What if you could use your phone to test the air for toxins? What if you could monitor your health simply by blowing on it? Sounds amazing, right? Nanosensor technology developed by NASA Ames is going to make that a reality.

The lucky denizens of Glens Falls and Utica, N.Y.; Lawton, Okla.; and Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, will now start getting Verizon’s LTE speeds.

Alvaro Cassinelli explains how ‘invoked computing’ can turn everyday objects into communications devices.

Verizon Wireless is investigating reports that some customers were experiencing trouble accessing its fourth generation (4G) network, as the company yet again had to face service problems with its faster wireless service.

Many big-name retailers from Gap to Toys R Us are partnering with banks, payment processors and Google to let shoppers tap their mobile phones instead of swiping their credit cards to pay for goods. But the new mode of payment is not expected to take off in earnest for at least another couple of years.

The tweaks make photos and albums “up to two times faster,” according to Facebook’s product manager Keith Peiris in blog post. It also simplifies the way users share pics, edit captions and read comments.

The Little Printer occupies as much room on your shelf as an alarm clock, but the wireless server inside the molded plastic and brushed steel faceplate connects to an accompanying smartphone app with which you choose the services you want in your morning or evening report; multiple feeds are available, including your daily agenda, news headlines, personal messages, games and puzzles, and birthday reminders extracted from Facebook.

A team of scientists created a computer system that is able to recognize the emotional state of a person speaking to it, so that it can alter its behavior to make things less stressful.

The company is launching a Facebook app on Tuesday that allows its fans to instead post a birthday song performed by a favorite band — and sing along, if they so choose.

The segmented design also channels some Wiimote-esque gesture features and twist controls seen on the phone behemoth’s Kinetic Device. An inert Humanform shell was also on show alongside it last month, although it didn’t do much aside from bending.