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May

[Hands-On] Initial Impressions Of The Sony Xperia Tablet Z

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Sony, Xperia Tablet Z

Sony's first attempt at making Android slates was less than a rousing success. Not one to be discouraged, Sony is back with a new Android-powered tablet called the Xperia Tablet Z. This is the big brother of the Xperia Z flagship smartphone. I've spent a little time with the Tablet Z and I have some thoughts in advance of the full review.

Hardware: Swoon

The device is surprisingly thin and light. Yes, I know what the spec sheet says, but it's different when you get it in your hands. Just knowing that it's 495g and has a 10.1-inch screen doesn't mean much until you pick it up.

Apr

Hands-On With Facebook Home: The Perfect Tool For Those Who Don't Actually Do Anything With Their Phones

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Last Updated: April 15th, 2013

Hey! Facebook Home is here, and you can totally have it. So long as you have a compatible phone, of course. It just so happens that I have one such phone laying on my desk (an HTC One X+), so I figured I'd give this whole Facebook as your phone experience a shot. Been playing with it for around an hour or so when I started writing this, and it's... different. The experience is strange, and I find myself continuously hitting the home button in an attempt to escape this parallel universe and get back to the comfort of my "normal" launcher.

Mar

Hands-On With The Google Play Store 4.0 Leak - A Google Now-Inspired Design With A Horrible Looking Action Bar

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Applications, Google, News

The Google Play redesign is very real.

We've managed to secure a copy and we're going to extract every possible ounce of info out of it.

Sadly, we aren't allowed to distribute it - we have to honor the request of the person who scored us a copy. Sorry! We will tell you everything we can about it, though.

The main screen is, well, broken. That makes navigating the app a little difficult. However with liberal use of the search button and a few tricks it's possible to find your way around. (And yes, the search still blows.)

Browsing For Apps

Ugh.

Mar

Hands-On With The Galaxy S4 - A Minor Refresh Of The Galaxy S III

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Galaxy S4, Samsung

I'm at Radio City Music Hall checking out the Samsung Galaxy S4. Tell me, have you seen the Galaxy S3? Then you've pretty much seen the GS4. There have been a few cosmetic tweaks, and a spec bump, but it's mostly a "Galaxy S 3S."

The screen is probably the biggest upgrade. It's been fitted with a 5-inch, 1080p AMOLED display, and it looks gorgeous. The viewing angles are perfect. As usual with AMOLED, the colors are hyper-saturated, but we're all used to that by now. Sadly this is still Pentile, but the pixels are so tiny I couldn't tell.

Mar

[New App Hands-On] RemotePlay Is A Fantastic Idea For Cross-Device Media Streaming, But Right Now It's Basically Unusable

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in App Reviews, Applications, News

A few days ago, a pair of apps called RemotePlay and RemotePlayM by new Android developer Piddas21, a subsidiary of Taiwanese Quanta Computer, hit the Play Store ahead of SXSW. The idea is great - media and document sharing in real-time, across multiple platforms, such as Android, iOS, and Windows 8. Want to easily stream a video from your Nexus 4 to your iPad? No problem - it should be as simple as dragging it to a bucket with your iPad's name on it, and voila - you're watching a video on the big screen.

Note: At the time of this writing, both the iOS and Windows 8 versions were still in development, though they should be coming soon.

Feb

Hands-On With The HTC One - Great Build Quality, Great Screen, Odd Buttons [Video]

Posted by Ron Amadeo in HTC, News, One

Greetings from New York! I’m here at HTC’s press event checking out the HTC One. Yes, that’s just the HTC One, the phone previously known as the M7 is all grown up and sporting the plainest version of HTC's "One" branding yet (which we are totally in favor of - Hopefully the carriers leave it alone).

But who cares about the name, what is the actual device like? We'll I've had a limited amount of time with it, but so far I like it.

Design

HTC is touting an all-aluminum, no-gap construction, and in person it's very nice. You can't get an exact feel for how it is to hold because they've got them anchored down to the tables, but it seems like it's very well constructed.

Jan

Hands-On With RedBox Instant: Netflix Has Nothing To Be Worried About

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Features, News

At last, my collection is complete. Just the other day I received my invite to the beta of Redbox Instant. I was excited. The idea sounds great: it's like Netflix, but you also get four monthly credits at Redbox rental kiosks! Awesome, right? What's that? Verizon has something to do with it? Well, no matter. It's not exclusive to the carrier's handsets, so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about! I'm ready to get my hands all up on this thing.

Oh, how naïve I was.

I'm going to start by taking a look at the desktop site and the service as a whole, but don't worry, we'll get to the Android bit in its own section.

Nov

Hands on With The HTC DROID DNA: So Many Pixels!

Posted by Ron Amadeo in DROID DNA, HTC, News

Greetings from New York! I’m here at HTC’s event checking out the DROID DNA.

The DNA’s claim to fame (besides the ridiculous name) is that it has, literally, the best display ever made for a phone. This thing is packing a 1920x1080 resolution on a five inch screen. That's pixel density of 440ppi! The display is a SuperLCD 3 panel, which makes it a generation better than the previous Best Screen Ever, the HTC One X display.

So how does it look in person? Simply amazing. You don't see pixels anymore, just a smooth, perfect image. Color reproduction is accurate and beautiful, and it has an 80 degree viewing angle.

Sep

[Hands-On] TV Show Favs Is The First And Last App You Need To Keep Track Of All Your Shows

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Reviews

In the modern world, watching TV shows isn't what it used to be. Back in the old days (or the present for some), shows simply existed at a certain time and you tuned in when they aired, and then they were cancelled and then you never heard from them again. Today, though, it's not uncommon for most viewers to discover a show a few seasons in and then find their way through the backlog of episodes. It can get overwhelming when you need to sort through which shows are still on, which shows you've seen, and how many more episodes you have to go.

Aug

Hands-On: How CyanogenMod 10 Fixed My EVO 4G LTE

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Development, EVO 4G LTE (Jewel), Jelly Bean 4.1

You likely noticed our coverage regarding the arrival of official CyanogenMod (experimental) nightly builds for, among other devices, HTC's EVO 4G LTE. As someone who's lived with the EVO LTE for several months now, this was big news.

Normally, we steer clear of covering the majority of custom ROMs, as development for many Android devices runs at a fast and furious pace, and coverage can quickly become dated. The improvements CyanogenMod 10 offers, though, especially over Sense on the EVO LTE, are certainly worth coverage. In this post, we'll take a quick look at CM10 for the EVO, how it changes the device's overall experience, and why, if your EVO is not running Jelly Bean yet, you're missing out.