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.

If you have recently started experiencing Facetime problems such as the dreaded Facetime problem “connection lost” (and whether it be Facetime problems on your Macbook or a Facetime problem on a mobile device such as an iPhone 4 or iPhone 5), well, you can blame the damn lawyers. Because the recent Facetime problems are directly related to changes that Apple has had to make to Facetime as a result of the patent infringement suit which Apple lost to VirnetX.

If you are trying to figure out how to dictate on your Macbook Air, Macbook Pro or iMac, it’s very easy using the built-in speech to text software that is included with Mountain Lion (OS X 8 and above). Where you used to have to use something like MacSpeech to dictate (the Mac voice dictation software offered by Dragon Dictation), you can now use the free dictation software that is part of the OS X operating system. This is very similar to the dictation software (which also drives Siri) on the iPhone.

We have toyed with the idea of getting an iPhone 4 case with battery for some time now, but until now we hadn’t done much beyond comparing the various iPhone 4 battery cases. But recently we found ourselves in need of an extended battery for the iPhone 4s (and thus an iPhone 4 extended battery case – or, as they are sometimes known, an iPhone 4 charger case). In fact, an iPhone 4 battery pack case, battery charger case, and battery case all refer to the same thing: an iPhone 4 rechargeable battery case. This is because a battery case for the iPhone 4 (and the iPhone 5, for that matter) contains an external battery pack which in turn feeds a charge to your native iPhone battery. This is our iPhone 4 battery case review with our pick for the best case, after looking at several types of iPhone charger cases (although we did not review the once-popular Exolife iPhone 4 battery case, as they are currenty not available).

The Internet, the country, and indeed the whole world is abuzz with the news of PRISM, the no-longer-secret program of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) first exposed by Glenn Greenwald of the British newspaper The Guardian, through which the United States federal government is accessing and mining all sorts of user data from the major ISPs and possibly cell phone companies. Data which is potentially about just about anybody and everybody, even you. The list of companies and ISPs alleged to be involved with PRISM, by which we mean allowing the government to data mine their users’ data, is impressive (read as “scary”) indeed, although most of them are quick to deny it. However, we have evidence (see screenshots below) that even though they are denying it, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, and AOL are all involved. There are rumours of DropBox and Amazon joining. And Verizon is also giving the Feds access to their user data. But as 1984 as this all is, we really only have one question: why is anybody surprised?

According to “sources”, Apple will be announcing a new iPhone trade in program late this month. The sources say that Apple has created a partnership with mobile phone distributer and trade-in master Brightstar.

The U.S. Federal government’s case against Apple for price-fixing is under way. Last year the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accused Apple and five ebook publishers of attempting to fix the prices of ebooks, claiming that there was a conspiracy to affect the e-book market. Here’s an explanation of the law suit against Apple.

Hate Monsanto? Sick of how Koch Industries’ brothers David Koch and Charle Koch have their fingers in everything? Wish there were a way to know before you buy which things have their taint, or their genetically modified (GMO) ingredients? Now, with the Buycott app, you can! Scan barcodes right in the store, and Buycott will trace the product through layers of subsidiaries to show you who is really behind the brand.

If you use Apple’s Mac Mail app, and particularly if you are on more recent versions of OS X, such as Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion, you may have found that the search function is not working properly (or, as you think it should) when you search for email within the Mac email program. It used to be that searching your Mac email archive was dead easy; now there are hundreds of threads in forums seeking help with Mac mail trouble shooting – many of them related to the search function. The Internet Patrol is happy to share with you the least well-documented feature of searching your Mac email archives. It is a game-changer, particularly if you have a huge body of email (as do we). Here it is: the Mac mail search function uses Boolean operators.

T-Mobile is set to announce two big changes to the T-Mobile network and catalogue tomorrow: the long-awaited T-Mobile iPhone, and also that they are doing away with the standard two-year contract required to get a good discount on a new phone.

Google Glasses are soooo yesterday. The newest thing is Google Shoes. Now, we are all familiar with Apple’s partnership with Nike, which allows your iPod to talk with your Nikes (or is it the other way around?), to track your distance and other pedometer sorts of functions. But with the Google Hi-Tops, the technology talks to you. These aren’t your mother’s Chuck Taylors! And how does YesYesNo factor into this?

Have you been frustrated trying to figure out how to stop your iPhone’s screen from rotating? Wouldn’t you think that the setting to lock the screen orientation would be obvious? But it’s so not obvious. In fact, the trick for how to lock portrait orientation, which is how it is referred to on the iPhone, is anything but obvious. Here’s how to lock portrait orientation on your iPhone so that the screen stops spinning like a top whenever you tilt your phone.

There has been a rash of fake notices this week, supposedly from Apple, warning that “Your Apple ID was used to sign in to FaceTime, iCloud, and iMessage on an iPhone 5”. Hopefully, if you received one of these, you were quickly able to realize that these fake Apple alerts were spam, but just in case you weren’t sure, we are confirming that for you.

Apple Computers was apparently a victim of the same sophisticated cyberattack that targeted Facebook, Twitter, and three of the largest newspapers in the United States. The company announced that no data left the company, and only a small number of employee computers were influenced by malware infected through a software developer site — via the Java programming language.

This is really cool! If you’ve ever wondered how to watch television on an iPad, iPhone or iPad, this is your answer! It’s a device that allows you to watch network tv – using a built-in tv antenna! – on your iPhone, iPad or iPod video! There are lots of reasons you may want to watch tv on your iPhone (or iPad or iPod). For example, lots of people no longer have cable or network television at home, but there may be those rare occasions when you would like to watch television for a specific reason – the presidential debates, the Super Bowl, etc.. So, if you would be able to watch tv direct to your iPad or other iOS device, this is how! It’s called the Escort Mobile TV device. Read on! (Includes list of locations where Dyle digital tv is available).