The latest International Data Corporation preliminary date figures for the fourth quarter of 2012 are in for tablets and worldwide shipments reached a record at 52.5 million. To put this into context, the tablet market grew 75.3% year over year in 4Q12 compared to 29.9 million units in 4Q11. As far as units are concerned, the last quarter of 2012 saw figures growing 74.3% from 30.1 million units in the third quarter of 2012. Apple is still the market leader with 22.9 million units sold in Q4 2012, representing a 48.1% growth over the same quarter of the previous. The iPad mini as well ...

The update pushed out earlier this month for the Windows RT-powered Microsoft Surface unfortunately introduced a bug affecting users that are now no longer able to able to access the Windows Store or Windows Update. Additionally, some users complain that updates are attempted do not complete. According to a Microsoft official statement the company will issue a fix for the problem early next month. "Some Windows RT customers who attempted to apply January’s bulletins had issues installing updates. Specifically, impacted Windows RT devices went into connected standby mode during the ...

Yes, folks, the Registry is back! After years of tweaking almost every aspect of it on Windows Mobile -- and repose years with Windows Phone 7 -- you can get back to your usual Registry tweaks. For those new to this, it's a rather simple procedure but it could mess things up if you are careless (insert word of warning here). Modifying a Registry entry on the Microsoft Surface has been confirmed to improve touch-responsiveness. To achieve that you need to navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TouchPrediction and edit the key for latency from 8 to 2 as well as the one ...

Only seven billion remain following the Great Mayan Apocalypse of 2012, and three of them have joined forces in this new dystopian future-world to talk technology. Closing out 2012 is a tough endeavor, but thankfully the pre-holiday news explosion quickly gave way to a post-holiday news respite, and the resulting abbreviated topic list gives us a little breathing room at the tail end of this year. In this episode, we talk about the future of Windows RT tablets, the rumored Apple iOS-running smart watch, Motorola's mysterious "X" project, first impressions from a week with the Galaxy ...

A couple weeks back, we learned that Microsoft would be taking steps to dramatically increase the retail presence of its Surface tablet, introducing the product to the shelves of retailers like Staples and Best Buy. Up until then, if you wanted a Surface you had to order online or track down one of Microsoft's own retail locations. In theory, that could have helped Microsoft score some last-minute holiday sales. A report out this week doesn't quite paint that picture, however, and suggests these new retail avenues might not have a huge impact on how the Surface fares. While we don't yet ...

It's that time again when we slowly need to get used to writing a new number when mentioning dates; luckily thanks to our smart devices we don't need to go out and look for a 2013 wallet calendar, unless we really want to. It's that time when we look back at what happened this year, with all the goods and bads, and anxiously look forward to what next year might bring. As usual here at Pocketnow we're happy to tell you what we think, and we're excitedly waiting to hear your opinions, in our upcoming series which will contain both 2012 recaps and 2013 predictions. We'll have something for ...

According to "Taiwan-based notebook supply chain makers", tablets powered by Microsoft's Windows RT and Windows 8 are hard to sell; this assessment is based on low sales figures since Windows 8 was launched in late October. There are two core problems with the Microsoft-powered tablets, according to the same sources: first and foremost, they are priced higher than competing slates powered by Google's Android operating system. Second, the sources claim that the poor software title collection is also a big problem which is not helping sales at all; compared to the selection available in the ...

"Top 10 Gadgets", that's how the column is named and Time magazine weighs in on the best of this year. The list includes two phones and one tablet; the number one spot is taken by a phone, and not just any phone: according to the magazine, the top gadget of 2012 is the Apple iPhone 5. The second phone, the Samsung Galaxy Note II, is taking the eight spot, just one position below the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT. Despite all the drama surrounding the iPhone 5 (shortages, build quality problems with initial models, mapping drama, etc.), Apple's latest phone is the best iPhone to date. ...