The Samsung GALAXY Note 3 is an engineering marvel. Packed with features, its stylus is more than a mere gimmick. Still, like far too many Samsung products, it feels cheap. That’s where the iLuv FlightFit comes in. For under $30 it promises to protect your Note 3 even as it props it up for easy viewing. Pre-order yours.
Are you still using Google Voice? Better hope it’s an official Google Voice app, because third-party access is being yanked later this year. Most users won’t be affected, unless, of course, you use Windows Phone … then you will definitely lose Google Voice early next year!
The Droid Moto X is the first smartphone ever to be designed and assembled in the U.S. after Google acquired Motorola. Users will love the handy design, considerable battery life, and light weight usability.
The Kingston MobileLite Wireless is a very interesting and handy gadget. With it, you’re able to read and write files to an SD card as well as a USB thumb drive, right from your phone with Kingston’s companion app. You can also use the MobileLite Wireless as a backup battery to charge your phone. Kingston’s MobileLite Wireless retails for $49.99.
Samsung is many things – they are an innovative chip maker, excellent device maker, massive company with their hands in nearly everything. Samsung is one of the “chaebol” – family-run conglomerates that dominate South Korean society. They are also a company that has a proven willing to do nearly anything to succeed – and today we learn their latest shameful tactic.
Are you, like me, finding the gadgets in your house multiplying? Our home now has an iPad mini, iPhones, an iPod touch, an iPod nano, Kindles and assorted review samples. All need charging and Griffin’s PowerDock 5 promises to be the one-stop charging solution. For just under $100 you can charge 5 devices at once! How awesome is that?
I love the Special Enquiry Detail series and have reviewed both games on multiple platforms – and they are just solid experiences that do not diminish with time. Now the original Special Enquiry Detail game has launched on the Windows store for Windows 8.1 and RT for x86, x64 and ARM. The game is definitely worth checking out!
I always love it when Lowepro announces a new line of bags. They always add something new while building upon the time-tested and proven features and quality that makes Lowepro so popular with so many of us. Their new StreamLine series of bags is no exception, and the StreamLine Sling comes in at under $50.
There are plenty of over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones currently on the market, but most carry a hefty price. The NoiseHush Freedom BT700 headphones are light, offer decent sound, and cost less than $80 a pair. Available in black or white, the Freedom BT700 Bluetooth headphones offer twenty hours of music enjoyment and an impressive 300 hours of standby time. Get them.
If you thought the gold iPhone was a bit much, then you might want to avert your eyes from the 18K shine coming off of the £2,750 Gold HTC One that is one of only five. This is the most exclusive and expensive HTC ever, and chances are you won’t ever see one in person. Good thing? See more here.
I like Windows Phone quite a bit, and am rooting for it to succeed as a viable third option in the mobile phone market. So I was quite excited to see that Microsoft and HTC still intend to work together, even with Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia. But the rumor of dual-boot Android/Windows Phone devices send a shiver down my spine. Yes, the latest rumor from Windows Phone Central is that HTC is investigating the feasibility of a dual-boot phone, which is intriguing, but I think will ultimately be very damaging to Windows Phone. There’s already a perception that developers are…
With the arrival of Elana’s iPhone 5C, our household is pretty much all-in with lightning connector-enabled devices. Thing is though, that all of our speakers and Bluetooth headsets use a microUSB for charging. That’s where the Innergie MagiCable Duo with Lightning Connector comes in. It is two cables in one and costs under $30. . The Innergie MagiCable Duo with Lightning Connector cable is a rather simple design, but it’s potentially quite useful to people like Elana and me. In its main configuration it’s a 2.6′ cable with a USB connector on one side and a Lightning connector on the…
For some people benchmarks don’t matter … and for others they are ALL that matter. For hardware companies, benchmarks provide an internal performance metric and external bragging rights. But new evidence shows that Samsung tweaked their Galaxy Note 3 to perform better on benchmarks than in ‘normal usage’. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this, either! According to an article at ArsTechnica, Samsung tweaked their CPU performance when a known benchmark app was run, so it would give better than expected results. This was noticed when the Galaxy Note 3 outperformed the LG G2 — despite the two sharing…
If you own a smartphone, then you NEED one of these. The DRY-ALL Wet Smartphone Emergency Kit saved Elana’s iPhone 4S when it went into the sink. Now it’s doing the same for her iPhone 5C. (Or at least we hope it is.) Smartphones cost hundreds of dollars to replace, and that makes keeping one of these Emergency Kits on hand no-brainer. You can get one for$31 at our Amazon Affiliate Store.
“The cloud” is a popular concept. We have terabytes upon terabytes of data stored in “the cloud,” which is really just a data farm of servers in the middle of nowhere. It’s a great way to keep personal files available wherever you are. What if you could stream Xbox games from the cloud? Word is, Microsoft is working on it. It appears that Microsoft is beginning to build it’s own cloud gaming service. Microsoft has begun internal testing of their service and showed it off in an internal meeting. The Verge tells us that the folks at Microsoft were streaming…
We can debate whether it’s a good idea to base a decision about driving on a smartphone app and accessory, it’s better than just saying ‘I feel fine’ and getting behind the wheel. Breathometer is a device that plugs into your smartphone and measures your blood alcohol concentration quickly and easily. And the product will be on Shark Tank 9/27! Here is the description: Small enough to fit on a key chain, Breathometer, which is officially registered with the FDA, plugs into a smartphone audio jack, and together with a mobile app, transforms it into a sleek, portable and accurate…
If you are considering a prepaid mobile plan, and you are interested in keeping your hardware costs down, but you don’t want a budget phone, then Boost Mobile has some news that should pique your interest. Today they are releasing the Boost Warp 4G LTE, their $199.99 Android-powered smartphone that has a 4.5″ display and an 8 megapixel camera. The Boost Warp 4G comes with • Android™ 4.1, Jelly Bean OS • Dual Mode 3G/4G LTE • 4.5inch HD IPS touchscreen display with durable glass • 8-megapixel camera with 1-megapixel front-facing camera • 1.2GHZ dual core processor • Wi-Fi & GPS enabled • Stereo Bluetooth 4.0 • Visual Voicemail • Services: Boost…
To date, I am aware of only one dock for Android and that was the Sonr Symphony. I reviewed an early version of the dock here on Gear Diary. Hale Devices is Joe Born’s new name for Sonr Labs, and the Hale Dreamer picks up where the Symphony left off. Today they are kickstarting the Hale Dreamer Alarm Dock on Kickstarter. The Hale Dreamer combines both a physical dock with software to help control the phone while it’s in the dock. The software enables the hardware features of the dock like a real snooze button and more. It also includes…
The iPhone 5s is here, and thanks to the ever increasing amount of prerelease leaks, it arrives with even less surprises than past generations. Sharing the same chassis and design as the iPhone 5, the 5s focuses on improving performance, while introducing the completely revamped iOS 7 and new features like True Tone flash, slow motion video capture and TouchID. Front and centre is the 4-inch “Retina” display, with a 1136×640 resolution at 326dpi under a Gorilla Glass cover with an oleophobic coating. Despite not pushing the competition on size, pixel density or outright resolution, it is still a fantastic…
The Droid MAXX by Motorola lives up to its name with maximum screen size and considerable battery life. The MAXX (Android from Verizon) officially released this past August; it features a nice rounded design protected with DuPont™ Kevlar® fiber material, and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass for the 5-inch HD multi-touch screen which also vibrates with user interaction. The MAXX’s style is sleek and durable. The striations on the outer case and chin accentuate the large panel screen. The dimensions are 5.41 (H) x 2.80 (W) x 0.33 (D) inches (137.5 x 71.2 x 8.5 mm), and users can really feel the weight is 5.89…
Laggy Android touchscreen response has been covered so much it’s practically a meme; we’ve heard with each device and OS version they’ve solved it ‘this time for sure’. But here is the blunt and simple reality – the flagship Samsung Galaxy S4 is even slower to respond than the iPhone 4S, let alone the iPhone 5 or the newest devices! And before Windows Phone folks start feeling smug, the Nokia Lumia 928 from Verizon falls in just behind the Galaxy S4. Check out all the results here.