Nextbit Robin review: a smarter alternative to the smartphone

Back in December I was faced with a situation familiar to anyone who’s ever bought a gadget as a gift: I needed to replace my parents’ iPhones. Not because there was anything wrong with them, and certainly not because my parents have a need for the latest or greatest in mobile technology; rather, I needed to replace their devices because, after two years, their paltry 16GB apiece of storage had run out.You don’t need to be an iOS user to know the pain of running out of smartphone capacity. With more and more Android manufacturers omitting the once-standard MicroSD ...

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Tim Cook takes his ball and goes home | Pocketnow Weekly 187

Alcatel One Touch might be shipping the new Idol smartphone in Virtual Reality packaging, iPhone error 53 is frustrating users who have had their home buttons repaired, and Tim Cook takes his ball and runs home after people tweet mean things about his Super Bowl photo. Another week of mobile technology news has passed, and we’re going to talk about all of it, on episode 187 of the Pocketnow Weekly!Watch the video broadcast from 2:15pm Eastern on February 3 (click 

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iPhone 6S Plus – After The Buzz (Video)

Most new device launches go the same way: usually the press gets review units before they’re widely available, and we get to use them for a few days -or a week if we’re lucky- as we work on our review. Then press day arrives. The embargo on media coverage lifts, and everyone posts their reviews and videos at the same time. It’s a huge frenzy, commenters go nuts, and it’s a giant explosion of frantic opinion-sharing activity. For about … a day. And then it all goes away. Sure, there’s followup coverage as people find bugs and hidden features, but after that initial blast, not ...

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Android Mirrors, fancy Fitbits and a VAIO Windows phone | Pocketnow Weekly 186

Fitbit gets a fancy new band, manufacturers old and new are picking up the Windows Mobile mantle and a phone that’ll probably never see the light of day changes up its OS. It must be another week in mobile technology, and that must mean it’s time for another episode of our little pow-wow. Join us as we get ready to get techy on episode 186 of the Pocketnow Weekly!Watch the video broadcast from 1:15pm Eastern on February 4 (click 

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Moto X Pure Edition – After The Buzz (Video)

Most new device launches go the same way: usually the press gets review units before they’re widely available, and we get to use them for a few days -or a week if we’re lucky- as we work on our review.Then press day arrives. The embargo on media coverage lifts, and everyone posts their reviews and videos at the same time. It’s a huge frenzy, commenters go nuts, and it’s a giant explosion of frantic opinion-sharing activity.For about … a day. And then it all goes away. Sure, there’s followup coverage as people find bugs and hidden features, but after that initial blast, not many ...

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2 gadgets, 1 number: hands-on with AT&T NumberSync

You know what’s cool? Having a bunch of connected gadgets. You know what sucks? Having a unique phone number for each and every one.Thanks to the proliferation of instant messaging and VOIP calling services, being tied to a mobile phone number has become less of an issue in recent years – but there are still those who prefer the old-fashioned voice call, and the venerable SMS is still a solid standby when you’ve got friends who chafe at the intrusiveness of Facebook Messenger or Google Hangouts. For them, the idea of maintaining separate phone numbers for a 4G tablet, ...

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The immortal UltraPixel | Pocketnow Weekly 185

Our CES followups are done, our convention-center head colds are almost dribbled out, and the first small scents of jamon are starting to waft over from Barcelona. It must be almost springtime for Pocketnow, and you know what that means: the MWC 2016 rumor reactor is humming its way up to 100% power. Join us for HTC Perfume, LG Magic Slot, and Oppo world-domination promises –plus your listener mail– as we get ready to get techy on episode 185 of the Pocketnow Weekly!Watch the video broadcast from 1:00pm Eastern on January 29 (click 

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Samsung Gear S2 review rebuttal (Video)

As efforts like After The Buzz, the Pocketnow Weekly and Empty Nest demonstrate, we’re constantly searching for fresh ways to review mobile technology. The newest product of those efforts is Pocketnow’s “Review Rebuttal” series, in which a member of our team is assigned to test a smartphone or tablet ...

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3 great BlackBerry 10 features (that might die with it)

In 2016, most chatter that includes the word “BlackBerry” is focused on the company’s Priv handset, and for good reason. As BlackBerry’s first Android phone, the Priv is a dramatic shift in strategy (and a tacit admission that the company’s previous one wasn’t working). As one of the few Androids with a physical keyboard, it’s also a sorely-needed bit of novelty in a landscape otherwise dominated by ever-homogenizing slabs. Despite its flaws I quite like the ...

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The three best smartphone features (that haven’t taken off)

Despite their creeping commoditization, smartphones are still some of the most exciting pieces of technology you can buy today. The old joke about using such a powerful device mainly for watching cat videos is a good one, but I find myself identifying more strongly with its setup than its punchline, the bit about carrying a device “capable of accessing the entirety of knowledge known to man.”Knowledge is useless, though, without a fast ...

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Huawei Mate 8 review: the new choice for the power warrior

When we first laid eyes on the Huawei Mate 8 at CES 2016, we were only mildly impressed. While its clean industrial design and oversized battery were welcome additions to the Mate family, the phone still came with software quite literally designed for another continent – and its overloaded feature set seemed more at home on a Samsung phone from 2012 than a modern Android flagship.A week with the Mate 8 back home in Boston hasn’t changed our feelings about the phone’s shortcomings, but it ...

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Perfume, Islandwood and other crazy codenames | Pocketnow Weekly 184

HTC Nexus phones, a free smartwatch with your smartphone and iOS apps coming to Windows Phone. Who says the post-CES lull has to be dull? All of the above –plus a special announcement from Pocketnow’s Editor-in-Chief and your listener mail– awaits on episode 184 of the Pocketnow Weekly! So put on your Perfume and varnish up your Islandwood; we’re about to pay another visit to the techno club that is the Pocketnow Weekly podcast.Watch the video broadcast from 1:00pm Eastern on January 21 (click 

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Top G Flex 3 features we’d like to see in the LG G5

If you followed Pocketnow’s CES 2016 coverage, you’ll know that LG didn’t follow up last year’s G Flex 2 with a third-generation sequel. That’s a shame, because it likely would have been the star of the show, at least from a smartphone perspective. For two generations, the G Flex line has brought the most futuristic features LG has to offer, including them not in a reference design or engineering prototype, but in a consumer smartphone available to everyday people. With the LG G5

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The Huawei Mate 8 is the new flagship to beat for battery life

When Huawei announced its new smartphone lineup at CES earlier this month, it followed up the hoopla with its usual generosity. That is: it gave everyone in attendance a review sample of either its new Mate 8 phablet, or a gold-colored refresh of the Nexus 6P. My colleague Jaime Rivera, perhaps anticipating an After The Buzz video in his future, went for the 6P. But despite my deep respect for the newest Nexus, I ...

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Vive Pre Hands-On: still the VR to beat (Video)

It’s been nearly a year since we first tried HTC and Valve’s game-changing VR headset. In the time since, it’s gotten a new name and better hardware, plus rumors of a hefty price tag to go with its four-month delivery delay. But despite the challenges, the Vive Pre still delivers the best virtual reality experience we’ve seen yet. We went hands-on with the new visor on our last day at CES 2016 and our entire ground team got to put their faces in Valve’s virtual world; check out the video below for a taste of what we saw.(In the mood to read instead of view? For a full ...

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