Electronics, Gadgets | featured news

Best Buy Co Inc founder Richard Schulze, who left the board last year and later failed in his effort to take the company private, will rejoin the retailer as chairman emeritus and add two of his former colleagues to the board.

Just in case you’re not convinced yet that 2013 is the year of the smart watch, a new report says that Google is developing one of its own to compete against Samsung’s confirmed device and Apple’s rumored iWatch. According to the Financial Times, Google’s Motorola Mobility unit is working on a wearable connected companion for Android smartphone.

A Samsung executive has told Bloomberg that his company, too, is developing a smart watch that could set up yet another product war with its smartphone rival, Apple.

With the BlackBerry Z10 poised to make its U.S. debut later this week, it's comments from CEO Thorston Heins about the iPhone that have generated buzz. In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Heins discussed the importance of staying on top of smartphone advancements, citing Apple as an example.

Samsung announced a barrage of new features for its Galaxy S4 smartphone on Thursday meant to dazzle smartphone buyers: everything from touchless controls to new implementations of face-recognition technology. Read full article >>

When is a touchscreen not a touchscreen? Increasingly, it's when your smartphone reads your eyes, gestures and movements to perform basic functions without tapping the screen at all. That was Samsung's point Thursday with the rollout of the new Galaxy S IV, the latest from the company's flagship line and the first Android-based phone to seriously challenge Apple's iPhone for dominance in the mobile market. The phone will be available on all major U.S. carriers by the end of April.

Apple Inc marketing chief Phil Schiller attacked Google Inc's "fragmented" Android software and its biggest adopter, Samsung Electronics, a day before the Korean firm takes the wraps off its latest flagship smartphone in the United States.

Android lead Andy Rubin will step down from his position, handing over the reins of Google’s mobile operating system to Chrome lead Sundar Pichai. Google chief executive Larry Page broke the news Wednesday in a post on the company’s official blog, saying that Rubin felt the time had come to move on — albeit within the company.

The Seattle-based Web retailer said the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with 4G wireless capability will start at $399, down from $499. Amazon reduced the price of the Wi-Fi only version by $30 to $269.

Scientists in Tanzania turned an iPhone into an amateur microscope to check schoolchildren for intestinal worms.