If you're anything like me, you've been drooling over the idea of Android Wear since the middle of March. I was a few minutes from publishing an article about how the Google smartwatch could make me regret my Pebble Steel order, Google made its smartwatch platform, Android Wear, official. A handful of hardware manufacturers also announced they would be partners in Google's new wearable venture – Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung. There were some demonstration videos which showed some basic functions of Android Wear, and Google released a developer preview of the new Android Wear SDK. ...

By their very nature, smartphones have always been fairly private devices. The conversations we have, the pictures we take, and the other various types of data we store on our smartphones are likely very private and often very sensitive. While I don't personally keep anything compromising – pictures, text, or otherwise – on my smartphone, private conversations I wouldn't want other people to read abound. My smartphone also has access to my bank account, my LastPass account, which holds the passwords to all my online accounts, and cloud access to all my photos, documents, and other ...

Not long ago we had the opportunity to share our experiences with a unique device: the Asus PadFone X. If you haven't checked out our full review, make sure you find out why we call it "a beginner's flagship with a tablet in the box". Just like most of our reviews, we get our hands on the device, we run it through its paces, we write up our thoughts, and move on to the next device. This one was "different" and we wanted to give it a little bit more than just a normal review, because it's anything but a "normal" device. The PadFone X is a smartphone. It's also a tablet. Add on it's ...

Google's in-house Nexus brand of affordable developer smartphones has garnered a small, dedicated group of enthusiasts since the first handset, the HTC-made Nexus One, launched in early 2010. Since then, Google has partnered with Samsung and LG two times each to make the Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, and Nexus 5, all of which have been fan favorite Android handsets each year. The venture was never about making money or inflating profits. Instead, it was about sticking it to the U.S. wireless providers and letting consumers choose their phone first, then choose a provider – something ...

OnePlus is the Cinderella story that wasn't. A company poised to break all the rules launched a marketing campaign that encouraged everyone to "Never Settle". With a tagline like that, expectations ran high - but it didn't stop there. OnePlus took an interesting approach, making end-users like you and I feel like the device was being crafted just for us. In the end, it looks like this was based more in marketing spin than in reality. Nonetheless, it bootstrapped the genesis of the company and its premier device. Next, apparently wanting to avoid any opening-day rushes (and the associated ...

One question I get asked more than all the others is "what do you have on your phone?" Sure, people wonder what phone I have, who my carrier is, how much I pay for my plan every month, what my favorite accessory is, and a whole slew of other things, but eventually it all comes back to that singular question: what does Joe the Android Guy have on his phone? Over the last month I've switched between the Nexus 5, the Asus PadFone X, HTC Desire 816, HTC One mini 2, HTC One M8 harman kardon edition, and even the Moto X - and that doesn't include tablets and wearables! Each of those devices has ...

Back in May, I asked an interesting question, one many have probably pondered themselves, "Will your next phone be bigger or smaller?" For whatever reason, in today's smartphone market, "bigger" has nearly become synonymous with "better". Each year, every smartphone manufacturer's flagships are larger than the previous model. The Galaxy S III had a 4.8-inch display; the Galaxy S4 had a 5-inch display, and the Galaxy S5 now has a 5.1-inch display. The same trend is also found in the already oversized Galaxy Note brand. The original Note handset was 5.3-inches, followed by the 5.5-inch ...

Some people think Amazon is a book reseller, others think the company sells tangible products. Those people are exactly right - and totally wrong. Amazon is in the content delivery business. Sometimes that content is words on a page, other times it may be a disc of your favorite sci-fi series, or some other physical item. The future, however, is digitally delivered content: books, magazines, music, TV, movies, games, apps, and who knows what else. Switching to digital makes things easier all around: there are no warehouses to stock inventory, no need for people to staff those warehouses, ...