Four ways full-sized Android tablets (still) aren’t ready for primetime

I’ve had some wonderful experiences with Android tablets. Loading CyanogenMod on the HP TouchPad, an activity I documented in my first-ever video for Pocketnow, filled in some crucial capability gaps left open by the TouchPad’s native OS. Carrying a first-gen Nexus 7 for a week in 2012 taught me just how compelling Jelly Bean in the 7-inch form factor ...

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Four reasons we want more Sony smartphones in 2014

While Pocketnow’s North American roots come in handy quite often, the arrangement isn’t without its snags. We do miss out on the occasional smartphone release by virtue of our location, and the brand most often affected by this is the somewhat Euro-centric Sony. As listeners of the Pocketnow Weekly podcast are aware, this causes us some heartburn; it’s frustrating to miss the chance to go hands-on with the latest and greatest. But we almost always manage to snag Sony demo units somehow. Over the past ...

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Sony “Castor” rumored as Xperia Tablet Z follow-up

Sony’s Xperia Tablet Z last year was one heck of a tablet. Thin, light, and waterproof, it was a dream to look at; if nothing else, Sony really hit the ball out of the park with the tablet’s design. Sure, we had some issues with its software and battery life, but all in all it was an exceptionally solid effort. Can Sony manage to top itself with an even better tablet in 2014? We may be finding out soon, with word leaking of an upcoming Sony tablet codenamed Castor. We don’t have much to go on just ...

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Why can’t Sony get the timing right?

There’s more to a smartphone or tablet than a specs list and its construction quality. Sometimes we get lost in how fast a device is, how much RAM it’s got tucked under the hood, and how sharp its screen may be. Something equally as important as all that is timing — and Sony can’t seem to get it right. Before we get into Sony’s problems with its release scheduling let’s look at its other product offerings. Sony has its hand in almost every pot. Sony makes music players, gaming systems, televisions, home audio, video games, cameras, smartphones, tablets, ...

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Xperia Tablet Z vs Surface RT (Video)

One 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 ...

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Pocketnow Weekly 046: Tablet Z vs TouchPad Go, and other tech podcast tomfoolery

We had an interesting bit of synchronicity crop up in the offices of Pocketnow -and in the recording studios of our weekly tech podcast- this week: we’re simultaneously in possession of one of the thinnest, newest tablets in the world – and one of the clunkiest, oldest ones. The interesting part about the latter: it never officially existed. We’ll talk about that, plus rumors of yet another mini-Galaxy that ain’t bashful about skimping on specs, and a Motorola smartphone that’s all-American from design to manufacture. We’ll also cover rumors of a newer, ...

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