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by Michael Fisher | June 13, 2013 5:40 PMRead OnWe're still pretty new to the world of BlackBerry at Pocketnow, having started coverage in earnest just this past winter with the unveiling of the BlackBerry Z10 -and the company's next generation platform- in Toronto. Since then, though, we've given the fledgling new smartphone ecosystem its share of comparisons, reviews, and even re-reviews ... and it's about time we turned our focus to the second BB10 smartphone from the folks formerly known as RIM. It's time to review the BlackBerry Q10. Before we get there, though, we've got to take it out of the box - and that's just what you'll get ...
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by Taylor Martin | June 13, 2013 4:28 PMRead OnWhile the Galaxy Mega 6.3 and HTC One have very little in common, both are symbolic of their respective makers' current financial status and recent market performance. HTC is currently struggling and put every ounce of effort and know-how into a single smartphone. And the Galaxy Mega 6.3 is only one of many Samsung smartphones that have few realistic reasons to exist other than the fact that Samsung can afford to experiment to see what sticks. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 towers over pretty much every other smartphone on the market. And the HTC One packs one serious wallop with BoomSound, ...
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by Michael Fisher | June 13, 2013 6:01 AMRead OnOne is a water- and dust-resistant, wafer-thin slate of a device running a skinned build of Google's Android at the troublesome 10.1" screen size. The other is a magnesium-coated transformer with a folding keyboard and an OS that's taken its share of heat too: Microsoft's Windows RT. These tablets don't have much in common, but they do share space on the retail shelves of the world as the high-end representatives of their respective tablet ecosystems. So it's time to put Sony up against Microsoft; it's time for the Xperia Tablet Z vs Surface RT video comparison. Tune in as we take you on a ...
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by Taylor Martin | June 12, 2013 9:40 AMRead OnSmartphones can't possibly get any bigger, can they? We all asked ourselves this after Samsung introduced the original Galaxy Note. Then came the Galaxy Note II, 0.2-inches larger than the original. And Huawei presented the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate to the world at CES in January. Again, we thought there is no way phones are getting any larger. Well, Samsung has done it again. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 is a gigantic phone. It towers over the Galaxy Note II, what was – and still is, for that matter – considered too large by many. But we would be doing you guys and gals a disservice if we didn't ...
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by Taylor Martin | June 11, 2013 11:32 AMRead OnSamsung announced its newest line of smartphones (made for giants) back in April: Galaxy Mega. If the name isn't indication enough, maybe the screen sizes of these phones will get your phablet flags waving, as Mr. Fisher would say. The Mega comes in two sizes – 5.8 and 6.3-inches. Huge, at least for being marketed as a simply a phone, is an understatement. Where the Galaxy Note 8.0 (non-US model) and Fonepad are small tablets with phone capabilities, the Galaxy Mega 6.3 is nothing more than a giant phone. We received one yesterday morning and, as always, gave it the unboxing treatment. ...
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by Taylor Martin | June 7, 2013 6:52 PMRead OnWhen you think of Google Android apps, you generally think of the applications that come pre-packaged on practically every Android device – Gmail, Hangouts (previously Talk), Calendar, Google+, Maps, and the Play media suite. Of course, there are also applications that don't come pre-installed, but pretty much everyone already knows about, such as Drive, Goggles, Keep, etc. But if you dig just beneath the surface, there are several Google-made applications that don't get nearly as much notoriety. Just take a peek at Google's developer page in Google Play. There are dozens of ...
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by Taylor Martin | June 6, 2013 5:44 PMRead OnThe Nexus 4 is the go-to device for many developers. Offering the purest Google experience and literally built for developers, it's the most vanilla Android experience possible. It's lightweight and comes with no bloatware. There's practically nothing to over-encumber the device straight out of the box. That said, the handset is beginning to age as faster, more efficient chipsets arrive. It just doesn't feel as fast as it once did. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to spruce up your ol' Nexus by way of various custom mods. Try a new ROM, or theme it to no end. Or, take a custom ...
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by Joe Levi | June 6, 2013 1:40 PM
Read OnSome of the notifications that you receive are very important, others? Not so much. Telling the difference between the two requires you to pull down your notification shade, and dismiss your unimportant notifications in the hopes that you can find your important ones. Chat-Heads and other floating notifications try and tell you who it is that's trying to contact you quicker and easier so you can determine if it's the important contact that you've been waiting for -- or something less important. Up until now you've had to have either Facebook Home, a custom ROM, or a rooted device to ...
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by Michael Fisher | June 6, 2013 11:57 AMRead OnIt's been four years to the day that Palm's would-be savior platform, webOS, launched to much hoopla with the original Pre. And though the days since have been dark ones indeed for the all-but-dead platform, we thought it would be nice to indulge our nostalgia on this, the anniversary day of "20090606," with a Palm Pre unboxing. Fortunately, our own Michael Fisher happened to have a like-new Palm Pre box, an artifact from a launch-day excursion to his local Sprint store all those years ago. And while the Pre within might charitably be called "well-loved" in terms of its physical condition, ...
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by Michael Fisher | June 6, 2013 5:59 AMRead OnThe Xperia Tablet Z is the thinnest, lightest, most beautiful 10-inch Android tablet we've ever come across - but it's still a 10-inch Android tablet, and thus still at a disadvantage in terms of a tablet app ecosystem. That said, we've given Sony's latest slate the full review treatment and found it to be pretty impressive. Between its portability, vibrant display, and water resistance, "the Z" brings plenty to the table in the fight against other, more popular tablet computers. Ultimately, though, in a punch-for-punch contest, how does Sony's super-slim beauty stack up against Apple's ...
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by Michael Fisher | June 5, 2013 6:59 AMRead OnThe Lumia 928 is an important smartphone for Verizon Wireless, and if you're a Verizon customer who's been waiting for a flagship Nokia Windows Phone, it's an important smartphone for you. We gave the 928 the Quick Review treatment last week, doing our best to consider it on its own merits, avoiding the temptation to compare it too closely with its AT&T-shackled predecessor - because we knew the time would come for such things. Well that time, friends, is now: the Lumia 928 vs Lumia 920 comparison you've been waiting for has finally arrived. The differences between these devices go ...
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by Taylor Martin | June 4, 2013 7:00 AMRead OnVideo conferencing and even personal video calling has been around for quite some time. And although Apple may have put popularized it in mobile, it hardly invented the first video calling mobile app. In fact, there were a bevy of video calling applications available long before FaceTime came to be. Alas, Apple managed to create a proprietary video calling platform that's only available to its own customers. And if you're using something other than an iPad, iPhone, iPod or Mac, no matter how many times your mother asks you to FaceTime her, it's not going to happen. You simply cannot ...
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by Taylor Martin | May 28, 2013 5:12 PMRead OnWhen HTC announced the Developer Edition HTC One, we were a little surprised. Unlike years past, the company decided to play nicely with one of Android's most unique, defining features, the third-party developers who tweak and mod devices to no end. Samsung stole a bit of HTC's flame at Google I/O, however, when Google's Hugo Barra took the stage and unveiled a Galaxy S 4 running stock Android which will go on sale directly from Google Play on June 26. But reports indicate HTC has a Google Edition HTC One in the works, as well, which has sort of left a sour taste in the mouths of those who ...
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by Taylor Martin | May 27, 2013 8:27 AMRead OnAt Google I/O 2102, Google announced quite a few new and amazing things. Among the best and most notable was Google Now, an automated pocket assistant service. It's a one-stop shop for stocks, weather, sports info, and local events. But since that day in June 2012, Google has been adding all sorts of new features to Google Now with every update – package tracking, boarding passes, flight information, reminders, public transit, research topics, and many more travel tools. For many of us here at Pocketnow, Google Now has become a go-to tool for all sorts of things, an integral part of the ...
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by Michael Fisher | May 25, 2013 1:01 AMRead OnThere's a big gulf between an unboxing and a full review, and we're always looking for ways to fill it. Our friendly neighborhood FedEx man dropped the Sony Xperia Tablet Z on our porch this morning, whereupon we promptly tore, cut, and otherwise fought our way into its packaging - all to give our fellow geeky voyeurs a rough idea of what the first few moments of Tablet Z ownership are like. (We'd like to thank Negri Electronics, by the way, for the quick shipping that made this end-of-week video possible.) It only took a few minutes to log in to our various accounts and start ...
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