News & Features

HTC One Line of Smartphones Hands-On in NYC

Yesterday we brought word of HTC’s new line of Android smartphones, the HTC One. There are three phones in the line and each has its own unique screen size and feel. What is particularly unique however is the fact that the phones are NOT UNIQUE. No, the enhanced camera, sound and build-quality is the SAME across the line. As one of the HTC reps put it, “The great thing this time out is that you only need to make the choice with regard to the size and feel you want, the camera, sound etc is the same across the line…


Pretty Much Everything You Need to Know from the Oscars Show

There are a number things that really sum up the evening, some that require a bit of explanation and others we can list out. Oh, and I am not going to a full award-winner run-down … you can get that here. Let’s do the bullet points first: They could have subtitled the show ‘We give out more awards in the first half-hour than the Grammys do all night!’. And it would be accurate. The Grammys are about showing you why you should buy the crap the labels are pushing … the Oscars are about rewarding accomplishments. The awards were pretty…


T-Mobile to be Premier Launch Partner in the U.S. for the HTC One S

We have a bit more news on HTC’s new HTC One line coming out of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It seems T-Mobile will be the premier launch partner in the U.S. for the HTC One S. The HTC One S will be T-Mobile’s next smartphone to take advantage of the company’s speedy 4G (HSPA+42) network. Measuring just 7.95 mm thick, the phone has a unibody aluminum design and will be T-Mobile’s first device to ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Here’s a quick rundown on some of the features that make this device stand out.


The World’s First Ice Cream Sandwich Dual-SIM Smartphone Announced at MWC

UPDATED with Judie’s pictures from MWC ViewSonic not only announced some great new tablets at MWC but they are also announcing a host of new smartphones. Among them is the first Ice Cream Sandwich Dual-SIM Smartphone. Why dual-SIM? Dual-SIM phones are expected to see an 80% growth rate in the next two years and, according to market research group Strategy Analytics, 206 million dual-SIM handsets will be sold worldwide in 2014. That compares to compared with 41 million in 2010. As the ViewSonic Press Release notes, Dual-SIM phones are expected to grow as users prefer to carry one handset for…


Next Generation 7” and 10” ViewPads from ViewSonic Announced

UPDATED with pictures from MWC ViewSonic just announced new 7″ and 10″ ViewPad tablets during Mobile World Congress. The ViewSonic tablets are “designed to fit into today’s mobile lifestyle. They are the perfect options for consumers to surf the web and interact with friends or for the mobile worker to enhance productivity whilst on the go.”


Music Diary Notes: My ‘Baker’s Dozen’ Best New Jazz Albums of 2011

For as long as I can recall something about music has been dying – I remember hearing ‘Long Live Rock’ as a kid on the radio when rock was more vibrant than ever; lived through the death of disco and the crash & burn of punk, new wave, new age, retro-50’s, retro-60’s, retro-70’s and now retro-80’s, grunge, glam-rock, hair-metal, screamo, and on and on and on. Yet music never really dies – listening to Skrillex I hear so many of the traditions of techno and dance music from well before Sonny Moore was born reflected through his creations. The same…


Always … No, Never Forget To Make Sure That THE CABLE IS PLUGGED IN!

I make my living as a statistician and also have a background in optical physics, so I have been on both sides of the experimental design and analysis table. I have also been on both sides of debates about the quality and reliability of data from an experiment. So where am I going with this? Do you remember last fall when we heard about the discovery and subsequent ‘proof’ of faster-than-light neutrinos? Here are some details: New high-precision tests carried out by the OPERA collaboration in Italy broadly confirm its claim, made in September, to have detected neutrinos travelling at…


Dyslexie, the Font Designed to Help Dyslexic People Read Better

The NIH estimates that as many as 15 – 20% of Americans have some degree of dyslexia, which can make reading and comprehension difficult. It often results in sufferers transposing or rotating letters or numbers, as well as having difficulty differentiating similar looking letters such as i and j. They might also see the letters and numbers floating and moving as they try to read … which can cause issues with reading speed and comprehension. When I was young kids with these sorts of issues were simply labeled ‘slow’ (or worse), but now the condition can be recognized and diagnosed,…


The RIAA Shows Music Single Sales for the Past 35 Years

If you are a child of the 70’s like me, you fondly remember your collection of 45s and the mysteriously vanishing spindle adapters used to allow the discs with large holes to play on 33-1/3 RPM turntables. But as the 70s gave way to the 80s and the AOR (‘album oriented rock’ or ‘always on radio’ depending on who you ask) of Styx, Foreigner, The Police and more dominated the airwaves the ‘single’ slowly became less and less popular. Then CDs arrived in the mid-80s without a real equivalent to the 45. Sure there were CD singles, but the record…


Flowchart Helps You Decide If You Should Send That Email (Hint: No)

Across the last two companies I have worked for the past 20 years, I have taken about 10 email etiquette courses and refreshers. There are loads of rules about whether or not to send, who to include, what to say and how to say it, and when to just step away from the computer and make human contact. Now we have a flow chart that will help any home or business user make that decision. And not surprisingly for anyone who has taken one of these corporate email classes … in most cases the answer is ‘NO’! Here is the…


Vibe Flex-Gel Cover for iPhone 4S Qmadix iPhone Case Roundup

Qmadix was kind enough to send three of their new iPhone cases for review. I thought we might take a quick look at each one. In Part 1 we’ll look at the Vibe Flex-Gel Cover for Apple iPhone 4S. If you like a soft colorful case and enjoy seeing the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone this just might be the case for you.


The Beatles Allow Us to Once Again Pay Full Song Prices for Ringtones on iTunes!

I have frequently said that it feels like after Apple showed the potential for a new path in which the carrier worried about signal and the device maker worried about the phone, Android has ushered us back to the ‘bad old days’ in terms of carrier bloatware, handset makers skinning away the performance of their hardware to ‘differentiate’, no two handsets alike that kills accessories (thank goodness for the EU and required micro-USB chargers!), and so on. Apparently Apple felt left out and decided to bring us back to over-priced ringtones! While not as egregious as the ‘$12 5-pack bundle’…


Microsoft Pokes Fun at Google Apps with New ‘Googlighting’ Spot

Last year Microsoft created the ‘GMail Man’ spoof commercial (I’ve included it at the bottom), that cast things that are completely true — that Google has programs that ‘read’ your email and target you with advertisements based on keywords found in your messages — in a completely creepy way by personalizing the scanner. The intent was obvious – show personal and especially business users that their sensitive personal data and intellectual property was anything but safe in GMail.


iFrogz Boost Near Field Audio Amplifying Speaker, One of Dan’s CES Faves, Is Available Now!

When we were at CES, Dan couldn’t wait to show me the pre-release iFrogz Boost Near Field Audio Amplifying Speaker that he had scored, and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. This little box didn’t need to connect to a mobile phone to produce a much bigger sound; you could simply place any phone on the box, and it would pump up the volume so that it could actually be enjoyed! See what I mean in this video Dan shot … The iFrogz Boost speaker allows users to amplify their device’s sound by simply placing their smartphone, or other…


Kicking the Tires of OS 2.0 for Blackberry Playbook

When RIM first released the Blackberry PlayBook tablet, it was widely panned for not possessing some key ingredients critical to mobile device usage, such as native integrated email and calendar. It was, at first release,  a powerful device hindered by it’s not being able to stand alone elegantly, as Dan reported a while back. My interest in this has been more than academic. Thanks to Gear Diary at 5 (year) giveaways last year, months before I joined Gear Diary, this little PlayBook tablet fell into my hands. Limited, as Dan and others noted, but still a fine piece of mobile…


Green Day Enters the Studio to Make a New Record and Shares Some Videos

Last we heard on Twitter from none other than Billy Joe Armstrong himself that Green Day had entered the studio to start recording their new album: Happy Valentine’s day! Officially started recording the new record today. It’s F*CK TIME!!!! My wife has been a huge fan since the early days, but I have to confess that my older son became so obsessed with the group a few years ago that I still can’t listen to their stuff anymore. But they are still a popular group with my family … and we all hope they manage to do better than their…


Nuance’s Dragon Go! for iOS and Android

When Thomas picked Nuance’s Dragon Go! as his Android “App of the Week” on Gear Chat last week he didn’t know just how right he was. The app, available for both iOS and Android, just got a notable update that turns the app into a travel assistant thanks to it featuring “travel search powered by Expedia”. As the company shared, Dragon Go! app for iOS and Android now lets people truly go anywhere with the ability to speak and quickly find and book flights, hotels, and more with direct access to Expedia. Dragon Go!’s all new travel search capability allows…


Blackberry PlayBook OS 2.0; Too Little Too Late?

It has been a long (LONG!!!) time coming but OS 2.0 for the BlackBerry Playbook is finally (FINALLY!!) available. It brings a native email client and the ability to run Android apps. (I should note that I was at the New York launch of the PlayBook and, at the time, this latter capability was said to be arriving a “few weeks after launch”. Yeah… right…)


$199 NOOK Tablet Rumored

B&N has been selling the older NOOKcolor for $199 since the NOOKTablet burst onto the scene. Now it looks like B&N is aiming to retire the NOOKcolor and (hopefully) face off against the Kindle Fire with a NOOK Tablet for $199-the only catch is that it will only have 8GB of memory, and not 16GB like the original NT.


Introducing Your Child to N.W.A the RIGHT Way …

Musical education is a critically important part of the cultural upbringing of every child, and this video shows how to introduce your child at an early age to the seminal ‘gangsta’ rap group N.W.A without potentially compromising OTHER messages you are trying to teach them … … oh just watch and enjoy!


The Phosphor World Time Sport Watch Review

We’ve reviewed a number of E Ink watches from phosphor. There have also been several blinged out Phosphor Appear watches that Judie has reviewed and, more recently, the Phosphor Appear Rose Gold Crystal Watch with Clear Nylon Bracelet. I had a chance to review the Phosphor E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch with Black Leather Band which, while far less shiny than the ones Judie reviewed, was a bit on the formal side. But what if you want the cool E Ink technology in a watch that is less formal than the one I reviewed and far more understated than the…