Admit it: who wants an Android coffee table?

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Do you often find yourself confused by what manufacturers could be thinking when they push phablet size up past the six-inch mark? Are Samsung’s new Galaxy TabPRO and NotePRO 12.2 so ostentatiously large as to make them unpalatable? We may have to ask you to leave the room for a moment, because this next Android model we’re looking at could very well cause your head to explode, Scanners-style: later this year, you’ll be able to order a 46-inch Android-powered coffee table. Ideum already sells its Platform ...

Continue reading »

The post Admit it: who wants an Android coffee table? appeared first on Pocketnow.

Forget about Lightroom, Phiewer is the fastest photo reviewer on the go (Video)

Posted on by Adam Z. Lein

Ever since the iPad first started becoming popular, photographers have been searching for a way to integrate it with their professional workflows.  Unfortunately, the iPad really wasn’t designed for professional workflows, so that has proven pretty difficult.  Instead, usually photographers wait until they can plug their camera memory cards into a laptop or desktop PC running something like Adobe Lightroom before they start working with the photos they shoot.  The problem with Lightroom is that you have to import everything into the database and that can be extremely time ...

Continue reading »

The post Forget about Lightroom, Phiewer is the fastest photo reviewer on the go (Video) appeared first on .

Goodbye LogMeIn, hello TeamViewer

Posted on by Adam Z. Lein

You may have heard the news recently that LogMeIn’s free accounts are being discontinued.  I switched to LogMeIn for remote PC access back when Microsoft discontinued their super-awesome Live Mesh software which did a similar thing and much more.  Basically, you install the software on which ever computers you own and then you can use your single LogMeIn account to access those PCs remotely via the web or any of their mobile apps.  Now that LogMeIn is no longer free, it’s time to find something else that will let me access my home personal computer periodically.  Goodbye ...

Continue reading »

The post Goodbye LogMeIn, hello TeamViewer appeared first on .

I hope Microsoft’s Cortana is a lot like this

Posted on by Adam Z. Lein

We heard recently that Microsoft’s new speech interface codenamed “Cortana” might make use of the same voice used in the Halo video game series’ Cortana character.  The character in the games is voiced by Jen Taylor and basically she’s an artificial intelligence system that helps out the player at different points during the game’s story.  Cortana is considered a “smart” artificial intelligence since her creative matrix is allowed to expand where as “dumb” AI ...

Continue reading »

The post I hope Microsoft’s Cortana is a lot like this appeared first on .

2014 may be the year of HTC’s tablet comeback

Posted on by Taylor Martin

It’s not difficult to recall the glory days of HTC. The Nexus One is easily one of the company’s more memorable smartphones. But that’s just one in a long line of fantastic smartphones and other devices. The EVO 4G, G1, Touch Pro series, HD2, Desire line, and several more are not only HTC classics, they’re considered classics by many for the entire history of smartphones. They each played a major part in what we all consider high-end smartphones today. And while HTC may not be the current front runner, it showed us in 2013 that it means business, and it will not go ...

Continue reading »

The post 2014 may be the year of HTC’s tablet comeback appeared first on .

Top 5 Tablet Wishes for 2014

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

There’s no denying that the tablet industry has evolved at a tremendous pace in less than three years. For those of us non-believers of the original Microsoft Tablet PC, or even the first iPad and its potential, it was hard to even predict that the services and devices that we see ubiquitous today, would’ve been possible so quickly. That being said, there is no such thing as a perfect tablet, and not every device fits every user. Make sure you watch today’s Top 5 as we talk about the things we all wish to see happening in 2014. We discuss the things that are still not fixed, and the ...

Continue reading »

The post Top 5 Tablet Wishes for 2014 appeared first on .

Pocketnow Readers’ Choice 2013 (Poll)

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Update 2: Consider this your double-secret probation, absolute last-chance notice: the polls close tonight. Get your votes in while you can, and check back on Monday to see the winners! Update: It’s been just about one month since our year-end readers’ poll got started, where we asked you to pick your favorite phone and favorite tablet from 2013. So far the response has been great; we’ve heard from thousands upon thousands of you already. Still, we’re going to have to close the polls sooner or later and actually announce our winners, so we’re setting an end ...

Continue reading »

The post Pocketnow Readers’ Choice 2013 (Poll) appeared first on .

Pocketnow Weekly 074: new Google Play devices and Windows Phone rumors galore

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Sometimes there’s so much news you need to call in the Reserves just to handle it all, and that’s just what we’ve done this week. Between Google’s surprise announcement of an unlikely pair of additions to the Google Play Store; Microsoft’s rumored offer to pay Samsung to keep making Windows Phones; and a boatload of reviews, we’re in over our heads this week – so we’ve brought in four team members to do the news justice. Sorry, no listener mail this week – but in its place you get a consolation prize: you get to know what curious fate ...

Continue reading »

The post Pocketnow Weekly 074: new Google Play devices and Windows Phone rumors galore appeared first on .

Top 5 annoying things about Tablets in 2013

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

Let’s face it, tablets aren’t perfect. We’ve had numerous editorials talking about it, and we don’t think twice about pointing these imperfections out in our reviews. Surely in life nothing is perfect, but there are surely those companies that try harder, and those that don’t. There are companies that’ll charge you the same amount of money for lesser quality products than others, and there are those that would rather lose a premium in oder to sell you what you paid for. Now that said, tablets aren’t new. We’ve used them for over a decade, and it’s interesting to note that ...

Continue reading »

The post Top 5 annoying things about Tablets in 2013 appeared first on .

This is why productivity tablets haven’t taken off

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

I don’t know about you, but I had my first computer back in 1992. It was really my Dad’s, but I was the only one that used it for many reasons that I’ll explain later. It was a clone PC with a 386 processor, 2MB of RAM, an 20MB HDD, and it ran DOS 4.2. I remember every single DOS command I needed to operate it before we upgraded to Windows 3.1, and I would enjoy playing Price of Persia, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nuken, and other titles that made this my only game console for years to come. Still, one of the things I remember most about those times is that computers daunted regular ...

Continue reading »

The post This is why productivity tablets haven’t taken off appeared first on .

Windows 8 does a lot right, even if its execution was poor

Posted on by Adam Doud

People hate change. This is not a surprise. People are content waking up every day, going to work, coming home, kissing the kids, patting the wife’s butt and going to bed. Rinse. Repeat. But when something throws a wrench into those gears, people tend to freak out. If the change is small, they freak out less. If the change is big, they freak out more. If the change is Windows 7 to Windows 8…bedlam. And they’re not crazy for it. Boy, I’ll tell you in my days as a technical supporter there were very few days more stressful than those leading up to Windows 8’s official release. How ...

Continue reading »

The post Windows 8 does a lot right, even if its execution was poor appeared first on .

Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore takes charge of Internet Explorer and Windows UX

Posted on by Anton D. Nagy

Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore is taking over some Internet Explorer duties within the company as his predecessor, Dean Hachamovitch, the person in charge with IE over the past years, is transitioning to another team within the software-giant. The Verge reports that Belfiore will lead a team focused on the app side of Internet Explorer and the user experience, something confirmed by Belfiore himself on Twitter. “Everyone asking: I’m still doing phone work, just adding IE & Windows UX as part of my next role focused on “phone/tablet/pc”. #notgoodbye!”, says the ...

Continue reading »

The post Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore takes charge of Internet Explorer and Windows UX appeared first on .

Speculation surrounds rumored Nokia Normandy model

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Over the weekend, we saw @evleaks reach into his bag of secrets and pull out a few tantalizing Nokia codenames, giving us a little glimpse into the company’s future aspirations for its Windows Phone 8 (and maybe even full-Windows 8/RT) lineup. The names themselves didn’t seem to reveal much – an odd mix of 007 references, geography, and minerals – but today we start to look at one in particular a little closer, with a bit of a mystery forming around the device codenamed Normandy. Returning to the subject today, ...

Continue reading »

The post Speculation surrounds rumored Nokia Normandy model appeared first on .

Pocketnow Weekly 067: iPad Air, Lumia 1520, and corporate trollery galore

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Fun fact: flame wars, petty bickering, and troll hijinks aren’t just confined to the online world; they find a ready home in corporate tactics as well. That’s a reality we were reminded of this week, as Apple announced its new iPad family on the same day Nokia unveiled not just its first Windows-based tablet, but also the first-ever Windows Phone phablets, at its Nokia World event in Abu Dhabi. Predictably, the Apple news obliterated Nokia’s announcement in the news cycle – but, the Pocketnow Weekly being a platform-agnostic, equal-opportunity podcast, we’re ...

Continue reading »

The post Pocketnow Weekly 067: iPad Air, Lumia 1520, and corporate trollery galore appeared first on .

Facebook App reaches Windows RT/8 tablets

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

As Windows 8.1 becomes public, lots of apps are expected to either surge or update within the next couple of days. One of these is a new and official Facebook App, which plans to offer you a more immersive experience with the social network, even if all the invitations to Candy Crush will do an opposite job in making you want to leave. Among the enhancements that this app brings:   Your friends are always at your side, even when you’re using other apps See what your friends are up to Get notified when friends like and comment on your posts Get updates on your Start screen Share ...

Continue reading »

The post Facebook App reaches Windows RT/8 tablets appeared first on .