Electronics, Gadgets | featured news

In the skies over Europe, Asia and the Middle East, airline passengers can chat and text on cellphones without getting an angry look from a flight attendant. Thai Airways, with regular flights from Los Angeles to Bangkok, recently announced plans to offer onboard cellphone service, joining about 20 other foreign-based carriers that already offer it.

The new Kindle Paperwhite isn't the perfect character. Just like the literary creations that live and die on its screen, it has flaws. It's wise, though it still suffers from memories of its past. But in the great e-reader saga, it's clearly the protagonist, and one worth rooting for.

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that a lower court should reconsider a sales ban against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 won by Apple in a patent dispute with the South Korean electronics maker.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company is "extremely sorry" for the frustration its Maps application has caused and it's doing everything it can to make it better. In the meantime, he recommended that people use competing map applications to get around... "While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app," Cook wrote.

Research In Motion shares rise in after-hours trading as the maker of the Blackberry posts a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss.

Barnes & Noble is rolling out two new versions of its Nook tablet with sleek new hardware and a sharper high-definition screen. The bookseller's move heightens the already intense tablet wars heading into the holiday season.

A child-focused software developer on Monday accused Toys "R" Us of stealing its strategy for selling an Android-powered computer tablet for kids.

Apple Inc. said Monday that it sold more than 5 million units of the iPhone 5 in the three days since its launch, less than analysts had expected. Apple shares were down $6.60, or 0.9 percent, at $693.49 in morning trading. The shares are still close to their all-time high of $705.07, hit Friday as the phone went on sale in the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and five other countries.

Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs when it comes to leading Apple Inc. As the debut of the new iPhone 5 just proved, that may not be a bad thing. The taller, thinner and lighter phone prompted a rush on Wall Street to raise price targets for Apple stock, but the optimism was not because of a big technological advance or design breakthrough; the "wow" factor that was the trademark of the late Apple co-founder Jobs was decidedly absent.

A German court has dismissed Apple Inc.'s claim that Samsung Electronics and Google Inc.'s Motorola Mobility infringed patents used in touch-screen devices. The Mannheim state court's ruling Friday follows similar decisions in Britain and the Netherlands.