Samsung's Nexus S is one of the few smartphones capable of NFC transfers in the U.S. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…again. The holidays are coming, yes, but we’re talking about the biggest gadget-related event of the season coming in a little over a month: The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. And of course, we’ve got to deal with the obligatory wave of speculation that precedes the slew of new products we’ll see in January.

Tuesday’s rumor du jour? Near-Field Communications chips, and the phones that (potentially) love them. Apple and Microsoft m...

A data-logging software company is seeking to squash an Android developer’s critical research into its software that is secretly installed on millions of phones, but Trevor Eckhart is refusing to publicly apologize for his research and remove the company’s training manuals from his website.

Though the software is installed on millions of Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, Carrier IQ was virtually unknown until the 25-year-old Eckhart analyzed its workings, recently revealing that the software secretly chronicles a user’s phone experience, from its apps, battery life and texts. Some carriers ...