17
Apr
unnamed (1)

Pocket, in an update to celebrate the one year anniversary of Read It Later's rebrand, has introduced (among other things) Send to Friend, a new feature that allows for quick, easy sharing of content with friends. Users can accept shared content directly from the Pocket app, using the app's new Inbox. Those sharing can also highlight quotes or add their own comments before sharing, sending them along for friends to read.

Screenshot_2013-04-17-18-06-51

What's great about Pocket's Send to Friend is that users can share content with anyone via email without ever leaving the app. While a relatively small feature, it makes the Pocket experience all the more seamless.

29
Jul
unnamed

Thumb Keyboard, one of the most intuitive, well-designed, and practical keyboards available (especially for tablet users) got a big update recently, bringing the app up to version 4.5.

Perhaps the biggest benefit to the new update is that Thumb Keyboard now supports ICS' continuous voice recognition, which in case you've forgotten, is the feature introduced with Ice Cream Sandwich that actively listens and dictates your speech. This is a feature I haven't seen in other alternative keyboards, and it's definitely nice to have. Other big additions include gesture support as well as a new one-handed layout for phones with larger displays.

04
Mar
key lime pie

Holy cow. The Android version name rumor-mill has been cranking at full steam for the last couple of months, and everyone seems pretty well-convinced that Jelly Bean is the chosen title for Google's next iteration of the mobile operating system. Way back in September, The Verge suggested that a "reliable source" had told them Jelly Bean was the real McCoy. Let's talk about what we know about Google's naming strategy so far with Android, and why anything but Jelly Bean would make almost no sense.

First, what names have there been? Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and Ice Cream Sandwich.

19
Jan
spectrum2

Just last week, LG revealed the Spectrum, an impressive new flagship phone for Verizon. A glance at the spec sheet showed some impressive numbers on paper, and we went hands-on during CES and came away impressed. The essential specs:

  • 4.5″ True HD IPS display (1280x720 at 329DPI), protected by Gorilla Glass
  • 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor
  • 8MP rear camera, shoots 1080p video, 1.3MP front camera
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 4GB of on-board storage, 16GB micro SD card pre-installed
  • 4G LTE
  • Android 2.3.5 (Android 4.0 update promised)
  • 1830mAh battery (optional 3000mAh extended battery available at launch)
  • Dimensions:  5.33″ x 2.71″ x .41″
  • Weight: 4.99 oz.
11
Jan
LG Spectrum

Update: LG just made official the Spectrum at CES, confirming the below list specs. It's a beast, baby!

Here's one monster product (spec-wise, at least) that you won't have to wait months after CES for. Previously rumored as the Revolution 2, Verizon is set to launch the LG Spectrum on January 19, with a display that might even give the Galaxy Nexus a run for its money:

  • 4.5″ True HD IPS display (1280x720 at 329DPI), protected by Gorilla Glass
  • 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor
  • 8MP rear camera, shoots 1080p video
  • 1.3MP front camera
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 4GB of on-board storage, 16GB micro SD card pre-installed
  • 4G LTE
  • Mobile hotspot shares up to 10 connections
  • Android 2.3
  • 1830mAh battery (optional 3000mAh extended battery available at launch)
  • Bluetooth 3.0
  • Swype
  • Dimensions:  5.33″ x 2.71″ x .41″
  • Weight: 4.99 oz.
28
Aug
image

Whoosh - looks like we can take the report of upgrades to the already impressive Galaxy S II and the upcoming Tab 8.9 from the rumor bucket and place it carefully on top of the confirmed stack. In fact, the rumor was not only spot-on regarding everything Samsung just officially announced, it even had more information that Samsung didn't cover, which means some details will keep the rumor tag until we find out more.

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Galaxy S II LTE

First up, the Galaxy S II LTE (hilariously misspelled as LITE in the official blog post in one place - it's anything but lite) is not only gaining an LTE radio, it's indeed getting bumped from 1.2GHz to 1.5GHz - still dual-core, of course.

07
Aug
Hercules

Still holding out for the mythical (pun intended) Samsung Hercules, leaked via a T-Mobile roadmap a couple months back? While we don't have any pricing or release info just yet (though that September 26 release date certainly seems possible), TmoNews has gotten a hold of a few pictures of the device that confirmed it as the 4.5" Galaxy S2 T-Mobile variant.

These pictures don't confirm everything that is rumored about the phone, but they do have some good information in them:

  • The Hercules will officially be marketed as a Galaxy S2 phone
  • Runs Android 2.3
  • TeleNav GPS Navigator and Netflix pre-installed
  • 4.5" display
  • TouchWiz 4.0
  • 8 megapixel camera
  • Four capacitive buttons (unlike the international version of the GS2)

Yeah, September can't come soon enough.

17
May
Hercules

T-Mobile customers who were concerned that they may not be getting their own version of the Galaxy S 2 need not worry any more - according to a big leak over at This is my next, T-Mobile is prepping to release the Samsung Hercules (a codename, so it will likely be something far more vague and meaningless by the time it hits stores). The specs are very similar to both the Galaxy S II and Infuse 4G:

  • 4.5" 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus screen
  • Android 2.3
  • NFC support
  • Measurements: 5.16 x 2.76 x 0.37 inches (nearly identical to the Infuse)
  • Qualcomm 1.2GHz dual-core APQ8060 processor (as opposed to Samsung's own Exynos)
  • 8 megapixel camera with flash
  • 1080p video capture
  • Front-facing camera

Sounds awesome, right?

12
Mar
image
Last Updated: March 13th, 2011

Dolphin HD, one of the most popular Android browsers, has been pretty unusable on large tablet screens due to choppiness and lag caused by the CPU having to work with a much bigger area. For example, when we got a demo unit of the Galaxy Tab, the problem was quite apparent to the point of Dolphin being downright frustrating on relatively complex sites.

Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" came to the rescue with hardware acceleration capabilities, which allowed shifting all the UI processing from the CPU to the GPU. However, since the first Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola XOOM, launched 2 weeks ago, only the stock browser has been offering the benefits of hardware acceleration and allowing for very smooth scrolling, zooming (xooming?), panning, etc, while Dolphin remained as choppy as before.

05
Jan
samsung infuse
Last Updated: January 27th, 2011

It appears that Samsung is going to continue with the Galaxy S brand name, but this upcoming AT&T handset is unlike any other Galaxy S phone you've seen before. The Samsung Infuse 4G improves on the original in just about every way - in fact, it easily tops any phones on the market today:

  • 1.2 GHz (single core) processor
  • 4.5" Super AMOLED Plus display
  • 8 megapixel rear camera
  • 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera
  • HSPA+ support
  • TouchWiz UI
  • Extremely thin (thinnest phone on AT&T when it launches)

The most interesting aspect is the Super AMOLED Plus display. A 50% increase in sub-pixel count promises better readability in sunlight (a common complaint of Super AMOLED screens) and better contrast.

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