After previously allowing for audio messages to be sent from one Facebook Messenger user to the other, the company has now flipped the switch on free calling. However, this option is only available at the moment if you cumulatively 1. have an iPhone and 2. live in the U.S. The program was tested in Canada and is now rolling out in the U.S., functioning on both WiFi and/or via a data connection. This is particularly useful if you live in a poor-coverage are or you want to reduce your monthly bill. By enabling voice calls (even though limited regionally), Facebook takes on Skype in the ...

A couple of days ago a Wall Street Journal report claimed that Apple has scaled-back its Q1 2013 orders for iPhone 5 displays to half of what it originally intended. Other component orders were also reportedly diminished but according to new information from the New York Times, which is quoting NPD DisplaySearch analyst Paul Semenza, Apple has indeed scaled-back its display orders, but not at the huge scale previously reported. Order expectations were 19 million displays in January for the iPhone 5 but the reduced order refers to a number between 11 million and 14 million, according to ...

Veni, vidi, vici! We were looking forward to CES 2013, pretty much like we're always looking forward to trade shows where there's a possibility of seeing new and exciting things from and related to the mobile world. Good or bad as it was, this year's Vegas show is just one of many to come and, probably the biggest problem related to CES is the fact that it is followed shortly by MWC, a show related to mobile and only mobile. We're seeing companies slowly moving away from shows to announce their gadgets, following Apple's lead, but even those companies who are show-centric have probably ...

"The Snowball, the 6-Inch Mate, & the In-N-Out Experience." That's the summary that led us out of our most recent podcast, and it narrowly missed becoming the title of this here episode, number 26 in our weekly series. This is a very special episode, coming to you straight from the luxurious Pocketnow suites overlooking the blink-tastic Las Vegas strip. For the past few days, we've been covering the happenings from CES 2013, bringing you video after video of devices from manufacturers of all stripes. It hasn't been the most hardware-heavy show in memory, but that doesn't mean we don't ...

There are two types of people in the world: those who follow closely what analysts say and those who couldn't care less. There has been a lot of speculation regarding the next iPhone, whether it will be the iPhone 5S or the iPhone 6, will it be in summer or will it be in autumn, will it come in black and white or will it be multicolored? Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley believes Apple will move away from its Q3/Q4 launch cycle and adopt a summer announcement policy. Furthermore, he foresees that Cupertino will unveil a “higher-end iPhone” sometime in the June quarter ...

The release of iOS 6 has not been good news for the jailbreak community. Last month's tease of an untethered solution covering all current iOS 6 hardware turned out to be a hoax, and just the other day we were talking about the demise of Installous. Jailbreaking isn't the only avenue towards opening iOS up to heavy user customization, and a Twitter campaign centered on the hashtag #weWantAnOpenIOS has been trying to rally enough attention to encourage Apple to offer an official means to that end. Criticism of the campaign as an abandonment of work towards a proper jailbreak has caught the ...

Only seven billion remain following the Great Mayan Apocalypse of 2012, and three of them have joined forces in this new dystopian future-world to talk technology. Closing out 2012 is a tough endeavor, but thankfully the pre-holiday news explosion quickly gave way to a post-holiday news respite, and the resulting abbreviated topic list gives us a little breathing room at the tail end of this year. In this episode, we talk about the future of Windows RT tablets, the rumored Apple iOS-running smart watch, Motorola's mysterious "X" project, first impressions from a week with the Galaxy ...

Apple released iOS 6.0.2 a couple days back, delivering fixes for WiFi issues. Could that solution be creating even more problems? That's what we're wondering tonight, upon getting word that some users have noticed decreased battery life. A number of iPhone 5 users who have upgraded their handsets have reported their phones draining their batteries faster than they used to. They're seeing this excessive power consumption even when the phone's not under heavy use, nor doing anything obvious that might explain the drain. One theory has it that these WiFi fixes are causing the problem, ...