Is it too late for a Nokia Android phone?

Posted on by Joe Levi

If I had to pick just one company that revolutionized mobile communications, it wouldn’t be Apple – it would be Nokia. Back in the 1990’s, when cellphones were just starting to rise in popularity, Nokia was the company you wanted to make your phone. They were durable, user-friendly, and who can forget their wonderful battery life? We were just coming down from the popularity of pagers – and two-way pagers (which is where Research in Motion came into popularity), and ...

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Who will be the biggest OEM of 2016?

Posted on by Joe Levi

Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, or HTC? There was a time (not long ago) when those five manufacturers were pretty much all one had to look at to decide which phone to get. Each had several models to choose from, so picking the phone that was right for you was rarely an easy task. Today, however, in addition to the “big five”, we’ve got phones from Sony, ZTE, Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Acer, Archos, Alcatel, Asus, Oppo, OnePlus, Jolla, Blu, Cat, Kyocera, and more. All these added players, some with very enticing options, make figuring out which phone is best for your ...

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Pocketnow Smarthome: it starts with the hub

Posted on by Joe Levi

When Pocketnow began bringing you news, reviews, and editorials over a decade ago, the industry was pretty limited in its product offerings. PDAs and smartphones, and other gadgets you could fit in your pocket were our primary focus. Since then we’ve covered accessories and the wireless networks that empower them, and have branched out into wearables and even fitness devices.Over the years, the role smartphones play in our everyday lives has changed – significantly. In fact, studies have ...

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WiFi is evolving: What you need to know about 802.11 ad, ah, and HaLow af

Posted on by Joe Levi

It started out way back in the nineties – Internet without wires. No longer did people have to tie up their phone line while their modem dialed away, beeped, booped, squeaked, squawked, and hissed. Those lucky enough to have an always-on Internet connection could put their laptop anywhere they wanted it – finally free from the limitations and inconveniences of a wired Ethernet cable.Two standards emerged in the beginning: 802.11a in the 5GHz spectrum and 802.11b in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Both had their pros and cons, but it was 2.4GHz that gained in popularity, partly because of ...

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The Pros and Cons of BlackBerry going Android-exclusive

Posted on by Joe Levi

Back in the early days of handheld mobile technology we packed around things called “PDAs”. Apple made one, which it called “Newton”. Palm made one, which it called “Pilot”. Microsoft’s partners even made them, which went by a few names – Handheld PC, Palm-sized PC, Pocket PC, and so on. Eventually Apple killed Newton. Palm spun off and fizzled, and Microsoft pushed forward (renaming things again and again along the way). Ultimately, our PDAs and cellular phones merged into one device.Microsoft’s offering was dubbed “Windows ...

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Do we really need 6GB of RAM on our smartphones? (Poll)

Posted on by Joe Levi

“640K (RAM) ought to be enough for anybody.”– attributed to (but denied by) Bill GatesAlrighty, before we talk about how many jigga-bytes we can cram into a smartphone, let’s make sure everybody knows what that is – and how it fits in with other components.First up we’ve got the CPU – the central processing unit – which is the “brain” of your computer, tablet, or smartphone. It crunches all the numbers and runs all the logic. It’s connected via the “bus” to the other major components. The CPU’s speed is ...

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How Android can really do split-screen multitasking right

Posted on by Joe Levi

Some of you are too young to remember the early days of computing. Back in the 1980’s most of us ran MS-DOS. In this environment your user interface was a black screen with a flashing white cursor (or some other color combination). From there you’d type a command to launch whatever program you wanted to run. That program might have been a word processor, a spreadsheet, an encyclopedia, a game, or some other “app”. Not only could you only run one program at a time, you had to exit out of it if you wanted to switch to another one. Yeah, try writing a research paper ...

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Google Now just got answering machine-like functionality – here’s how to use it

Posted on by Joe Levi

“‘OK Google’ is the magical key-phrase that unlocks all the wondrous potential of your Android-powered device – and drives you nuts when someone on a podcast says it and all your Android’s wake up and wait for your instructions.”Now that my new house is built, my daily commute is over an hour long – each way. That’s okay with me. I love to drive, the scenery is beautiful, Waze helps alert me to upcoming hazards, and thanks to Audible I’m “reading” more now than I ever have before.When a phone call comes in, thanks to the ...

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How Google Accelerated Mobile Pages could change how you browse the mobile web

Posted on by Joe Levi

I’m a web developer by day and a tech journalist by night. It’s not as glamourous as Batman’s gig, but it’s still pretty awesome.– Joe Levi, PocketnowWhat that means for readers of Pocketnow is that I’m acutely aware of the implications and ramifications of “good” web design over mediocre or (heaven forbid) “bad” web design. Keep in mind that when I talk about “web design” I’m only partly referring to the “graphic design” of any given web page – the way a web page looks. The other components of ...

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How much would an early start on the Galaxy S7 matter for Samsung?

Posted on by Joe Levi

Samsung’s flagship smartphone carries the “Galaxy” nametag – the current version being the Galaxy S6. Before that it was the Galaxy S5, preceded by the Galaxy S4, and so on. What’s next? It should be obvious: the Samsung Galaxy S7.Phones aren’t “born” overnight. Market studies, focus groups, endless committee meetings, initial designs, prototypes, tooling, scheduling, and ultimately full-scale production takes a very long time to implement, and is very challenging to orchestrate across suppliers, distributors, and resellers. Samsung initially ...

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Life with the Lenovo 100S Chromebook: pros and cons

Posted on by Joe Levi

“Welcome to Pocketnow, your one-stop-shop for smartphones, phablets, tablets, and wearables – and Chromebooks? I’m going to have to find some bigger pockets.”– Joe Levi, PocketnowAndroid has been powering smartphones since 2008 when the T-Mobile G1 was released. Later on, OEMs scaled the phone-centric OS up and crammed it into tablets (Google put the brakes on that until it could release Android Honeycomb, which was specifically designed for tablets – and horrible). Google even rolled out not one, but two flavors of Android for televisions. The only ...

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Android needs multi-window support if it’s going to succeed in the future

Posted on by Joe Levi

I’m Joe the Android Guy, and I’ve written over 1,500 articles for Pocketnow. How many of those were written on an Android-powered device? Sadly, only a handful. I would have expected someone with the moniker of “the Android Guy” to use that platform for the majority of the work he does. If you did too, I’m terribly sorry to disappoint you.Android is a great operating system. It scales from phones and phablets, to ...

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The future of Bluetooth: what to expect and why you should care

Posted on by Joe Levi

Back in 1994, Ericsson (who would later merge with Sony) “invented” Bluetooth. Back then out devices were connected by one of a few technologies: RS-232 “COM Ports”, Parallel Ports, and SCSI. USB was still being worked on. Ericsson’s vision was to replace the serial RS-232 cables with a new, wireless standard. Bluetooth was born.Uhura knew about Jawbone before Jawbone knew about Jawbone.Bluetooth is a wireless communication standard using the 2.4GHz band (which ...

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What is Factory Reset Protection and why is Android Marshmallow forcing OEMs to include it in their devices

Posted on by Joe Levi

There used to be a time when, if you lost your phone, that was it – it was gone. You’d get in touch with your carrier and report it lost or stolen so any calls or texts wouldn’t be added to your bill, but your options beyond that were pretty limited. A little later on, recovery options were added to help you find out where you phone was (just in case you lost in the couch or at the restaurant). If it was heading down the interstate at 70MPH, you could probably assume that it had been stolen – and you could remotely wipe it.While these tools can be very helpful, all ...

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Android Launcher: Lightning Launcher

Posted on by Joe Levi

If you want to customize the look and feel of your phone or tablet, Android is the platform for you! Since the very early days of the OS, users have been able to replace their launcher – the app that holds the icons, widgets, and wallpaper – with one of their choosing. Back then we started a series called “Launcher Wars” where Brandon Miniman and I would take turns evaluating launchers, sharing our thoughts, and trying to one-up the launcher the ...

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