The new Samsung Galaxy S4 is this year’s replacement for the company's hugely popular Galaxy S III, introduced a year ago. The S III has been a huge success because it took the lead in bringing Google’s Android OS to a phone with a beautiful large display in a thin, lightweight package. If there was one criticism about the S III, it was the cheap feeling of its plastic enclosure. It’s the tradeoff Samsung makes for cost and thin shape.

With nearly a million apps in Apple's iTunes store, it’s nearly impossible for an app company to get noticed. I’ve found that a better way is to check with friends and see what they like. Word of mouth seems to be the most effective marketing approach.

The Pear Sports training system is a clever approach for those who do personal workouts. It's designed to make these workouts more effective by providing a level of feedback and interactivity that’s previously only been available with a coach by your side.

HTC is a Taiwanese company that began making mobile hardware products as an original design manufacturer for the Compaq iPaq line of PDAs, and rapidly grew into products for HP, Palm and other companies. HTC is highly regarded in the industry for its engineering prowess.

I've written about customer service before, particularly when it comes to high tech companies. Poor customer service has caused huge problems for Dell while, on the other hand, great customer service has been an important factor in Apple’s success. Good service seems like such a great opportunity for a company to make a positive impression, one that can be communicated far and wide over social networking sites. But bad service will populate these sites even more rapidly.

Last week I decided to upgrade my home audio system to better enjoy the HD movies and video entertainment that’s now so readily available. As a once serious audiophile, I’ve gradually traded audio quality for ease of use over the past decade.

BlackBerry is back with a new phone that's intended to catapult it back into the frontlines of the smartphone competition. But it’s come after long delays and the ouster of the company’s co-CEOs, who were oblivious to the iPhone/Android bulldozer that nearly crushed it to death. BlackBerry's new Z10 is the company’s answer, perhaps its last hope (hence the “Z” designation?).

I've written before about how much I like TripIt, an app that keeps track of all your travel plans. Simply forward it all of your emailed reservations and confirmations for hotels, air, rental and restaurants, and it returns an organized itinerary with all of the details neatly organized and adds it to your calendar.

Compelling new evidence appears to substantiate charges, made in this column and elsewhere, that Toyota has suppressed evidence that electronics could be a possible cause of unintended acceleration (UA), responsible for many deaths, including San Diegans Mark Saylor, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law.

Twenty years ago, when I was with Seiko, I worked on a gadget called the Kitchen Whiz. This was before the Internet, before Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but even back then, companies were trying to bring technology into the kitchen, an area thought to be ripe for opportunity.

For those in the high-tech world of product development, travel to China has become as routine as a trip to Chicago or New York.

There has been a lot of buzz about Nokia's new 920 mobile phone. This is Nokia’s latest, top-of-the-line model that runs Microsoft Mobile 8. Some friends in the high-tech industry tell me they’ve replaced their iPhones and Androids with this new phone. Is this because it’s a novelty, or is there something special about this phone? I decided to see for myself, and I’ve been trying one out for the past two weeks.

After years of disappointing growth, failed innovation and diminished profits, Dell became a private company this past month, moving out of the glare of public scrutiny. It's a reminder that Dell has failed to turn itself around in spite of its numerous attempts.

I can't tell you how many times I’ve searched high and low for my iPhone and my keys. Apparently that’s a problem many of us have, but one that technology has yet to solve.

When it comes to booking flights, thereís no scarcity of Internet sites to use. Three of those I like are Kayak, Expedia and Hipmunk.

I find I've been using the calendar applications on my computer and smartphone nearly as much as the browser. They’ve become indispensable for planning for the day or the month, for scheduling both business appointments and travel.

This week I've asked Marc Parrish, a friend who has extensive experience managing big data for the high-tech industry, to provide his views for this column, based on a previous article he wrote for The Atlantic online.

A visit to CES is an opportunity to confront the reality of the consumer electronics business, a $200 billion-plus industry in the United States alone.

One of the mistakes I made this past year was my review of Verizon's new Share Everything Plan. My initial reaction was to reject it and recommend staying with its unlimited data plan that was grandfathered to many of Verizon’s longer-term subscribers. Part of my skepticism stemmed from years of putting up with the rules and restrictions that the cellular companies used to find new ways to charge us more for less. But, as it turned out, my skepticism was mostly misplaced.

This week I’ve been working with two small sound systems designed for playing music and other sources wirelessly from your computer and smartphone. The first of these systems is the Sonos sound system, and the other is a Pioneer AirPlay speaker.