Features

iPhone 4S Up Close and Personal: Hardware

Chris Burns, Jan 31st 2012 Discuss [0]

In this chapter of our “I’m switching to iPhone 4S for a week” experiment, we’ll be taking an up close look at the hardware that makes up the iPhone 4S. When I say up close, I mean macro photography close – so close you can see the tiny specs of dust and micro-grooves in the metal close. What you’re about to see will prove to you, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the iPhone 4S is not just another smartphone, not just another hunk of plastic, metal, and glass that so many manufacturers toss out on what seems to almost be a weekly basis – the iPhone 4S is a precision built gadget masterpiece.

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A week with iPhone 4S: my first 10 apps

Chris Burns, Jan 30th 2012 Discuss [0]

For those of you just joining us for this adventure, you should know that I’m taking part in a real-life experiment in which I’m using an iPhone 4S for a week exclusively as my one and only smartphone. You should know, for context, that I generally use Android devices, having used the Samsung Galaxy Nexus essentially exclusively since it was released with Verizon, switching back and forth between it and whichever phones I’ve reviewed since. Though I’ve handled and worked with an iPhone a minor amount before, I’ve never before now had one as my own personal device – what follows are the first ten applications I found myself downloading right out of the box.

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Columns

I’m switching to iPhone 4S for a week

Chris Burns, Jan 29th 2012 Discuss [0]

This week I will be embarking on a journey which includes me giving up the Android smartphones I’ve been using essentially exclusively over the past several years and picking up an iPhone 4S. Apple’s own smartphone hero is the most well-known smartphone hardware/software combination on Earth, and since it is my job to bring you, the readers, a well-rounded set of coverage on the gadget and technology world, the opportunity to work with the newest version, iPhone 4S, was one I could not pass up. This whole week will be filled with accounts of what it means to not only switch to iOS, but what it means to use the one device with the biggest global following on the planet.

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Mercedes-Benz mbrace2 in-vehicle technology and apps hands-on

Chris Burns, Jan 27th 2012 Discuss [0]

The folks at Mercedes-Benz have given us a demonstration and hands-on look at their second-generation in-car technology environment mbrace2, here with a set of built-in apps as well as a mobile application working on an iPhone connected directly with the vehicle. In the group’s brand new SL-Class we get to check out how a fabulous looking set of menus will bring us everything we could possibly need or want to the drivers seat of our car. No need for a dongle anymore also, as mbrace2 brings with it a brand new mobile application that is able to control your car from your iPhone.

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Mercedes-Benz DICE interior concept hands-on

Chris Burns, Jan 27th 2012 Discuss [0]

Attendees exploring CES 2012 earlier this month traveling through the automotive section of the convention would have had a difficult time not at least glimpsing the Mercedez-Benz DICE Interior Concept. In a giant mirrored box sat a completely cushiony set of seats with car dashboard and driving wheel as well as a front windshield, both the windshield and the dashboard proving themselves instantly to be more than meets the eye. This was the DICE, or Dynamic and Intuitive Control Experience, and it was with gestures that one controlled this futuristic dream technology.

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Qualcomm AllJoyn proximity-based peer-to-peer technology hands-on

Chris Burns, Jan 27th 2012 Discuss [0]

This month we got the opportunity to speak with Qualcomm on a technology of theirs by the name of AllJoyn, made to allow proximity-based device-to-device communication possible without the use of an intermediary server. We’ve got hands-on looks with smartphone games, tablet games, music and document applications, and some tablet-to-television action as well all lined up for you here. Discover what makes Qualcomm’s all-inclusive framework surrounding this powerful technology so great!

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iPad 2 Cygnett Platform vs Logitech Fold-up Keyboard vs Speck HandyShell

Chris Burns, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

There’s a war going on out there no iPad is safe from, and its the manufacturers of cases, stands, and skins that are the weapons. Today we’ve got a three-way war going on between Cygnett, Logitech, and Speck, each of them with an option for you to keep your iPad 2 standing up and off your lap! The Cygnett Universal Tablet Stand is unreleased while the other two options, the Logitech Fold-up Keyboard and the Speck HandyShell are out and about right as we speak – let’s see which one stands up to the rest and takes the test the best!

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Columns

What the Apple TV Needs to No Longer Be A Hobby

Don Reisinger, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

I’m a little confused.

Remember back when Apple first introduced the Apple TV, and the company said that it was designed to be a hobby device? Well, in 2010, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, after unveiling a new version of the device, said it was no longer a hobby. Now, though, it appears it is again, since Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook said earlier this week that the device is still — wait for it — a hobby.

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Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX hands-on and unboxing

Cory Gunther, Jan 26th 2012 Discuss [0]

Motorola is back with another Android smartphone for Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Adding another DROID to their ever-growing list of phones. Some might say they’ve released too many too fast lately on big red but the new RAZR MAXX is a bit special — and available today. This phone features a standard, built-in 3,300 mAh battery. Something no other LTE handset can even come close to touching. See more after the break.

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Spectrum by LG hands-on

Chris Burns, Jan 24th 2012 Discuss [0]

Verizon’s next LTE device is here in the Spectrum by LG, a device with the first True HD IPS display for the carrier at 4.5-inches and 392 PPI – that’s massive. This smartphone also has a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor covered with a pane of Corning Gorilla Glass, the whole monster running Android 2.3 Gingerbread with an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the pipe for the first half of 2012. This device is not the least massive smartphone on the market, that’s for certain.

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Columns

HBO Go Could Be the Next Netflix

Don Reisinger, Jan 21st 2012 Discuss [11]

As a Time Warner Cable customer, I was one of the last cable subscribers out there to get access to HBO Go. For months now, many of you have probably been using the streaming service, and to see a column about it now might surprise you. But don’t hold it against me — I was a victim of the oddly contentious relationship between Time Warner Cable and its former corporate overlord, Time Warner.