This phone has a built-in tricorder. Really.

LAS VEGAS — The smartphone is often called the real-world version of the handheld communicators from the original Star Trek, a nod to how prescient the TV series was about personal technology.

Well, another Star Trek gadget is on the verge of becoming common. The tricorder — the device that Spock and Dr. McCoy would use to analyze all kinds of objects and materials on the show — is becoming a real thing. And it's coming to smartphones.

At CES 2017, Consumer Physics showed off the world's first smartphone with a built-in molecular scanner. The scanner itself is actually an even smaller version of the stand-alone handheld scanner, the SCiO, which the company revealed at last year's show (and went on to win a Mashable CES award). Read more...