Sometimes you can sense that tech products are striving to solve problems that are manufactured by their manufacturers. Smartwatches, for instance, have long been a nifty idea — but they’ve offered few tangible benefits for anyone but health and fitness enthusiasts. That’s why it’s notable when a particular gadget finally breaks through. The latest Apple…

Most leading phones offer the same basics: Big screens, decent battery life and good cameras. So when a newcomer brings something innovative to the party, why is it difficult to break through a phone market dominated by Apple and Samsung? One such smartphone comes out this week from Red, a company with roots in digital…

Samsung’s new smartphone illustrates the limits of innovation at time when hardware advances have slowed. The new phone, the Galaxy Note 9, will be faster and will last longer without a recharge. But while earth-shattering new features are in short supply, it will carry an earth-shattering price tag: $1,000. The minor improvements reflect a smartphone…

Samsung says its new Galaxy S9 phone features a “reimagined” camera, and it is indeed pretty darned good. But you might not want to shell out $720 or more for one just yet unless your current phone is already close to death. That’s because other high-end phone cameras — nowadays, one of the major differentiators…

What’s most fascinating about Google’s new Pixel 2 phone is what’s to come. The phone sets itself apart with promises to bake in Google’s powerful artificial-intelligence technology for quick and easy access to useful, even essential information. But much of the neat stuff will come later. The phone coming out Thursday is more of a teaser. To…

NEW YORK (AP) — Deborah Braswell, a university administrator in Alabama, is a member of a dwindling group — people with a landline phone at home. According to a U.S. government study released Thursday, 50.8 percent of homes and apartments had only cellphone service in the latter half of 2016, the first time such households…

NEW YORK (AP) — Is Verizon planning to spy on its customers? You might conclude that it is after reading Verizon’s privacy policy on an upcoming AppFlash service, which promises easier access to search and apps on Android phones. The policy says Verizon may share data on features and services you use, along with the list of apps you have installed on your phone,…

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple said purported hacking vulnerabilities disclosed by WikiLeaks this week have all been fixed in recent iPhones and Mac computers. The documents released by the anti-secrecy site Thursday morning pointed to an apparent CIA program to hack Apple devices using techniques that users couldn’t disable by resetting their devices. The iPhone…

NEW YORK (AP) — New documents from WikiLeaks point to an apparent CIA program to hack Apple’s iPhones and Mac computers using techniques that users couldn’t disable by resetting their devices. Security experts say the exploits are plausible, but suggest they pose little threat to typical users. They say that many of the tricks are older…