone will and will not feature were not already reaching silly

proportions, the latest news on the street is that Apple’s next flagship smartphone will feature a shiny new 12-megapixel camera and improved night time shooting.

Apple’s iPhone 5S release date is slated for later this year, and one Vietnamese blog claims to have had a tip that it will receive a much improved camera when compared to the currently shipping iPhone 5.

Moshi Mythro Stylish Personal Earbuds

The product:
Moshi is probably better known for its stylish iPhone and iPad cases, but it also makes several different models of earphones with intriguing designs -- and names.

The in-ear model reviewed here, the Mythro, is named in honor of mithril, the fictional metal found in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Silvery in appearance, mithril is stronger than steel but considerably lighter. It's not surprising then that Moshi's Mythro Stylish Personal Earbuds are nice and lightweight. They're also comfortable, and feature excellent sound for the money, as well as an integrated microphone, making them a bargain at their price of $30.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 will run on Andrdoid 4.1 Jelly Bean and will be powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and will have 1GB of RAM. That might as well be a typo as the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is said to have 2 gigs of operating memory. Unfortunately, earlier reports of a 2560 x 1600 pixel display weren't confirmed and the new rumors point to a resolution of just 1280 x 800 pixels.

Facebook Home

The product:
Facebook Home for Android is an interesting, and odd, experiment from the big dog in social

networking. On the one hand, the home-screen replacement software introduces some daring, even likable, ideas about how to interact with your friends on your phone -- and soon, on your tablet. On the other hand, Home is very much first-generation software that could use more time in the oven to become truly useful for Facebook fanatics.

The software, which supplants your home screen interface with images and status updates from

The product:
Perhaps the best thing about WeVideo for Android is the app's interface. It's as simple as it gets and should be easy to pick up even for those without any video editing experience at all. Conveniently, the app opens up to your Media Library, which shows off all of the videos, images, and audio files stored on your device, so there's no need to import anything into the app before editing. The bad thing here is that your Media Library will not show you any media that you have uploaded directly to your cloud account from a desktop, so in your mobile video projects, you'll

V-Moda Remix Remote headphone

The product:

As the audio industry continues its mission to convince everyone that it's worth spending money on a decent pair of headphones, the V-Moda Remix Remotes are a great example of how companies
should earn that trust. They're featherweight at just 17 grams, though their all-metal earbud construction means more for long-term durability than the simple glued-together plastic aesthetic used by the

The product:
The Memo Pad does include a microSD slot, something the Nexus 7doesn’t have; however, even at $60 more, the Nexus 7 is clearly the better product. It’s faster, includes the very latest version of Android, and its sharp screen can be viewed from nearly any angle -- not something the Memo Pad can claim.

The ME172V is aimed at people looking to save a few bucks on their tablet purchase, but the budget-conscious would be better served by

The product:
Like nearly every other mainstream AV receiver, the Denon AVR-E400 is a huge metal box. It looks a little more pedestrian than some older Denon models, which had subtly curved front panels, but its relatively uncluttered front panel is more tasteful than most. While I'd say the aesthetics of the AVR-E400 are better

Panasonic TC-PST60 series

The product:

The ST60 gets the nonilluminated remote that shipped with step-down models like the UT50. Tweaks for 2013 include are mostly improvements (dedicated "Netflix key, better labeling, and a few extra keys) but there are exceptions. "Apps" and "Home," both part of the Smart TV suite, get too-prominent keys while "Menu" is tiny. More than a few times I accidentally hit "Home" instead of the Up cursor.

The TV has two separate menu systems -- one

The product:
Stay Alight! (iPhone|iPad) is a destruction game that is somewhat similar to Angry Birds, but in this game, you play as Mr. Bulb and it's your job to take out the monster microbes.

Instead of flinging objects like you would in Angry Birds, with this game you're shooting an energy projectile that bounces off walls. So to get the best trajectory and power, you'll need to both think about where your targets are and how the projectile will bounce through the level to hit as many monster microbes as possible. Like many games in this genre, you can get as high as a 3-star rating for each level, but it's unclear in my testing what determines the rating.

HTC First

The product:
Look beyond Facebook Home, though, and you'll find an exceedingly basic stock Android handset with

none of HTC's characteristic attention to detail or well-crafted flair. Facebook and HTC -- and AT&T, for that matter -- have travel this road before, also with questionable results. While the First is by no means as quirky or as limited as the HTC Status -- in fact, it offers quite competent midtier features like an HD screen, dual-core processor, and passable 5-megapixel camera. Yet, the physical design also stops short of delivering a compelling experience as unique as Facebook's mobile aspirations.

At least the First is pretty comfortable to hold,

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

The product:

The Note 8 is arguably Samsung's best tablet yet, but depending on your experience with the company's

offerings, the weight of such an acknowledgement will vary dramatically. If you're a stylus devotee that liked what you saw in the Note 10.1, you'll be happy to know that thanks to some software upgrades, the Note 8 integrates the stylus, or S Pen, in a smaller package with fewer seams and a more impressive screen. Still, if you're not an artist and have no interest in coming near a stylus anytime soon, go for one of the many cheaper options.

The product:

This is a wireless speaker, but it's called the Charge for a reason: it has a USB port that allows you to use the speaker's built-in 6,000mAh lithium-ion battery to charge other portable devices, such as a smartphone or tablet.

While all these compact speakers have their sound limitations, the Charge is one of the better-sounding speakers for its size and price point, besting the Jawbone Jambox, Beats Pill, and $99 models such as the Flip and Logitech UE Mobile Boombox.

Of course, the advantage to those models is that

The product:
Harman Kardon makes a few different full-size headphones, including the Classic (CL), Noise Canceling (NC), and Bluetooth (BT). They all offer excellent sound quality and have very distinct designs, with a modern take on an old-school double headband and square earcups that harken back a little to the Bowers & Wilkins P3 and P5 headphones.

The BT model reviewed here looks almost identical to the over-the-ear NC model, but it features wireless audio streaming for smartphones and other

Monoprice Noise Canceling Headphone

The product:
This is Monoprice's M.O. It's the electronics equivalent of a generic drug company, selling much cheaper

versions of pricier name-brand products. In true Monoprice fashion, the headphones are simply called "Noise Canceling Headphone (with Active Noise Reduction Technology)." They start at around $113 if you want a single pair, but as with most Monoprice products, if you purchase them in larger quantities, the price goes down, dipping to a $100 unit price if

Afinia H-Series H479

The product:

The high price of this printer will remain an issue for many consumers. Post-print cleanup with certain

materials can also be a hassle. The fact that you can achieve good prints so easily and so quickly, though, makes the H479 easy to recommend. If you're willing to spend more than $1,000 on a 3D printer, the Afinia H479 should be at or near the top of your list.

If the H479 looks familiar, it's because Afinia licensed the design from Chinese manufacturer Delta Micro Factory, maker of the UP! 3D printer. You can find the Up for sale from various international resellers, including U.S.-

An information comes from an inside source, who confirmed that two Galaxy Mega smartphones are in the works. The first is codenamed Galaxy Mega 5.8 with a model number GT-I9152. Obviously, we are talking about a handset with 5.8-inch display and the model number pointing to its dual-SIM nature.

More interestingly, the second one is carrying the codename Galaxy Mega 6.3, which hints at a 6.3-inch display - the same as the Galaxy Note III is

The Galaxy S4 handset steadily draws from the same design language as the S3, but takes almost every spec to an extreme -- the screen is larger (5 inches), the resolution greater (1080p), the battery capacity higher (2,600mAh), the processor faster (1.9GHz quad-core or 1.6GHz octa-core), and the rear-facing camera stuffed with more megapixels (13, to be exact). But, once you've gone through the

The product:
This isn't really a new speaker, for Philips has been selling 30-pin-connector versions of the same unit since April 2011. What's new is the Lightning connector.

The unit, which comes in black or white, has a sleek circular shape and Philips describes the speaker as offering 360-degree omni directional sound. One of Philips' strengths is its industrial

The product:
Introduced in 2010, the T1 has a closed-back design and features the world's most powerful headphone magnets. Those ubermagnets dramatically improve efficiency and lower distortion. Every subsequent Tesla model has had a closed-back design until the T90 reviewed here was released in June of 2012. It's the first open-back Tesla model.

The JVC DLA-X35

The product:

The DLA-X35 is the company's most affordable example ($3,500 list), and even if you ignore screen size, its picture quality also trounces all but the best conventional TVs. Like all good projectors it requires a dark room and a decent screen, but provided those amenities, it's easy to imagine why someone would prefer watching this image over that of any standard-size flat panel, let alone a jumbo LCD.

The product:
The XPS 13 is back for a second go in 2013, but it doesn't seem to have gotten the "Windows 8 touch" memo. Now has third-gen Intel Core i5/i7 processors, two USB 3.0 ports, and a higher-resolution 1080p screen.
The best -- and worst -- new feature of this XPS 13 is its 13-inch 1080p Gorilla Glass-covered display: it's crisp, bright, vivid, and looks great at all angles. It's a big step up compared to the average laptop, and better than

Closer to reality

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