Beautiful Android tablet apps were mostly non-existent for quite some time. Applications defaulted to the smartphone interface and were stretched to fit the extra display space. And because of the lack of adequate content, it made it difficult for many to recommend buying an Android tablet over, say, an iPad. Last year, however, Google made a push for better looking Android apps. The company introduced new design guidelines and updated its own apps, as well as the operating system with the Holo theme. Google also encouraged third-party developers to follow its lead. Sure, iOS may still ...

Windows RT was Microsoft's solution to everyone who was looking for the simplicity of a Tablet OS, without all the legacy baggage behind a full-powered desktop OS, but with the familiar look and feel of it. All great ideas at times when the iPad is eating into PC sales, and when most people don't really do much on a full-fledged computer anyway. Most of us thought it was the perfect computer for the mass market when it was announced, but as it turns out, the product has proven to fail due to the way it confuses customers, and specially when Windows 8 Pro can be had on a laptop for less ...

We all use our smartphones to snap pictures left and right. Whether we're capturing our family and other sentimental moments, unusual sights or … even what we're about to eat, not every picture turns out the way it should, or how you were expecting. Fortunately, post-processing applications are aplenty. In the Google Play Store, there are literally hundreds of photo editing apps – maybe even thousands. And sifting through them all can be quite difficult, especially if you don't know what you're looking for. Some only offer simply filters, others are rather complex with a significant ...

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 ...

Covering tech is a tricky business. Particularly when you have to repress residual fanboy tendencies in order to do your job. Allow me to explain. We've been in Berlin for a few days covering IFA, the annual consumer-electronics trade show where major brands make announcements and the media gets hands-on time with new products. This year's show hasn't been overwhelming, but it's given us the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note II, a new array of Sony Xperia products, and a bevy of Windows 8 tablets. Among those, Samsung, Acer, and Sony all brought out some Start-screen-packing hardware, ...

Well, it's good to know that our guessing instinct here at Pocketnow is still pretty sharp. On Tuesday, we posted a piece speculating on what Samsung might announce at today's event in New York City. We offered up three possibilities, all of which happened to feature "Galaxy Note" branding, and said our leading contender was the Galaxy Note 10.1. Not that it was the most difficult puzzle we've ever solved, but we nailed it: Wednesday morning's announcement saw Samsung's newest tablet announced for American consumption (and creation), with general availability kicking off tomorrow, August ...

When Google announced its widely anticipated Nexus 7 tablet in June, it promised a product that would provide "the best of the Google experience." Some of us weren't so sure the company could deliver, and I said as much in a piece written on the announcement date. In that piece, I wrote: "Does it give consumers a cost-effective way to break in to tablet ownership? Yes. Will it do what other midrange tablets do, and do it better? Probably. Will it sell very well? Almost certainly. But it’s not a terribly exciting product. It’s not a game-changer." I still believe most of that is true. ...

Multiple user accounts have been offered by various platforms for a long time. My first exposure to the idea of distinct user profiles was on my family's Packard Bell computer running Windows 95. With five of us sharing the machine, multiple-account support was a blessing. There was no security to speak of -we all had administrator access, though none of us knew what that meant- but it gave us the illusion of privacy. At the very least, we could select our own wallpaper and arrange our desktop icons the way we wanted. The underlying nature of separate-account support has changed since ...