In the ever-changing world of technology, the next big innovation is just a tweet away. Google recently teased its latest hardware device on Twitter, and it’s making waves in the smartphone market. Say hello to the Pixel Fold, Google’s entry into the foldable phone segment.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is recommending that people who are concerned about privacy turn off Wi-Fi, Find-My-Phone, and Bluetooth whenever they do not need to use those services. Yes, this is the same NSA about whom we have written in the past, including for being spanked by the court…

A study out of Virginia Tech, dubbed “The iPhone Effect”, found that even just the very presence of an iPhone or Android phone, or other versions of smartphones, has a substantial negative impact on the quality of in-person conversations and connection. It also introduces us to the concept of ‘polyconsciousness’.

With the news of Microsoft acquiring Nokia, there has been a resurgence in the news of the terms “feature phone” and “dumb phone” (both as contrasted to a “smartphone” – and why is “smartphone” one word, but not “featurephone” or “dumbphone”?) So, some of you may be wondering “just what is a feature phone? And how is it different from a dumb phone or a smartphone?” We explain.

Google had made shopping, sight-seeing and travel even easier, by making the indoor floor plans of malls, museums, libraries, transit stations and airports, worldwide, available through Google Maps. The feature, previously exclusively available through Google Maps for Android, is now available on your desktop so that it can be used by all.

Google Street View is back for iOS 6 users. It seems that Google is the knight in shining armor to the whole Mapplegate fiasco that has left scores of iOS 6 users frustrated with the quality of Apple maps. The victory is small, but at this point, iOS 6 users will take any scrap thrown their way.

The Iranian government has blocked Gmail and Google until further notice. In an announcement, that included sending a notice to citizens via text message, government officials stated that the services would be filtered, and indeed it appears that, while Google is accessible, it doesn’t actually work for searching purposes.

From the BlackBerry outage, to Yahoo giving it the boot, BlackBerry makers Research in Motion (RIM) have not been having the best week, and many are concluding that it is the beginning of the end for the beleaguered company. Whether it is the end, or just a series of unfortunate events, there is no doubt that they’re are struggling fiercely to stay afloat amidst market-dominating Apple, and their runner-up, the Android market.

The Ad Hawk App has made a timely and welcome appearance. After all, it’s that time of year when political ads are on just about every TV and radio in America and Adhawk (there is both Ad Hawk for iPhone and Ad Hawk for Android) has answered our political prayers. Ok, ok, probably not the exact political prayers you had, but the app, a sort of Shazam for political ads, certainly helps decipher these ads that are playing everywhere. And not just your cheerful, “Vote for me, I’m great” ads, but those nasty, mud-slinging political attack ads.

Isn’t it frustrating when you receive an SMS text message and it turns out to be SMS spam? Don’t you wish that you could report those spammers to your wireless carrier? Well, you can! Whether you want to report text spam to ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon, or Sprint – or any other North American carrier, it’s as simple as forwarding it right from your phone. Here’s how to do it.

One of the most frustrating things about the Tmobile G2 – an otherwise fantastic smartphone – is the lack of any settings to control the keyboard backlight: you can’t have your keyboard backlight always on, even if you want to. The light sensor that controls the keyboard back light on the G2 is crazy-sensitive to ambient light, and so one often finds oneself trying to type blind, because the keys are not lit up, and it’s too dark to easily see the keyboard. If you want to keep your keyboard backlight on permanently, well, there is no setting to do that. But there is a way to do it, and we tell you how (with pictures!) First you need to know exactly where is the G2 light sensor.

If you’ve noticed that your email seems to be acting funky lately, such as that replies from people to whom you have sent email aren’t showing up where they should, or that people aren’t getting email that you send from your Android phone, the culprit could well be that your Android phone is no longer using your default “From” address (your “send mail as” address) that you have set in Gmail. Thanks to an issue with the latest Android update, Android phones are not longer honoring your selection of default From address, and are instead defaulting to using your Gmail account email address.

Believe it or not, it’s extremely easy to create custom notifications, alarms, and ringtones on the T-Mobile G1 Google phone! And doing it this way will allow your own custom sound files to show up in the same list as the pre-installed sounds!

A large number of people wind up here at the Internet Patrol site every week looking for ways to track their lost or stolen cell phone. Unfortunately, those phones are rarely recovered. Now, a new application for the Google phone changes all that!