Posts by Brandon Miniman
Brandon is a graduate from the Villanova School of Business, located near Philadelphia, PA. He's been a technology writer since 2002, and, in 2005, became Editor-in-Chief of Pocketnow, a then Windows Mobile-focused website. He has since helped to transition Pocketnow into a top-tier smartphone and tablet publication. He's so obsessed with technology that he once entered a candle store and asked if they had a "new electronics" scent. They didn't.
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by Brandon Miniman | November 3, 2012 2:06 PMThe verdict is in: smaller tablets are awesome. They have great one-handed usability, they are portable, and they're great for reading and watching video. The Nexus 7 (which we reviewed not too long ago) and the iPad Mini the are two of the best options if you want a tablet that is smaller than the larger 10" size. But they are also very different. The Nexus 7 is less expensive and is made of glass and plastic, which does indeed make it feel a bit cheap, but lends to a light and comfortable in-hand feel. The iPad Mini, on the other hand, is more expensive and has better build quality. ...
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by Brandon Miniman | November 2, 2012 6:18 PMIf you've got an iPad 3, you might be curious (and also frustrated by the early release of) the iPad 4, which adds a new CPU and the lightning charging port. The most notable feature, certainly, is the faster CPU, which Apple claims to provide double the performance than the A5x, found inside the iPad 3. In our review of the iPad 3, we charged that it was not significantly faster than the iPad 2, offering up occasional lag and stutters. The A6 chip, making its debut in the iPhone 5, is much more promising than was the A5. It's a 32nm CPU that provides increased performance and lower ...
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by Brandon Miniman | November 2, 2012 3:12 PMIt's here! Well, they're here. That is, the iPad 4 (going by the new of "iPad with Retina Display") and iPad mini are in the house. Both iPads, in a way, try to fix what's wrong with the current iPad: it's thick and heavy, and it's laggy at times. The iPad 4 addresses the latter problem by including the Apple A6x CPU, which is a dual-core, quad-core GPU chip that is supposed to be twice as fast as the iPad 3. And the iPad mini addresses the former issue by being super thin and super light. In this video we cover a few first impressions: First impressions for the iPad mini: The ...
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by Brandon Miniman | November 2, 2012 2:09 PMIf you recently updated your iPad 3 to iOS 6.0.1, there's a new feature that Apple hasn't advertised: it includes the same finger-rejection software that is found on the iPad mini. This allows you to hold the device while resting a thumb on the screen without the iPad registering a finger press. It's helpful if you want to hold the iPad with one hand. We have yet to test this function on other versions of the iPad, so if you have an iPad 2, let us know in the comments if you, too, are seeing the finger-rejection feature. We just received the iPad 4 and can confirm that finger-rejection is ...
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by Brandon Miniman | November 2, 2012 8:53 AMSome might forgot that Microsoft was one of the first to the tablet market. Back in the 2000s, Bill Gates saw tremendous potential in the future of tablet devices. So much so that he pushed his company to invest in pen-input. But the technology wasn't right for the time, nor was the supposition that tablets should operate like a desktop computer. Tablet PCs of the day, also known as "Slate PCs", were thick, heavy, and had terrible battery life, not to mention they were built for stylus input and not optimized for finger input. And while Microsoft continued to invest in the thought that ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 31, 2012 12:25 PMWindows RT is difficult to explain, so this video is our best effort to show you how it works and how it's different. But here's a summary: Windows RT is a tale of two worlds. One, the desktop world, that looks like a Windows desktop, but isn't, because no apps can be added to it. The apps that it comes with (IE 10, File Explorer, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and all other built-in Windows apps like Calculator, Notepad, Control Panel, and yes, even Paint) are the apps you are stuck with. If you try to install Photoshop, Spotify, Chrome, or any other executable made for x86-powered computers, ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 29, 2012 1:14 PMHere in the northeastern United States, hurricane Sandy is starting to mess up our hair - and our schedules. Google's big Nexus-centric announcement, originally scheduled for today, had to be pushed back due to the storm, but that didn't stop the big G from dropping the news of the new Nexus 4. For 2013, the Nexus 4 will be Google's pre-emptive answer to flagships Windows Phone 8 devices, other Androids, and even the iPhone 5 and perhaps the one that comes after that. While we have yet to get our hands on the Nexus 4, the pieces have come together to create a device that will undoubtedly ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 26, 2012 12:44 PMIt's finally here! The first Microsoft tablet, hopefully in a long line of Microsoft tablets to come. The reason why this product is so important is because Microsoft pretty much invented the Tablet PC, and sadly never really did succeed in it by depending on its partners to push it. We're not really sure why it took so long for Microsoft to build their own computer in order to drive their innovation going forward, but we're glad it's here. Now this first version of the Surface runs Windows RT, which is Microsoft’s new version of the OS optimized for mobile processors. What makes it ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 24, 2012 9:00 AMSamsung has done it again: they've managed to release a product that will find a home on every major carrier in the US, and many around the world. And not only will it be available widely, but the carriers will have little to no say in how the device looks (save for some added bloatware): all Galaxy Note II's will have, at most, some carrier branding on the back cover, and that's it. The Note II is the successor to the category-defining original Note, which went on to be quite a popular device. It seems that people want a huge screen, even if that means that one-handed usability isn't ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 23, 2012 3:39 PMLet's say you already own an iPad. Whether the first generation, second, or third, you might be wondering if you need a second tablet...a smaller tablet. Or maybe you're wondering if you should sell your 9.7" iPad and put it towards the purchase of an iPad Mini. Is that a wise course of action? To answer that question, we must look at what the iPad Mini can do that the larger 9.7" iPad mini cannot. Let's break it down. One-Handed Usability Unless you've got basketball-player sized hands, the iPad Mini is the only iPad you can hold with one hand. That's ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 23, 2012 3:05 PMAt last. My complaints of the iPad being too thick and heavy were abated today with the announcement of the iPad Mini. While it would have been nice if the screen resolution wasn't that of the last (now last-last) generation iPad, the thinness and reduction in weight will more than make up for the display being not as crisp as the iPad with the Retina display. Because let's face it: while the Nexus 7 is a fantastic value, the app selection on Android for tablets is still terrible. The app selection on the iPad is fantastic. And with the iPad Mini, thanks to not introducing a new ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 22, 2012 1:11 PMThe latest entrant into the quad core CPU arena for Android is the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro. Qualcomm has a fantastic track record of providing fast and power-friendly CPUs all the way back to the ubiquitous single core Snapdragon QSD8250 found in the HTC HD2. Today, the S4 Pro is starting to show up in the market in the LG Optimus G, and is expected to ship in the Nexus 4 and the HTC DLX. But it faces competition. The Nvidia Tegra3 CPU, found in the HTC One X, the Nexus 7, and a handful of other devices, was the first quad core CPU to ship earlier this year. An update to the Tegra3, ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 19, 2012 11:21 AMDear T-Mobile, I live in a suburb of Philadelphia. It's a highly-populated area, though just a few miles down the road it becomes a bit rural. A couple of years ago, I decided to switch to your network. I liked what you were doing to upgrade to HSPA+, and you had some very affordable plan choices. But my stint on your network didn't last long: I quickly witnessed the downside to being on America's smallest carrier. Coverage in and around town was poor. I would drop down to EDGE often, and whereas on AT&T I would normally have full bars, with you, that just wasn't the case. So, I ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 16, 2012 1:36 PMThe Android Toolbox is a six part video series covering Android essentials. Whether beginner or advanced, this series will introduce you to interesting ways to customize your Android phone or tablet, methods for getting multimedia onto your device, and even apps to control your home or apartment. For many years now, it's been pretty easy to get multimedia onto your device if you're simply transferring it from your computer. This method is ideal for those that own CD and DVD collections and just want to be able to convert their content to digital so that they can have it in their pocket ...
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by Brandon Miniman | October 12, 2012 9:15 AMWhen Apple announced the iPhone 5, they claimed they it had improved battery life over the iPhone 4S. Specifically, web browsing over 3G went from 6 hours to 8 hours. And if this claim was true, it'd be great: for many, the iPhone 4S could get through an entire day of use without needing a charge, so logic holds that the iPhone 5 would perform similarly, plus a bit more. Alas, that hasn't been the case for most iPhone 5 users, many of which are complaining about getting terrible battery life, even after a handful of charge/discharge cycles (which should help to improve battery life over ...